Hats, pods, blooms, beanbag chairs ... and loneliness

Monday, September 28, 2020

It's gusty outside - the wind whips the leaves back and forth. Many days we get some rain, though it doesn't last lng. The scaredy-dog wants to come in, away from the stormy skies. The chimes have been singing non-stop, along with a new canary. It's my half-birthday; I have another half year before I'm a senior citizen. Woohoo.

When the sun's out, it's hat day - but now every day is mask day. Here, cloth masks cost 50c and up. I have one for almost every outfit, I think.

I work in the BIC office from 6:30 to noon and come home for lunch. I'm not really hungry and I decided to stay home. There's lots to do. I make calls, fixing an agenda, and clear emails. I do 100 pages of initial edits for the book that's been open on my computer the past weeks - and interact with our teams. I even watch an episode of Korean drama between work.

The neighbor's vine is covered with red flowers. And there are the strangest pods, which looks like rafia balls after their black skin peels off - just lying beside the road. I have to stop and look more closely. Sometimes a garden shop will plant seedlings in these - aren't they interesting?

Everywhere you look, there's something wonderful. This dotted 5" pod releases golden "helicopter" seeds from its sides and then shatters into pieces of wood below the tree. It's very messy.

This opens into a woody floral shape and its seeds drop out.

The prayers are loud and fervent today. Covid has hit hard and many health and government workers are sick. Last week, we saw the main mosque towers as we strolled through town. Below, the streets were almost empty.

There's a different kind of watchfulness here in daily life. People are alert to dangers and potential hurt; they instinctively avoid harm though they're not really thinking ahead. Here's an example: a city mall with high traffic laid slippery marble tiles on the ramp from the entry to the shops. When it rains, the marble is so slick that people with wet shoes can slide and fall. What to do? Put down a few non-skid strips. That will do it! It puts people on notice to hati-hati (be careful). Most will avoid the tiles.

There's an abundance of creativity but a dearth of maintenance. These downtown planters have beautifully-turned iron bases. The trees and plants are never watered so soon it looks like this.

Tuesday

It's team day - and we're adding a young pastor to the mix. He's without a team of his own so he's sitting in with us. Few leaders seem to have an accountability or learning team. Our team is amazing, a dynamic mix of cultures and ages. What privilege for W and me to sit in with them. We learn all kinds of things that broaden our perspectives on scripture, examine practical matters, and get ideas for the future. 

Speaking of practical matters, can you see the guy trimming trees, machete in hand behind the leaves? He's perched on a thin wire fence above a drop-off to the street.

The plants along every side of the street, snapped on my walk to the office, would have been a dream in Seattle. There's a wild hedge of poinsettias.

In a planter, exotics bloom in abundance. People hardly give them a second glance.

The papaya tree outside our gate is full of fruit. The neighbor has harvested about 20 papayas already.

And the palm by the gate has dropped its 1.5" berries onto the ground. There are stunning, artistic layouts of God's abundance everywhere you look.

I'm in the thick of editing. I've "lost" (jettisoned) 100 pages of 1300 in the edits to date. The goal is 300 pages. Possible? I don't know. It's a lot of work to sort and toss. In between, I rest my brain by creating things.

The walk to and from the office is about a mile, so doing that once or twice a day helps keep my blood moving. Going up the last steep hill, a man carries a plastic bin of , with forks taped to the side. Everyone's selling something to stay alive.

Someone was getting rid of an elliptical machine. I put it in the office. Every hour, I take a break. I speed through a set (pant, pant), poke my head into the sunshine, and then get back to work.

At the fabric store last week, we bought zippers. Well, we got one zipper roll, 100 yards long, along with 2 little bags that contained 200 pulls (@$12). Whattt?! That's a lot of zipping. Have I mentioned that we live in the fabric capital, where sewing are easy to get wholesale? 

But what to do with that much zipper? We'll start with the 27 beanbag chairs sitting in the living room. 

They are almost as hard as rock. I need to take out some styrofoam pearls before we take them to the hall. There may be enough styrofoam for 4-5 more chairs. 

A chair is straightforward. Adult size: fold a piece of 64X48" fabric in half  with right sides together = a 32X48" rectangle. (For  kids, a 64X36" rectangle.) Sew a zipper on one narrow end. Then open the zipper, sew the side seam and the remaining end. 3 seams, one a zipper? The hardest part may be not to "spill the beans", so to speak.

"Simple," she says in her head. If the sewing machine is out, it's no big deal. I'll make a lining and a washable cover of donated fabric for each. (Below, W tries on the chairs for size in the store. That's definitely kiddy size!)

And what about a few beanbags for our beanbag toss game? The beans inside those rotted right away, so styrofoam mixed with small round pebbles may be a better plan.

I was surprised and happy to find a new display case with Daniel Smith watercolors in our local art store. Many watercolorists love this Seattle-based paint and order it online through shops in Spain, Singapore, and elsewhere. Now they just have to walk into the shop.

It's the first time I've been there for months. I might make one or two trips there a year so I can use up the supplies before another trip.

Here's another crafty observation. When you go into a fabric store, you have to know what you're looking for ... or be willing to pull out hundreds of bolts of fabrics to find it. 2 pieces of upholstery material caught my eye last week. I'll use those for the beanbag chairs.

There are no women standing around chit-chatting or explaining what they're going to make while another gossip cuts the fabric. That can take 15-20 minutes in the USA. Here, 3 men work as a team and they're all business. Most tailors are men, so they're shopping efficiently and with focus. What a relief. (I don't go to the fabric store to buy fabric not to chit-chat. But then, I cut my own hair because sitting in a chair for over and hour of waiting and chatter is an ordeal.)

Back home, the quilting fabric gets washed and ironed in preparation for cutting. No, I didn't iron it myself. I have soaked the cotton in salt and vinegar to keep the colors from running. It smells like s&v potato chips for a few hours.

Then I washed the cloths, snapped out as many wrinkles as I could, and hung the lengths to dry. The helper ironed them today. She neatly folds them in precise, damp little rectangles, which I quickly unfold into big pieces. Otherwise I'll just have to iron them again.

... So I need and iron and ironing board in my office as I quilt. The last quilt had already been pieced and basted, so I there was no ironing. I just quilted (and quilted and quilted) to finish it.

I don't know how things come to and through us, but God seems to use us as a pipeline of sorts. But who has ironing spares? Apparently we do. (Remember, Laurie, when we had 10 office dividers at our house, just when we needed them for an NU art show? "Who has those things waiting in the basement?" you asked.)

I remember that when we bought our ironing board 6 years ago, the shop gave us a second one free in some kind of promotion. I intended to give it away but never had a chance. 

"Please give money instead," we are told a few times. So the ironing board stays, stored behind empty suitcases and movie-night pots.

Today, I haul the still-new #2 ironing board down to my office. I cut off its dusty plastic, which is fraying apart. The #1 iron up on the rooftop has been dropped so many times by the helpers that W bought a spare for when it fails. It's still in the box and so I unwrap that, too. Ready, set --- (for snatches of time between work ...)

There's a lot of math in design. When my head clears of calculations, I'll tidy the fabric off my desk. I keep only what I need nearby. The rest will go into pizza boxes: I saved a few-years-worth from movie nights to store fabric by color.

#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#

Here's what I'm thinking about

I hear the loneliness and sorrow around me. We start the fourth quarter of the year on Thursday. Who thought this would go on and on? Over 1 million people have died, which means millions and millions more are grieving around the world.

I look at the attendance charts on the door of the BIC office. The last time we met in person was March 15 - and that last week shows a precipitous drop. We miss each other. 

"Online is not the same," we all say. But it's something we couldn't have imagined as a connector 20 years ago ... God provided this for us at the right time.

For those of you who are following government guidelines of masking, social distancing, and staying out of public spaces, I applaud you. It's your sacrifice to keep others safe. Thank you. We'll be together soon.

This won't last forever.

Read more:

*The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations. Psalm 98:2 NIV

*Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them.” Ecclesiastes 12:1

*Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” John 1:45-46

*When Paul and Barnabas arrived, they called the church together and related all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles. Acts 14:27

*Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5

Moravian Prayer: Gracious God, as we your traveling pilgrims cross the threshold into this new week, may we go forth in faith. Strengthen and motivate us with your word and with your spirit. Sometimes life is hard, dear Lord, but you summon us to come, to taste, and to see that you are good. 

O let us seek and let us find. May we daily set aside the time we need to spend in your glorious presence. Amen.

Tea, jungle, pines, farms, and fabrics

Mostly pictures - because this is an interesting and beautiful place.

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Autumn has begun in the north. Here, the leaves are starting to reappear after a precipitous drop during dry season last month. The rains are starting - it's been a very short dry season.

W and I go for our date breakfast - and I'm pleased to see the kind service of the helpers who park bicycles for customers.

Some young men drag a metal cooler down the steep slope to the food stand. "Kuat!" (strong), I say to the guys. There's not a lot of thinking about how. Things are just done here. Some of the guys wear sneakers. Others have sandals. No one has gloves. (It's 80o: note the jackets, hats, and jeans.)

Thursday

Yay - we get to walk in the mountains. The pine forests are stunning, though they are becoming filled with "attractions" for tourists, like this selfie bridge overlooking the valley. (We walk a long loop that put us the hillside opposite within an hour.)

"You have it all!" says Pauline, on her first walk ever. We do. There are jungle trails. 

There are steep rock formations, not easy to descend with wet and slippery soles.

There are long narrow walls between streams.

There are flimsy bridges. 

The dogs have to be lifted over the gaping hole in one ... Gypsy scrambles across and back a few times, breaking a few more bamboo slats. I hold my breath as he leaps and trots. He's a brave bush dog, for sure.

We humans balance on 2 thick bamboo supports to pull the other two dogs over where the slats have broken out and the gap is too big to jump. We're all relieved not to fall into the river below, crossing that one.

There are waterfalls in 3 different places. The dogs splash in the steams and ponds, cooling off from the hot hike. They run 5X the miles we do. They chase monkeys who scold and chatter their annoyance from high in the trees. When the dogs run ahead, they come back to make sure we're coming.

Makeshift staircases help us negotiate the steepest loose slopes. We couldn't negotiate this if it were raining - it would be inches-deep mud, slick and treacherous. It's already a challenge.

"Those would be painful if you slip," says Angie, noting the stakes sticking up above the wooden trunks. The trunks catch mud and stop hikers from sliding downhill.

The roads through the tea plantations make great dirt-bike trails, though most of the riders are working not playing. The dogs are going crazy, back and forth, back and forth. Gypsy is not wearing a pack for the first time in years ... so he's running around like a puppy on jet fuel. There's enough water that he doesn't have to carry his own.

The tea plantations coat the hillsides in green velvet.

Here and there, we stop to wonder at some new beauty. A small waxy flower has fallen onto the path. It lands between the stones, dry leaves, and seed pods. Exquisite.

There's another "toll booth" on the hiking trail. These little huts are springing up all over. Five years ago nearly every trail was free. Now we seldom find a walk where we don't have to buy a ticket to go into the woods.

Someone must have purchased the concession from the government. They'll be raking in a fortune in admission fees.

We don't buy vegetables today. Big bags of broccoli, fresh-cut from the field, are packaged in a roadside station. We think they are too expensive (1 kg for Rp15,000/$1.10USD). When I get home, I can't believe we passed them by. It's like shopping in a thrift store: if you'd pay $100 for a skirt at Nordstrom, you'd still resist shelling out $10 for it at the thrift store. Sigh. Perspective. Perspective.

Later in the afternoon, I have just enough brain power to calculate the blocks, strips, and borders for a new quilt in process. I want to jump in and sew, but this comes first and wards off potential disaster. 

I guess if I used someone's pattern, it would be done for me. Never mind - these fabrics call for something custom - blocks bonded by stripes of color and movement.

A B&W photo of the blocks helps with the layout of the shapes and sizes between blocks.. The math is not my favorite part of quilting or other craft projects. 

Friday

We drive downtown to do a few errands. Someone has screwed old tires into asphalt as speed bumps to slow the motorcycles who zoom on the narrow roads.

At a little roadside stand, there are all kinds of jazzy flip-flops for kids. Sandals and flip-flops are standard foot gear. There's no sense in walking in heels or dress shoes (never mind socks) unless you're working in an office. The pavement is uneven and rough - leather or soft soles begin to disintegrate within a block.

Our big task is ordering 25 bean bags for movie night as well as BIC kids and teens ($14/$20 each, stuffed and covered.) K helps us choose patterns. 

We're hungry and getting crabby so we check into Thai Palace Fusion for lunch. It's good.

 

I am happiest though when I wander into Kings basement. There, fabric shops are filled floor to ceiling with bolts of cloth. I get a "special" on quilting cottons.

"Next time, you will give me a better price, ya Pak?" I ask the seller as I hand over the money. My choices cost $3/meter, but the local price is closer to $2.20. That's what I'll negotiate when I return. 

Today I am well-fed and I notice how empty the shops are. It costs me a few more dollars to establish a good relationship with someone who is not selling their usual quota.

Across the street, someone is using a pick-axe to pry up road cobbles. He wears flip-flops. Pedestrians and customers walk around him whenever the axe is on the ground.

Flowers have erupted everywhere after a few big rains and lots of sun. Our morning walks are gorgeous.

 

The chicken run away from us as I try to catch their beautiful coloration and feathers.

Saturday

We're invited to supper with friends. A steep staircase climbs to their old wooden house. (Below, part of it). The treads are surprisingly even. I am grateful for hikes in the hills and strong knees that let me run to the top. I don't like steps so I run up unless the treads are so tall or uneven that it's hazardous.

Oh, look at this dessert, after our delicious dinner of lemon chicken, sautéed vegetables, and mashed potatoes. This 4-sided cheesecake combines all the different cakes on one plate. Oh yum.

Ishmael and Joanne are travelers and teachers. They collect amazing art and collectibles. The house is full of treasures. This 3' carved fish catches my eye. Their garden is also relaxing, lined with birds and plants. It's a soul-refreshing evening.

The bean-bags for movie night and BIC teens/kids ordered yesterday have been sewn and delivered. The living room is full of bags and patterns!

Read more:

*Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble. Psalm 119:165

*I am with you, says the Lord, to save you. Jeremiah 30:11

*Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom. Colossians 3:16

*At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength. 2 Timothy 4:16-17

Moravian Prayer: God, our refuge, you are the anchor that holds firm. When troubles of this world disturb our calm, remind us of your abiding strength in our turbulent lives. 

Beautiful Savior, as your children, we know your joy, your peace, and your truths. Make our steps sure as we witness to others. Amen.