Tuesday, March 1, 2022
Grateful that our COVID tests are negative. These home tests are more accurate than many currently used by hospitals, according to medical friends. W orders a 25-pack for the months ahead.
We grieve with friends whose families are victims of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. My mom and her relatives remember their own flight during WWII. "They have lost everyone," she says. A Ukranian friend's mom flies into Jakarta on a pre-arranged flight. She got out of the country just in time- and gets to see her new grandbaby.
Wednesday - Ash Wednesday
The season of Lent begins today. We begin to count the days toward celebrating what Jesus has done for us. I usually choose a discipline for the 40 days before Paskah or Easter. As a BIC community, we are reading 31 Days of Praise by Ruth Myers. Each day, the scriptures are grouped by topic, It's an uplifting read.
W drives into Jakarta to get Kristi, a new friend from Colorado as she wraps up her COVID quarantine. There's an accident on the way in (traffic jam, not involving our car). The wait at the hotel is long until the results of Kristi's tests are confirmed and she's released. They're home by early evening.
Midday, IbuS climbs to the dressing area above the bedroom to make sure everything is clean. Ugh - the ledge at the top is a mess. I haven't swiped a hand on there since we moved in! You can imagine the dust, lizard poop, and spider webs that she clears away.
The main bedroom has hosted 3 different guests within the last 2 weeks. This big old house was built for a big family. Its systems are old. City water comes in for a few hours a day.
It's our privilege to welcome travelers and guests into it. Every upstairs room has a loft with teak closets plus open and closed shelving. You wake early: there are no blackout curtains. There are floor-to ceiling windows and balcony access, from which you can see the trees and flowers blooming in the yard. This bouquet of weeds, dill, and grass seeds adds a little pop of color.
On the last walk-through of the room, I spot a frame leaning against the loft wall. I turn it around to find the poster reproduction that we bought on a trip to Vietnam. Many Vietnamese shops sell propaganda posters, reproduced from early Communist days. W and I were there a few years ago and this was of a cows and villagers with the encouragement to farm to feed the nation. (We left posters of raised fists, "Death to America," and similar slogans there.) I hang it in the nook: the colors are perfect.
Speaking of pretty stuff, look at this rose. The rosebush cost us 50c (7.500) in a field of roses a few weeks ago.
I tuck it and a gardenia into an IKEA umbrella stand in the bathroom. The perfume rafts into the hall as you walk by.
No mountain walk for us with COVID raging and W's toes swollen with gout. Instead, Kristi and I loop around the neighborhood. She's accustomed to high elevations so that's a plus: no panting as we walk uphill. My tracker records 10,000 steps by evening.
Friday
After a morning walk with Kristi, Angela joins us for another quick stroll around the hill. W and Kristi goto buy airline tickets for an upcoming conference. They need a refund for a cancelled flight, too.
IbuS cooks a lunch soup, bakes pretzel buns, and - the big job of the day - tracks down the laundered bedding that has gotten scattered here and there. Prowling around the house this week, I find sheets, pillowcases, and towels stacked in dressers, a portable closet, laundry baskets, and in a storage room.
"Please go find it all and put them away in one place." First, she heaps them on a guest bed. We bought quality linens at closeouts and dragged others from our stash in Seattle. We're always trying to figure out the right size, flat or fitted. "Let's organize these!"
I sketch the 5 kinds of beds and number them by size for IbuS. Then I cut blank labels, find some twine, and track down zippered bags. IbuS folds each sheet, labels the bag by size, and shoves it into an old wooden hutch.
We have a linen closet for the first time in 7 years! Hurrah. About time.
Lo and behold, a bonus. We solve a puzzle that has been itching at me for weeks. In W's office, we find a missing blanket for which the helper and I searched high and low. I sling it over the sofa within easy reach. Bandung was the coldest spot in Indonesia yesterday at 20oC (68oF). Brrrr.
Saturday
It's a short walk - just me and the dogs, who are happy to be out of the gate. The masseuse is due to treat a few clients on the hill. She works out some of my kinks mid-morning before heading to the next lucky gal. We sit so much for work: lots of writing and connecting from various desks. The two-hour workover ($15US) is well worth my time.
I write 10 days of future blogs, while W redoes parts of tomorrow's BICOnline video and his foot is getting better. Whew. I'm happy when night falls after a long day of desk work.
Some friends report COVID positive as Omicron sweeps through town. So far, so good for us. We retest and are still negative. M is isolating upstairs, hopefully almost done with COVID herself.
Sunday
We have BIC Online in the morning.
The extra language books are still sitting on my desk. I hope the person who spoke for them takes them. Otherwise they're going into the trash this week.
I finish painting the feather hat, dress, and skin tones to the point where I can leave her alone. I pop the acrylic face into an 18"X24" (45X60cm) frame and that's it for now. Katherina has developed an imaginary life as I painted her layers. I like her uneven shoulders, ears, and eyebrows. She perches on my office shelf.
Vina sits on our porch this afternoon for the first time. It's a delight to meet new friends - and nice to have Kristi back in time for conversation. Someone else drops by to pick lemons from the garden. A social day all around.
Somehow I rack up 11,000 steps between an early walk, a stroll to lunch (dropping off Kristi at a cafe en route), and a final afternoon loop to pick up a book from the neighbor's house.
Read more:
*For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you. Psalm 139:13-18
*The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him! Habakuk 2:20
*The wise men said, “We have come to worship him.” Matthew 2:2
*No one who believes in Christ will be put to shame. Romans 10:11
Moravian Prayers: God of wonders, we stand astonished and lower our eyes in awe. Heaven and earth are filled with your glory, yet you walk to Jerusalem. Prepare us for the journey ahead and the steps we take in faith this day. Amen.
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