Day One Hundred and Ten

The day grew quiet around the house.  My face and my arms and back began to ache.  All day I spoke only once or twice aloud, and that was to God, for no one else was near me.

I studied and cooked.  I picked wild spinach for cooking, and washed the floor in the kitchen.  I had a quiet evening.  I made bread dough into cinnamon rolls, and oiled the squeaky hinges on the oven door.

Day One Hundred and Nine

The rain fell softly in the morning.  Mist floated over the tops of the rubber trees.  I was closed in by a watery curtain. 

The air was cool and I had to keep busy to stay warm.  In the afternoon I rode to the Ladies' Bible Study.  The clouds were very grand and the sky was blue.

One of the daughters of the missionaries was home from college for a visit.  It was so good to have someone her age around, our group of missionaries was mostly older people and young children.  

I had just gotten home and was getting ready for a quiet evening when the phone rang.  It was my friend Anne.  

I rode out to see her and we walked in a great thunderstorm to the fruit shake stand!  It was good to see my friend again.  

Day One Hundred and Eight

A new glorious day.  The sun on the plants, grey clouds in the sky, and a cow in the field.  The landlord's last dog had disappeared.  

She had lost her puppies and had been nervous and sick.   Now she had disappeared and there was a new puppy at the house.  I wasn't really sure what happened, and didn't ask.

I had paid the rent the day before, for the next six months.  The landlord bought awnings to put above all the bedroom windows, where the rain had been getting into the house.

Day One Hundred and Seven

I heard the rain coming all around the house, pounding against the walls and pouring down the windows.  The rain came scattered throughout the morning.  

I did not work or study.  I prepared the rent to pay the landlord.  I prepared for Bible Study.  

In the sky the clouds were building as I rode to Bible Study.  Afterward I joined the missionary children for a soccer game.  As we laughed and played, the clouds grew fierce and somber over our heads.

I rode home before the rain could come.  But this storm was a gentle one, for all its darkness.  I curled up in bed where it was warmer, and wrote more on my blog.  I became so sleepy that I soon went to bed.

Day One Hundred and Six

It was morning.  I weakly made some breakfast and some coffee.  I went and laid down and fell asleep. I woke up hungry for chicken soup.

At the market it was noisy.  I bought some extra vegetables for the next meal.  The sky was full of white clouds and the wind blew over the long green grass.  I thought it felt like spring.  

When the soup was gone I made chicken pot pie with the rest of the vegetables.  I looked down at the roses fading on the rose bush.  I talked to the landlord's housekeeper and my housekeeper.

Day One Hundred and Five

The new housekeeper was cheerful and young.  She smiled and spoke to me.  The house was clean and I rested.

In the garden the lilies had withered away, leaving the green leaves to mark their places.  Now the Jack in the Pulpits grew bigger.

I woke at daybreak, rested.  I read all morning, and my friend from the city called me for coffee.  It was the King's birthday and she was in town.

On my way home I walked slowly.  I had forgotten sunblock that morning but I enjoyed the quiet moments moving along on my feet.  It was a good day to me.

My landlord's wife met me on her way home and gave me a ride the rest of the way.

Day One Hundred and Four

I made plans to travel to the city.  I gathered a pile of used clothing and a book to return to the office.  I went down to ask the landlord's housekeeper whether she could feed the cat for me.  

She and my landlord's wife gave me the news that they had found someone who was willing to work for me, starting that week!

I went on my trip to the city.  I bought some new clothing and some makeup.  I visited my friend Julie and also saw my friend Kim.

When I came home the house was clean, the cat was fed, and I saw that the whole lawn had been mowed.  It looked lovely.  The landlord's housekeeper greeted me and I went up into the house.

Day One Hundred and Three

One morning  I opened the door to see white mist on all the horizon.  The crickets sang in it.  Now and then a car moved by on the highway.  

One night I heard a mouse squeaking with alarm in one of the bedroom walls.  It sounded like something struck it, then all was silent.

Day One Hundred and Two

The daylight shone in the window.  I got up for the day and made coffee.  I finished the housework early and rode my bicycle into town.  

It was the second day of the tribal Bible school.  I sat and listened for a little while.  I went to the market for lunch, bought groceries and pedaled home.

The sun dried most of the laundry.  I brought it in before the rain came, and made dinner.  

Day One Hundred and One

I slept well.  I woke up and had breakfast.  I returned the landlord's plate with some candy on it.  I started the housework and wept through the laundry.

I finished all the housework and the house was cleaner.  I listened to music and language recordings as I worked.  

Down in the garden the rosebush was full of roses.  I smelled the and picked one for the house.  I made lunch.  

The electricity was out.  It rained for over an hour, and I sat weeping.  I made some bread and went in to write more on my blog.

Day One Hundred

I slept fitfully.  My cat also did not rest.  Downstairs my landlord and his family did not ever go to bed it seemed.

I woke and had breakfast and coffee.  I wept through the sweeping and mopping, and felt better for it.  Outside my landlord cut the grass near the house.  

I finished the housework and baked a quiche and two blueberry tarts.  It was time for Bible Study and I rode my bike through the shortcut the ladies had told me about.

The bike raced down the steep hill and was carried up the other side quite a ways by sheer momentum. I rode home by way of the lake.  

It had filled a bit from the rain and the water lilies were blossoming.  Flame trees lined the edge, and the air smelled sweet.

Day Ninety-Nine

It was morning.  I rode to the market early to eat, but my favorite noodle place was full.  I ate instead at another noodle place.  On the way out of the market I saw some pink-tinged mangoes.  I bought them and took them home.

I was sad and weary all morning.  I cried and prayed and fell asleep.  After awhile I got up and did some cleaning.  I started some laundry.  

Just as I was getting ready to cook lunch, the phone rang and my friend Mesun invited me to eat with her family.  I took her the pink mangoes and enjoyed a delicious meal with her family.

Before I left, her husband gave me a CD of stories and songs in the language I was learning.  I went home and began to listen to the stories.

Day Ninety-Eight

I mopped the house and finished the laundry by lunchtime.  I called the mission office and asked them to wire me some money.

In the afternoon I put on my hat and set off to the bank to pick up the money.  But because I did not bring my passport, (I only had a copy of it) the bank teller told me I could not receive the transfer.

I called the office and someone went back to the bank to fill out another form, and a half an hour later, I was able to pick up the money and go back home.

I bought some groceries at the market and went home.  The house was empty.  I wondered what to do, if I should try to move closer to town or not.  I didn't know.

I thought I should stay and see whether the rent would be raised or not.  I wrote more on my new blog and talked to my sister-in-law on Skype.

Day Ninety-Seven

I waited for my teammates to pick me up for church.  The house was quiet.  The cat napped in the guest room.  I finished washing the dishes.  

The house needed sweeping and cleaning.  I was almost out of money.  I wondered if I would go to the city for more, or call the office asking them to wire it to me.

In church I sat listening.  At home I worked on my blog.  The day passed slowly.  I went down to look at the flowers.  

I tried to take a picture of my landlord's son's bicycle, which had a green mango strapped onto the passenger seat, but my camera's batteries were dead.

Day Ninety-Six

I needed to write some thank you letters.  I began a blog for telling stories.  I called my brother on Skype.  I did some laundry and cooked.

In the evening David and Janie House brought me to Bible Study.  I sat quietly all through it with the children.  I rode home quietly with the House family.

I asked my landlord's housekeeper about the missing dog.  He had been gone for about a week.  She told me he had been sick and had run away.

Day Ninety Five

It was morning.  I rode my bike to the market.  The Frangipani flowers by the hotel smelled sweet.  At the market I went to the soy milk stand for a drink.

I bought mangoes, limes and a green pepper.  I bought some little dried fish for the cat and came home. I started the laundry and the sweeping.

My landlord came home and told me he had not been able to hire a housekeeper for me because the people were busy with planting their crops.  I paid him my electric bill and went upstairs to finish the laundry.

I found some patches of wild spinach growing in the yard.  I picked a bundle of it and took it up into the house.

Day Ninety-Four

It began to rain in the early morning before daybreak.  When the sun rose, everything was watery.  I got up and felt a little dizzy.  At the market I changed some money, had noodles and coffee, and got some groceries.  

Back home, I noticed the wind from the recent thunderstorms had blown down some of the landlord's bushes near the front steps.  He had tied them back upright with a rope.

The rain came so often now that I no longer needed to put the mop water into the moat or on any of the bushes.  I noticed the landlord had cut the grass near the house.

On the way to the market I had seen corn growing near the high school, and a man hoeing his field into rows.

Day Ninety-Three, Continued

When I had sent the fax, I walked home and made lunch.  While I was cooking, one of the missionary ladies called to invite me to a Bible study that afternoon.  

I rode my bike to the Bible study and soaked up the conversation as well as God's word.  On the way home I followed a new shortcut one of the ladies in the Bible study had told me about.

That night I got to talk to my parents on Skype, and see their faces.  I worked on homework for the Bible study, finished the laundry, and went to bed.

Day Ninety-Three

It was almost bedtime.  There began to be lightning and loud thunder.  Rain came flying at the house from the North and the West.  It blasted through the cracks between the boards and pooled below the bedroom windows.  

My landlord came up to see where the rain had gotten in, and we mopped the water up and put rugs under the bedroom windows.  In the morning there was water on all the leaves and grass.

I made coffee and thought .  I walked into town to fax my tax forms to America.  The first place I went directed me to the Department of Tourism, but that turned out to be closed.  

I saw a computer store in town, but they did not send faxes, and directed me to the Post Office.

Day Ninety-Two

The last of the lilies were blooming in the garden, and the Jack in the pulpits were just beginning their ministry.  A magenta dragonfly perched nearby on a dead chrysanthemum bush.  It had red eyes and its wings were red and black.

As I cleaned the mop I enjoyed the scent of the pink and orange flowers blooming near the water barrel.  

I noticed thistles and sword grass also flourished from the rain.  I pulled them out of the garden and out from around the clothesline, hoping to keep them at bay.

Meanwhile my cat meowed for me to come back into the house.

Day Ninety-One

The cat was restless, and kept waking me up all night.  I woke in the morning to the sound of rain.  I wrote my prayer letter and rode my bike to the market.

On my way home I picked up a fallen bunch of flame in the forest flowers.  I took them up into the house and put them in some water.

For lunch I had some salted fish and mango salsa.  I shared the fish with the cat, and she was very appreciative.  I sat down to work on my tax forms.  

While I was doing laundry, my landlord and his son brought me a hippopotamus fruit from the yard.  My landlord asked if I would like a new housekeeper.  I told him I would, and he said he would look for one.

Day Ninety

I woke up early and made some coffee.  My teammates came to pick me up and we went away to a village wedding.  Derek sat beside me playing his gameboy.  Afterwards we rode home quietly.

I went up into the house and rested.  I made some bread to eat and got ready for prayer meeting.  In the morning I dressed for church but did not go after all.

I rested and read online.  The house had gotten very dirty while I was away at the village and had a bad smell.  In the morning I set about cleaning everything.

The day passed quickly and the house looked more respectable.  I made a quiche and picked some wild spinach from the yard.  I tried to do my taxes but got stuck.

Day Eighty-Nine

The market was nearing the completion of its renovation.  Vendors had begun to set up shop inside the new addition.  I found the money changing stand that I had used to go to when it had been outside.  I bought some batteries, had coffee and breakfast.

Walking home I saw a small black butterfly with deep blue on its wings.  I did some laundry and cleaned the house.  

The landlord's male dog was missing, I hoped it would come home like last time.  After the sun had set I finished hanging the laundry.

The landlord's son and daughter were among the lilies, gathering some of the blossoms.  In the yard, the last dog howled for the other to come back.

Day Eighty-Eight

It was the last day of Khmer New Year.  I cleaned the house and went to the market in the morning.  I found some pumpkin leaves, a green pepper and two ripe avocados.  I walked back to the house and rested.  

After lunch I got a message inviting me to dinner at the home of the Crowley family.  It was a New Year's party for all the church families and the missionaries.  We played games together and ate delicious food.

Huge dark thunderclouds covered the sky but passed over us.  The sun shone varnished on the world like in an old painting and a rainbow came down in the east, clear and glowing against the dark background.

I rode home as the sun set and through scattered raindrops.

Day Eighty-Seven

I slept well and woke rested.  When I opened the door it looked like I was back home in Africa, everything was so green again.  

Outside in the yard, grass had sprung up everywhere and had already gotten ankle deep.  I opened the door to the kiosk and saw water on the walkway but I had not heard the rain come.

It was the week of Khmer New Year so I did not study.  Cars streamed back and forth on the highway in front of the house.

Day Eighty-Six

Friends from the city called.  I walked toward town until I was near it, then I rode a motorcycle taxi the rest of the way to a little coffee shop.  My friend Patti was there and we had some coffee.

I went to the market on the way home and to the foreign food store.  I walked partway home and took a motorcycle taxi the rest of the way.

I made cookies and cleaned the house.  In the afternoon my teammates and my friends the Manfreds came to visit me at the house.  That night we all went to eat at a restaurant.  

I came home and finished the laundry and went to bed.  I noticed a lot of crickets around outside.

Day Eighty-Five

It was sunset on the eve of the Cambodian New Year.  The sky glowed the red-orange color of the lilies in the garden.  I heard a bird with a distinctive call that I had not heard since the months before when the rains had ceased.

In the afternoon I had seen for the first time there, a large black and orange butterfly with two white spots, one on each wing.

My landlord's wife had come to visit me while I was washing my shoes at the water barrel.  She had the baby in her arms, dressed in the same color as the lilies.  Her two other children stood beside her, dressed all in new clothing.

I made sure the house was cleaned and dusted.

Day Eighty-Four

I walked in the end of the rainstorm all the way to the market.  There was mist on the hills all around the town.  

From the corner of my eye I though I saw a Flame tree with bright red flowers, but when I turned to look for it, I didn't see it.  The rest of the way I looked at all the Flame in the Forest trees on the side of the road, but saw no flowers.

On the way home from the market, lost in thought, I saw a kind of grass with purple edges, like the kind that grows near the ocean where I grew up in Africa.  It snatched me home for a moment.

Turning a corner in the road I looked up to see a Flame in the Forest tree and the first of its bright red flowers blooming out.

Day Eighty-Three

All afternoon and evening the house was hot.  I stayed inside somehow and read a great deal.  I sat for a moment at sunset.  From the new kiosk I looked down into the vegetable garden.  

The sun had already set there, and the taro leaves and lemongrass glowed blue and purple through the green.

That night I woke up to loud thunder that made the house shiver, and pounding rain.  In the morning I went out the see the world, and felt that something was different about it.  

I felt as though all the dry time had suddenly passed away, and that the rains had returned.  The rains kept strangers away and kept us locals in.  I felt a sense of safety.  My cat and I slept for a long time.

Day Eighty-Two

I stayed home and did not go to the missionary prayer meeting.  My teammates called to invite me to go to the village with them the next morning. to celebrate Easter.

In the village church I sat with the ladies.  I saw a woman with a scarf on her head and remembered Africa.  We sang songs about Easter long ago.

The children got up to sing.   They wandered up one at a time, no one wanting to be the first.  One little girl stood alone in the front until all the others had followed their friends up.  Then the little girls' friends followed her.

Coming home I fell asleep in the car, and my teammates had to wake me up when we reached my house.  In the garden the sun shone on the lilies from the west, and made them look almost red.

Day Eighty-One

It was morning.  Out on the new kiosk I thought I could smell roses.  I saw some flying gnats that hovered near one of the corners of the kiosk.  The light reflected off them, making them shine in the sun.

There had been butterflies lately, flying out of the trees and crossing the yard.  They seemed to be traveling somewhere together, stopping at all the treetops.

There were now so many lilies blooming in the garden that it looked like they were having a party.  I cooked dinner and began the laundry.  It was the day before Easter.

Day Eighty

I noticed that one of the old lilies had grown what looked like a seed where the flower used to be.  I wondered if it really was a seed or not.  I waited to see what it would do.

It was now Good Friday.  I went to the market for noodles and coffee.  I wandered a bit until I saw some food that looked good to eat.  I bought some lovely mangoes.  

I saw an acquaintance there from the missionary prayer meeting.  She was taking pictures of people with their colorful produce.  We talked a bit, then went our separate ways.

I took my time going home.  The house was still clean from the day before.  The electricity had returned after being gone the day before, so I quickly plugged in my computer to recharge its battery.

Day Seventy-Nine

A bundle of pale green points appeared out of the ground in the garden one morning.  I suddenly became more careful of my steps in case there should be more of them coming up unexpectedly elsewhere.

I bent down to look at them and saw that they were Jack in the Pulpit plants whose leaves were not yet unfolded.  

Near the house one of the new bushes planted by the landlord had some pale pink flowers on it.  I came closer to take a look, and I saw tiny red and white spiral stripes coming up from their hearts, like peppermint candy.

Beside this bush was another bush that was smaller.  It had miniature orange and yellow flowers on it, which grew all together to make a bigger flower.

Day Seventy-Eight

For two days there was no rain.  The ground faded from dark reddish brown to a lighter brown color.  The lilies' color seemed paler too.  

The second day several tall lilies were bent over the ground, their stems broken.  I did not know whether it was from weakness or because the dogs had been playing in the garden.

I picked up the broken lilies and put them in water in the kitchen.

Day Seventy-Seven

It rained two days that week.  Great showers of water came down and soaked the whole ground.  The lilies had all appeared now.  Some were beginning to wither away while others had yet to open their eyes.

From the porch above I stood, looking at their open faces.  My cat tried in vain to get my attention.  

In the afternoon I finished sweeping the house and went down into the garden.  I looked at all the flowers.  Some were like old words, withering away.  Some were like words being spoken now, and the buds were like thoughts that were still forming.  

I wondered angrily whether someone had heard the words I had spoken.

Day Seventy-Six

All morning long the clouds grew strong and huge.  I put the house in order and looked after the laundry.  The lilies were breaking my heart and filling my eyes.  They kept pulling me down from the house to stand there looking at them.

The ones along the fence were still buds.  They reminded me of orange tongues of fire against the stark background of the grey aluminum fence.

Crickets sang together in the field beside the house.  I studied for awhile in the new kiosk.  The house and the place were quiet.  Now and then a car would pass on the newly paved road.

Day Seventy-Five

My housekeeper did not come.  I swept the porch.  The sky grew dark and the rain came rushing down.  I sat on the steps, feeling weak.  

Earlier the landlord had finished installing lights in the new kiosk, and a rain gutter.  It was now finished enough to use.  Later it would get a coat of varnish.  

When the rain slowed, I took a load of laundry and hung it on the line.  The rain kept on through supper.  I heated water for a shower.  

Day Seventy-Four

My cat slept and did not wake me up.  In the morning I sat long over my coffee.  The dogs barked, and I went out to see who was there.

It looked like my housekeeper, so I opened my door, but she never came up.  The gate must have been locked and she must have given up and gone home.

That day I asked my landlord whether his helper could work for me.  He seemed pleased.  My landlord helped me move the dining room table from the side porch onto the deck of the new kiosk.