Day Seventy-Three

Jonathan sent a message inviting me to join him and a friend for dinner at the market.  Later he called asking if we could meet at the excommunicated man's house for dinner.

I really wanted to see Jonathan before he left town, so I went.  The excommunicated man was there, and ate dinner with us on the front porch.

I said good-bye to Jonathan and rode my bike home in the dark.  

Day Seventy-Two

I sat again on the new deck of the kiosk.  I could see my neighbor's kapok tree more clearly, and noticed some of the kapok pods were brown and some still green.  

I saw a gray bird on a bare tree as well, and was closer to the wall of rubber trees beyond the neighbors' property.  They were full now of deepening green leaves.

My friend who had left town sent me a message.  I was glad to hear how she was doing, and that she still thought of me.

I prayed in the morning.  My housekeeper did not come, but I did not want her to.  I prayed that if it were possible, she would not return, for my necklace and favorite pair of earrings were missing.

Day Seventy-One

I ate up all the little oranges I had bought for my friends.  In the afternoon a large yellow tractor spread gravel over the road in front of the house.  My cat slept while I dusted and cleaned. 

My laundry dried and I finished the housework.  I made some unleavened bread and slowly flattened and cooked it.  The air cooled and I rested.

My cat woke and was hungry.  

Day Seventy

Some of the lilies broke off their bases so I took them up into the house and put them in water on the kitchen counter.  After several days they still bloomed but seemed paler.  I saw that the water in one of the vases looked pink, and wondered if the folwers' color was bleeding out into the water.

I made some bread dough, started some laundry, listening to language tapes.  I felt weak and weary.  I did not know what to pray for.  I laid my head on my knee and prayed for Jesus to take me in.

My landlord swept up some wood shavings from the construction of the kiosk and put them in a bag for me to use as kitty litter for my cat.

Day Sixty-Nine

The dogs came home, full of life and mischief.  My landlord's family and I all rejoiced.  In the garden the lilies now crowded up in all their old places, each with a bud coming first.  

I walked around to visit them like old and long lost friends.  They had been gone or leaving me for months and months since the rain had stopped.

My landlord showed me that the road was being paved outside our house.  This was encouraging since it would cut down on the dust.  

My helper had not come all week, and I was getting weary from the housework.  I hoped soon to have less dirt to clean.  

That night I sat out in the kiosk which now had railings.  I looked out at the stars.  I prayed.  I went to bed.

Day Sixty-Eight

The wind blew dry all night, and my cat was restless.  The cat woke me every two hours wanting to be fed, or let outside, or let back in.  

In the morning I went and sat out on the deck of the new kiosk.  For breakfast I ate some cake I had made.  My cat meowed for me but was too afraid to come out very far onto the deck of the new kiosk.   I was nervous there too, for it had no railings yet.

All that day I cleaned and worked on my tax forms.  As I worked and prayed, the workmen put up railings around the kiosk.

Day Sixty-Seven

It was still Sunday.  I had heard that my teammates were on their way back to town with their children. 

My heart was troubled because the pastor spoke about the man who most of the missionaries had excommunicated.  

The excommunicated man was a good friend of my friend.  I had met him twice because of her.  I didn't feel very good about that.

Day Sixty-Six

The landlord's dogs were missing.  It seemed odd to me.  When the landlord had been building the house downstairs, his previous dog had gone missing.  Now he was building the kiosk and the three new dogs had gone missing.

I went to church that morning.  I was troubled and lonely.  I came home and made lunch.  I fed the cat. I slept.  I read.  I checked my email.  I went outside to the porch.

A flower from the garden was in a vase on my kitchen counter.  An orange lily with three blooms and one bud.  I thought of my friend.  I had not seen her to say good-bye.

Day Sixty-Five

It was Sunday night.  I went to the prayer meeting and Jonathan sat beside me.  It was his last Sunday so he said good-bye to everybody.

He promised to call me to take me to dinner at the market before he left.

Day Sixty-Four

It was Saturday morning.  My housekeeper did not come.  I went to the market for errands and food.  I brought a broken necklace to be sautered,  and some used clothing to exchange.

Earlier the computer had been playing songs about the love of God.  There was still no message from my friends.

In the garden the lilies just bloomed and bloomed.  They lived like they didn't care what happened tomorrow.  They looked so brave to me.

Day Sixty-Three

It was afternoon.  I studied, between sweeping, mopping, and checking the phone for messages.  By four o'clock my legs were very weak from my little lunch, so I laid down for a nap.

The workers had taken the framing down around the new kiosk.  Below they had paved the area between the kiosk and the house.

I brought in the laundry, showered, made dinner and locked up my bike.  Would my friends remember me?  Were they wondering the same thing about me?  

I checked my emails and read some of my book.  I looked at the pictures of my family. 

Day Sixty-Two

It was morning.  I could see lightning in the western sky, and the sun rose but was overcast.  The garden had been watered in the night, and looked so wholesome and fresh.  The rosebush was lovely in its own garden and the orange lilies had begun to bloom.

Sometimes my heart ached.  But I thought it was good to have a heart for aching.  I washed the laundry.  I went to the market and bought my friends' favorite fruit.  I put it in the refrigerator beside cookies I had made for my friends.

I heated up something for lunch, but could hardly eat it.  I laid my head on my knees and cried.  I prayed and cried, and finished my lunch.  I ate one of the little oranges my friends liked.

Day Sixty-One

The sun rose clear and strong and bright.  The sky was blue and so were the clouds, blue like the sky and the clouds over the ocean on a sunny day.

As the morning went on the air grew humid and the clouds changed and drifted away.  I was restless, and did not know what to do.  I settled on washing some dusty bedspreads and cleaning the house.

I rode into town around noon for some errands, and wondered whether my friends would call me.  I thought they must be happy today, like the weather, and busy like the clouds.

I hoped the right time would come to see them again.

Day Sixty

My friends who were leaving soon did not call.  I worked, cleaning the house, listening to music.  I stayed home instead of riding into town.  I cooked dinner.  I went down into the garden.

The lilies were rising out of the ground, all in a row.  There was a soft, pleasant scent in the garden and on the breeze.  I wondered what it was.

I dusted the house, noticing a tiny trail of footprints leading up to my cat figurine.  I found a tiny lizard had made the tracks, and was now hiding behind the figurine.  It had at first appeared the figurine had made the tracks.

I wrote my monthly prayer letter and sent it.  I thought about my friends and prayed and worried over them.  Would I see them before they left?

Day Fifty-Nine

My friends were all leaving soon, and I wondered what I would do without them.  We went out for fruit shakes, and talked.  My friend seemed weary.

That night I went to sleep to a warm, humid world.  I woke up around three thirty the next morning to a thunderstorm.  It rained for hours, on into the day.

I cleaned the house and watched for a break in the clouds.  My housekeeper came to ask for her salary early.  I wondered when I would next see my friends.

I thought of my family.  I cleaned.  I fed the cat.  I prayed.

Day Fifty-Eight

I went to the village again with my teammates.  I went walking and walking and when I came back my teammate said, 'I thought we lost you.'

On the way home my teammates' six year old son asked me, 'Where is your brother?' and, 'Why do you come to my house?'  and my answers did not satisfy him.  He didn't understand what I was doing there without my family.

Day Fifty-Seven

In the morning, the new helper came, cleaning.  I began to bake and cook.  I called my friends and invited them for dinner, but they couldn't come.  My friend suggested I invite her guest Jonathan and one of his friends, so I did.

Workmen came and built more of the new kiosk beside the kitchen.  My helper went home, and I kept cooking.

In the afternoon, I cleaned and dusted.  The workmen sawed and hammered.  My cat became nauseous.    My mind was on my guests, and what they would like.

My last preparations were just finished when my guests arrived.  It was good to see them and have them with me.

They enjoyed the food and the house, and were very kind to me.  It was good to talk to them and hear them talking.

Day Fifty-Six

I had a phone call from my parents.  That night there was rain, real live rain that came down long enough to soak the ground.

I opened the window and waves of cool, soft air rolled into the room.  In the morning I mopped away all the dust.

It was not going to be a dusty day probably, thanks to the rain, and I enjoyed the clean house and the clean air and the lack of immediate dust.

Day Fifty-Five

I went to the village for a couple of days.  I left some extra fish and cat food out for the cat, and left a window open for her to get in and out.  When I returned she seemed fine, only a little hungry, for the ants had gotten into her food.

Some of the lilies had begun to bloom down in the garden.  The landlord's roses were blooming as well, and a new bush he had planted near the house also bloomed.  The new bush had pale pink flowers.

Day Fifty-Four

At sunset when I had finished the housework I rode into town to meet my friends.  We bought food and biked to a hillside overlooking the town and surrounding countryside.

We were swarmed by rain flies upon arrival and took refuge in a home nearby until the night came.  Sitting in the home we ate our food with some of the family's sticky rice, and watched an Indian film with the family.

That night we slept under the stars on the hilltop.  The moon drifted up and over the sky through smoke, and patches of clouds.

We saw the brightest stars in the sky, and I saw the triangle made by the three bright stars in Orion, the Big Dipper, and the Little Dog.

All night long the wind rushed around us on the hilltop, making a kind of music on the wires of a nearby antenna tower.

Day Fifty-Three

The air, or the breeze, seemed to feel like it had come from raining, though I didn't see rain.  One morning as I went to check on the clothes on the line, I thought I felt tiny drops of water, but they did not come down afterward.

I cleaned the house and did some laundry.  My landlord and his family had cleaned the whole yard of trash and were gradually weeding it too. 

They cleared away the old plants from the vegetable garden, watering and fertilizing the ones that were in season.  

My cat lay on the dusty porch table and slept.  She seemed to have grown fatter while I was away and I wondered how that could be.  

The new housekeeper came every other day to mop and do laundry.

Day Fifty-Two

The morning was overcast and dusty.  The new helper had not come, or I had missed her when I went to the market, or she had misunderstood that I wanted her to come every day.  

I wondered what to do, and say, and what would happen.  I prayed in my heart.  I made lunch.  

Outside construction workers put wooden frames around the metal framework for the pillars of the kiosk they were building.

Day Fifty-One

The young woman came to work for me.  She was finished quickly and saved me hours of cleaning.  I could not imagine how she did it all so quickly.

The next day I had to go to the city for meetings.  I said good-bye to the cat and the house and to the landlord and his family. 

My landlord's housekeeper offered to feed the cat for me, to me relief and thankfulness.  When I returned, the house looked relatively neat, the cat well fed, and the yard less dusty.  

The landlord had begun to build an addition to the side porch.  He offered his housekeeper to work for me too, but the new housekeeper seemed to still want the job.  She cleaned the house and washed the clothes again.

Day Fifty

One morning I heard the dogs barking and went out to see who had come.  A woman who knew my friend from the city was there, with a young woman who was seeking housekeeping work. 

I asked her to come the next week if she could work for me.  I thought  though that she seemed hesitant to commit.  I hoped she would not be difficult to have in the house.  I did not think she was very happy to work for me.

After she left I wondered what to do, and half wished I had backed out of the arrangement.  I prayed and thought and worried, and left it be.

Day Forty-Nine

I traveled east for over an hour, to visit a village where I could hear people speak the language I had been trying to learn.  There were thatched wooden houses on stilts, dusty yards, and large trees.  

People cooked, cleaned, or worked in their fields.  I sat in a hammock most of the time to watch and listen, and keep out of the way.

Day Forty-Eight

Sunrise was beautiful.  It shone through the trees in the neighboring abandoned garden.  It illuminated a corridor between two rows of rubber trees.  

The abandoned garden was more lovely than our tended one.  I loved to look at it from my porch every day.

I walked to the market early in the morning.  I had breakfast at my favorite noodle and coffee stand, the place where the people were kind to me.  

I bought a pair of new slacks which were too short but fit otherwise.  The seamstress who had sewn my bed sheet said she could hem them for me, so they would be more like capris.

All morning people were kind to me.  I bought a little food, and a thing to protect my kitchen utensils from the dust.  The market was under construction.

Day Forty-Seven

In the morning I woke to the loud sound of something chewing on the wooden ceiling.  Whatever it was was out of sight.  

The morning was cool as I set off to the market.  My landlord had gone to Phnom Penh on business.  I cleaned the house and washed the laundry.

 

In my heart I prayed for my friends.  I listened to language recordings as I worked.  In the afternoon the house became hot, and I tried to sleep.  The laundry dried beautifully.

That night online I visited the facebook pages of the old friends I had found there.  Finally I finished off the dishes and went to bed.  It was still hot, and I had to move to the floor to get cool.

Day Forty-Six

The sun shone, and the wind blew.  My landlord showed me another ripe squash, three feet long, that had grown in the garden.

I cleaned the house and did laundry.  At the market I found some used clothing.  I listened to the talk swirling around me.

My tutor did not come, but I studied on my own.  

I noticed one of the dogs was missing, this little white one.  The landlord told me he ran away and they think he died.  The other two dogs were not eating, so the vet was called and they were given some medicine.  

I noticed the yard had been cleared of more brush and debris while I had been gone.  That night I found some old friends online, and got back in touch with them.

Day Forty-Five

The countryside rushed by me: autumn fields of stubble, burning piles of leaves, and bare trees bursting into bright orange blossoms.  The trees I saw as I rode in the car were mainly bare, but a few had new green leaves.

In the city I surprised a visiting lady who had written to me.  She had not thought I would be able to get away to the city to come see her.

The next day, before sunrise, I set out on the trip home.  I saw the sun rise through the trees, red and lovely.

The day went quickly and I reached home before sundown.  The dogs and cat seemed happy to see me.    My landlord's housekeeper helped me clean the house.

Day Forty-Four

As I was wringing out the mop down in the yard, the landlord came and asked whether I would like a kiosk added to the porch upstairs.  This sounded lovely and I said, 'yes.'

When the housework was done, the day became very hot.  I sat looking out the kitchen window at my neighbor's cows in their field.  My wind chimes swayed and slowly danced around in the breeze.  The day was at rest and peace.

Downstairs in the yard, the bushes near the porch had begun to wilt from the sun, but I saw that the shade was moving slowly towards them.

Some of the foremost bushes were coated with red dust, but the newest of their leaves were bright and clean.

I made arrangements to travel the next morning to the capital city.

Day Forty-Three

I heard my phone ringing three times while I was studying with the tutor.  When he had gone I looked and saw that my friend had called to invite me to supper with her visitors.  

Also my friend who had come to visit and encourage me the other day had called to say she knew of someone who might be able to come work for me.  

The other call was from a friend I had known in the city, inviting me to visit her on my next trip to the city.

That night I went with my friends to supper.  The place was on a hillside overlooking a forested little valley. 

The sun set and the sky grew dark and deep.  I rode home with all the stars bright above me, and the air rushing by.  

Day Forty-Two

I hoped as I prayed, did my housework and studied.

As I was walking through the yard from hanging up the laundry, my landlord showed me some squash that had grown in the yard, planted by my former housekeeper.

He had kept watering it all the time and now it had grown squash.  He helped me pick one, and I took it up into the house.

The next day his housekeeper brought me some round, purple milk fruit from the abandoned orchard beside the house, and I gave her some cashew candy.

Day Forty-One

I stayed up late writing an email.  My cat tried unsuccessfully to remind me that it was bedtime, and finally fell asleep on the desk.

I slept late, and once again my cat let me sleep, for which I was grateful.  I went to the market for coffee and groceries, cooked lunch and did a load of laundry, listening to my language recordings.

The new bed sheet was washed and to my surprise it dried in only one hour!  The landlord and his housekeeper continued their ministrations in the yard, pruning bushes and getting rid of the weeds.  

My grandmother had gone home from the hospital and my mother was with her to nurse her.  

Day Forty

When my friends brought me home it was late at night.  That night I fell asleep to the sound of the wind rushing around the house, banging the shutters.  I woke up later than usual, the cat resting quietly beside me.

I set about cleaning all morning and had just finished when a teammate from where I had used to live called to say she was in town.  

She came to visit me at the house, and prayed for me and encouraged me.  She promised to look for a housekeeper for me.  

I studied with the tutor and made supper as the sun set.

Day Thirty-Nine

All the day long I cleaned the house.  The bright sun came out, along with the wind, and dried the laundry.  I went to the market and found my bed sheet was ready!

In the afternoon I studied a bit and read a book.  My landlord's housekeeper brought me a plate of freshly grilled rice rolls.  I packed them to take with me for supper in the village that night and returned the plate with some pineapple salsa.  Then I hurried off to meet my friends in town.

We met one another and I was introduced to my friend's visitors, and we were on our way.  We rode in the back of a pickup truck to three villages to visit the nighttime literacy classes.

The stars and the wind were all around us as we drove through the night.

Day Thirty-Eight

A sad day followed.  I cried and cleaned the house and did not go out.  My landlord and his housekeeper did a great deal of yard work and burned more piles of grass around the yard.  

My neighbors' cows fed contentedly on big bales of hay in the field next door.  My cat ate and slept all day long.  I sensed I had hope coming into me.

I took the linens off the guest bed and put them away in the closet.  I took a long nap.  

In the afternoon my new friend sent a message inviting me on a village trip with some visitors of hers the next day.  I accepted the invitation.

I made a little supper, read and checked my email, then went to bed.  In the morning when I went out I saw that my landlord had turned one of the piles of bricks into an orderly walkway.

Day Thirty-Seven

My cat woke me up at three in the morning.  

I spent the day preparing the house for the visitor who would come for the week.  When the house was clean I began to plan dinner.  Outside the landlord burned a great pile of weeds.

The sun came out of the clouds and began to dry my clothes on the line.  The rosebush was almost empty of roses, but beside the water barrel a little bush of white flowers opened a few fragrant blossoms.

My visitor never arrived, she was placed at another house.  

Day Thirty-Six

As I was burning the garbage one morning I found myself singing a prayer about my unknown future.  When I stood up I saw my landlord's housekeeper standing behind me, and thought she must have heard me.

I wondered what she thought of me singing but thought she wouldn't think too much about it since she often sang as she worked.  Besides, she did not know English, so she could not have known what I said.

All that day my landlord's housekeeper worked cleaning the yard, piling up great bundles of weeds to be dried by the sun.

In the garden, the lilies had died down from the dry weather.  I wondered what would become of them if the recent slight shower should bring any of them up too soon.

Day Thirty-Five

In the morning I heard no rain, yet the sky was overcast and I felt tiny drops of water as I walked to the market.  Again, I searched the used clothing.  This time I came away with two denim skirts of doubtful size and smell.

On the way back a motorcycle taxi driver found me and gave me a ride.  It was the same one who'd found me on Sunday.  I wondered if my father, who said I was getting too thin, was praying for rides for me.

Nearing the house we rode past a tree full of large orange flowers.  I thought they resembled stars in their shape.  

Once home I found both skirts to fit, though one looked a little worn out.  I did what I could for it, and set them both aside to be washed.

Weary, I studied, but felt so sad that I went to sleep.

Day Thirty-Four

I woke again early, in part because of my restless cat, and that is why I heard it--a gentle almost silent sprinkle of rain.  

I quickly opened the door and went out to the porch to get a look, but it was still dark outside.  I drank my coffee and listened to the sound.

All the morning was cloudy, and a little more rain came misting down.  I went to the market and began to search the used clothing section, and found three shirts.  Once home I was pleased they fit me and glad I could retire some of my more dingy clothing.

Cleaning the house was easier without so much dust in the air and I felt luxuriously clean without so much dust on the floor.  

The cat slept in the dresser most of the day, having awoken early.  I had my second cup of coffee to keep me awake.

Day Thirty-Three

One afternoon the tutor did not come.  I remembered he had mentioned that he might take the week off.  I cleaned the house and listened a bit to language tapes.  

'What should I do?' I asked God.  I thought about it, and fixed a cardboard shield over a part of my landlord's furniture that my cat liked to scratch.

I thought and baked banana bread and swept the porch.  What could I do?  I did not know what to do about studying the language.  I listened to my recordings from my housekeeper who had left, and felt at peace.

The refrigerator needed to be cleaned before the weekend, since I was expecting to have a guest stay at my house the next week.  

I wondered who would watch my house and cat for me in a few more weeks when I would have to travel to the city.

Day Thirty-Two

It was still dark when I rose.  The cat had been too restless to sleep longer.  I sat awhile and tried to pray.  I got up and made coffee, it overflowed the pot and bubbled on the boiler.

I tried to sew a new top from an old one.  The result was tolerable, but odd.  I prayed some more.

What would I do that day?  There was the house and the laundry of course.  I should try to find a housekeeper so I could focus on my studies, but what studies, when I had no one to teach me, and when my heart was sore and troubled.

Such a great sense of falling short lay within me.  My heart was out of strength to hope in the direction of my own ability.  I prayed for help.

Day Thirty-One

A beautiful morning outside the house.  I had risen early, woken by my hungry kitty.  My grandmother was feeling a bit improved and had been able to get up briefly the day before.  

The dogs greeted me happily when I came down to burn the trash.  On my way back I found some of the tomatoes that had grown by themselves near the house.  I took a few inside to eat.  They were delicious.  

At the market I went to see about my bed sheet, but the seamstress had not been able to sew it yet, and had her niece take me to another seamstress who looked less busy.  She said to come back in five days.

I wandered the market, bought food and coffee, and rode home.  Around noon I saw a water truck go by, spraying water on the dusty road.

Day Thirty

The Kapok tree next door was hung with  young green pods.  The new leaves of the rubber trees rustled in the wind, while birds sang from nearby branches.  The mango tree in our yard also had new leaves and was forming its blossoms.  All this with no rain.

Meanwhile my landlord watered his rosebush, marigolds, bougainvelia, and miniature palm trees.  I noticed the water I poured into the moat was not getting far into the garden, and began to water a wilting bush near the fence instead.

I moved the clothesline to a less shady spot, farther from where the trash was burned.  I cleaned the house and studied.  My landlord burned up the trash in the yard!

Day Twenty-Nine

In the morning I set out walking to church.  The road was dusty and the sun began to feel hot.  Before I had gone very far, along came a motorcycle taxi driver, who took me as far as the market for a fair price.  'Ride home with me when you come back,' he said.

When I reached the church I saw a couple there I did not recognize at first.  They were in fact my landlord's relatives!  This surprised and encouraged me a good deal.  They had brought their baby girl with them as well.

On my way home the same motorcycle taxi driver met me again and took me home.  I spent the afternoon reading online and fell asleep.  The heat grew until I woke up, feeling weak and weary.

Day Twenty-Eight

It had been a worrisome evening with my new friends, because they had invited someone most of the other missionaries had excommunicated to eat with them.  I ended up sitting next to the excommunicated person, and he was very attentive and even kind to me.  

Above us all the moon and stars shone down, for we were eating in my friend's garden.  I wanted to go home.  I felt conflicted.

Safely home after dinner, I wondered what I would do if I had to deal with this situation in the future with my new friends.  Meanwhile my cat purred contentedly on my lap and a cool breeze wandered in at the window.

I went to bed troubled.

Day Twenty-Seven

It was weary work that day, cleaning the house.  I did not go for coffee.  I baked a cake, read online and checked my email.

My grammie did better at the hospital, but was not out of danger.  My new friends were having supper together and invited me to join them after prayer meeting.

The afternoon was hot in the house, so I went out on the porch to wait for my ride to prayer meeting.

Day Twenty-Six

It was time for coffee.  I rode to the market.  O, it was lovely to see all the people there with their produce.  It was a lively, happy place.

At the coffee shop a young boy was my waiter, and took his job quite seriously.  He brought me all the things I could want and took my order too.

I didn't know really what to make for dinner so I just bought what I liked.  Passing the indigenous farmers' section, I bought two bags of purple fruit to try from curiosity.  I also picked up a second coffee for the afternoon.

On the way home I pedaled all the way up a steep part of the road and was cheered by the motorcycle drivers at the top.  I gave one of the bags of mystery fruit to my landlord's helper and went up into the house.

Day Twenty-Five

The day was warm.  I had been busy all morning with housework.  Inside the house was too warm that day to sit very much.  I did not study, but prayed.  I thought of my grandmother.

The tutor came and we studied together, but I felt exhausted.  After studying I rode the bike to the office of one of my new friends.  

He had said he could introduce me to some girls from the language group I was trying to study.  In the end I met four girls and two young men.  Of the girls, three could speak the language.

I left feeling thankful and happy.

Day Twenty-Four

The day was bright.  I went to coffee and breakfast, spent the morning cooking and cleaning.  I saw a children's story in my shelf and took it down for the landlord's son.  

I studied with the tutor and rode to meet my new friends for dinner at someone's home.  The family we had visited brought me home in their car.  

Weary from staying up late socializing, I slept longer than usual.  Going out for my coffee, who should I see but one of my new friends!  

I joined her and had orange juice instead of coffee.  No sooner had I arrived home than I got a call from my teammates about meeting that morning.  

In the evening my mother called to tell me my grandmother had a heart attack and was in the hospital.

Day Twenty-Three

I had run out of coffee, and thought breakfast at the market sounded nice.  As I followed the streams of morning shoppers, a food vendor called me to her table for breakfast.

She was making an omelet dish over a clay wood burning fire pot.  As I ate, two elderly women sat down beside me.  

They got good service, I noticed, though they seemed unsatisfied with it.  I finished my omelet and coffee and hurried off when the vendors started asking whether I was married and would I like to be.

The next day I tried another table.  Sitting beside me was an older man who was having a friendly chat with the vendor.  An older woman brought me everything before I could ask, and the coffee was delicious.

Day Twenty-Two

One dry morning, I noticed one of the lilies had sent up a flower shoot.  In the following week it blossomed lovely coral colored flowers.  I was mystified at it because there had been no rain.

The day passed quietly and the house was cleaned from all the dust.  The cat was fed, clothes washed, supper made, language studied.  

At the market the seamstress still had not begun my bed sheet.  As I went to bed I saw that I had missed a call from my new friends inviting me out for a bike ride.

Day Twenty-One

The rosebush was full of red roses, the best kind-tea roses.  Sometimes I thought I could smell them from up on the porch of my house.  I loved to look every day at the roses.

My landlord watered the roses, but did not speak to me.  I thought he seemed offended with me and thought perhaps it was my lack of speaking with him in the past.  His housekeeper and his wife sometimes spoke a few words to me, and I to them.

One day I hear the landlord saying, 'She doesn't talk to us, she only gave us a book.'  I prayed for words for them, but didn't know how I would speak yet.

I mopped the floor, did the laundry and dishes, fed the cat, and responded to emails.  

Day Twenty

It was evening.  There were dishes to wash and a floor to mop, but first I rested.

I had that day put on makeup and begun to wear face lotion, but at church my teammate said I looked ill!  My new friends kept me busy and my coworkers took me to the village, so I had little time to rest.

I was tired from all the activity and excitement but the days were happier than I had had for a long time.  I felt happy in anticipation.

I mopped the floor and washed the dishes.  Cooked dinner, answered emails, fed the cat.  I tried to chat with my landlord and his family.  I went to bed.

Day Nineteen

I had gone out for the evening with my new friends.  We rode to a nearby hill and watched the sun setting over the hills and woods below.  As we rode home the stars came out over our heads.

We stopped at the food vendors for some sandwich food, and made our way to my friend's house.  Over supper our conversation was lively and entertaining.  

After dinner we went next door to a missionary family's house where there was a game night.  We played Yuker and ended with Hit the Deck.  

The missionary's children also played and I enjoyed seeing their personalities come out.

Day Eighteen

The tutor had just gone for the day and I wandered into the garden.  I pulled up a few weeds here and there and chatted with my landlord's helper, and watched the sunset.

It was the first time I'd spoken to her in a long time.  I do not know why it was, but I did not speak to my landlord and his family very often, though they were my neighbors.

This troubled me more than the problems in the garden, but I did not know what to do about it.  I prayed the little book about the resurrection of Jesus that I had given my landlord's family would help.

Day Seventeen

I had a hard time going to sleep.

Meanwhile the cat caught a lizard, ate all her food, and was sick.  I heard my landlord getting home late.  Finally sleep came.

The sun rose, I had my coffee in silence, looking out at the newly covered trees.

Day Sixteen

I needed a tutor to help me learn the language.  The only ones near enough to come were young men, and I did not think it would be proper to meet them at my home by myself. 

My coworker assured me it would be fine as long as we met on the front porch, so a tutor was hired.  This arrangement brought someone to the house again, if only to the front of it.  

Riding my bike home after supper with my new friends, I felt a freedom I had not enjoyed since moving to the house seven months before.  

Day Fifteen

I had been alone for a long time in my house.  It had been a month actually, since my housekeeper had gone home.  

I lived cleaning, cooking, gardening, going to the market, prayer meeting, church and sometimes, the village.  

At night I checked email and read books online.  Sometimes I saw my parents on Skype, and talked to them.  'What are you doing for fun?  Do you have any friends?' Dad would ask me.

One day at prayer meeting a lady asked me to come over for supper that week.  I went, and for the first time, I felt at home with other people in the town.  

She had two house guests staying with her, an older woman and a young man.  That week I rode my bicycle after dark for the first time coming home from supper.

Day Fourteen

At the market there were stalls with woven cotton scarves which were easy to wash.  I thought they might be good material for a bed sheet or a light bedspread.  

I bought some scarf material and took it to a seamstress with my request.  Though not overjoyed at the idea, she accepted the work and asked if I was in a hurry, which I was not.

The next week I returned but she had not yet begun.  It was near the Chinese New Year and she looked like she was hurrying to finish some fine outfits for people going to celebrations, so I went off to look for other things at the market.

The lady who had sold me the scarf material showed me a lovely cream blouse which I purchased.  She promised to keep an eye out for clothing in my size.

Day Thirteen

The weather turned cooler, even cold at night, until the leaves of the tall rubber trees near the house all turned orange and were blown away.  

I thought it was lovely to have such a rest from the hot weather, and was amazed there could be fall weather so far from the north.

Only a week later I noticed what must have been the color green about the branches that had only just lost their lives.  It grew daily until there could be no doubt--the trees had all new leaves again!

This surprised me the very most, for I had supposed there would not be any new leaves for months.  I drank my coffee in bewilderment and went away hopeful.

Day Twelve

One morning I collected and burned all the trash.  I could do nothing about the unsightly burning place, a broken-down outhouse, however.  

Nor could I quite get rid of all the metal bits, cans and glass left over from the burning.  These I tried to confine to the burning place.

Most of the cans were milk cans and I considered leaving off drinking milk, but wondered how coffee would taste without it.

On my search for all the scattered trash in the yard I had gone through the neglected vegetable garden and seen some trailing squash runners with the beginnings of squash growing.  

These really ought to have a lattice to keep the squash from rotting on the ground, but I did not have time to do it right away.

Day Eleven

Now the house was too far out of town for the garbage trucks to come, so my landlord would burn the trash in the back yard. 

Not all the trash would burn, and the landlord's dogs would get into it and drag it off to various places in the yard to chew and tear it up.  

So the yard became littered with trash, which no one seemed to notice but myself.  

At first I waited for the landlord to do something.  When he did not, I began picking it up each day and burning it myself, but this was dirty work.

I found a bundle of dry bushes with long stems, and my helper fashioned a broom for me before she left.  This I used to tidy up the yard as best I could.  But I was losing the battle.

Day Ten

It was Chinese New Year, and my landlord's family, who are part Chinese, sent up a plate of special treats.  In the afternoon I was on my way to return the plate with some candy when I saw a table full of food and incense standing on their porch.  

Not wanting to seem to be offering a gift to the spirits, I went back up with the goodies wondering what to do.  

Earlier in the previous year I had a conversation with my landlord about our religious beliefs.  I had explained that I believe Jesus to be the only way to God, the only one who can save us.

I remembered a little children's book I had bought about the resurrection of Jesus.  Surely that would not be put on the altar to the spirits.  

So I put the book on the plate and went down the stairs.

Day Nine

As the days grew dryer the dust increased until I found it increasingly necessary to mop twice a day.  The mop took so long to rinse out that all this cleaning became too much to accomplish.  

I wondered if the mop needed to be completely clean after all and decided to try not rinsing it so often.  It seemed to make no difference to the house, so I rinsed less and was able to keep the floor clean.

This meant leads water for the garden, of course, but I thought I must leave that for someone stronger to care for.  Meanwhile the water I did use still ran from the moat into the garden.

With the dry weather, the grass had mostly withered, so I no longer had to cut it, but was able to clean up some of the debris in the yard.

Day Eight

While moving the rocks for the lilies I discovered some Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants persevering below.  When the rocks were taken away the pulpits woke up and came up out of the ground.

The lilies put down their feet and lifted up their hands.  The water came into the garden every morning, even if it was only mop water.

In the house I dusted prodigiously and daily, and did a great deal of laundry.  I  studied in the afternoons, and read and wrote emails in the evenings.  

 

My cat slept, ate, kept me company and caught lizards.

Day Seven

One day the landlord's wife noticed me pouring the mop water into the moat around the well.  There was lumber piled over part of the moat, and she asked her nephew to move it away.  This looked much nicer than before and let the water run out to the lilies more freely.

Now the rains had stopped for the year, but the rosebush was blooming because the landlord watered it daily from the pool around the spirit house.

I thinned more lilies from the crowded row they were in, planting them along the border of the driveway and surrounding them with some of the rocks piled in the yard.

Day Six

In the house there was old linoleum over the hardwood floors.  I got rid of it and swept up the dirt and other debris that had accumulated below.  I took out the extension cords that had run beneath the linoleum and scrubbed the Chinese paper emblems from off the walls.

The only thing I couldn't do anything about were the deer antlers and carved wild buffalo head which were nailed firmly to the living room walls.  

The kitchen was in need of new paint and a thorough cleaning.  I cleaned most of it, thinking to finish it by degrees, as there was too much else to be done.

In the kitchen window I hung wind chimes, and made the room as cheerful as I could.

Day Five

Looking down into the garden one day, I saw what looked like shallow ditches leading away from the well to what might once have been a flower garden.

The well was sealed, its water pumped into our house, so I couldn't see it overflowing for the lilies, but it did have a moat all around it, with a hole for the water to escape into the garden.

The weather was becoming dry and the grass withered up and died.  Only the trees and the lilies still had any green in their leaves.  

I began to throw the mop water into the moat of the well to see wether it would be of help to the garden.

Day Four

Early one morning, I went down into the garden.  The sun had not yet risen but there was light enough to appreciate the quiet plants and growing things.

I sat down for a moment.  There was the thistle, growing again.  I went and got the little trowel I had bought for the purpose and dug out the thistle with all its roots.  Then I went on and thinned out a few of the lilly bulbs to transplant over by the fence.

My landlord soon bought a little rosebush and planted it near the spirit house.  He gave it water from the pool which was around the spirit house.  

I took myself back up again into the wooden house.

Day Three

On inspection, the garden was still overgrown with grass, wild bushes and the thistle, not to mention the rocks, scattered lumber and the spirit house.

'O dear,' I said, 'there is so much to put right here, and only myself to do it.'  I thought the grass and bushes should be my priority, since they could be harboring mosquitos and snakes.  

Having no lawn mower, I decided to use my kitchen scissors on the grass.  The bushes, I found, could be pulled up by the roots.  The thistle was again laid low, though not eradicated, since I still had nothing to dig with.

Day Two

The house was made from wood from the floor to the ceiling, and was filled with wooden furniture.  Slowly it began to look like my home, as pictures found their places on the walls; books, nicknacks and the cat all found where they ought to go.

But aside from myself and the cat, not a soul came up the stairs to sit long in the house.  A new friend from church came briefly, as well as co-workers, the landlord, and some internet technicians.  None returned and I spent my days at home quietly working at my studies.

For a few months I had a housekeeper living in one of the rooms, but she was unhappy, and left.  I began to think I ought to get down into the garden and do something about the thistle, which must surely have grown back.

Day One

On the fifth of May there grew a thistle in the garden near the house.  I did not pull it up because I was busy unpacking my belongings and putting them all in their own places.
   
It wasn't until the next day that I saw the thistle at all.  I was exploring the garden, with its great thickets of grass, piles of rocks, well and spirit house, when I passed by the thistle, hidden near a crowd of lilies.

Now was the time to pull out that thistle so I took it by the stem and gave a tug.  Out it came with half its roots.

'I should dig the roots out.'  I said to myself, but having no tool for digging, I continued on my way back to the house.