As the wife of an MAF pilot, I often get asked the question “What do you do all day?”
Here’s a typical day…
4:30 a.m. – The morning call to prayer sounds from several Mosques around our neighborhood, waking me up.
6:00 a.m. – Get up, make breakfast, and pack Chris’s lunch.
7:00 a.m. – Say “good-bye” to Chris as he zooms off on his motorcycle to the hangar, getting ready for a day of flying to villages in the interior of Borneo.
8:00 a.m. – Do any baking that needs to be done before it gets really hot outside. Talk with my parents or friends on Skype (it’s 8p.m. the previous day in the U.S.) if the Internet is speedy enough.
9:00 a.m. – Clean up, time with God, exercise (if I’m really motivated), and get ready for the day.
10:30 a.m. – Climb onto my motor scooter and head to three or four stores for groceries, carrying the shopping bags on a little hook on the scooter as I drive.
11:30 a.m. – Put away groceries, wash fruit and vegetables in an iodine solution and then fresh water to make sure they don’t make us sick.
12:00 p.m. – The call to prayer lets me know it’s time for lunch and a little rest…the day is really starting to heat up by now.
1:00 p.m. – Pick up my food from the open-air market from my friend’s house; her Indonesian helpers have shopped for me.
2:00 p.m. – Conduct a speech therapy session with one of the MAF children here.
3:30 p.m. – Back home now and another call to prayer sounds. It’s time to prep for dinner; I start by grinding the chunk of beef from the market to prepare it for making hamburgers.
5:00 p.m. – Welcome Chris home and hear about his day, eat dinner, clean up quick before the power goes out for the evening (it goes out every three days, for three to six hours in the evening).
6:00 p.m. – Power out, try to rest and stay cool! Final calls to prayer sound before and after sundown.
10:00 p.m. – Power comes back on in time for bed, but wait, there’s a huge roach crawling on the wall in the bedroom! Chris spends several minutes capturing it and disposing of it. Now I can sleep in peace…maybe.
12:00 a.m. – Thunder and rain pounding on the tin roof wakes me; lightning flashes and the power goes out. The storm passes, the power starts up, and I try to grab a few ZZZs before the morning call to prayer…until a rooster starts crowing. Silly rooster, it’s not morning yet! Back to sleep again.
My days aren’t exciting or glamorous, but each little task adds up to the big picture of what serving looks like for me in this corner of the world.
