Crooked seams and snakes

Friday, October 16, 2020

As I'm about to run down the stairs behind the hall, I stop to wonder why there's an electrical cord wound around the stairwell. I take a second look. It's not a cord but a 2 meter snake.

From the security shed, Pak Edi grabs his snake hook. He walks into the hall with a smile.

He calmly lifts the snake from the railing, put the hook halfway down its body, grabs the tail, and pulls the snake toward him. The snake clamps its fangs on the corner of a rug and the rug starts to curl up. Pak Eki reaches for the head, releases the fangs and picks up the snake.

Saturday

Oh this is exasperating! One minute, it feels like I'm almost done. And then suddenly I'm a long way from finished. For a few hours, I sew on the quilt top. My mind is free to ponder; how can we best connect and serve, even in this time of COVID?

I make good progress, so ... what about the back? Should I continue? It also needs piecing.

I grab a page of paper and a pen to do my calculations. The central patterns of the two main batiks have been cut up for the front of the quilt, but their three-sided borders will frame the back of the quilt. So what's the big deal?

Every batik border is a different size. Depending on the border lengths, a number of strips will be added to match the size of the front to the back. Once I have total size of front and back, I'll cut fabric to fit between the batik borders.(What size is the insert? I won't know until I have the final dimensions for the quilt top.)

That means math. Multiple pieces, colors, sizes. Precise measurements between 3 surfaces. And I can't think about anything else when that happens. My carpenter tape, pen, and paper engage in a dance. Almost there. Almost there.

I'm getting to the last of the calculations when someone interrupts me with an unrelated question. "Did you read the WhatsApp about --?"

Nope, I didn't.

And there go the numbers, which had just started to settle in my head. A half-morning of math is undone. I'm too tired to continue. So frustrating! I fold up the fabrics from the floor and put them away for another day.

Our normal visitor load has shrunk with COVID, which affects Indonesia like everywhere else. We have a few people over every Saturday for pizza night. But mostly, the big round table sits empty. I like the Indian cloth on it, though.

There's time for a quick dash into the garden before our guests arrive.

There are a lot of fragrant blooms, perfect for the bathroom and nooks where they'll be noticed most.

For supper, W pre-bakes the pizza crusts. We eat pizza on the porch with our guests. Everyone chooses their own toppings on their own crust before W pops them into his pizza oven.

Sunday

On our walks, we can't look up for long. Paving is done around established trees.

The durability of the road depends on who did the work, if someone skimmed off materials for other jobs, and whether the road has been maintained.

We were pretty happy when the city put concrete slabs put over the drainage ditch along the main road up the hill. A sidewalk makes a hit from a car or motorcycle less likely as we walk to the store.

Earlier this week, our friend Angie taught Ibu Apong to make German pretzel buns. They're delicious. I sacrifice one for IbuA to taste. "What do you think, Bu?" I ask her.

"Needs sugar for Sundanese tastes," she replies. No no no. Please no sugar in them ... they are delicious.

Thursday, we walked in Lembang. W is still off his twisted foot, but I take the dogs along. The driver has forgotten the leash so Veronica cobbles together string and we tie the string to the collars whenever we're walking through villages.

One of the walkers drops her glasses into the creek, gesturing while on a bridge. She wades in after them.

We have two long uphills to master after a long slope down to the creek. Ugh. my heart rate goes to 160 climbing each. It's hot, we drink a lot along the way, and we are happy to make it back to the car.

In our neighborhood, men are clearing vegetation from the roadsides. At lunchtime, they sleep on the plastic sacks they will fill with garbage, litter, and leaves.

Everyone is doing something. what's your part in the world?

Read more:

*Though the Lord is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly; though lofty, he sees them from afar. 

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes; with your right hand you save me. The Lord will vindicate me; your love, Lord, endures forever—do not abandon the works of your hands. Psalm 138:6-8 NIV

*Turn now, everyone of you, from your evil way and wicked doings. Jeremiah 25:5

*But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,  or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Romans 3:21-26 NIV

*I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Romans 7:22-23

Moravian Prayer: God of grace—keep us from doing evil and wicked things. We feel bad when we do wrong. Teach us the way to be obedient to you. Amen.