Arrival!

It is hard to believe but I am writing this post once again from Serukam, which is the village where Bethesda Hospital is located. These flowers were waiting for me when I arrived at the temporary house where I will live.

The rural location of the hospital is one of the things that I love about it - I am very much a country girl at heart. Here is the view from bedroom right now. 

Not sure you can see it but there is a stream down there that lulls me to sleep at night if it has rained that day. Here are a few of the differences:

• It is the chickens that wake me up now instead of the call to prayer from the mosque and motorcycles and cars. 
• Getting to "work" requires just a few minutes walk down the hill to the hospital and nursing school. 
• Oh and don't forget to shower at least two times a day. It is much more hot and humid here than in Salatiga. 
• You are surrounded by friends - or in my case some people that are already friends and many more people that will become friends. 
• Unlike the big cities in Java, singleness at my age is rare - yesterday during our weekly Bible Study and prayer time at the nursing school they prayed I would find a teman hidup - life friend (otherwise known as a husband). 
• You are never quite sure what kind of wildlife you are going to see. On my 2nd day here a bird of some type struck my window. It had a large beak and was blue and yellow. It sat there stunned awhile and squawking at me before it flew off.  

Oh and I had one of my first oops moments. I am never quite sure if it is the language barrier or what but I somehow missed the fact that the song we sang yesterday during our devotional time at the nursing school was actually practice for singing in chapel at the hospital today. So after everyone else had lined up in front I had multiple people motioning to me to get me up there. I did go amidst the many chuckles from the crowd.

I am slowly easing my way into the work here. It has been hard to leave a place where I was known and comfortable and had settled into a ministry, even if it was only for 8 months. I will be doing an orientation in each of the wards of the hospital starting on April 1st with the Zaal Bidan (OB ward). Hopefully this will help me learn names and how things are done these days. 

Unfortunately, it is going to take some time for me to be able to move to my place. I did go see it yesterday and talk with the people who are currently living in it. It will probably be another week or two before they have moved out. Then it will take some renovating etc to get it ready for me. In the meantime I am in a three-bedroom house. This weekend I will head to the city 5-hours away for some shopping and looking at things for my new place. I have been blessed by those who gave money to my outgoing expense budget so I can do those renovations and buy some new things. Another blessing is New Tribes missionaries who live there have offered to help me with my shopping, as they know the stores. I will keep you updated on how things go. Please keep praying!