No turkey please - but I'll have tea!

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

W's leg is still sore so I take Bailey - lucky little guy! - on the morning walk. The neighborhood is busy. They're putting an addition atop the community center where preschoolers get their health check. The builders are making good progress. I don't know that I'd want my kids in a building where someone just added a second story, but that's the way things are here.

It's wonderful to meet with the BIC team in the morning. We avoid in person and meet online - some are ill, some between sessions in the next city ... it's good to connect after 7 weeks apart. Everyone has updates of their assignments and events. 

They rave about Darrel and Gail Johnsen, who have returned to the USA after spending 6 weeks here. We're delighted - to have friends plunge in and influence for good on every hand is a blessing. Good people do good work.

W swings by the grocer with a list - and sends this picture. At $13/lb (approx $30/kg), it's unlikely that we'll be cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving this year. We'll just be thankful; how's that?

Wednesday

At about 5:00 a.m., I start to clear clothing from my closet shelves. By the time I'm done mid-morning, there are 2 bags full, toward a future yard sale.

I walk over to Green Gate, where Amy and I introduce Juno to her pup Skye. The dogs don't recognize each other after 2 months apart.

Skye is a beautiful, obedient 4-month-old female labradoodle F1B from BaliPoodleDoodle. Lizzie's dogs are wonderful, with good temperaments. Skye is the daughter of our retiree Juno, and the granddaughter of retiree Cocoa (our standard poodle who died in the mountains earlier this year.) 3 generations of girl-dogs. All beautiful in their own way.

I work on Sunday's talk, make calls, and am worn out by late afternoon - still jet-lagged but it's getting better. Meanwhile, W leaves at 8:00 a.m. for Jakarta to bring Laurel from the airport to Bandung. She loves kids - and that will be a blessing here. 

They return about 2:30. We take Laurel to supper at Nara and wish her well as she settles in. W's pizza looks good. I order sushi, which is also tasty.

Thursday

After an early shower, I take an hour to record 4 videos for November Mondays. I send them off for scheduling as the alarm goes off.

It's almost 8:00 a.m, time to head out the door to pick up Kiki and Veronica from down the hill. The 3 dogs are loaded in the car already. Today's my first Thursday walk, though W has to stay home and rest his knee. The doc says his knee is not injured, just swollen. Hurts a lot, though, and he's supposed to stay off it.

Veronica's a jewel. She schedules a mostly-downhill hike of about 6 km (4+ miles). We pose near an enormous tree.

How big? It would take 15-20 of us to span its trunk.

The tea plantations are always stunning, surrounded by volcanic hills. With the return of rainy season, the clouds overhead highlight the bright new tips of the tea shrubs.

Today the workers are hand-trimming the tips for "first quality" tea.

This harvester pops her hat on mine, leans over, and smiles, insisting that we take a picture together. Sundanese women are beautiful, don't you agree?

Once the tea is collected, it is dumped on tarps for sorting out twigs and dirt. Little pickup trucks come by and load the leaves, taking them to the factory for processing.

We pause for pictures at two trees planted to shade the tea. One has been struck by lightning in the past.

The roads between the fields are rocky. Some areas are more hazardous where there's mud or overgrowth. You always watch your feet.

We pause for lunch at a new coffee shop overlooking the valley. Everyone orders for their own taste. They're out of my two preferences, but the spaghetti olio is ok.

The hillsides are terraced, with steps all the way down to the river below.

A suspension bridge spans the drop-off. A few brave souls venture across.

On the way home, we spot this little pickup heaped with hay. Two men sit atop the load. Safety has different parameters in different countries.

The rain held off on our walk but pours down as we reach our house. I wash off the mud and warm up in the shower - what a treat to have water all day long since the plumbing was fixed!

IbuS surprises us - she's baked delicious chocolate chip cookies today. Our cook (IbuA) has been home sick all week but IbuS has watched her enough times to be a pro. Yummy! We send a bag along so her family can celebrate her first amazing attempt at cookie baking. (She's already a bread master.)

Read more:

*Why is light given to one in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it does not come? Job 3:20-21

*Woe to you who strive with your Maker, earthen vessels with the potter! Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, “What are you making?” Isaiah 45:9

*Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:9-10

*As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them. Hebrews 2:8

 Moravian Prayer: Great Creator, it can be a challenge to trust your timing. Not all are willing to turn to you. Help us see how we can be your light, leading others to you, until your whole creation is turned toward you.

Awesome God, we are frail creatures of dust yet your beloved children. Help us to keep that sacred balance between awe of your majesty and gratitude for being able to say, “Abba, Father.” Through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Amen.