A good report, thank God!

Thursday, July 30, 2026
Another month has flown by. This one brought unexpected pleasures like speaking/teaching in MT with Waldemar and teaching a wonderful doctoral cohort class. 

It also offered unexpected challenges from W's midbrain stroke last week. After 5 days in the hospital, he came home with limited speech but no other physical symptoms. Today we leave home at 8AM to check in with the cardiologist and neurologist. There's a coffee shop with W's name on it inside the main entrance. He poses with PakG at "his" place.

The restless one walks around the waiting area a few times. He sure doesn't like to sit still.

Intake is a long process. We couldn't figure it out without PakG's help and translation skills. We get a number first, are assigned to the correct clinic at a desk, and wait over an hour and a half for the docs to complete their rounds. To be fair, the doctors willingly answered our questions while we were in ICU and on the ward, so we don't begrudge the same good care for other patients. While we wait, I grade pre-session assignments from the class I taught earlier this week. It's done and recorded before the docs appear.

It takes all morning to shuttle around on the second floor. W gets good reports from the doctors. We queue for payments, and queue again for Farmasi (you can guess that one). For our final stop, we find Homecare on the main floor to make appointments with the speech therapist.

Oops, nope. I get a text saying that we have overpaid and are due for a refund. We need to go to administration. Somehow that refund disappears, with the reason lost in translation. Round and round the admin, PakG, and I go, trying to understand but I soon give up. We're not keeping W here a minute longer than we have to, especially not for a missing $30.

W's hungry for the vegan buffet downtown at Kehidupan. The food tastes ok but is served at room temperature (typically Indonesian). Hot food that comes out of the kitchen sits in unheated trays until it is served.

Our choices look semi-healthy under all the salt and oil. Pretty colors, too.

By the time we stock up on groceries and make it home, it's almost 2:30PM. We're all tired.

Friday
We have no appointments scheduled for the first time in almost 2 weeks. A lot is going on online, which is quickly dealt with.

After a double-loop walk, I sit down with Lew to check the progress he's made this week on his dissertation. He heads back to Jakarta to work this weekend but will be back for more next week. It's crunch time to get something ready for his committee. 

Liana also heads home after a week of quiet retreat at the Project. IbuS the masseuse unlocks my back while W rocks on the side porch swing and catches up on emails and well-wishes. It's payday for the staff, which W manages just fine. His mind is still sharp, thank God.

Titik's bouquet has been beautiful all week.

Supper is homemade borscht: Eastern European-style beet-and-vegetable soup. We splurge with a bit of ricotta cheese to make it creamier. There's enough for 2 more servings so I pop them in the freezer. Cooking big portions means I don't have to spend an hour or two in the kitchen before each meal.

It's overcast all day so it's not hot. On a final loop walk, we climb the streets to the local fruit market for papayas. The first seller says, "Habis (no more)" but the second shop, 2 blocks away, has nice yellow ones. At about 60c/lb, they're a good value.

We figure out what's been crashing onto the tile roof. This looks like durian or jackfruit but is small and hard. They're all over the front forest. "It's a small unripe durian," our resident expert (Alice) tells us. Hopefully some stay on the tree to ripen for our durian-loving friends. Apparently, sudden wet or dry spells cause the drop. We're fully in dry season now. It hasn't rained for a week.

Saturday

Let's be honest, oatmeal is not the most exciting breakfast, day after day. We jazz it up with a few dried blueberries before taking the dogs on 2 rounds of the neighborhood. We send a video to W's family so they can see his progress. My calls with friends are life-giving.

W and I eat on the Porch overlooking the garden: artisan bread from Mom's Bakery, with hummus and vegetables. W loves pickled food, whether cabbage, cucumbers, or mushrooms. The red cabbage is sour sour sour, not my favorite.

The speech therapist arrives mid-afternoon for another grueling session. While they work, I make supper, a pasta salad packed with vegetables and good nutrition. Our meals have changed! for the better.

I send a monthly update to friends in the evening, thanking God for their many prayers on our behalf the past week.

Read more:
* My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?” Psalm 42:3

* Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100

* Paul wrote: It has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ, and most of the brothers and sisters, having been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear. Philippians 1:13-14

Moravian Prayer: O God, many times in life our tears of sorrow become so familiar to us that they feel like an old friend. In those darkest moments, we ask you to enter our hearts with your love and comfort. May we be open to your movement within us. Amen.