It's 2026: put on your gear and get to work!

Thursday, January 1, 2026 HAPPY NEW YEAR

After a walk with the dogs, we settle into the morning. What a long and noisy night! with firecrackers going off until a half-hour past midnight. I have earplugs, which help a bit.

I like their safety signs outside the gates of the hotel. It's rare for workers to wear protective gear but this professional builder insists on safe working conditions. The construction crew remodelling the Padma Hotel has the day off.

Outside the construction zone, some guys with motorcycle pop-up stores sell helmets, trowels, small tools, safety vests, and used clothing. Another guy has a coffee stand hanging off his motorcycle. It's a male mini-mall at the side of the street.

We start on the Project checklist before heading to over to pack up the rest of my old office. We fill the car with a lunch table and chairs for the helpers, table-tops (2'/60cm floor tiles) to ward off rain on outdoor tables, and water filters.

The bones of the new yard are good. A table reunited with its tile-top settles in a shady spot. I tuck two chairs underneath.

Papers and craft supplies look for a new space. I light a candle to make the sorting more pleasant.

Between other work, I begin to pare down binders of previous teaching courses, tossing what's no longer relevant.

W fishes frogs out of knee-deep water in the pool for an hour or two. "Nice and warm when you get used to it."

The contractor remarked yesterday that he hasn't seen any mice around here, "probably because there are snakes." We didn't grow up with snakes so don't have much fear of them, especially the harmless ones who eat rodents and frogs.

Amaryllis and daylilies, unsettled by the move, are blooming fiercely.

I think we'll plant the Christmas poinsettias along the driveway. They'll have to be trimmed regularly or they'll grow into small trees.

The staff has the day off. W and I walk up the street to #NaraPark for our first New Years meal out. I order my usual favourites: a pot of tea and a bowl of mie rica (noodles with spicy chicken sambal).

W has a bowl of noodles but also tries steak tartare (raw beef) and an almost-raw egg.  He says it tastes good. No thanks.

I love the false bird of paradise blooming just outside the restaurant window as we pray for the business. Lots of people are here today. Paulina promises me trimmings some when her gardener thins the plants.

In the afternoon, it's back to work. W appreciates if I'm specific about tasks. Today there are four: lift a picture into place on a high shelf; it's taken me a half-hour to wrestle it into its frame because the frame is big and flimsy. The plexiglass keeps popping out. Finally it's done.

Then he mounts a huge macrame piece on the bedroom wall. It's been lying on the floor for 2 weeks and looks pretty grey.

He hangs some bathroom hooks and fastens a small mirror to the closet wall. I fix string lights to the mirror.

W says, "You know the silver will come off if you tape the wires to the back, right?" Hey, we're not keeping any of this stuff. It's come to die at the Project. Time to use items that have been gathered over the past years, rather than "saving them for later" like we usually do. This is the "later" and "a better time."

A cute yellow school desk beside the window makes a perfect spot to read scriptures and prep for the day, don't you think? The rug is an oldie that spent years at our Montana cabin before coming to Indonesia. I found it at a Whitefish boutique, crocheted with wool scraps from the Oregon Pendleton clothing mill. Snuggling toes into it feels good.

When W is done, we sign off on the Project with the contractor. We have 3 months from today to ask for repairs if something goes wrong, which seems very fair.

There's warmed-up pizza for supper. I draw the curtains, read and write a bit, and am thankful for this first day of the year. We thought about resting, but getting things done is more satisfying. And more urgent.

Friday

Up early, I try to call family in Europe to see how everyone's doing. I catch Will in London - he's with African family, enjoying time catching up. I howdy with Sarah, who's just come back from their family resort in Kenya.

The neighbour's hedge is spilling over the wall with colour, 10'/3m tall. I bring creeping vines from our old flowerbeds and dig them in along the Project driveway. Rain later in the day helps establish them in their new location.

I get in touch with Mom for the first time in days. She's chipper and lucid, happy to talk and pray together. How we value those prayers over the family!

We leave at 8AM to do some grocery shopping for the first time in weeks. We get a call as we drive down the hill, "I'm here."

Who's here? The guest who arrived at 7AM a few days ago is back to stay overnight. We tell him we'll be back before noon. "I'll do something else for a while and see you then." He suggests he can stay a few weeks until we have other guests - um no. "Can I bring friends to stay overnight?" This is not a free hotel. He enjoys a hot shower and does some work in the library before we have lunch together.

We've been trying not to buy food during the move but have been eating what was in fridge, freezer, and cabinet. It's time to guy groceries again. Near the cashier, some guys are replacing floor tiles. The loud banging as they chip out the old tiles gets no attention. People walk around to the checkout counter without a second glance. The spatial awareness here is off the charts. You fall into a hole? Trip? Stumble over wires or items lying on the floor? Too bad = it's your own fault for not paying attention.

The 9AM breakfast is dim sum in a mall near the grocer. Pretty good.

IbuS makes lunch for everyone with the fresh meat purchased this morning. She's become a good cook under the tutelage of IbuA.

We found felt furniture pads while unpacking office supplies. Perfect for the 7'/2.3m screen we found in the backyard? That screen separates our tea shelf, the guest room and bath, and W's office from the public dining area. What's that scooting under the wooden frame? We slide the screen around until we catch the scorpion.

It's time to hang the budgies, lovebirds, and a canary in their new locations under the edge of the balcony. W brings the birdcages from the old Porch and we debate where they should go. The birds need sunshine but the cage has to be out of the rain. Is reflected sunlight enough in the tropics? We don't want seeds and bird droppings everywhere so that limits hanging space on the porches.

Our dogs chase cats and mice but leave the birds alone. Wild birds help themselves to dropped seeds and dog food, dropping feathers and bird-poop on any nearby chairs and tables. It becomes a chirpy soiled mess once the sparrows and pigeons start feeding under the cages.

I almost step on a skinny little snake that is resting on the patio. Oops. I shoo him away, nudging his tail with a fallen leaf. Off he goes. "Not venomous," assures our houseguest. 

"Mildly poisonous," says another Indonesian. So we don't know. "Back into the garden with you." As long as it eats frogs and small critters, it stays. (Just leave the dogs alone!)

I finish sorting past coursework and get the class binders shelved before the next round of teaching. It's not like I'm done with paper piles; it's just that the biggest collection has been subdued.

Next up are 9 years of team agendas. Week by week, I record where the team is personally and professionally. Browsing past pages reminds me of how we can grow and mature by serving together. Very cool. Many former team members who have repatriated to their countries keep in touch at birthdays or to cheer on others' accomplishments.

Our guest pokes his head in the office doorway. "You're still grading? That's ok, I'm busy, too." Nope, I never was grading - but sometimes it's even hard to communicate with a common language. I keep slogging away. Because the public rooms are tidy, it's hard for visitors to grasp that we far from settled. We won't have time to sit around and chat for long but have to keep working. (We're at least another month from being done.)

"I'm off to do some ironing, if you're looking for me," says IbuS, heading for the far end of the Project. Ironing kills any bugs that land on clothes and linens as they air-dry. (Few have electric dryers here.) The tropical winds and sunshine in the courtyards wick away moisture almost as fast as a dryer would.

W takes himself to town to find a part missing on our vacuum. He bought a similar used vacuum online for IES Bandung; it needs repair, too. W drops the guest in town where he can catch a taxi to another meeting. Hopefully he took along a key to get in since we're early to bed during this move.

Read more:

* He will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. Isaiah 25:8

* May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

* God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 1 John 4:9

Moravian Prayer: God of salvation and love, we are grateful for the gift of your dear son, Jesus Christ. Because of you and your sacrifice, we know true unconditional love. Let us live our lives in ways that share your love with others. Amen.