Monday 10/9: Jared had “office” this morning. I baked some bars and finished up my food to take to Kulna tomorrow. Did laundry and tried to keep the little girl happy. She just wants to be right where the activity is. She thinks it’s quite boring to lay on the floor and play with toys. She rolls onto her stomach and then thinks her little world has collapsed.😂 Did laundry. After naps we got the majority of our things packed up. If you haven’t tried using packing cubes you should! They make packing so much more condensed and organized. Went to Olive for supper.
Tuesday 10/10: Well we were going to leave for Kulna after Jared was done with “dispensary.” However the lumberjacks were busy cutting down the trees right by our bedroom window until 2:30 AM. They kept hollering and branches would fall so no sleep for us! They were also testing the metro in Farmgate so it was coming and going every few minutes complete with the horn blaring. Needless to say not much rest was obtained. Jared was so tired in the morning that he went to clinic and forgot his keys and had to walk back home to get them. Then at devotions he got his words tangled up in the prayer. We decided to wait to leave until tomorrow morning when we were more rested. Traffic in Dhaka in the afternoon is a real challenge… lots of jams at that time of day so we were actually thankful that we had to change our departure time to tomorrow morning. Navigating the traffic with not much sleep isn’t conducive to Christian living. Took it easy the rest of the day. The past few evenings have been so nice. Feels like a “normal” Kansas summer evening instead of an inferno. We went up to the roof for awhile to watch the planes. It looks so different now to go up there with all the trees gone in our backyard!!! Gives my stomach the nerves to be able to see all the way down. Some of the trees were maybe 10 feet taller than our roof. Now we can see the coconut trees that were in the midst of the mango trees. They are so tall and beautiful!
Wednesday 10/11: We all had a very good nights rest! Benadryl and Melatonin does the trick🤩 No lumberjacks or metro this time. We left Siza Court at 5:45 AM.🤭 The guards are always so excited when we go somewhere. Always want to know where, how long and why we are leaving. They stand and wave with their million dollar grins. “Sania Tata!” (Goodbye Shania!) We found a baby car seat for Shania here in our apartment in the archives. Even though we are in the mission where seatbelts and car seats are optional I just feel better if I know my children are safe when we are traveling. For sure with all the sudden stops and lurching we do. She did really well in the car seat. Got to Kulna around 10 right when the other kids were waking up. Trevor Elwood and Doyle were at Trevor’s office so Jared zipped over there. Trevor was sending a bus load of patients to Dristidon Eye Hospital. They came back and we had lunch around 2. It was my turn to do a meal so brought tacos, apples and caramel sauce and M&M bars. The children all spent the day in the sand and water! I told Layton no nap today cuz you need to run and play until you’re exhausted. Him and Brock went 90 mph all day long. By bedtime they were tired and sunburned! Layton feels pretty big now that he’s considered a “big” boy with Brock! In the afternoon Whitney and Brandi watched all the children while all us adults took a walk. We felt quite carefree without our children! We walked through the little village behind Trevor’s house. I just love love that walk. The path is all brick with grass growing up in between them. Rice fields are on either side. Total quiet other than the Hindu music or bells. We stopped and talked to some of Lisa’s friends along the way. This time we didn’t have to trudge through the mud! After supper all the kids went to bed and us “big people” burned the midnight oil and tried to solve the world’s problems. It was Jared and I’s turn for the non AC bedroom. It was quite comfortable and not even that hot in there. It seems cooler in Kulna than in Dhaka.
Thursday 10/12: Doyle’s left and went home and the rest of the stayed at Trevor’s. Lisa’s American friend that married a Bengali came over for the morning. It was neat to learn to know her. The men took motorcycles and went to Santo’s job site. He is a contractor and his crew builds houses. Jared really enjoyed that! Then they went to see Liton at his dokan. Jared felt bad for how busy we were the last time Liton had tried to come to Dhaka so he made sure to go sit in his dokan with him for awhile. Liton is a barber so Trevor got a haircut while they were there. In the evening we all piled onto van rickshaws and went into Kulna and got fuska. That stuff is really growing on me!! (I described it in the post when we went to Kulna back in July.) This time no transformer blew or no cyclone winds came roaring through so we had quite an enjoyable time. We sat and embraced the feeling of sweat running down all our bodily crevices. We love riding on the vans. They are electric. Everyone went to bed in decent time!
Friday 10/13: We were going to go home today but decided why not spend another day.🫣😁 We’ve always wanted to see Trevor’s Sunday school. They had the first Sunday school at 9:30. Maybe 50 kids? They use a classroom in a school right down the rode from them. Trevors have done a really good job calming that group of children down. One time they had 130. Around Christmas that group is an abosolute wild chaotic mob. Parents and children start to come out of the woodwork so that they can get a Christmas gift. So Trevor’s said “no more gifts at Sunday school.” That has really helped. They sang several songs, prayed and then Trevor read the lesson. They use big picture cards. Kobid came to translate. After that then they all colored pictures. Layton really enjoyed it. At 10:30 they had another Sunday school at a different location but I stayed home because Shania needed a nap. Church in the evening was at Santos. Jared had the opening and Elwood had the message. After church Sotti made us cha and some sort of snacks. One was a patty with dal inside it and another was a fried cake with dal flour and onions in it. So good😊 Sotti had some baby goats and ducklings. They were adorable. Shania loved the goats. She got all excited and started smiling and kicking. Brandi held her up close and she kept trying to grab the goats ears!!
Saturday 10/14: We left Kulna around 11. Layton was really tearful about leaving. He said “mom I don’t like Dhaka can’t we stay in Kulna.” So we had to have a lecture about “blooming where we are planted.” I feel sorry for him, a boy needs sand and water and a place to run and play. Stopped at Sampan for lunch. The other times we’ve went to Kulna and Golpagange it’s never been the right timing to stop there for lunch. The food was really good! They have a VIP room that has AC. They even had soft serve ice cream! The traffic coming into Dhaka wasn’t bad at all. It’s always very busy but we didn’t ever have to sit and wait for more than 10 minutes. Got home around 5. We came home and crashed. Bedtime was early! Jared said he couldn’t figure out why we were so tired and I told him we aren’t used to such excitement.🥰😂
Sunday 10/15: Jared headed off to the dispensary. He had 38 patients. I tried to get everyone else back onto schedule. Did kindergarten with Layton and then did laundry and bought groceries from the dokan. Shania is starting to eat quite abit of baby food so got some thawed out for her. The metro was busy doing test runs in and out of the station so Layton spent quite abit of the morning at the living room windows and back veranda watching the comings and goings. The foot bridge at Farmgate got inaugurated today. It strikes us rather humorous how anything slightly new is getting inaugurated by the prime minister even before it’s finished now before the election. Guess it’s another feather in her hat! Almost every day now there are processions and protests in preparation. They are always in a part of Dhaka aways from here so don’t worry we are fine! My stove has been coated in a layer of oil for the past how long. I took Lysol and a metal scrubber to it, and some time later it was much cleaner. Now if only I knew how to get oil splatters off of flat paint! Any suggestions? Lucky fries our Bangla food in oil so that’s the reason for the oil. I thought about painting over it but wasn’t sure if the oil splatters would just seep through the paint. This morning my kitchen faucet sprung quite a bad leak. It was like the underside of the faucet had rusted through. The caretaker called the plumber and he came later afternoon and replaced the faucet. So ends another week for us!
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