Day 8

A day in the life…

Begins at 5:00 AM with call to prayer- mournful, monotonous, melodic despite the earplugs. The group staying across the way gets to listen to what has affectionately come to be known as the “dueling mullahs” two callers one-upping each other in their chanting vigor and microphone volume. Following the prayer call, the chickens begin. Scrawny as we see them prowling the streets and yards, they croak haphazardly at random intervals for several hours despite the full rising of the sun. (No organized Old McDonald here… goats roam the streets and hang out on benches, water buffalo mosey around neighborhoods and look a good mud pile, a cow on the busy street stared us down through the headlights as we waited parked at a drug store this evening.)

Today’s day of rest allowed us to spend time together in a celebration of a bigger family. What an amazing thing it is to know God’s sovereignty despite the miles and experience fellowship despite disparate backgrounds. His world is so much bigger than our eyes! An adventurous journey walking around the block lead us to water buffalo and garbage-picking goats at the end of the street, men walking on their way to the mosque, curious children biking and watching these strange loud-laughing people walk by, women motorcycling off to do errands in full head gear covered occasionally by a helmet.

People are friendly- here, at the clinics, on our drives through the shacks and along dusty roads, they stop to watch and then wave and smile at our “Halo”s (Bahasa Indonesia “hello”). In the afternoon, we had an opportunity to visit a village that is participating in a micro enterprise project building boats to fish and eventually provide money that will go back into the village. The men sawed, knit nets, reclined and smoked. The children scampered, played in the water, and gawked sheepishly before laughing and becoming quite photogenic. The sun began to set through palm trees as we looked out across the ocean at a volcano. This is a beautiful country. No mullahs for a few hours, but the power went out (again). Time to get ready to meet tomorrow’s chickens.