February 25-March 3, 2024

 Monday 2/26: No clinic today! It’s some sort of Muslim holiday. Forgiveness day? Jared and I worked on getting his office organized. So many papers. Layton and I sorted out a bunch of money into 80 taka bundles for the toll booths for all our comings and goings on the expressway. The children and I spent a lot of time outside today. Played and played at the sand court. Took walks up and down the streets here. There’s a main road and then 8 streets. 1a 1b 2a 2b and so on. We live on road 7A. A streets are the right hand side and B streets are the left hand side. The traffic is limited and so it’s quite a relaxing jaunt. The median is full of bushes and shrubs and hibiscus. Sunflowers are planted scattered along the road. Every house has a little garden in front. Some people have their gardens full of marigolds and other flowering plants and some are just bare dirt and some are grass! Layton always has to stop and roll on the grass patches.😂 The yardsmen sweep the streets every morning so there’s no dog poop to avoid stepping on or trash piled up. It feels good to be in a place where things aren’t so trashy. Layton can finally dig holes to his hearts content at the sand court without anyone telling him to quit or freaking out that the foreigner boy is getting dirty. While he was playing this evening a little girl dressed in a white princess dress and a burka head piece came and joined him. I felt sorry for her trying to play all dolled up like that. Shania loves the sand too and spent quite abit of time sampling various handfuls of sand and rocks. Probably why I had to give her dewormer the other week for her raging diarrhea. The neighbor boy and Layton are slowly becoming pals. That boy is quite a brat. His mom overheard me reprimanding Layton and she said “babies don’t need rules only adults.” 🫢 Later afternoon Jared walked down to the market that’s down the road from pink city and bought an extension cord for his laptop and printer. Got it set up and plugged into the voltage stabilizer.pI tried to get ahold of the vaccine clinic for Shania’s next round of vaccines but they were closed. We spent the rest of the day at home. At supper we realized Layton has his first loose tooth! He thinks it’s going to fall out any day now but we told him it would take several weeks. We’ve been talking about loosing teeth for several months now so that when this happens it’s not a scary thing to him. He is like his mother and likes to know things ahead of time. This evening I talked to the lady next door. I’m trying to make some friends here. She says we need to send Layton to one of the international schools here in Bashundara. I told her we would homeschool him. I asked her what the constant talking over a loudspeaker is that we hear every evening. It’s aways away so not horrible loud. She says it’s Islamic teachings “isn’t it annoying?” Clearly she is not Muslim. There’s a lady from France and a lady from Russia that live here in pink city. I hope to get acquainted with them soon.

Tuesday 2/27: Jared had clinic. 40 patients he said! Now that our lease at Siza Court is up he is parking at the guesthouse for now. We have not moved the guesthouse yet to pink city. Santo and his crew are coming back to Dhaka in a week or two to finish up the remodel project so for now the guesthouse in Monipuripara remains. Not sure where we will park during the week once that lease is up in June. My dad says Jared can fit our van down streets in Dhaka that any Kansas person would think undriveable.😂 There is some parking by the clinic but during the week it’s full. We are able to park there on Fridays. It’s going to feel funny to be able to park wherever we want anywhere we go when we get home! The children and I spent the morning at the sand court again. I’m so thankful the weather is so nice now. There’s been a bit of a breeze the past few days. The evenings and nights are still quite cool which we are so enjoying. I’m even more thankful that my children can play outside more now and get Vitamin D from the sun. I’m hoping this helps Layton with some of his nervous energy. I just never knew how important playing outside and sun are to children until we came to Bangladesh! The last two days have been the first days in a long while that life feels normal. Feels like we are getting into a good routine with bedtime and laundry and meals and all that again. After we were done playing outside I rearranged my pantry again. I think I’m finally onto something this go around. In the afternoon the children and I were outside again. Layton rode bike with his friend Abdullah. I am having to set some ground rules with the neighbor children. Since we are new plus foreigners we are quite the spectacle for them to stand and watch. Some of the neighbor children will sneak into our yard to try and play with Layton’s things. One day after naps I heard a noise so I went outside and here a dad had brought his child over and was swinging on Layton’s swing. We made a rule that no one other than us or the yard man should be inside our gate. If the children want to play with Layton they can play on the road or go to the sand court or badminton court. The roads aren’t that busy so it’s perfectly safe for the children to play out there. Other parents here in this community have the same rule for their yards so I felt better about enforcing it. One little girl is determined to sneak in. I told her to leave and Layton went out and played with her on the street. They had so much fun together. She snuck back in our yard and I told her again she needed to stay out. I had to go inside and so I glanced out the window and here she was again trying to play with Layton’s stuff. She saw me through the window and took off running. I feel bad being this way but otherwise we will have tons of children in our yard all the time. One boy came up to the gate and asked Layton to get a drink of water. I told him “no you have to get water from your own house!” Trevor’s have had problems with people coming to their gate asking for water too. Today the yard man asked me if we had a washroom. It feels like we have to almost go overboard with saying no otherwise we will have people traipsing in and out all day long. So I figure in the future we can let up a bit if we need to, but right now until we know the community and people better we won’t let the kids in the yard. The furniture store delivered our storage cabinet for upstairs and the new office chair for the clinic. Layton spent quite awhile this evening riding bike sounds the neighborhood with the other boys. Around 5 in the evening probably 20 boys come out of the woodwork! Looks like ages 5-16. They play tag on the street or jump over the bushes in the median or zip up and down the street! Layton is starting to cautiously join them as long as Abdullah is with him. Some times they all go to the soccer area and play there. 

Wednesday 2/28: Today was a lesson that God has went before and made a way. Natun met us at Siza Court. We turned in the keys and the men talked with Mr Faroque. He wants us to pay for the old apartment to be completely repainted or rewallpapered. CSI has rented that place for 16 years. The amount he wanted us to pay was quite heavy. Natun talked to him and eventually the men thought an offer of paying half would be ok. We will see what Carl says.@“ Jared told him to keep the security deposit. Natun thought Jared should have been more aggressive with his dealings but we don’t want to leave a bad impression or cause trouble since they have been so good to us. Shameem (the Siza court caretaker) offered that we could continue to rent a parking space there! What an answer to prayer. 2,000 taka a month only. Jared has been checking into getting a driver since there’s no where for us to park when we go to the clinic during the week. It would be 25,000 taka! Uber is very expensive too. Natun said this was a steal of a deal. Plus we know the guards there and know it’s a safe place to park. Their only request is that when we park there that we leave the van in neutral so they can shove it out of the way if they need to. We jumped on that offer! Went to the clinic for lunch. Sumita’s niece cooked this time. What a feast. Chicken curry, fried eggplant, tomato tok, dal, rice… Whenever they know Natun is coming they always cook extra dishes. He has them wrapped around his fingers! After lunch the children and I went to the guesthouse to hang out. Natun and Jared went to Maa Medicine at Farmgate. In the past Jared has gotten some meds there for the clinic but the majority of them come from Square Pharmaceuticals. Square delivered them to Siza Court for us. We never knew when they would be delivered they would just call when they were in the courtyard. Natun called them and asked if they could deliver to pink city  but they said no. We thought maybe they could deliver them to the clinic but Jared would have to be there with the money when they arrived. He can’t exactly jump in the van and drive thirty minutes every time there is a med delivery. The med bill is usually quite a hefty sum so we weren’t comfortable just leaving that amount of cash at the clinic for Sumita to give the deliverman. Naton and Jared went to Maa Medicine and they said that Jared could WhatsApp his weekly med order to them and they would deliver it to the clinic the next day. Natun is going to help Jared set up a BiKash account then he can just BiKash them the money. (Bangladesh’s version of PayPal). Jared was so relieved. Last week he just went and gave Maa his order and waited an hour while they prepared it. He doesn’t want to have to wait all the time because sometime his order is quite large. Plus the workers have to stop for prayer time every so often which is at least 10-15 minutes. The whole store stops until prayers are completed. Jared was so thankful that Natun could go with him and arrange all these things. Here in Dhaka quite a few business people know some English, so between our Bangla and their English we get along quite well. When it comes to business dealings and arranging things Jared feels better if Natun is along because then both parties are clear on what is expected of them! Feels like we owe Natun a lot with everything he has helped us with. Jared slips him a little extra sometimes when he pays him for interpreting for us at church. We came home and all slept for two hours.🤭 After that we went and walked along the little river canal beside pinkcity. It was a really enjoyable walk. We were able to walk without drawing a crowd or having to dodge a lot of people. Days like today make us feel even more sure that this move was the Lords doing. All these things we have worried about are all slowly falling into place. Oh and Jared hired Sumita’s niece Anchela to work at the clinic! She is a sweetheart. She loves the children especially Shania. 

Thursday 2/29: This morning was productive. Shania and Layton were both up before seven which did not amuse me. When Layton was a baby I would put him on the floor beside the couch with some toys and he would play while I dozed off for awhile. The princess feels quite hurt by such treatment. It’s not long and I feel her breathing on my face and a wet finger trying to poke my eyeballs or dig in my ear or pinch my nose.😂 My children have forced me to become a morning person. After breakfast Jared went to the BiKash Dokan to send money to the pharmacy for his med order. It worked great and the meds were delivered in the afternoon to the clinic! I cleaned my windows inside and out because they were still covered in dirt from the remodeling. The tile men dribbled cement all down a few of them and I need to figure out how to get it off. It’s not a lot but enough that it’s noticeable. We don’t plan to get a maid for now. I know Sumita would come and clean in a heartbeat if I asked her but I kinda like doing my own cleaning. It feels more like normal home life. Jared assembled my storage cabinet for the upstairs. After naps we went to the wholesale market at Jamuna Park. Got some things we were needing for the house. We bought a microwave and boy was I tickled!!! It will be nice in the summer to warm up leftovers in the microwave instead of heating up the kitchen just to warm up a little bit of food. Jared says now we can make our mug cakes that we loved to make at home. (Cake in a coffee cup that’s baked in the microwave)😄 We bought a new shower curtain for our bathroom. The shower curtains were all folded into tiny plastic packages and you couldn’t tell what they looked like. there wasn’t  a picture or anything on the outside. We didn’t even think to open up the package to look at it because you sure wouldn’t do that at Walmart at home! Jared found one that was blue so we got that one. We got home and I went to hang it up and here it was a Frozen shower curtain with Elsa’s face as big as can be on it.😂 we hung it up anyway just to give us a laugh. Haha! Whenever I got up during the night to use the bathroom there was Elsa’s big ole creepy eyeballs staring at me. 

Friday 3/1: Had church. Took some of the old curtains from our Siza Court apartment and gave them to Sumita. The curtains at the clinic are very old and thread bare. She’s going to take them to a tailor and have them shortened. Jared had the message on Nehemiah. I didn’t get much more than that since Shania decided to make lots of racket during church. Lucky came to church today! It was good to see her again. Hadn’t seen her since January. Her and Jared arranged that she would come and cook once in awhile for us still! Natun told her how to get to Pink City. After church We went and did our usual shopping and then came home to nap. Had a quiet evening at home. Took a walk along the canal again.

Saturday 3/2: This morning Jared and Layton went to a bike dokan and bought Layton a new bike. His old pink one kept breaking and Jared had to keep fixing it. Plus it was getting too small for him. Krystal said she thought it was still the one from when she was here 10 years ago. He was one happy boy! I did laundry and the usual. Cleaned our porch and zapped so many mosquitoes. They seem to swarm right outside our door. Jared wants to buy some mosquito coils and put them on the porch to see if that helps at all! After lunch the internet man came and set up our internet and WiFi. Had to get one for upstairs and downstairs. We spent a good share of the day out riding bike of course with the new bike.😃

Sunday 3/3: Jared had clinic. I packed him a lunch to take this time since he has business to tend to after clinic is over. He said he had so many patients that half way through the morning they had to start turning people away. Seems like there are more and more coming! Or maybe it’s because we were closed for a month while we moved. The children and I spent a lot of time outside. Layton was quite a busy beaver. Rode bike, swung, watered the lawn. We are just so thankful he can be outside so much now! The yard man that comes and sweeps our yard several times a week is doing his best to get money. He told us at first that we should tip him 2,000 taka a month. Several other people that Trevor’s talked to say don’t tip except at Eid. The neighbor lady said you’re supposed to tip 500 taka or so. Finally Jared offered him 750 a month. He wasn’t happy. The neighbor lady told me “he knows you are a foreigner so he will try to get money from you. These people think money grows on trees if you are a foreigner.” Her husband is from Sri Lanka. Women like to come ask me if they could be my maid or cook. I always say “not now.” Maybe eventually but not for now. Made tomato soup and homemade gluten free bread. My mom brought me a whole ton of flour so now I’ve been making all sorts with it. (And eating it too I might add.) 

Anyways thanks for reading my chatter! I really missed writing every day during the move so feels good to get my thoughts out. Don’t worry I only write the sensible ones.😂

February 2024

We have moved! What an adventure. It all went much smoother than we anticipated. The movers did an excellent job of loading everything and unloading it. Jared Trevor and Natun drew quite a crowd when they heaved the washer through the back window and lowered it into the courtyard with ropes.🤭 (3 stories down) It was easier to do it that way than to take the washer apart down to the drum since it didn’t fit through the kitchen doorway. Jared Natun and I followed them in the van and nothing fell off the truck that we noticed! The moving men road on top perched high! We worked furiously to get half settled that day. Went to Trevor’s for supper with the crew and then went back to our new house for night! Layton loves his new bedroom. It’s small but just right for him and Shania. I hung up the curtains he had picked out and got the bed ready for him with his favorite blanket and stuffed pup. His eyes just lit up and he said “mom I just LOVE a small room!” He slept all night in there and has every night since! I’m so proud of him. Sleeping in his own room has caused him some fears at times but he loves having Shania with him. The next two days we focused on getting more things put away as my folks were coming in two days. This house doesn’t have much storage so we got rid of so much stuff… probably almost half the amount of things we had in our Siza Court apartment. I love the layout, it feels so much more cozy and homey. We are loving the quiet neighborhood. The first night here Jared thought he needed a sound machine to make some racket so he could sleep. We still have some projects to complete yet but Santo and Ripon will finish them up when they come to finish the guesthouse. We moved on a Tuesday and Trevor’s, santo and his crew and Ripon left on Thursday. It felt so quiet and lonely when they all left. I kept waiting for Ridoy to come flying in the door saying “auntie I need some water!” Or Ripon to come in with his sparkly eyes to do wiring or Santo to come find Jared with another question. I was glad my folks were coming that Friday so that we would have more company. Layton keeps asking “are we going to move away from our blue house when we get home?” He’s kinda over all this moving business. I said “not that I know of but I can’t promise anything.” He said “well that house is PERFECT. It fits us like a glove.” 😂 

Darrell’s came February 2 and left February 16. It was enjoyable to be with them. Doyle’s mostly took care of them while us and Trevor’s moved. Hearing their stories of being in Bangladesh how long ago was truly inspiring and made us all feel like big babies. The tales of rainy season alone were something else. Darrell was able to visit all the members plus some of the expelled ones. The members were thrilled to have someone that could talk good Bangla. 

My folks came February 9-21. Didn’t realize how much we had missed them until we saw them coming through the airport doors! Jared hired someone to meet them to make sure they found their luggage and got out to the parking garage. Dad said the guy whisked them through the “dignitary line” and that quick they were through immigration and had their luggage. Layton was beside himself that he could talk farming with Grampy. One day Layton came inside all upset. He said “mom, daddy told me to be quiet and I am so FRUSERATED. I have so many things I need to tell Grampy.” 😂 I said “well you and daddy will have to take turns talking then.” The first few days they were here we were just around Dhaka. Went to Farmgate, Kawran Bazaar, rode the metro and went to the metro museum, showed them our old apartment and the guesthouse, showed them pink city. Natun came over one afternoon and evening and had long discussions with Dad and Jared. Went to Doyle’s at Golpaganj for lunch on Saturday. Sheema made goat curry. It was delicious! Our first time having goat curry. After lunch went to Trevor’s. Later afternoon we took electric vans along the river and then stopped in at Santos for cha. Santo couldn’t figure out why we wouldn’t stay for a meal. He told Lisa “Brianna told me when I was in Dhaka that my cooking was the best and now she won’t let me cook for her family.” 🤭 We went to the fuska dokan and got fuska and chapoti. My favoritest food ever! Spent night at Trevor’s. The next morning we loaded up our ham sandwiches and headed for the Sunderbans. We’ve been wanting to go there for a long time. We hopped on a little ferry boat and it was a 30 minute ride to the island where the national forest is. The boat ride was the best part! We saw all kinds of boats. It was a beauty day outside. Had our picnic on the boat. In the forest we saw so many monkeys. They were quite aggressive so we carried sticks with us. One of them tried to grab mom’s water bottle! We saw alligators and some awful looking lizards that looked like the devils advocate. They were 4-5 feet long with the most awful long black tongue that spit in and out like a snake. Still gives me the shivers. I’m not the sort that screams over snakes but I will scream if I ever have the pleasure of meeting one of those nasty lizards. We went on a long walk through the forest and enjoyed watching the monkeys antics! The little babies would just tumble and fall through the trees. On the boat ride back some saw river dolphins but I never saw them. The boat caption took us to the Mongla sea port. That was so fun. Got to see a whole bunch of huge ships and the cranes that they use to load and unload the ships. One ship was drug up on the beach and was getting dismantled. It had been sunk underwater for at least a year or more. 

After folks left, we focused on getting more things unpacked and more settled. A mistri came and fixed my oven. We had to switch from natural gas to propane so the fittings on the burners all had to be switched to the appropriate style. We didn’t realize this and the first time I turned it on flames came whooshing out and a bad propane smell followed. We still need to get the filter set up for the drinking water and get our WiFi set up. We got Jared’s office and desk set up and useable. Jon came over one day to see the house and pick up papers. He was quite impressed! They had wanted to move to pink city years ago but he said he didn’t want to buy a car as this community is set up for cars. He said “finely CSI had a nice house.” It’s definitely more humid here than in Monipuripara. Had some mold issues on the walls but it looks like as long as we wipe the non tiled walls down with bleach it keeps it away. Been having to do laundry everyday so the mold doesn’t get on clothes. I think why there’s mold issues is because there’s a lot of plaster and cement still slowly drying from all the tile getting laid. 

This morning when the children were playing in the sand court, It was such a beautiful sunshiney day. I was listening to church at home which was baptism. Layton all of a sudden looked at me and said “mom did something bad happen at Kansas?” I said “not that I know of, why?” He said “well those people keep saying they felt bad.” Suddenly I caught on that he had been listening to the converts telling their experiences. So we had a little conversation about what it means to feel bad like that. 

I’m going to try to start posting on Sundays again. Of course if life gets hectic I’ll take a break now and then! 

January 2024

Where shall we start? I tried to keep track of a few things to share this month! Some is kinda a jumble of things that occurred over a span of time and some is specific days where I had time to sit and write. 

New Years Eve: Trevor’s were still in town from dropping their family off at the airport. They jumped at the chance to come spend the later evening with us. They said they needed to do something to not think about their family leaving. Early in the evening I went down and asked the guard if he could please leave the roof unlocked so we could go up there at midnight. I typed out my question on google translate and showed him so there wouldn’t be any misunderstandings! He laughed and said that wouldn’t be a problem. I thanked him profusely. The guards and caretaker have been getting quite strict with what is or isn’t allowed so I didn’t know if leaving the roof door unlocked past 6 pm would be ok. I made sure to ask the tall older guard instead of the young night guards. Earlier in the week the kids had asked the young guard to put up the badminton net and he told them they couldn’t play in the courtyard because of the election coming up on January 7. What????? Then another evening Layton and his friends were playing in the courtyard the night before election and they were told to be quiet because of the big meeting. Layton was whispering. Anyways… Lisa came bearing American cheese and deer bologna that her sister had left them. If you ever want to see a bunch of CSI people hussle just say “we have American cheese.” We went up to the roof around 11. The police had issued a statement saying no fireworks or Chinese lanterns were to be used. Judging by the sounds and looks of things no one got the memo! The same thing happened last year.🤭 It was so neat. Just like last year the closer and closer it got to midnight the louder it got. By midnight we had to yell and stand close together if we wanted to be heard. The neighboring apartment had quite a show going. Disco lights, projector screen, and fireworks going off. Jared thought it looked like maybe they were partying a bit hard as their fireworks weren’t always necessarily going up into sky, some were going off quite haphazardly. Around 1230 we called the party quits. Layton slept in our room that night because the fireworks kept on for awhile into the night. 

Trevors stayed in town for a few days after New Years. We had been getting a strange vibe from the caretaker of the guesthouse that we had spoken for in pink city. The owner is living in UK. It became quickly evident that there was quite a discrepancy between the caretaker and the owner. Natun said something wasn’t right and said he had had a bad feeling about him from the start. Natun had been talking to the caretaker on the phone for us. The owner would tell us we could fix what we wanted as long as we payed for it. The caretaker would say “No fixing up it’s fine how it is.” The owner said “you pay for the repairs and we can do a four year rent contract and the rent will stay the same for those four years.” The caretaker said “after two years the rent will go up for the remainder of the contract.” Natun finally said “look make up your mind otherwise they will find a different house!” Finally we just said this is going to be hard to deal with if this caretaker is saying different things plus is he pocketing the money or where is it going? Just on a whim Trevor decided to go to pink city on their way out of town. There was another house there “to let.” It was much newer and much more up to date than the original pink house we had spoken for. It’s more like our house. The owner is from London. He asked much more decent educated questions and was easier to work with! The house would hardly need any fixing up other than a few minor things. Of course the kitchen will need to be Americanized for the oven. This was a relief that this house didn’t need so much repair work done because the other one needed so so much work put into it. Santo said it needed so much work done that we wouldn’t be able to get it done until March or April or later. (We had really wanted it to be done by March since Krystals baby is due in March!) Jared sent the UK owner our visa information, passport pictures, information on CSI and what we do. A few days later he agreed to “let” us the house! We were all thrilled! This guesthouse is one street over from our house. Three doctors live down that street. One evening Trevor Jared and Natun went and told the pink guesthouse caretaker that we had needed to revoke the contract we had signed. They were worried how it would go. There were a lot of prayers going up about it. Natun handled the conversation very well with the caretaker. The caretaker even agreed to give them their down payment money back which was nice. The green guesthouse guy gave us the keys so now we are all fair and square! 

January 11:  Trevor’s brought Santo and his boys into Dhaka to set up camp in our new house and to get the work done. Trevors moved into Dhaka for the long haul. Brought their kid’s school work and everything. Bless their hearts.❤️ We were so thankful they came to help us through everything. Jared’s clinic is up and going again now so he wasn’t sure if he could do that and run to pink city every day to check on things and get the supplies the men needed, plus get random paperwork around for Jon. Trevors were right ready to come into town. He is only doing eye camps now so it was easy for them to pack up and leave Kulna. Natun has been making so many trips to pink city to help us with the interpreting of contracts and with Santo. God bless him too because I don’t what we would do without him. That boy is just part of the tribe now. I asked him “are you tired of us all yet?” He said “oh no! I love being with everybody.” Course we keep him well fed. Pizza Hut and Herfeys burgers seemed to keep him happy! Santo told his boys “we are here in Dhaka now to work.” Ridoy (Santos boy) sidled up to me and said “auntie, do you have a bike I can use? I will work until five but then I must venture into Dhaka.” I said “I think Jared has one you can maybe use.” However we plum forgot to get it to them and by the sounds of things they are venturing just fine without it.😂 Doyle’s brought Ripon (our brother from Golpagange) into town so him and Doyle could work on the electrical work. They are both electricians. Doyle’s are staying at the guesthouse and Trevor’s are at a motel closer to pink city. 

January 13 Saturday: The men all met in Pink City and then headed out to find tile. They were under strict instructions to send us women pictures of what they found BEFORE they bought it. I think our husbands are feeling hen pecked but none of them have ditched us yet. Krystal and I stayed home with our children. It was 62* inside and out and it felt chilly. We dug out our leggings and socks and it felt so good! I know 62* is quite balmy for you Kansas folk that are experiencing-25*F. Something about walking on cold tile floors just chills me to the bone. Layton and I did kindergarten this morning. We are so close to being done! Lucky showed up mid morning and wanted to cook. It was just Layton Shania and I so I invited Krystal and her children to come for lunch to make it worth Lucky’s time cooking. We told her about the move. She was pretty sad. We will have to let her go when we move unless we can find a way to provide her transportation to come every week. She works so many hours at her other job that we aren’t sure it’s feasible. The men were able to find the tile they needed. I had picked out some I like for the stairwell accent wall as a reference for Jared to look for and can you believe it they actually found the one I liked the best? The tile shop will deliver the tile to pink city for us. I tried to pick something that was more timeless versus trendy. Something that our replacements won’t walk in and wonder what possessed us. We went with white tile for everything else. That way the future ladies can just change out bedding and curtains to easily give it their own taste and flare. 

Josna and Sumita are back in the city after Christmas. Sumita came back two days before election and Josna came back a few days after. Josna told us before she went to the village over Christmas that she was quitting CSI. Jared has always told them “we love having you work for us but you are not obligated to work for us. If you find a better paying job elsewhere that’s ok.” He tells them this after they come and ask for more money right after he’s payed them. We were surprised but yet we respected her decision. If we were Bengalis we would have begged and pleaded with her to stay, and “why don’t you like us?” But we both felt strongly that we should just be quiet and make sure we hadn’t done anything to offend her. One day I went to the clinic and visited with her and made sure everything was clear between her and us. She seemed sad and down. She said “boss is good there’s no problems there.” We were glad at that. So after Christmas Sumita and her niece came back to the clinic. Her niece will stay with her until we can find someone to replace Josna. Since Sumita is manning the clinic I told her to only come one day a week here to our apartment to clean. It was time this happened. I very much appreciated all her help three days a week but it was time for it to change to once a week. Sometimes it felt like she was the boss not me and it was becoming stressful. Every two days I sweep and Layton mops. He does a great job! When he’s done mopping he runs and slides on the floors until they dry. Sumita still comes one day a week and mops and cleans bathrooms. So there are lots of changes going on with Dhaka CSI right now. I told Sumita and Miriam, “I know there’s a lot of change and uncertainty right now but we will work together and get through it.” This seem to comfort them. It seemed abit frightening to them when we told them we were moving. We assured them that the clinic would stay where it was. Miriam was worried we wouldn’t sing anymore on Tuesdays. Jared said “yes we still sing on Tuesdays and eat lunch on Wednesday’s and have church on Fridays!” They love the routine and depend on it. Miriam said “if this move is good for you then it’s good for us.” We told Sumita since she is the one cooking now that she does not need to make elaborate food. Our first meal at the clinic Sumita was kinda nervous. She said she didn’t know if it was good or not! It tasted just like Josna’s but was spicier. Jared and I made sure to compliment her profusely and assure her it was excellent because it was out of this world yummy and delicious! The first Friday Josna was back in church after being done at the clinic, we made sure to welcome her and tell her we were glad to see her. We didn’t want her to thing we were upset that she had quit. I gave her a big hug and she cried. I wish I knew more Bangla and I could ask her what’s going on in her life. She is a very closed person and does not show much emotion unless her and Sumita get the giggles. One Friday after church Lisa and I went to her new house and visited for awhile with her. She starts a new cooking job in February. We just hope and pray that she will keep coming to church. Seems like we have so few courageous members. Someone wondered if we ever did doctrine classes. Currently there isn’t any interest from anyone about joining our church. I think the last new member was baptized maybe 10 years ago. We wish Bangladesh would be like other mission fields where the courage is strong and the interest is great but it’s just not that way. 

January 15: In the evening Trevor’s and Doyle’s came for supper. I was hungry for Navajo tacos so that’s what we had! It’s one of those meals that hardly pays to just make for Jared Layton and I so it was fun to make it for everyone. I was glad I had made a double batch of the fry bread because people kept snitching another one. I’ve been missing Aunt Donna so made “Regehr bars” for dessert. When I told Jared I was making them he said he wondered how many pans his grandma and aunties had made of those in his lifetime? He said every family deal had a pan of them hence the name! At one point after supper the children were sitting on the table with spoons eating them straight out of the pan. Haha! The best part of the bars was that I had American chocolate chips to put on them. Carls brought a massive bag from Costco and I’ve been carefully rationing them out for special occasions! Doyle brought over some lights to see if we liked them. They were super nice and practical so we decided to use them. He had been in a light dokan in Golpagange and bought them for using either in our house or the guesthouse. We are getting warmer lights (not harsh stark fluorescent ones like we have now) since the white tile will be bright already. I hope it makes things feel more cozy and homey. After lunch Jared and Layton went to pink city to check on Santo and his crew. They are removing all the plaster off the walls and getting ready for tiling. We were glad we decided to tile it all because the owner had patched the walls with plaster in a few places and it was already flaking and peeling off the walls. With small children that would have been a terrible mess! We are leaving one bedroom and the classroom untiled. Layton comes up with every excuse in the book why he needs to always stay home with me. Today it was “I think I really need a nap.” We told him he has to get used to not being with mom all the time and that daddy wants to do fun things with him too. Even though he is 6. (Excuse me 6.5, don’t forget the half) we are still attached at the hip. I think Shania is going to be the independent one of between the two of them. Lately Shania has had this obsession of pulling open the oven door to see what’s in there. I was baking bars this morning and she kept scooting over to the oven and trying to open it. I was worried because my oven seems to only bake at 400* so it was quite hot! Layton turned the light on inside and then she sat there in her walker happy as a clam and watched it bake. She has also taken up scavenging under the table looking for morsels to eat when she’s hungry. I had always hoped she would be laid back but it appears as though she is quite the opposite. She is pulling herself up to stand and climbs and crawls to her hearts content. Layton seems like he has really calmed and matured lately. He has been spending so much time with his precious legos and Knex. We bought him a Knex motor so he had been building all sorts of things with that. One day I made him hot cocoa because he was cold and he made a stir thing out of Knex then attached the motor to it to make it spin and he sat there and stirred that cocoa to within an inch of its chocolatey life!  

January 19: Had a full house at church! The whole crew was there. Trevor had opening and Ripon had the message. After church Natun came for coffee. We had decided that everyone would do their own thing for lunch instead of trying to all go together. Lisa called right when Natun got here and said “hey can we come too? The restaurant isn’t open yet!” So we said absolutely! Trevors, Santo and his boys came too for cha and biscuits. I love me a full house🥰 It gets kinda lonely when it’s just the four of us. I very proudly told Natun I was going to make him dudh cha this time because Sumita showed me how to make it. The boy always has to drink American coffee when he comes and he loves dudh cha. Lisa and I decided we would make a big batch for everyone. Santos boy Ridoy came into the kitchen to “help.” We finally told Ridoy to make the cha himself because this is how it went… “didi, you must boil the water and then add the milk powder and boil it again!” “Are you sure you boil the milk?” “Yes didi! Two minutes you must! But you have to blow on the steam when it boils.” Do we add the sugar to the cha now? No pour it in the cups…” on and on it went! It did get made eventually! We decided Bengalis making cha must be like mennonite ladies and their tea recipes. They are all different. Meanwhile Natun and Whitney came into the kitchen and were having an argument over who Shania liked better. If anyone knows the size of my kitchen you will wonder how Lisa, myself, Ridoy, Shurov (santos helper) Natun and Whitney all fit in there at the same time. But we did! Haha! Natun had Shania and Whitney said “she likes me the most! See she reaches out her arms to me.” Natun holds her and says “no way she likes ME better, I know it!” Finally they decided Whitney was the favorite auntie and Natun was the favorite uncle. Later I heard Natun mutter to Whitney “I AM HER FAVORITE UNCLE.” The poor dear is so fussed over she just sits there all bewildered. We all sat and drank cha for awhile. Had some good laughs! Felt good to laugh seems like we forget how to sometimes. Trevors and Santo and the crew went off to Shuktara for lunch, Doyle’s did their thing and we stayed home! Shania had been up for several hours during the night and so had I so we were tired. Natun wondered where we were going for lunch and we told him we were staying home so we could sleep. He said “this time of the day?😂” I said “wait until you have children and then you’ll understand.” We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. After some good naps we packed up and headed to UniMart. Got our groceries and some for Lisa too. I found tortilla chips! I was so excited. I bought all that they had. That’s how we have to do here. If UniMart has an imported American food you have to buy it all because there’s no guarantee it will be there again. I found some flour tortillas as well so swiped a bag. (Spoiler alert: they weren’t good! They were a funny color and tasted like cardboard.) I took a bag of chips to Trevor’s for supper and we totally expected it to be all stale. That’s usually how imported things are… stale and expired. Would you believe those chips tasted normal! We soon had a squabble over the chips. They were gone in short order. Trevor said he hoped I felt bad and would share the other bags I had bought and I told him “we shall see.”😂 If we come home and hoard food you’ll know why! Haha! We sang for awhile after supper. Santo says his helps his mind to hear us sing. They wanted us to sing American songs so we did. It was really fun and a good moral booster. Got home at 11 or so and hit the hay. I love days like this… a full church and a full house. Days like this I wish I could remember for ever. Santo and his big smile, Ridoy carefully making cha, Trevor Layton and Brock flying up and down the streets in Pink City on a motorcycle, Shurov imitating his Baptist church singing “if you wear earplugs then it sounds nice!” people arguing over tortilla chips, Ripon quietly sitting at the table watching everyone and smiling and laughing but not saying a word, Whitney and Brandi arguing over who’s turn it is to hold Shania, Kylie storming around being her little fiesty self… when we came to Bangladesh I wondered how on earth we could ever get attached to these people but over time it slowly happens and one day you wake up and realize they have become yours. It helps when the harsh facts of the country seem a little too harsh. Like the endless traffic and jams, swarms of mosquitoes, horrifically loud prayer calls that go all hours of the day and night, people always asking for money and banging on the van windows the minute the vehicle comes to a stop, etc. Lately since it’s cold here there’s been street children building fires along the streets to stay warm. It bothers me to see that while I sit in my van with my children who have jackets, warm pants and socks on. In some parts of the country they’ve been calling school off when it gets to 50. None of us white folks are complaining about the cool because the previous summer is still quite fresh in our minds. These Bengalis claim that since it took so long to get cold it will take awhile to get hot. We really hope that it’s true! 

January 21: Trevor and Santo went off to buy things for the houses and Jared took Ripon to Islamia Eye Hospital. He’s been having pain in his eye and it hasn’t been draining. He has a tube in his eye that needed to be removed. Jared waited and waited with him and finally told him to just call us when he was finished. At 5:30 Ripon called and said he was done so Jared took him back to Pink City. He’s staying there with Santos crew. I repented and sent another bag of tortilla chips along with him to Trevor’s. Jared said he would eat it on the way there.😂 Doyle’s headed back to Golpagange since Doyle has an eye camp on Tuesday. The children and I spent the day at home. Felt like it was important to have some structure and routine for at least a day. Shania slept for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon! 

One day when the men were all busy at pink city Lisa and her girls and me and my girl went shopping! We went to Jamuna Park. It is such a huge massive place. Five towers with five floors. Supposedly it is the third largest shopping mall in the world which is not hard to believe. It was really nice. American style! We had such fun shopping. There’s never enough time to explore everything you want to there. Went to clothing stores and I went a little crazy buying clothes for the children. Shania needed warm clothes so got her leggings, warm pajamas, bigger dresses (again!) sweaters and a jacket. Can you believe that they don’t have socks?! She has all of three pairs. Layton got more new shirts. It just does not work to be a minimalist with clothes here. It’s interesting how Walmart brand things are starting to show up here. Artisans had Garanimals brand clothing, UniMart has CrazyArt craft supplies and I even saw some Home Edit things! I told Jared if they can have Home Edit things why on earth can they not carry Ranch dressing?! Anyways I digress… Went to another store that was like Sam’s Club. Got a new stroller for Shania as sometimes the wheels on her current one don’t always turn. That store was amazing. Anyways it was soon time go home which is when the real fun started.😳 we got a CNG and told him “pink city housing.” Long story short he almost ran out of gas and we ended up beside the road and Trevor had to come pick us up. The guy totally ripped us off. Whitney said “if we were Bengalis would you have done this?” He said “no?” Ugggg…. “Skin tax” is what we call it here. While we were gone shopping the kids were all playing in the huge jacuzzi tub that was in Trevor and Lisa’s bathroom. They are staying in an Air BnB in pink city.  Jared said he thought Layton and Brock where in there for two hours! 

We have finished kindergarten! Layton said “mom now I can play all morning without having to stop.” Lately a hot glue gun, pipe cleaners, empty pop bottles, and wood sticks are his best friends. He’s been building all sorts. His imagination used to drive me crazy but now I’m so thankful for it. It keeps him well entertained. “Friend Missy” though seems to have been laid to rest. (For those of you that have never met Friend Missy it was his imaginary friend he had for several years. She was quite influential.) We had quite a sad spell one week when we were out of hot glue sticks. I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to find any as I wasn’t sure if it was something someone had gotten from the states but after looking around awhile we found some more so now Layton is happy as a clam. 

January 22: I was inflicted with the flu, plus Shania decided who needs sleep at night. Not a pleasant combo. Lisa offered that Whitney could watch my children so I could sleep so Layton went to Trevor’s for the afternoon while Shania and I napped. I was so grateful! Their air b n b has a massive jacuzzi tub in it so Lisa said the kids all spent hours in there. I felt so much better after several hours of uninterrupted sleep so went along with Jared to Pink city to pick up Layton. I’ve gotten so used to being around my children 24/7 that I’m uneasy when one of them is gone. Ridoy, Ripon and Shurov wanted to make fuska for everybody. It was quite a circus let me tell you! Three different Bengalis all with a different recipe trying to make the same dish. It turned out absolutely delicious even if I could only handle a few bites with my upset stomach. Lisa said she will think twice again before letting three Bengali boys take over her kitchen. It was truly hilarious. To try to explain it would not even do it Justice. It took a good three hours to get it all made. Fuska requires grated boiled eggs. I was going to shred them so we could put them on the table. I was told “auntie you must not shred them now. We have to do it as we eat them otherwise something bad will happen.” Lisa and I could not figure out what the bad was but anyways we just went along with it. 

The tiling in the houses is going well! Natun thinks our house looks like a hospital with all the white tile. We told him just wait until we move in and get curtians and furniture in then you won’t feel like you’re in a hospital. Ripon is almost finished with the electrical work. We bought a bigger vanity for the master bedroom that has more storage in it. So that needs to be installed along with the western toilet put in the back bathroom. We don’t need any squatty potties in this house! When we go to work there the kids have so much fun playing badminton, playing at the little soccer field and in the sand lot. The coming summer doesn’t look so formidable to me now that I know we have good places where Layton can play and be as loud as he wants! We can even use sidewalk chalk now on the badminton court cement which he loves. I’ve been hunting around trying to figure out some clothes storage solutions for our new house. None of the rooms have closets in them. We have one dresser that’s in good shape. Need to find a dresser for the teachers room and the children’s room, and then some type of storage solution for the classroom and then another one for linens, meds, first aide etc. We thought about having Santo get some cabinets made for us but anything wood here goes bad really fast with the humidity and the bugs. 

Jared continues to work on paperwork. His security clearance was denied but Jon says not to worry it’s because of the election. We don’t expect to get any visa anytime soon nor we expect Doyle to either. Trevor is the only one who is here legally right now. One day Jared came home from clinic all excited. A mom brought in her twin girls that were 7 months old. They were joined at the abdomen. They shared some intestines and the hepatic vein. The girls were going to have surgery in Danmondi to hopefully have a successful separation. Jared said they were healthy and both babies were the same size. Often one will be smaller than the other. They each had two legs. He said the mom had a hard time holding them on her lap! They were requesting financial assistance so Jared told them to come back with cash memos after the surgery and he would see how much he could help out. We are so curious how it will all turn out. Jared really enjoys the babies and children at the clinic. He has been getting well over his needed quota every day so we are thinking of closing the clinic for the month of February while we have company and move. Eid and Ramadan are coming up though and the numbers always drop during that time. 

Darrell and Brenda (our other field secretaries) plan to come February 2 and then my folks come February 9. We are so enthused to see our family again and for them to see Shania. 

Christmas Day 2023

So many people have asked what we did for Christmas so here’s a report: 

We left Doyle’s around 8:30 Christmas morning and headed to Bedgram to pick up the Golpaganj members that wanted to go with us to Kulna. Ripon, Ripons nephew and Kokon. Kokon’s wife Beauty didn’t want to come. Krystal told her that she should come and that her children were welcome to attend too. Her children are teenagers so we thought surely Beauty could leave them and come too but that’s not how this culture works. The teenagers still need to be taken care of plus it sounded like maybe they had a program to attend. Natun wanted to come with us as well but his parents wanted him to attend their Christmas program so he said he would maybe come later. We told him it was important for him to spend time with his parents now that he is in Golpagange. That boy just cannot stay away from us when he knows we are up to fun things (like having pizza for supper😂)  and for sure if we will be with Trevor’s and Doyle’s. Ripon hopped in with us and Doyle’s took the rest. Got to Santo’s (where the Kulna church is) around 10. Everyone was all smiles since it was Christmas Day. Santo had hung up purple cloth for a backdrop on the wall behind the “pulpit.” Then had covered the front of the pulpit too with it. It looked nice. We hardly recognized Santo at first. His boys had told him he had to dress nice since it was Christmas. 😄 He had on a long sleeved dress shirt, black dress pants and black shoes! Looked like he was ready for church at home. Santo had the opening then Ripon had some thoughts. Wade Buller (Trevor’s brother in law) had the closing thoughts. My children did not fail to disappoint with their behavior during the service. Both of them sat with me because we didn’t know if Jared would end up needing to share thoughts or not. Layton kept standing up wanting to see Sotti’s (Santo’s wife) duck flock in the pond by the church. We were sitting by a window so we had an excellent view for watching duck antics. Finally I sent him to sit by his dad. Shania kept wanting to stand up on my lap and look out the window too. The church is made from tin and she kept trying to scratch the wall with her fingernails which was not pleasant. Kari (Lisa’s sister) was sitting behind me and I heard her laughing at my feeble attempts at trying to keep Shania from scratching on the tin.😂 Finally I gave up and went and walked around outside with her until church was out. Krystal was doing the same with Jonas. Reminded me of the days when Treva and I were in the nursery together with Silas and Layton! After the service Sotti had to go take her goats to get some grass before we could leave. She didn’t have their little sweaters on this time! The rest of us loaded up on vans and in cars and headed to Trevor’s.  One of Trevor’s Hindu neighbors has been begging to cook for them so they had her cook for all of us. Trevor’s guard Tulsi made the cooks a little shack out of bamboo poles with leaves for the roof to cook under. It appeared as though the women kept him hopping. When we arrived he was very disgruntled because the cook and her helper made him cut up all the coconuts for the egg curry. The cook was clearly from a higher class. She wanted to use Lisa’s knives instead of their traditional cutting utensil. She wanted Lisa to blend up the garlic and onion in her blender so that she didn’t have to use the grinding stone! The day before Trevors and Wades spent a lot of time boiling eggs for her, getting 10 ducks butchered, and making seasoning packets for the curry. This was our first time eating duck curry and sadly I must say I was not a fan. The rest of the meal was great! Rice, vegetable mixture, Dal…They took the gizzards and made “tok” out of it. I didn’t have nerve to try it as any dish with innards scares me. 😳  Trevor bravely tried the duck feet. Lisa thought her husband had officially lost his marbles! Usually I will eat anything here with an open mind but for some reason the duck did me in. Natun showed up right before lunch. He was able to leave Golpagange right after going to church with his parents. Lisa made him his favorite cabbage salad and then all us ladies each brought a sheet cake. Some people wanted a piece of each. Bengalis love American cake! Trevors had a huge carom board set up and their dart board. Everyone enjoyed the games or just sitting and visiting! Us ladies sat and watched the Hindu ladies cooked. Every so often they would get one of the coconuts that Tulsi had cleaned out and scoop vegetables in it and then pass it around for us to taste and tell them if it needed more salt or spice. We immediately said no more spice! I had made a bunch of protein bites for snack before we had left Dhaka that I had brought along. I knew since this was a Bengali meal we wouldn’t eat lunch until later and sure enough we didn’t eat until three! I’ve learned to bring snacks around for events like this…  keeps the kids from getting hangry. At one point we were ready to eat but then Santo had to leave and go give Sotti’s goats some water. Trevors rolled out long mats on their porch and we sat there and ate. As I sat there and ate my food I had to look around at these people we have learned to love. Santo dressed up to the nines, Samid in his leather jacket, Ripon with his sparkly eyes, Sotti with her 10 kaj morich on her plate that she ate with every bite of rice, Santos boys who always are bugging Whitney and Brandi, Brock telling me “Brianna you should have seen these ducks get killed…. Blood squirted EVERYWHERE and do you want me to show you how the heads got chopped off?”, Natun with a massive plate full of cabbage salad “Now I am a cow eating all this salad!” Kokon and Liton hanging to the side of the crowd not saying much and quietly eating… I thought to myself this will really tug at the heartstrings to tell this all bye in two years. 💓After lunch we just sat and visited some more! Some played more games. We were all outside since it was cool. I really enjoyed visiting with Lisa’s sister Kari. They spent five years in Mozambique. We stayed until 4:30 and then headed home. Trevors wanted us to spend the night there but we had left our luggage at Doyles. Plus Wades are there with them and we didn’t want to crash their family time. It’s pretty precious when family comes to visit! Ripon and Natun came back to Bedgram with us. Natun talked the whole way back. He wondered if American houses were made from brick, if Americans left money to their children when they die, if you can live in an old house in America, how many times a day we drove our car, and if we wanted a coke could we walk to the store or would we have to drive to the store, how did Jared and I meet, (he thought Jared was a very brave man for sending me a card.😂) when did Jared move from Canada to US, could I have kept my fathers last name if I wanted too…  It was fun to have lively chatter… it made the drive go by fast. Ripon was mostly quiet. Natun begged us to stay in Golpaganj a day longer but we told him we needed to get back to Dhaka. He said “can’t all your paperwork just wait for another day?” Sometimes we just have to tell him “no.” We got back to Doyle’s after dropping the boys off and we were so tired. Shania and I went to bed at 8 and Jared and Layton soon followed suit! It was such a fun day! 

December 18-24, 2023

Monday 12/18: Layton and I did kindergarten. After Shanias morning nap we went to Farmgate. We were walking down the sidewalk when we heard a shrill scream. The nurse in me HAD to know what was going on so I acted like a Bengali and nosed my way into the crowd to the scene. A man was laying on the ground having a bad seizure. We continued on our way… Jared went to his tailor and ordered some more shirts. I bought me another jacket. I only brought one jacket and one sweater from home because I didn’t think I would really need them! My sweater doesn’t fit well anymore since I had Shania. I’m more broad shouldered than I used to be. So I bought me a Jean jacket. It’s so pretty! I had left my Jean jacket at home so I was quite tickled to find one here.😄 Spent the afternoon and evening at home. Nothing super exciting. We are trying to have plenty of quiet evenings at home now for sure with all the change that is coming with moving. 

Tuesday 12/19: Sumita came to clean. Josna wanted to cook us lunch one more time before they left so she decided today was the day. I was so thankful because Shania and I seem to have a nightly mama daughter date that lasts for an hour or more. She has always been such a good sleeper but this past month has been a doozy! Josna made vegetables, beef curry, rice and dal. The children ate and ate.😀we gave them and Miriam hugs and wished them well on their Christmas journeys. Miriam’s mother in law has moved in with her now so she says she is staying in Dhaka this year. We went home and napped. Another quiet evening at home! 

Wednesday 12/20: Did a bit of kindergarten with Layton. Left for Pink City and went and checked on the house again. The wall in the dining area is up for the classroom and they were busy painting. It’s amazing how a fresh coat of paint can help things. We went through the house and tried to figure out where we would put things. When we left the entrance to the expressway was closed so we had to go the old “airport route” until we could get on the expressway at Bananini. Jared made a fair amount of unhappy noises about the traffic on the drive home. I don’t blame him! At 1 he took the guards out for their annual Christmas biriyani lunch at Farmgate. I was quite envious as I love that stuff! In the afternoon I worked some more on going through more things. Got quite a pile for the trash ladies tomorrow morning. Sumita informed me the other day that I really needed to get rid of that Muslim prayer mat that’s been laying around here. 😂 Layton played down in the courtyard after supper for quite awhile with his friends. One of the other parents was down with their children so I was glad to not have to go down this time. 

Thursday 12/21: A busy day… Did kindergarten with Layton. Shania is into everything now it seems. Comes into the kitchen in her Walker and pulls anything she reach or touch that’s in the trash can. She loves to go on the veranda and watch Layton play in the water! Spent my day chasing after my kids it felt like.😄 Swept the floors and then Layton helped me mop. Sumita called around 6 and said her and Josna made it their village ok. They took the day bus this time, usually they take the night bus. Jared went and checked on the clinic and then went to Pizza Hut and got 7 large pizzas for us to take to Golpagange this weekend. 

Friday 12/23: No church since the sisters were gone. Natun stopped in briefly and brought us some Bengali pastries! He was going to spend the morning with us but received an urgent phone call that required his attention. We listened to the youth at home sing their Christmas songs from the Sunday evening services. That was enjoyable.🥰 Got groceries and then came home for naps. Worked on packing our things for the weekend. Jared went and checked on the clinic to make sure everything was fine there. Made a milk pie for our supper. My boys have been begging for once for several weeks so I finally got one made. I messaged my family and invited them to come eat it with us but those rascals never showed up so finally we polished that thing off in short order! After supper we gave Layton his Christmas gifts which he was extremely excited for. 

Saturday 12/24: Left the house at 6:45 and headed to Golpagange. Got there around 10. Saw a wreck involving a motorcycle, easy bike and a bus. No one appeared to be hurt just bent up vehicles. Sheema cooked us lunch. It was delicious! I was secretly hoping she would cook.😄 We all took naps after lunch. I had been up three hours with Shania the night before so I was a smidge weary. After naps us and Doyle’s took some candy gift bags to the orphanage next door for the girls. Walked down the road behind Doyle’s house that goes down to the Hindu crematorium. It was so peaceful and quiet!  The Hindus were having a gala down the road aways so there was much music and drum bearing. Doyle’s thought it was loud but we didn’t think it held a candle to all the five Muslim mosques by our place.😂

Sunday 12/24: Had church this morning with the Golpagange crew. The last time we had church here with them was when Shania was a month old! How can time have escaped that quickly? After we got home Krystal and I pulled lunch together. Roasted hens, mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkin casserole, spinach salad, and sourdough cinnamon twists. We are and are! It was so good to remember what a “real” Sunday lunch was like.😄 After lunch Jared, the children and I met Natun and went to his parents place. They live in a Christian community not far from here. They are both tall people which explains why Natun is unusually tall for a Bengali. His parents are really friendly and want is to come back. Natun took us on a tour and showed us his piece of land that he wants to build a house on. We had snacks with his parents and visited for a while and then headed back to Doyle’s for the evening and night. 

💟I will be taking a break from posting for awhile. I’m unsure of how long. We are really busy with our new house/moving project. My children need 100% of mama right now with another big change on the horizon. Especially my eldest… As soon as we are settled I’ll be sure to write a long post on our “adventure.” 😄 Then hopefully I’ll be able to post every Sunday again.😀 I may post a few sporadic posts now and again if the occasion suits. I’ll post on my WhatsApp status when I’m back to regular posting. Thank you for understanding. 💟

December 11-December 17, 2023

 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!