Monday 12/11: This morning I woke up feeling discombobulated after our busy week last week. It was truly such a fun week even if it was busy. I was sad when Carls left and real life started back up. Seems like I always have a down day after the company leaves. I could have wrote quite an epistle about all the trips to Pink City looking at houses, and Trevor’s spending the night here in our apartment, and so much more etc🥳😍. I sat myself down and made a “to do” list of things that need to get done this week. I felt much better after getting my ducks in a row. Who knows how long they will stay in a row but at least I’m trying! The list was mostly simple little things that needed to be done. Our CSI supper is this Saturday so needed to finish my menu and find a recipe for cabbage salad. Natun requested the cabbage salad. He told me “The last Golpagange didi made this salad from cabbage with noodles in it.” So the dear boy shall have his cabbage salad. He’s going through a tough time right now so if cabbage salad makes him happy why not?! We are going to get pizza from the Pizza Hut for the rest of the meal and then Layton and I are going to make my mom’s sugar cookies for dessert. Did kindergarten with Layton. He did unusually well with staying focused. (We’ve had to make a rule that there’s no farming talk allowed during school.) I complimented him on his work and behavior and he confidently said “well mom, I just had to tighten up a screw in my brain really tight and that makes my brain work better.” We are wanting to get school finished in a month from now so that we don’t have to worry about trying to do it if we are in the process of moving. Jared had dispensary this morning. He was almost out of meds so several days ago placed a huge order at Square. They are always prompt with bringing it the same day or the next but the meds never showed up. He called and reordered them and they finally came yesterday afternoon. He had three large boxes to haul to the clinic so he called our rickshaw friend to come pick him up. Spent some time this evening going through some cupboards. Layton promptly claimed things out of my declutter pile as “treasures!”
Tuesday 12/12: Jared had dispensary this morning. The last one of the year! Sumita came to clean and Layton and I did kindergarten. Shania is teething again and wanted to be held quite abit. Her nights have been less than stellar. Sumita told me I needed a nap.😂 After lunch Jared and Layton went to Farmgate to get their Punjabis from the tailor. They turned out really nice! (Imagine a long sleeved knee length shirt with a stand up collar. Buttons half way down.) We had really hoped to have singing in the evening as we’ve had to cancel the last few weeks but the sisters wanted to go to the market instead. Jared suggested going out for supper so that was fun. The evenings are Shania’s witching hour right now while she teeths. I feel bad for her. It’s cool enough now that socks and a jacket feel nice and toasty. The guards have their scarves wrapped around their heads with their hoods up. It’s been in the 70s during the day and upper 60s at night. I love this cool weather. I have not yet forgotten the endless days of 106-110* weather. I told Jared if we think this is cool how on earth will we survive a Kansas winter? When the children and I are out and about I get many unsolicited reminders that it is very cold outside and I should be dressing my baby warmer. To which I want to say “She comes from a long line of strong women on either side of the family.” Haha! Layton and I have been whipping up many batches of hot cocoa.😍
Wednesday 12/13: We left the house around 9:30 and went to Pink City to sign the contract for our new house! “Is this all real” we say while pinching ourselves! A yard with green grass, etc. The owner had several men there with him and was telling them to repaint, build the wall for the classroom and fix some things with the windows, and then new cabinets in the kitchen. He said we could come check the progress anytime. He said the work would be done by January 1. At that point we will see what else we want done before we move in and have the contractor arrange it. Layton is having such a hard time realizing that Pink City is a part of Dhaka just like Monipuripara. He said “so do they speak Bangla in Pink City?” Later in the afternoon our neighbors across the hall had hired decorators. Their son gets married Friday so the decorators where busy! They hung Christmas lights on the outside of the building like is usual. Then in the hallway and in the main rooms of their house they hung lots of dark green tulle in big swooping arches. They had yellow and orange marigolds and had strung the flowers on string and had those hung on the stairwell banisters and wherever there was green tulle! Thousands and thousands of marigolds. Outside their door was “posters” with white and yellow carnations and red roses. Inside their house was much the same. Green tule and more strands of marigolds. They invited the children and I to join their party for the evening. It was close to Shanias bedtime so we went for just abit. They had a henna artist there and they wondered if they could draw henna on my hand to celebrate the upcoming wedding? I said “sure as long as it’s something small!” It was fascinating to watch. It shows up as dark red/brown on my white skin. The bride was in the bedroom getting it done from elbows down on both arms. It was fun to do it with all the other ladies there but it’s something I probably won’t do it again. It’s their version of jewelry in a sense. We had some appetizers before leaving. They said “please you must stay and have meal with us!” I said “well my baby needs to go to sleep for the night.” “Ok so can we bring some food for you when it’s prepared?” I said “Absolutely!” So right when we had all climbed into bed at 10pm the doorbell rang and there stood my sweet friend with a steaming plate of biriyani.😄
Thursday 12/14: Jared and Jon went to the auditors for awhile to pay some fees. Layton and I did kindergarten. I made sugar cookies for our neighbors here and for the Christmas supper Saturday evening. Layton was my willing helper when it came to adding the ingredients to the bowl and running the mixer at full speed. It takes every ounce of patience I have to let him help me in the kitchen some days. I try to tell myself that his future wife will thank me some day for his culinary skills. 🤭😄
Friday 12/15: Had church this morning. After church Natun came over. He was distressed and needed to talk. His Muslim friend told him that the Muslims have one god: Allah, but Christian’s have three gods. Natun asked Jared “am I deceived? I thought we only had one God?” Jared explained the Trinity to him and how Jesus is Gods son. Natun said “so is Jesus Gods messenger? Can I tell my Muslim friend that? That would solve all the problem!” For two hours he asked Jared all the questions that his Muslim friend has been asking him. “Why did Jesus die for our salvation? Couldn’t God have chosen a different way for us to receive salvation?” “Why does your church have guidelines?” Jared told him that our guidelines are like signs along the road. That they help us stay on the road. Jared explained to him that the Holy Spirit is also our guide and that we have to follow his voice. Then Natun wanted to know if we followed all the guidelines would we be saved? Jared said “well you can follow all the guidelines and look just right and not be a Christian but you have to have a pure heart and have God in your heart.” That led to a long discussion on being saved by grace not by works. We finally told him that God doesn’t explain everything in the Bible on purpose because He wants us to have faith and believe. Anyways when he left he was much happier and was being his usual laughing self. It seems like he is searching for something. He grew up Baptist. He says now that he is grown up he is finding that he doesn’t always agree with what he was taught. We assured him that just because he doesn’t know how to answer his Muslim friends questions doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have God in his heart because we certainly do not know how to answer everything either. We told him we loved him. After he left we quick went and grabbed a bite to eat and then got a few groceries and came back home. We changed into our dressy clothes and headed to our friend’s wedding. Jared said he felt like he was getting dressed for church at home again!😂 The venue was actually right across from our new neighborhood in PinkCity! It was a huge lawn with tents set up. The colors were purple and white. There were flower’s absolutely everywhere! I won’t go into all the details because it was quite a sight to behold. It started at 4:30. We all had appetizers at the little food vendors… fuska, rice cakes, cha etc. Then it was a greet and mingle time. We thought there was going to be a ceremony at some point but three hours into it there was no sight of one. The entire time we were there about all people were doing was posing and taking selfies by every little photo prop or group of people. It was hilarious to watch! We visited with quite a few of our friends that were there too… We ended up leaving at 7:30 because Layton was over the crowd and sick of wearing his jeans. The combo was causing much stress in his little life. “Mom can I please put shorts on as soon as we get home??” Shania was getting fussy too from all the ladies wanting to hold her. We tried to sneak out so no one would see us leave because we knew if they saw us leave they wouldn’t be happy. These Bengalis do not understand leaving a social deal to put your children to bed! “Can you come back later?” We made it to the gate and then we were spotted! “Boss! You can’t leave now we are fixing to eat! Come come, you must eat!!” We narrowly escaped and came home. Home seemed so quiet after listening to the pounding music for three hours. It was quite obvious that both the bride and groom came from families of wealth. We were so glad we had went for a little while at least! Like Jared likes to say “it was a cultural experience.”
Saturday 12/16: Spent the morning preparing for our CSI Christmas supper. When it came time to leave I told Layton “you need to wear jeans and a nice t-shirt. If you can wear your jeans for a few hours and not fuss then as soon we get home you can take them off and put your shorts back on I promise!” Well let’s just say he was ok with jeans for a short while. I told him he wouldn’t have to wear jeans until the next time we had church. I don’t know how he will ever cope when we get home and he has to wear them to school. He informed me the other day “I only like Tshirts mom. But please don’t make me wear those “fancy shirts” with all those buttons all the way down.” I am glad we don’t have to think about Sunday attire for several years yet with him. I can only imagine the struggle that will be. The CSI supper went really well! We were 16 people. Jared had went to Pizza Hut and got 9 large pizzas and I made a fix n mix bowl full of cabbage salad. And let me tell you… those people ATE! It was hilarious. We set it up buffet style and I made sure to add in chili packets so they could make their pizza extra spicy and then I brought pizza sauce. Bengalis often think American food is dry so they like sauce! Jared and I kept putting more and more pizza out and it kept disappearing. Josna told me that one of the boys ate 5 pieces of pizza. We just sat and visited. We were going to sing some Christmas songs but everyone was having so much fun visiting we just kept on. 😄 Almost all our workers know some English so it was so nice to not have the pressure of trying to talk Bangla all the time. It was fun to see all our friends that keep us up and going in one spot! By 9:30 we were ready to head home. The caretaker told us “boss you are busy!” Yes we are! It truly did my heart good to see them all pigging out on pizza.😂even Lucky’s daughter who won’t eat American food ate two pieces! Came home and stayed up late. It’s victory day today and the fireworks were going until late.
Sunday 12/17: Ahhh a quiet day at home! In the morning Jared went to Pjnk City to check on the house. He came back with a good report. The men were busy painting and had put in a new water heater and plumbed hot water to the kitchen. They made the sidewalk abit wider and had put new fixtures in the showers. We are amazed that they are doing all this because at first we thought CSI was going to have to pay for any repair work. Layton and I stayed home and did kindergarten. Our van tire has been having a slow leak and that’s something that’s been on Jared’s to do list to get fixed. Our rickshaw friend came and picked Jared and the tire up and went to a tire shop. The man had it fixed in no time! After lunch Jared had to tend to some more business with the auditors office. When he got back we tackled decluttering the storage room in preparation for moving. In the evening Layton passed out the little sugar cookie gift baskets we made for all his little friends here in Siza Court!
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