Monday 3/4: Woke up to some rain! I dashed up to the roof and grabbed my laundry before it got too drenched. Jared hung me up two very long lines on the roof to hang up the clothes up there. I love having all that space to dry clothes now. It’s nice to be able to do more than one load a day. Bought a big foldable clothes drying rack for upstairs for during the rainy season. We spent most of the morning outside after the rain stopped. Jared had clinic. He was busy again! After lunch Layton played and played with Abdullah. I’ve been collecting strainers, bowl etc. for sand toys. I don’t think Abdullah has ever played like that before. When we got to the sand court he was like a kid at Christmas. I think his mom was a little horrified! The big boys came and asked Layton if he wanted to play football (soccer) with them. I really encouraged him to go play but he chickened out at the last minute. I told him that some day he needs too so he learns how to play games like that for when he’s in school. Had a quiet evening at home. Visited with the neighbor lady again. She wondered what we ate day to day. “Like bread and butter?” I told her hamburgers and pizza because everyone associates those foods with America. She told me about how she has to have two maids. She has three children and she had to hire a second maid because she couldn’t even use the bathroom with all her children needing her. (I could relate😂) Plus cutting up all those vegetables for Bangla food and then washing the floors….
Tuesday 3/5: Today was a low key day. Layton had a cough and fever so he didn’t do much. He would play for awhile and then lay down. The little girl from several streets down kept trying to sneak into our yard again. You can tell she knows better but she slyly sneaks right in until her brother comes and hollers at her. My friend told me that this little girl runs all over Pink City stealing peoples shoes. She leaves hers behind and takes a pair that’s been left by the door! The custom here is that shoes are kept outside. I told her that I had been having trouble keeping her out of the yard. She said “her mother stays inside so the maid has to chase after her!) Had singing this evening with Sumita and Anchila. It was so enjoyable and encouraging. It’s been so long since we have had singing! We sang for 45 minutes. While we were singing one of the little girls that was at the clinic recovering post op came into the room and pointed at Jared and smiled so big! It was so cute!🩷 Had a lot of traffic on the way home. Jared thought there were at least 250 cars in line to get on the expressway. It didn’t take too long though since the jam was from people paying toll. Had supper at Herfeys and then came home. Layton spent the rest of the evening sniffling and coughing while he rested on the couch.
Wednesday 3/6: Jared spent the morning doing bookwork. The mechanic came and got the van because it’s been making an awful rattling sound from the front end. Since our car was gone we took an Uber to the clinic for lunch. I was nervous about what sort of driver we would get but he did great! He drove an old van but inside it was spotless. Jared called him when we were done eating and he came and picked us up. Now we have his phone number for the next time. It’s always nice to get phone numbers of good drivers or rickshaw men. Anchila made fish curry, egg curry, pumpkin, dal and rice. She cooks a little different types of food than Josna and Sumita so it’s been fun to eat different things! Kelly said once he saw fish eyes floating in the fish curry once when he had it at someone’s place but I didn’t see any today thankfully. Miriam ate with us too like usual. We got a full report on her 20 year old son that supposedly had chicken pox a few weeks ago. She showed me a picture but i thought it was more like boils than pox. She said she had called the family with the conjoined twins and they told her they haven’t had the operation yet. Jared thinks they are working on getting sufficient funds. There were two patients there today. One was a girl that was maybe 9? A few months ago she came to have her cleft lip repaired and now she is back to have the palate fixed. She just loves Shania and held her quite abit. It’s so fun seeing the patients return for their second oral repair surgery. They recognize us and just smile so big😃 it reminds us why we are here. In the afternoon the children and I were outside for several hours. Abdullah joined us at the sand court. His family’s driver came up to me and said they have been having problems with Abdullah and “he is an angry child and please mam I hope you don’t mind if he doesn’t always play nice.” Jared and I had a good chuckle. The boys were starting to argue after playing awhile so I told them to pick up the sand toys and that Abdullah was supposed to help Layton carry them to our house. He plays really nice with Layton but boy when he gets back to his house he turns into someone sorta crazy. Layton said “mom is that how spoiled kids act?” Watching his parents chase him around the yard when he’s having a tantrum has been quite thought provoking for Layton. One day he soberly said “mom, I know you spank me because you love me.” Here in pink city it looks like these children are mostly looked after by a maid. We often see the maids out pushing the children in strollers or taking them on walks. My neighbor ladies drivers often appear to be a babysitter too.
Thursday 3/7: Jared left right after breakfast for Farmgate to tend to some financial matters at the bank. He’s getting weary of all the round the mulberry bush that it’s taking to get the appropriate things approved for the fund release for Khulna. Kulna needs a new van badly but they can’t buy it until the funds are released. Shania seems to have caught Layton’s fever bug. She was so fussy so I took her out to swing and she fell asleep this evening. Layton wanted to listen to church while he played Legos. So this evening was spent indoors doing comforting things. Down the street from us they are having quite a gathering! They set up a bamboo structure and covered it with purple fabric. People that lived on streets 6 and 7 were supposed to supply the food if they choose to attend. A man came earlier asking if we wanted to buy tickets. I asked my neighbor lady if she was going and she laughed and said “my husband likes low key. So if he does not want to go then neither can I.” I told her my husband didn’t like large crowds of people either.😀 She said she doesn’t go to events like that because “the food is full of grease and spice.” Never heard a Bengali complain about that before. While Shania napped this morning I made a chocolate peanut butter pie. Going to take it for “snack in the back” after church tomorrow. We’ve started having cha with Sumita, Anchila and Natun after church. It seems to be a real moral booster. We all sit and visit. Sumita always provides biscuits but I wanted to do something a little special this week. Seems like here we aren’t sure how to show them our love always but bringing an American sweet and sitting with them and having tea means a lot to them. I don’t plan on baking a pie every week but thought it might be fun every so often to do something a little extra since that’s my middle name.😂
Friday 3/8: church today! Layton used to call Fridays “van days” but now that we live in Pink City almost every day is van day. Church was good. Sumita made cha to go with the pie. They all loved the pie! Made me feel loved. Natun needed a listening ear. Him and Jared visited for quite a long while after church. Jared really enjoys being with him and talking. Usually the conversations are deep. Sumita Anchila and I sat out in the little courtyard behind the clinic. Went for lunch and groceries. Stocked up good since I’m not sure how long Trevor’s will be in Dhaka next week.
Saturday 3/9: Jared did bookwork again this morning. He went and bought a mini ceiling fan for the kitchen. There isn’t any fan in there now but in a few weeks it will be a necessity when it gets hot! Got home and he unboxed it and here it was bright green! The guy had told him it was white. Jared laughed and said “first the Elsa shower curtain and now a green ceiling fan!” He took a motorcycle and found a mistri that could come install our RO water system. That was so nice to get that done. All the pieces and parts had been sitting in his office and we’ve just been buying so many huge water bottles for drinking water. We ended up using the water tank that we already had since it was basically new but the rest of it we had to buy new. Our system at Siza court was pretty old so we thought we may as well update it. We take having good drinking water pretty seriously in this house for sure with two children. I’m not sure what I did all day other than laundry and cooking and cleaning. At one point I caught Layton drinking homemade chocolate sauce out of the pitcher. He seemed dumbfounded that I would notice and be disturbed about it. Him and Shania seemed to feel much better today which I was very grateful for. After the children had calmed down for the evening we walked to the pita lady and got some pita. We like to eat them with Nutella! I tried to ask for coconut pita because so many say those are their favorite but I couldn’t understand the lady and she couldn’t understand me.😂
Sunday 3/10: Jared had 25 patients at clinic today. Ramadan starts in a few days so we expect the numbers to drop until after Eid. I wrote quite an epistle about Ramadan last year so reference that in regards to what it all entails. The Muslims fast all day including no water drinking. Last year at this time it was already so hot! The poor dehydrated men would just sit under the tree by Siza court. It’s beautiful weather here. Today was 85*. I’ve been opening the windows as soon we get up in the morning because it’s getting down to 60s-70s at night still. I am so thankful the heat is delayed abit. The rest of us did the usual. Jared did paperwork in the afternoon. Layton and I did some school review. In the evenings we’ve started ready a Bible story to the children after supper. It seems to set the tone for a quiet calm evening. Layton has been asking a lot of questions about God lately “can He demand whatever He wants?” “Is God way bigger than daddy?” “ what does wisdom mean?”
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