A fresh start

Sunday, April 23, 2023

The 20 roses Ruth sent yesterday answer the question: "What flowers will we use for Sunday morning's bouquet." I wire down several blocks of oasis and a frog in a 15" serving bowl.

The front side is pretty - the greens are repurposed from the last 2 weeks. They've lasted a long time.

I tuck some fake berries in the back with the last rose. Usually those serving on the platform get the back of a bouquet. I try to add something of interest that only they can see. After the Gathering, several people ask me for flowers. Not all the roses make it home.

Our guest speaker is staying at the Padma Hotel just up the hill. The view is spectacular over the valley.

Lunch at Nara is good as always. The servers are attentive and friendly. And the company is warm: Ps Yoel, Esther, their daughter, and several who are visitors to Bandung join us. We make some connections for them and enjoy the food.

I walk home, surprised as always by how many people are on the hill on weekends. The usual guys are helping park cars for a fee that ranges between 80c and $1.40.

Monday

On Mondays and Tuesdays, I'm at language school. I'm not sure I want to give up my free mornings; its a treat to have a week without scheduled events. I'm second-guessing the logic of learning Indonesian; I rarely use it. It is very nice to be able to understand conversations around me, though. Even W takes a rest, though he has to shop a bit so he gets an extra walk.

Walking walking. We take an angkot (little van that serves as public transportation) to a vegan restaurant for lunch. I skipped breakfast and am famished. We get off the bus early and walk down the street to the eatery. I order chicken-ish Katsu (Japanese style).

W order a burger-ish and we share grilled corn. Yummy.

On the way home, we pass a garbage dump, full to the rafters after Lebaran (end-of-Ramadan) feasting. People are hired to sort through the neighborhood garbage. Then the bags are loaded onto little pickups and collected at central locations - by hand.

Beside it, the food market, usually buzzing with vendors, is quiet. Most people are on holidays until mid-week.

Our driver tailgates, squeezes through narrow openings, and avoids hitting the motorcycles that pull between every vehicle.

About halfway home, the rain starts. The mighty downpour fogs our windows. From the front passenger seat, I can't see a thing. The driver swipes a cloth across a stripe of window above the steering wheel and hits the gas again.

Everyone has dismounted so except for W and me, the van is empty as we get close to our stop. "Do you think he'd take us to our place?" I ask W. It's raining hard enough that a few seconds outside will soak us to the skin.

W asks, the man agrees, and turns off the main route toward our neighborhood. He drives all the way to our house. He asks an exorbitant fee: $1.40 each (instead of the usual 40c). I urge W not to haggle. After the holidays, everyone is broke.

W hands over the money with a grumble and hops out to unlock our gate The man grins and drives off. "Silly foreigners!" He can probably quit for the day with his quota of income. I'm happy we didn't have to walk a half-mile home in the downpour - and we are thankful to bless someone.

In the afternoon, I make seitan (fake meat from wheat gluten). It takes over an hour but there's enough to stash one meal in the fridge and freeze 4 bags for later. I toss collected vegetable scraps into the leftover water and voila: vegetables broth, ready for the freezer.

A bit later, I watch an online class on creating an art journal. It starts with gluing scraps to a big sheet of paper.

Then we mark it up with black and white paint. I add gold paint circles (acrylic paint tapped onto the collage with the core of a cellophane tape roll.)

Once it's dry, it gets cut and folded before being glued together to make 8 pages. What on earth will I write in that busy journal?

"I take one of these with me wherever I go and just write what I'm thinking," says the teacher. Hmm. I have little dot notebooks for that. (front cover below)

Wednesday

We walk a few loops (2 miles), admiring a bougainvillea draped over a fence.

The neighbor has almost finished renovating her house. I'm eyeing this treasure. It would look great in the garden! with bright colors on the slats, don't you think?

It must be cold out - everyone's wearing coats and hats. We check: 20oC (68oF) - cold enough! We walk quickly to stay warm with our short sleeves.

Regular walkers wave as we pass each other.

It's usually date day but there are few vegan options nearby. I make breakfast instead. When PakG comes at 9:00, we're off to KB, a nearby city. At the first stop, W buys a dehumidifier ($25). Second, W is looking at second-hand tools. They're being shed by a repatriating expat. 

He's reluctantly parting with his collection: "Please give me first dibs if you are selling the tools when we get back, ok?" W finds what he expected and more. He now is equipped for a full workshop.

Next stop is wonderful: a lunch with Josh and Clau who are beloved friends and teammates. With Clau in a doctoral program and Josh's business exploding (growth! yay), we don't see each other as often as before. The setting, on the KB lagoon, is refreshing and beautiful. I find some Korean noodles that taste delicious. W has a burger, and the others order their favorites.

We make a quick stop at IKEA, where the post-Ramadan sales are going on. I find little things - a few toys for visitors, a garbage pail, a small vase, a few decorations.

PakG is off to see his in-laws this afternoon, planning to come back tomorrow. It will be a 3- to 10-hour motorcycle ride each way, depending on traffic. It's raining today when he drops us home.

Last weekend, his usual 3-hr motorcycle ride to his family home took 16 (or was it 18?) hours! "Even the sidewalks were crammed with motorcycles - we had nowhere to go: the cars were stopped on the streets." And they got caught in the rain.

Ibu Gati drops by with some goodies she's hauled from Seattle, where she was visiting her sister. After a week, she's still jet-lagged. (Yes, it's a pain to re-acclimate.) I like the batik she's chosen - a peach and blue pattern on white. She shows me how to tie a skirt, though I wonder if I have to lose weight to wrap it twice around my waist and tie a knot, too. (Long gone are the years when I had a 27" waist.)

Thursday

We skip the mountain hike to take it easy. We have no driver. It's too complicated to get the dogs in and out of someone else's car, though V kindly offers. We walk 3 loops plus an extended neighborhood stroll to make up the same number of steps and distance as a short hike. It takes just over an hour to do 3+ miles (5 km). The hikers take until lunchtime to finish their 5 km trek through the fields, overgrown trails, and forest.

I'm hungry but for what? I mix potatoes, fake ricotta (been wanting to try to make it - tasty), scrambled "eggs" (tofu, turmeric, spices), onions ... tastes ok. When there's no obligation to work, it's easier to experiment with chores. Soon, there's whole-wheat bread rising in the bread maker (thanks for that machine, Sam!) and the new recipe of banana-oat bars has come out of the oven.

After breakfast, W unloads the new-to-him tools from the car and starts to repair things. It makes me happy to see him work. hehe Can you spot him?

He sweeps and puffs dirt off the porch with his new compressor. We spray the ants making a home in our wicker porch furniture. I putter around the yard, feeding fish, giving birds fresh water and food, and enjoying the garden. The 3 white guppy fry, born a few weeks ago and popped into a glass bowl away from the voracious mouths of fish in the pond, are starting to grow.

And I write. (I always write.) Lunch is BBQ sauce with tomatoes and whole-wheat spaghetti. We check Sunday's talk about Matthew 11, which W wrote. He walks down the hill to book a reservation on a shuttle van to the Jakarta airport for an upcoming trip.

Poodle Bailey poses just before I pull shut the sliding doors against the cold afternoon wind. Looks like we have a rainstorm coming again. The weather bureau predicts tornados and hail in places. Many people are still coming back from the home visits that end Ramadan. Most are on motorcycles.

The hikers, stuck in traffic, have my sympathy - it's usually a 1-hr ride. Good thing they know shortcuts that get them past the traffic jams.

Read more:

*I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.

*I formed you, you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. Isaiah 44:21

*There shall once more be heard the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, “Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” Jeremiah 33:10-11

*Has God rejected his people? By no means! Romans 11:1

*The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all. Titus 2:11

Moravian Prayer: Lord, you extend love and mercy, and call and purpose to Israel—your ancient covenant people—and to all those who inherit your history of leading and guiding them. We give thanks that we, and every other human family, are never beyond the reach of your patient, persistent love. 

Steadfastly, without fail, you care for us in every time and place, through every joy, change, and hardship. Steadfastly, without consideration of class, race, nation, or species, you offer your love to every living creature. Faithful, steadfast God, how can we keep from singing our thanks and praise? Amen.