Marty the Monkey

Pruitt was thrilled to be able to bring Marty the Monkey home with him for the weekend. Marty is sort of the class pet and the kids get to take turns taking him home and writing a little story of what they did with Marty. He and Pruitt pretty much spent the whole weekend together, from the Chinese Restaurant where we went for a banquet to Grandpas' for a "welcome home" time with "cha cha" (Uncle Dustin).

Speaking of monkeys, on the first day of school, as we rounded the corner from Riley's school, we saw about 30 monkeys on the sidewalk. I've never seen them loose in the city before. It was quite a sight!

Christmas in August

This past weekend was celebration time here in Dhaka! Dustin and Megan arrived safely and Marland was starting to be up and about. His blood tests showed he had dengue fever so it will still be a bit till he feels back to normal but at least he seems to be over the hump! We still have an overdue birthday to celebrate; we'll have to see what we can do about that...


Well, my dear mother did it again! She pulled a good one on us and sent us a whole suitcase full of goodies with Dustin. You should have heard the whoops and hollers as we opened it Friday afternoon!!! Coffee, chocolate, dried blueberries, pecans, ranch dressing mixes, art supplies, kinex for the boys, books, dvds, you name it! It was amazing - still is for that matter. It really was like a cold drink of water on a hot dry day. Well, even better than that! Some things you don't know how much you miss till you have them again.


A picture is worth a thousand words - so this one is for you Mom!


What a great surprise! Thanks Mom!!!

Humanity

This morning I've been pondering humanity and have seen the faces of suffering around me. First my mother-in-law called to say my father-in-law, who has had fever nearly a week now, fainted while sitting at his desk and banged himself up pretty good. He woke up an hour later, completely under the desk, with a deep gash on his forehead and a lot of bruises. Austin has spent the morning at the doctor's office with him and they are getting all kinds of tests done. After the boys left for school, I headed to the grocery store. I noticed a woman sitting on the sidewalk as I rode past. Her hair was chopped off and she had a vacant look in her eyes as she talked to herself. On my way home I noticed that she had laid down on the sidewalk, wrapped only in her sari, and fallen asleep as hundreds of people passed by. A young man was sleeping with his head on his knees, propped up against a wall. Sad faces. Pleading faces. Busy faces. Curious faces. Happy faces. Blank faces. Humanity surrounding me. A woman came to my door, wanting a job. She worked for foreigners in the past but had to stop to take care of her small child and now needs to work again. A friend was bawled out by her mother and went to work in tears. My little boy came home from school and was a sad as he told me about getting left behind when the rest of his class went to the library and he didn't know where they were. I held him close for a while and then he bounced up and wanted to eat something. Would that all the world could be healed with a hug. I am reminded of a quote by Susan Classen who worked for MCC in Nicaragua -

"God's love flows through us into the world and we carry the pain of the world back to God. Our hearts don't have the capacity to hold the pain. God asks us only to feel it and let it go as we carry it to God's heart."

We are faced with so much poverty and suffering. I have found that I can either harden my heart and refuse to deal with the reality around me or I can burn out trying to help everyone. Somewhere in between those two options there is another, that of feeling the pain and then letting it go. I often struggle with feeling like it is not enough. I want to do more to ease the ache of humanity.

I was recently touched by the book The Shack by Phillip Young. It is the story of a father who is overcome with grief after his young daughter is abducted. One day he gets a note from God, inviting him to the shack where the last clues of his daughter's life had been found. He goes and meets God there and his life is changed forever. It touched something deep in my heart as I laughed and cried my way through the pages of the book and the losses of my own life. It did so much for my soul, a brush with the Divine that goes deeper than words. I highly recommend reading it.

Well, my dear little boy has been waiting for his turn to be on the computer, so I need to go...

Aches and Pains

Jensen was home sick today, with a fever and headache. He was in pretty good spirits though and spent a lot of time reading until his head and eyes drove him batty. He was quite ready for his brothers to come home from school and really happy to have his Dad return from Mymensingh this evening. We're hoping that he'll be better soon. Meanwhile, Austin's father seems to have Dengue Fever. We had planned to have a 60th birthday party for him tonight but had to postpone. Happy 60th, Marland. Hope you never have another birthday like this!

Well, it's time to stop the other boys from bouncing off the walls and get them to bed...

Transitioning Well

It feels really good to have the first week of school behind us. It was a smashing success and we are all adjusting really well. Jensen was barely home on Thursday when he started groaning that it would be 2 days till he got to go back to school! Hopefully this enthusiasm will continue all year! It has been really fun to watch them each respond in their own way to the change and the excitement of it all. Riley has been talking all week about a new friend he made. One afternoon he was almost inconsolable because he missed her so much and it was so long until the next day when he could see her again! It has made it easier for him to get on the bus each morning, though he still wants a long hug and has to be gently pulled away and helped to his seat. He was pretty proud of the fact that he was given some homework to work on. It has been special to have a little time with him when he gets home from school and watch his eyes sparkle as he talks about his day. Pruitt, who is the shyest of the 3, has really been blossoming. He's been telling me about his new friends and that he's not shy anymore. I can see him growing in confidence which tells me he is in a very secure and positive environment. It does my heart so much good to see him doing so well and being so happy. Jensen is so happy to be learning again and has been delving into research as well as throwing himself into as many activities as possible. He has been so excited to make new friends and to have so much to do. He is thriving!

I have had a good week too. I think I can get used to having long quiet mornings! I have been quite busy with all the housework as well as getting things ready for the guest house and doing some hosting.

All in all, the transition has been going very well and we are grateful.

Excited About School

3 very excited boys woke up early this morning. They have been counting the days for a long time and Riley asked me with sparkling eyes, " Is this today?" Yes, finally the first day of school has come!


We were able to ride the bus with them this morning and helped them get settled in. Jensen wanted to find his class on his own, so off he went. The others needed a little more encouragement but were soon having a great time. They came home, all smiles and full of stories from their day. Riley's favorite thing was playing with the cool toys and he even got to ride a bike, something he's been missing a lot. Pruitt's favorite part was playing a game called "Elephant". Often the quieter one, this afternoon he talked and talked about his day, which did my heart good. Jensen also enjoyed the games and an art project and is doing research on the history of the Olympics as I write.

This is all a bittersweet time for me; a realization that my children are growing up and, in a sense, are taking a step away from us as parents. I am so grateful to have such good trustworthy teachers for them and such a positive environment for them to learn and grown in. It is a new phase for us, but is showing promises of being a good phase.

A Wedding

Last night we were invited to the wedding reception of one of Austin's former students. The boys were excited about going to their first Bengali wedding (that they remember). We donned our finest clothing and got there an hour late so we wouldn't have to keep the boys sitting still for too long. As is customary, the bride was sitting on an elevated spot with people sitting around the room, watching her. Others would come and have their photo taken with her or simply come for a closer look. The boys wondered why no one was "doing" anything. This part of the wedding basically consisted of watching the bride, talking to anyone we knew and waiting for dinner to be served. By about 9:30 p.m. we found a spot in the dining hall and Riley finally had his drink of water, which he had been whining for ever since we got there. The food was delicious - biriyani, chicken roast, the works! Pruitt was worried that the bride, who was still the center of attention in the other room, might be getting hungry. One of the guys who works there was hovering over us the whole time. Every time I tried to talk to the boys he put his ear down, trying to figure out what we wanted so he could serve us. As soon as we were done, he poured warm water over our hands to wash them, whipped out a bar of soap from his pocket and some napkins to dry our hands with. For some reason we didn't see anyone else getting the same treatment. Then when we were ready to leave, he asked for a tip, which explained why he gave us our "special" treatment. I wasn't very impressed to say the least!


Towards the end of the evening, we saw the bride and groom together and snapped some photos. All in all it was an interesting evening and Jensen raved nearly the whole way home on the rickshaw.

Sonshine in the Monsoon

The other day Riley informed me that he was "Little John". Soon he was joined by Robin Hood and they had a morning of grand adventures together. I don't know what I would do without their crazy antics to lighten up life a bit!


They say that when it rains it pours. Well, it feels like the monsoon in more than one way around here. After running into technical trouble with the computer I decided to go have fun and make cookies. I was ready to put the 2nd pan in the oven when I noticed that it had gone off and was filling up with gas. This has happened a few other times and I always have to wait 30 minutes to an hour while it cools down until I can light it again. It went this way all day long. I would finally get it on again, it would preheat and bake one pan of cookies and then it would go off and I'd start smelling gas again. The boys were helping me with cutouts and weren't very impressed with the slow progress, neither was I. Finally, at about 3:00, it stayed on. I have no idea why, but I was sure glad it did. I finally finished my baking and even stuck a chocolate cake in, holding my breath and peeking in the window every few minutes. It turned out great - I won't say how many spare cupcakes I ate since then. Nothing like comfort food. At least I have a lot to show for my day. In between episodes, I washed the ceiling fans, screens, window grills and many other things which I won't bore you with. I actually try to make myself do the screens only once a week, though they could use it every couple days. Every day I sweep up what looks like a weeks worth of "Ohio" dirt and am shocked to realize it has only been a day since I last did this. Gone are my moments of boredom. I finished cleaning the rest of the house this morning while Austin and the boys are out buying school supplies. 4 days to go...

Melting

I decided to join the guys on their weekly trip to the library and then on to shop for some more clothes near New Market. On our way we found a place that served great snacks and soft serve ice cream cones. We then walked the rest of the way and soon found ourselves pushing and shoving to get through the crowded sidewalk. Riley soon fell asleep and we took turns carrying him while trying to find school clothes for the boys. The boys had a lot of fun holding things up and figuring out if they would fit or not. When that wore off, they fought over the stool for a chance to sit, if there was one, while sweat rolled off of all of us. After the back pack would hold no more and the fun had completely worn off, we headed home where we once again cooled off with ice cream and then stuck the boys in a cool bath. They were soon quite happy again and had a blast trying on all the new stuff, but I feel as if I won't recover until after a long night's sleep!

Compared to the previous several weeks, this past week has been pretty quiet. Finally! I think everything finally caught up to me and I was wiped out. I took a couple days to do only what had to be done and gave myself permission to relax a bit more. By the middle of the week I felt my energy coming back again, in time to scrub the house and make some food for the weekend. The boys made their third trip to the doctor who confirmed that the boys did not have scabies but gave us a different antifungal cream to try. So we are trying yet another thing and hoping this time it will work.

Well, it's time to feed some hungry boys so I will sign off...