Excuse the lack of a post last month… things were busy and when it came time to write my inspiration was zilch. So much water has gone under the bridge. I looked at my calendar and saw an event we had had and thought surely that had been months and months ago and here it was only the second week in March. If that tells you anything how time is around here. Seems like we pack a lot of living into our days.
Shania turned 2 on April 2. I think that explains her overall disposition and temperament lately. For sure since her four eye teeth are all slowly painfully making their appearances one at a time. I will say having a 2 year old girl is quite different than how I remeber Layton being at 2. He just took everything apart and destroyed whatever was in his path. Shania is so emotional but considering who her mother is... She loves for me to read books to her now! Any book with Thomas, cats or dogs, or airplanes is her favorite. She is actually sitting still through the whole book now instead of tolerating one page and then wanting to jump down and go play. She is quite obsessed with the the salt container on the table. Almost every day she climbs up there and eats salt. Seems awful to me. I’ve started giving her Gatorade everyday to see if she was lacking in sodium but the ordeal continues so I think it’s more of a fun thing to sneak and do when mama isn’t looking. Often when she sees me come around the corner she quick grabs the napkins to cover up the salt that she’s spilled.π She loves to on walks in the stroller and swing in her swing. She begs for “Scootie” so I put her in the carrier and we zip away on the Scootie for a ride outside of PinkCity. She wears the cutest little pair of pink sunglasses when we are on the Scootie because of all the dust and the guards just get so tickled over seeing her. At bedtime she wants “baby.” Took us awhile to figure out what she meant and here she wanted to be held Like a baby and rocked. π€ her thumb and blanket are her sole companions. if she happens to drop her blanket somewhere there is alot of tears and looking for “key key.” Even when we go outside she drags it along the street with her. Needless to say I’m always on the lookout to sneak it away for a good wash job.
Layton is eagerly counting the days until his 8th birthday! He is finished with first grade and Shana is doing several months worth of work for him in 2nd grade that he has plenty of time to get over his lag before he goes to school at home. He is so enthused with his school work. He keeps hoping that soon he will learn how to write in cursive. He is getting to be quite a speedy reader. Still blows my mind how much children learn in first grade. Layton has been loving audio books still. Listens to them for hours every afternoon while he plays legos or anything. If anyone has good recommendations for audiobooks for boys his age let me know!
I’m sure you’ve all heard by now that Carl was able to find replacements for us in March! Brian and Kaylee Friesen from Roblin. He is a nephew to Ron Friesen that had revivals here! They have a 2 year old boy and a newborn baby boy. Then if that wasn’t enough excitement Darrell got two teachers! The Golpagang teacher is Aleigha Froese from Grandview and Khulna’s teacher is Christina Yoder from Henderson TN. the next morning the excitement in this country was next level. Bangladesh doesn’t always fair too well at those placement meetings so to have all this info of all these new people coming wasn’t something else to comprehend. Carl and Judith handed their field secretary responsibility to Chris and Sondra Koehn from New Plymouth! Looking forward to them possibly visiting this summer. Jared has been working on getting paperwork going for all the new arrivals! Sounds like Brian’s will come middle of July. We are hoping that means we can go home end of September. No dates are set in stone for our departure yet cuz blessed are the flexible. We are looking forward to going home but where unprepared for the emotions that come with indeed finding out we would be able to go home. When we told our friends here, Nathon said “who is going to make cabbage salad and chocolate cake for me?” I said “I’ll tell Kaylee to make it for you!” He said “but you will be gone though!” Josna and Miriam both said they thought surely we would stay for five years. Josna was in the kitchen crying after Jared made the announcement in church. We would have liked to stayed another term but Layton is getting a little old for city life. It’s quite a feeling to look forward to going home but at the same time when this life in Pink City is over it’s done. So some days we are excited to go home and other days there’s also a lot anxiety and worry about it too.
Some highlights from the past two months…
☂️going to Rajshahi to see Michael and Monica. Spent a day and half with them. Michael’s elderly mother passed away a few weeks ago. She was such a wrinkled stooped over old lady. Michael always said “her ears don’t work but she can see a very long ways.” The day after her passing Michael slipped and fell in the bathroom and broke his leg in three different places. He had an operation to fix it and a plaster was put on. Jared has been calling him frequently to keep tabs on him. Currently he spends his days in bed. At home he would be getting physical therapy and doing strengthening exercises. He’s a big man so hoping he’s not too weak by the time the dr tell him he can get up. The one evening we were there, several of their friends came. It was such a joy to see them have fun and chatter with their friends. Everyone piled on the bed where Michael was laying and chattered away! Jared had a service with them. I say Jared because I was in the “back 40” during said service because Shania would not stop hollering about wanting to see Monica’s goat and ducks.π We gave financial assistance to the wife of one of the men that was Michael’s friends. She got an infected C-section incision. They are Muslim but were very friendly. They were so so thankful for the money Jared gave them. The next morning we all headed to Michael’s again for breakfast. We got there and were welcomed with the sound of some real gastrointestinal distress. Monica was laying on the bed sick as can be. It appeared as though she had a migraine. I felt so bad for her. Marcie and Anamika bustled around making dim and ruti and matchstick potatoes. We ate and then had a quick prayer for health with them all. Hugged Monica good bye and left. The girls seemed to be quite taken up with caring for their parents and we didn’t want to be a bother. Then we started home. Started being the key word. Usually from Rajshahi to Dhaka is smooth sailing. However we were once again reminded that we live in Bangladesh. We got into Dhaka no problem and then we encountered protest after protest after protest. Sat for two hours watching them parade right beside our van. Jared thought we must have seen at least 20,000 people march by. They were all holding signs about stopping the war in Gaza, and of course they had their sticks. They were chanting “Allah akbar” and other things we couldn’t understand. Took us 2 hours to drive 2 km. Took us 9 hours to get home instead of 5! We got home and everyone hit the bathroom and then we all ate whatever we could find in the fridge. We couldn’t stop for lunch since the traffic was so bad so ate all the crackers and snacks we had along in the van for lunch.π Once we got on the expressway the road felt quite bare and open after being smooshed between buses and whatnot for four hours. When one is in a jam for so long you start to notice things you wouldn’t otherwise. We were stopped beside a bus and Jared noticed that out of almost every window there was a “souvenir” down the side of the bus. I will leave you to guess what that was. Decided that didn’t speak well of the drivers driving.π When the traffic is stopped like that there is often lots of men and boys coming through selling bags of popcorn, peanuts, chips and cold water.
☂️ On Eid we invited Josna Sumita and Nathon to come for supper for something to do. Josna had hinted that maybe they could come over since there wasn’t any patients at the clinic. Nathon said he was hungry for cake so we told them to all come! Supper was at 6:30. I made Stromboli, cabbage salad, chocolate cake and icecream. Well Josna and Sumita showed up at 4:30. They came in the door and promptly started cleaning. Then when they were done with the dishes they wanted to go up to the roof and they wanted to clean the roof.π I was not happy. I know my house is not spotless but we live here believe it or not. Finally I got them distracted and we went outside on a long walk around pink city and looked at the Eid celebrations. Nathon showed up at 6 with his two nieces in tow. All three of them somehow managed to fit on his motorcycle.π one was 17 and one was 21. It was fun to have them join the crowd and I was sure glad I had made so much Stromboli’s. Lonnie’s came too so we had a house full. The evening was full of lots of good laughs.
☂️ Life has been fairy settled lately. Probably the most settled it’s been for quite some time, which feels very good. I’m glad for the children’s sake we can have some semblance of routine and order. Lonnies are still in Dhaka with us, which we quite enjoy trotting back and forth! Annslie comes for the morning five days a week while her mom and dad do language class and study. It’s been so good for Shania to have someone to play with! They have their moments but overall it goes very well.
☂️ Easter Sunday we had Lonnies come for supper. Was hungry for American Sunday Lunch so that’s what we had! Lanette made roast and the best gravy ever! I could have eaten just the gravy and been a happy little duck. She made butter horns. Layton clearly has not eaten such in many years and kept saying “can you pass the croissants?”π I noted that every “croissant” that he inhaled, he had poked a hole in it and stuffed it with roast beef. I told him uncle Phillip and I used to do that but we filled it up with jam. Shana and I made green bean casserole, baked apples, creampuffs with chocolate pudding, and mashed potatoes. It was delightful, but man not used to such gourmet food. Hardly had to eat the next day. Lanette and Lonnie had painted a bunch of eggs and so the children had so much fun hiding them over and over the rest of the evening which allowed us adults to have peaceful conversation!π
☂️ Lonnie’s went to Khulna for a week with Doyle’s the beginning of April. Layton thought school was awfully quiet and dull without the girls. Everyday he wondered if they were coming back into Dhaka because he was getting tired of 2 person tag just him and Shana. 10 steps seems to be the favorite game at the Dhaka Mennonite School. Shania kept looking out the window hollering “ANNSIE!”
☂️Kurt and Janey Nightengale and their family (Mackie Idaho) stopped in Bangladesh for several weeks. They have been filling in at at a post in India for the past 6 months. Unfortunately they received word that they would need to leave in 2 weeks due to visa issues. The decision was made to close that post down. So they hustled and in 2 weeks had the house emptied out, vehicles sold, 3 million tracts taken care of etc. Sounded like nothing but an act of God with how smoothly it all went for them. They spent most of their time in Bangladesh going to Rajshahi (where they were many years ago when they were here as missionaries). They stopped at all the other posts as well. They spent several days in Dhaka with us too. We really enjoyed it! They can still talk Bangla lickety split.
☂️Bangla New Year was enjoyable. I don’t remember it at all from last year, but I think it’s because that’s right when we were moving the guesthouse maybe? Anyways… once again Pink City did not fail to disappoint! They set up their big party tent, banners and flags all over. New Year’s Eve they had all sorts of food vendors in the tent. So you can imagine where Shana and I were.π Now we are in the year 1432.
Anyways, I do believe I have rattled on long enough… here’s some delicious things that Shana and I have been cooking lately. We are going to starve when that girl leaves I tell you.
Easy Beef Enchilada Recipe (Make Ahead & Tips) - Carlsbad Cravings (the enchilada sauce that is linked in this recipe is delicious!!) we can’t buy it canned here and I think I will make this from now on.
Taco Bell Chalupa Supreme Copycat Recipe
Barbacoa Beef Recipe {Slow Cooker} - Cooking Classy
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/herbed-garlic-butter-naan/
Shania sounds sweet. Great that you had a lovely Easter dinner. Warm greetings from Montreal, ❤️ Canada π¨π¦
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