Thursday & Friday

Okay, I started out strong with this whole blog every day thing, but now I’m way behind.  It’s Saturday and I’ve only blogged through Wednesday-yikes!

Let’s power through a couple days.

Thursday

6:00am – Woke up to a cool, rainy morning, the perfect weather to have coffee or tea with breakfast.  I made yummy pumpkin pancakes, we ate, and Chris got ready for the day.

7:00am – Chris was scheduled to fly again, so he left for work.  I got ready for the house helper to arrive.

8:00am – Our house helper arrived.  I made the market list for next week.  All fresh fruits and vegetables we use come from the open air market; it’s called the pasar (pah-sahr).   Our helper shops there for us on Monday mornings before she comes to our house to work, so I have to get the list and money to her when she is at our house on Thursday.  That also forces me to make a meal plan for the next week, so I know what I will need, which is actually really helpful.  I don’t find going to the pasar a nice experience-it’s crowded, full of stray cats and large cockroaches, hot, and very smelly because of the raw meat that is sold there.  I’m more than happy to let our helper take care of shopping there every week.

9:00am – Wrote the “Wednesday” blog post.  Although my blog posts are not typically super-long or involved, they still take me 1-2 hours to write, add pictures and edit.  I enjoy the process once I get started, but sometimes it’s hard to motivate myself to get it done when I know it will take a significant chuck of my day.

10:30am – Our house helper was all finished for the day.  We don’t have too much work for her since we have a pretty small house, there are only two of us, and we aren’t too messy!  Chris called and said he didn’t fly after all, so he would be home for lunch, meaning I actually had to make a real lunch.  When Chris is flying and does not come home for lunch I generally have a snack instead of making a whole meal.  I wrote several emails, made a couple phone calls, and then got lunch ready.

12:00pm – Chris arrived for lunch and we had fried chicken salad and fruit.  After we ate, Chris started a movie, and he ended up taking an extended lunch and we watched the whole thing!  He is planning to go into work on Saturday, so he didn’t feel too bad about doing it.

2:00pm – Chris headed back to work.  I made iced tea and a pitcher of Crystal Light in preparation for a birthday party later in the afternoon.  I was planning on writing this blog post, but I got completely sucked into the world of Pinterest, a picture-sharing network site of sorts.  A couple of my friends here introduced me to it and I love it, BUT, it is worse than Facebook for sucking away time!

3:00pm – I finally dragged myself away from Pinterest and took a shower and got ready to go to the birthday party.

4:00pm – A friend picked me up and we headed to the birthday party of another MAF gal-she and her husband recently arrived in Tarakan and they are the new program manager family.  The party was nice with delicious cake for the adults, and Jell-O and special bread for the kids.  The kids played and the ladies chatted and celebrated our friend’s day of birth.

5:30pm – Headed home.  Chris was already home and we talked for a little bit while we got ready to go to dinner and Bible study. 

6:00pm – We drove over to a restaurant to have dinner with the team and then to another team member’s house for Bible study.  Every Thursday night the whole MAF team in Tarakan gets together for dinner and then praise and worship time, prayer and Bible study.  It’s a good time to fellowship together and stay focused on why we are here in Tarakan.  I think it really helps unify the team to meet weekly as friends.  This week we had a special time of prayer for our former program manager and his family as they are leaving Tarakan next week for some furlough in the States and then a new MAF position in Papua, Indonesia.  It was a bit emotional as they have been here for almost 10 years.

9:00pm – Returned home from Bible study and Chris was exhausted.  We headed to bed, and he quickly fell asleep.  I tried to sleep but couldn’t, so I got up, and I was excited to see that one of my good friends from Michigan was on Skype.  We talked for a bit, which was really great, and then I spent some time reading my Bible and praying before heading to bed to sleep this time.

On to Friday…

7:00am – Woke up later today-yay!  Chris wasn’t scheduled to fly, so he can go in to work an hour later.  We ate the rest of the pumpkin pancakes and both got ready to be out the door before 8:00am.

8:00am…okay, 8:15am – I arrived at language tutoring at the church office late-my tutor was very understanding though.  On Wednesday my tutor had been asking some questions about the U.S. and Michigan, so today I brought a map of the whole country and a Michigan map, as well as a calendar I have with pictures of Michigan for each month.  I had fun telling her a little bit about where I’m from and answering her questions.  She couldn’t believe how much snow we get in Michigan sometimes and how long winter lasts.  She was amazed by the fall foliage too, and the huge freshwater lakes.  She kept saying, “They’re just like the ocean, but they are lakes, amazing!”  I learn all sorts of things from my tutor about Indonesia, so it was fun to teach her about the U.S.

10:00am – Headed home from tutoring and talked with a sweet friend from Michigan on Skype.  It’s always great to talk to her! 

11:30am – Put together a breakfast burrito of sorts for Chris’s lunch and made PB & J for myself since I can’t eat the eggs in a breakfast burrito : (.

12:00pm – Chris arrived home, we ate lunch and I cleaned up the dishes while he did some computer work to get ready for his afternoon in the hangar.  He was trying to complete all the research needed to do an unfamiliar avionics task on Saturday. 

1:00pm – Chris left to go back to work.  I rested for a bit, wrote a few emails, made a couple phone calls…I’m not sure what else.  Normally I would be getting ready to see my friend’s son for speech therapy at 2:00pm, but since they are out of town this week I had a free afternoon. 

4:00pm – I took my motorcycle over to another friend’s house to make pralines with her.  She is from Savannah, Georgia, home of delicious pralines, and I wanted to learn how to make them.  They were pretty easy to make and very yummy.  It was nice to spend some time with my friend too, as she is the one that will be leaving Tarakan very soon.

What's left of the pralines - they don't look that pretty, but they sure are good!

 5:00pm – Returned home and Chris was soon home from work as well.  We got carry out – one of our favorite meals called Ayam Penyet, which I think I’ve described on a past blog.  We ate and talked.  Chris told me a little bit about the work he would be doing on the airplane on Saturday. 

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing, Chris doing some computer work while we had a movie on.  Chris went to bed pretty early since he had to get up for work, but I stayed up and did some reading and fell asleep on the couch in the TV room-oops!  I woke up and went to bed around 2:30am.  It was a quiet night though, no storms or power outs or loud birds.  It was the first good night of sleep I’ve gotten all week-yay!

That brings us up to Saturday, and since I’m living Saturday right now, I’ll write about it later. 

Bye for now.