Happy Canada Day. Happy USA Independence Day. Plus a good soup recipe = Bonus day.

July 1-4, 2020
Even the names of the holidays indicate cultural differences in the countries. Canada Day - we are a nation. American Independence Day is a different concept entirely.

Canadians and Americans mostly look alike, whatever our nations of origin. We've come from around the world and landed in N. America. W and I happen to be citizens of both countries. We don't celebrate either beyond, "Hey, looks like today is a holiday," in typical low-key Canadian fashion. "Let's pray for our country." That's about it.

The feast is a mix of Indonesian and "what's in the fridge." We don't eat special Western food. I mix Veronica's avocados with chopped vegetables and smash in leftovers from the noodle-ish dish Apong made. Delicious.

Earlier in the week:
Monday, June 29
W is sick to his stomach. He spends an uneasy day or two. I do solitary walks with the dogs around the neighborhood.

Mostly, I'm plowing through research and grading, using Focusmate, a free 3X-a-week app. What you do during your hour is your choice. Some people exercise, some cook, some research or write, some craft or make things - it's really up to you!

What is the advantage of having someone sitting across your screen on Focusmate? Well, at the end of your scheduled hour, the other person will ask, "How did you do on your goals?" It means someone is reading your updates in the chat as you reach your goals and sending you their own for accountability. For me, it's a distraction-free hour where I am tied to my desk. Invaluable! I recommend it highly and think I'll pay for it when the freebee runs out.

Tuesday and Wednesday
Our team meeting is hopeful, looking toward the future. Some of the board members join regular participants to talk about how we will return to "normal" (whatever that's going to look like.)

Ibu Apong digs up some casava tubers in the garden and steams them for us.

We walk over to talk to the property managers at one of our meeting places. J and J are in the middle of a 2-week quarantine after returning from travels. It's frustrating for everyone but this is the new normal. Social distancing, hand washing, sanitizer. Could anyone have imagined this in January?

We record next Sunday's talk about Gratitude, and wish a friend a happy birthday. Ruth, Sanny, and Guilia all have birthdays this week.

The dogs are happy to walk any time we go out the gate. They're trained to sit as soon as we stop walking. To make them pay attention to us (not the dozens of cats on the way), we stop and start a few times. "Good dogs!" and we're off.

I'm in the second of three week of teaching a seminary course. Classes are 3 hours online Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings, with a full Saturday. (The "long day" consists of 6 Carnegie hours: 50 minutes of class time, 10 minutes of break.) The time always flies by.

At the beginning of a teaching session, most lecturers worry whether they have enough material. This time, we've spent a week and a half on general themes and background. It's helping us fly through the rest of the material, since we've already covered much of what I'd have to explain bit by bit. I'm hoping to get through most of my notes before class ends next weekend. If not, students have the tools they need to explore further.

I habitually track classroom hours. Maybe it's my German love for precision. When we go over 20 minutes one night and 15 on 2 others, I write it down: we'll subtract those from the last day's schedule. Students can use the "extra" hours for writing papers if they like.

Zoom makes small group discussion easy. Every day, we have at least one breakout session where students wrestle with the information together. As a lecturer, I visit the breakout "rooms" and hear the varied discussions. It's similar to how we walk around an in-person classroom to eavesdrop and give guidance.

Thursday
We walk. The trail is steep in places going up, but even steeper coming back. The stress is in my knees as we step step step down. We have to lean on our poles; there are few mud steps cut into the steep trails, even in the steepest sections. Locals are used to it. For us it's an adventure.

It's not that long of a walk today up to the old military fort in the hills: round trip is about 8 km (5 miles.) We climb about 1 km in elevation. Not too bad. So good for our always-sitting bodies!

Most of the hike is in the shade of the pines overhead, planted by the Dutch to shade coffee plantations. They were run out of the country before they got the coffee crops going.

 The forest trail is narrow but easy walking. There are few random stones like on the hike last week between the rice paddies.

The old fort is as cool and solid as ever. There are a bunch of young people upon the rooftop hill so we don't go up or inside.

The dogs stay home. One of the walkers is afraid the dogs will transmit covid to her. No one has ever caught the virus from a dog but a few dogs in the whole world have tested positive. (Is that because we don't test dogs? Anyhow, cats are more likely transmitters.) Even then, there's not one case of dog to human transfer in the world and she doesn't want to be the first. So the dogs have to stay home.

We walk through many fields of peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and other greens.

The youngster below cruises past us on the downslope. He and another teen haul a heavy bushel-bag of chili peppers on their shoulders. The teenager heads right back up the hill after dropping off the bag. Farming is family work. We meet him again when he drives to the veggie shed to drop off several bags of peppers.

See how the kids are dressed? A long-sleeved coat over a t-shirt, long trousers, and flip-flops. It's over 80o outside.

A friendly farmer points the way to the village. You can't tell where you are in the hills as the trails wind through the trees. We miss the turnoff to the car but decide to have the driver pick us up further down in the village. Otherwise, we'd have to track down the valley and back up the side of the next mountain to the car.

W gives the old man some coffee money for his trouble. The guy doesn't want to take it but W insists. He grins and waves us on.

 Crops are staked on sliced bamboo teepees on both sides of the path. We end up in the middle of the crops and have to climb 8' up a mud bank to get back onto the main trail. W goes first and holds out his walking stick for us to grab and pull ourselves up.

There's a fire cracking inside a pile of leaves and nature scraps. We always wonder: how does the whole forest not go up in flames with an open fire bunring at the bottom of the pine tree? There's no fire pit or berm around the heap of smoldering leaves.

Rows and rows of vegetables grow up the hillsides. They're shipped all over Indonesia and exported to nearby countries.

On the last mile, we pass a vegetable stand. Teens and young men bring produce from the fields we walked through - there is a huge heap of tomatoes, plus bags and bags of broccoli and cauliflower. They're packing produce for Jakarta and other points of sale.

"Give us 50c/kilo," they say when we ask. A cauliflower head costs about 35c. We buy 5 of each, broccoli and cauliflower for about $3.50USD. W slings the big bag of vegetables over his shoulder for the last kilometer (.6 miles) to the car. We give a few heads away. Ibu Apong rinses the rest and refrigerates them.

Before lunch, I shower off the trail dirt. When I glance in the mirror - ugh, time for a haircut? Why not. I grab hair in 3 vertical slices in the back: one side/middle/other side; then run my fingers through 3X horizontally to check if there are any crooked lines across the top, middle. and bottom.

I snip off about 2", clipping little triangles along the line of my fingers. After taking an inch or so off the front sides, I run my hands through it and it feels pretty even.

I check on my phone to see if it's ok. Not bad. Took about 3 minutes but the best part is that I don't have to think about my hair for another 2 months. I hang the scissors on their hook and sweep the cut hair into the garbage.

The evening class lasts three hours. We wrap up the book's introduction, themes, and main literary devices. This weekend, we will get into the actual text. I can't wait.

Friday
Our other helper is back. Her dad has been critically ill this week, so she's been home. We're glad she's working today. She bakes bread, one loaf to keep and two to give away.

At lunch, we sing happy birthday to another friend from our table Miss Bee. It feels strange to go out to eat after a few months of home cooking. It's warm for all of us today, including Kirsten.

For supper, I make an old standby, an easy vegan cauliflower soup. Here's the recipe:

EASIEST VEGAN Cream of Vegetable SOUP

Total time: 10 minutes

• Cut a head of cauliflower or broccoli (or other vegetable) into small pieces and blanch in boiling water for 1-2 min. Don't let it get soggy! Remove from the water - but save the water. You'll use it below.

• [ALTERNATIVE: rice a head of cauliflower and sauté it in olive oil for 2-3 minutes. Then cover the pot and leave it to steam 2-3 min. (To rice: hold the whole head. Shred the white "flowers" on the cheese side of a box grater until you only have a hard stem and leaves in your hand. This takes 1-2 minutes tops and you'll have only one item to rinse.)

• Into 2 c. boiling water (including any hot vegetable water from blanching), toss 1/2-1 c raw cashews and let them steep for 5-10 min.

• Use a stick blender or Vitamix to puree the cashews in the water. 

• When the cashews have made a smooth "cream," toss in the veggies and blend. Add enough water  or hot milk to get the consistency you prefer: thick and creamy, or thin and broth-y.

• Add any spices you like.  Cinnamon? Nutmeg? or a pinch of pumpkin pie spice? Mmmm. How about lemon rind and juice? Trader Joe 21-Seasoning? Costco No-salt Seasoning? Up to you = follow your nose.
• I put in 1/4-1/2 tsp each of curry powder, masala powder, salt, and dried onion. 
• Taste it. You'll know when you have a good mix - but remember that the spices unfold in the soup. The taste gets stronger if you wait or refrigerate the soup overnight.

• Serve hot or cold.
• Optional ingredients: warmed cream, minced green onions or parsley, chopped cooked meats, imagination, etc.

Saturday
After a quick morning walk, the class comes online (7:30am-2:30pm). We have a good class of 15 willing learners. They do great in their break-out discussion groups, too.

During in-person classes, we'd spend a class period in the library, finding sources for papers and presentations. We sometimes spend parts of other classes researching papers and presentations. Today, Hour 4 is our scheduled "research focus."

The students mute themselves as they work. They unmute when they have a question. They focus on research and get a lot done. I respond to whatever comes up in the process, whether it's formatting, narrowing topics, or vetting valid sources. At the end of an hour, they're much closer to their class presentations next week. I think I'll do this again. It worked well.

Afterward, I check notes for Monday's session. Ready or not! Then I make a few cups of tea and lie around reading for much of the rest of the day.

I smash a mosquito. Its blood spills across my screen. I'm covered by repellent so I wonder who got bitten. And whose blood I'm wiping off of my computer. I itch just thinking about it.

W makes pizza for supper. I blog, check some classwork ... and it's dark out already. I hear music from upstairs: W's finishing the edits for tomorrow's BICOnline service. The digital media volunteers have already worked hard. He does the final touches and will schedule it for Sunday morning. Check it out online?

The frangipani blooming beside the porch smells glorious. We are blessed!

Read more:
*O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalm 8:1

*As for me, I call to God, and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice. He rescues me unharmed from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me. God, who is enthroned from of old, who does not change—he will hear them and humble them, because they have no fear of God. Psalm 55:16-19 NIV

*Mary said, “The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” Luke 1:49

Moravian Prayer: Our sovereign Lord, our mighty God, fill us with joy as we lift your name on high! Let our voices fill the earth and the heavens as we sing our admiration to you. All our praises to you! Amen.