Easter week

EASTER MONDAY, April 10, 2023

I love this week of reflection and worship. Today is mostly quiet. We sort and put away things from the weekend celebrations. I have no language class but must study for tomorrow. My brain is tired. We have a lovely soup and salad lunch with Wolter and Fennelien, just around the corner. Of course, baby Falk is the cutest.

They've been redoing their yard and have unearthed some treasures. Look at those leaves!

Tuesday

With a leadership meeting at 2:00 a.m., I'm wide awake at 1:00 - which gives me time to listen to language tapes. The leadership meeting on Zoom is valuable, though it's scheduled for noon Pacific time. I sleep another 1.5 hours when it's over. I'm ready to go when the alarm rings for our morning walk.

Language school is enjoyable as usual. The teacher records our conversation to evaluate my progress. Who knows - I can make myself understood but the words slide out of my mind like mud on a hiking trail after a short night. We make sure all the holidays for the end of Ramadan are clearly marked on my calendar.

I'm back home before lunch. There are rhythms to the week. It's like managing a small business. There are days for clean bedding in various rooms, vegetable delivery, and days for trimming the hedges and flower beds. During Ramadan, much of that is disrupted. There's been no vegetable delivery from the organic farm, but I call. "Delivery tomorrow? Thank you!"

W spends most of the morning arranging a cardiologist appointment for me later this week: "Making an appointment is complicated," he sighs. I hope to find out why my heart rate escalates to +155 beats/min with uphill hiking or walking since I had COVID 3 years ago. I get breathless and have to pause. That's just annoying.

IbuS bakes bread, IbuA bakes banana bread, and I make yogurt. They wash the windows so the glass shines, and there's laundry to do after Sunday's baptism and potluck. W's out for lunch so I indulge in ramen (a favorite) and huge cups of tea throughout the day.

Our team meeting is cancelled. We all need the week off. Some on our team have colds or a flu. In late afternoon, the thunder rolls in again.

Wednesday

W records his weekly theology video in the yard before we walk to our breakfast date.

We spot an energetic tortoise from our table at #NaraPark. Will it make it all the way up the hill from the other end of the yard?

It does, happily munching on grass all the way.

One of the tables is set for evening, the post-fasting feast during Ramadan. Many people gain weight this month while fasting sunup to sundown = because of the amount of food consumed at night and in the morning.

It's class-make-up day (for Monday) with 2 hours of language school in the afternoon. Coming home, I'm back to reviewing books for various publishers. This one is excellent.

Check out the partial TOC below:

Anne drops by for a visit and goodbye. She planned to live here but those intentions have been interrupted for now. She's a sister of the heart. We have tea, chat, and pray together. She's shedding things from her apartment and brings a box of household items for us to use and share. "Thanks! Anne. I'll miss you."

She also gifts us with 4 bars of chocolates from New Zealand. W and I test a square of one in the evening. YUMMY.

I'm ready for a quiet evening as night falls.

Thursday

I step outside to a glorious morning. The houses behind ours used to have a clear view of our door. Trees are God's gift for relaxation, fruit ... and privacy. If you don't have a spot where you are out of sight? Plant a tree, even if it's in a pot. We've done that everywhere we've lived.

We go for a walk in the morning. Look at the size of this bug on the wall beside the street!

W leans over to take a photo as well.

2 ladies are taking selfies, posing with their cellphones. It's not an uncommon sight.

Sadly, there's no hiking for us today. We spend the day at the Adventist Hospital. DrP is one of the top cardiologists in Bandung; we see him 3X: "Hello,"" Take these tests," and "Here's what I think." I've fasted in case there's a blood test - but it's been too long since I've eaten to make an accurate assessment.

The doc tells me to eat since the afternoon tests may be strenuous. We pause for lunch at the hospital cafe. The food is good.

Everything checks out as normal: "You're very healthy for your age." (Why, thanks!) The EKG is normal and they do a treadmill stress test. I'm expecting a good workout so am surprised when, after 7 minutes, they decrease the slope and slow down the machine.

"Is there nothing steeper?" I ask the technician. "This isn't even as steep as our neighborhood walk, never mind our hikes." Apparently not. They don't let my heart rate go higher than 150. That's not helpful.

The doc requests a blood test and angiogram on Monday since nothing showed up today. I ask him if there's a healthier alternative than an invasive procedure like sticking stuff and ink inside me. He smiles and changes the subject.

We dutifully go to the pharmacy for the meds I'd have to take before the test. They include 5 days of blood thinners, aspirin, and a beta blocker ($20 for all). When I Google potential side effects, I back out. No way am I putting that stuff in my body "just in case" there's something wrong. (Who knows at this point?)

How about I change to a healthy diet first? I start 8 weeks of www.drmcdougall.com, a strict vegan diet that cured my depression in my 40s. I was vegan for 7 years and know lots of recipes so that's not a hardship.

I send some hymns to a friend who is looking for a specific genre. The creativity that goes into worship music is mindful and a blessing. I like historical songs a lot, whether they classical or church music.

Friday

A morning walk, complete with a wave from the guys in the garbage trucks.

That truck doesn't smell great, but the gardenia a little further up the street does.

It's a day of meetings, calls, and unexpected things. Nothing gets check off on my to-do list. DrHR tells us it was the cardiologist's birthday yesterday. The cakes baked yesterday? I can't eat them on a vegan diet (12 egg yolks each) so IbuS decorates one and puts the other in the fridge for the weekend.

I add a heart and a smile on top. On the way to language school, we drop off the cake for the cardiologist. "Happy Birthday, DrP."

PakG zips to Starbucks for used coffee grounds to add to the compost heap.

Saturday

I'm late to the gate for our walk and the dogs aren't happy about that.

Along the way, I snap a pic of this rooftop garden. I love red-stemmed palms and this one is thriving in the heat and rain.

The colors of a flowerbed are vibrant beside the street.

This unusual bulb is everywhere. The flowers glow like icicles at night. It grows up to a meter (3') tall.

The ponies have begun a busy weekend of trotting around the neighborhood with tourists.

I cook all morning. I leave the heat on the stove for W, who is wrapping up something in his office while I eat. "What's burning?" he asks a half-hour later. The pot is smoking, crusted with black charcoal that was vegan chili. I spend an hour cleaning up. He's on his own for lunch!

Maddie drops by - she's been accepted to a university in Montreal. We talk about housing, finances, and other challenges and opportunities. "Go forward," I urge her. God will shut the door if it's not for her. If she can survive the first year away from home, she'll have a wonderful time and get a great education.

In the afternoon someone sends me a video. There are many groups of Christians, just like the many groups in other religions. Most Baptist denominations don't allow women to "lead men." Many feel very uncomfortable letting a woman on the platform if there are males in the room. (They teach that only men have the right to hear from God and speak for him if there are males present.)

Horrors! In front of the host of men in the choir (and apparently hundreds more guys in the audience), I spot a woman on the platform. She is the music accompanist = the pianist. How did she sneak onto the stage? Perhaps she is considered merely a "helper" in this instance. I can tell you, as a piano accompanist for over 40 years, that musicians co-influence and co-lead with the conductor, determining what happens to a choir.

Watching this one makes me laugh aloud. "You go, girl!" Oh, the weird cultural stuff that gets dragged into religions. It fascinates me since my post-grad work was in intercultural studies.

Sunday

This must be one of the ugliest bouquets I've made. We take it to the hall anyway.

It has interesting pieces (roses, ferns, poppy-like flowers, etc.) Those don't come together. 

When it comes home, I tear it apart and start over. Before that, W and I meet a gaggle of friends at lunch. They're celebrating a birthday party for a son. Bandung's expat community is small so most of us know (or know of) the others. 

At home, some young people hang out on the Porch. One of them knows where everything is so they can make tea. I love how people feel at home in this house.

Read more:

*Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter 1:3

*Extol the Lord our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he! Psalm 99:5

*When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:31

Moravian Prayer: Drawing strength from one another, we wait for you, Lord. Let your powerful Spirit move among us. Make us bold, not only to tell your story with words, but to live your story by feeding the hungry, healing the sick, caring for the land, and welcoming the stranger. Amen.