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.
