In the past week, the rice fields next to our compound have sprouted grain. Suddenly stalks of rice that resemble wheat fill several acres next to our house.
The birds are well aware of the change and they have begun quietly entering the field, gently perching on the rice stalks and nibbling here and there – like Emily when I cook dinner.
Much like me, the rice farmers have hard hearts when it comes to unauthorized nibbling and I expect they will deploy anti-bird measures any day now. Once the anti-aviary gear (plastic bags and cloth strung over the rice fields) goes up, we’re a heartbeat away from the fields getting very busy.
The farmers cut off water to the field which dries everything to a crispy brown, at which time the harvesters come. Farmers hire teams of people who float around the area working the harvest. They come with their scythes, baskets and a device they crank to separate the grains from the shafts. For three long days, they’ll work the fields, frequently clapping and yelling to scare off the birds who try to move in on the loose grains of rice.
It was enough to drive my dog crazy when I lived here. He did not approve of all the activity in the field – particularly the yelling and clapping.
But that’s how it goes sometimes. There are moments of peace and quiet where everything seems easy and controlled and other times when there are people clapping and yelling “Oooh!!!” in your fields.
An unexpected email two days ago suddenly flooded our field with grain to harvest. Emily’s best paying college asked her to teach two sections of a class they haven’t offered in a long time. Because it’s been so long, it needs curriculum revision. Therefore, they’re willing to pay her for three course sections even though she’ll only instruct two.
Not only is the pay great, but it allows Emily to brandish her credentials in curriculum development. She is both a little nervous and very excited about it.
In the weeks prior, she had been offered a number of classes from her other schools. It got to be so much that she had to turn one down. The school she turned down immediately asked her to teach another section scheduled to start a few weeks later, at a time Emily could better handle the work. She took it.
In the past week, Emily went from being on the tail end of a few classes to starting a large batch of new ones. The lull hit – miraculously – at the same time Susan and Aunt Penny were here. It couldn’t have worked out better.
Of course, this means Emily will be a bit busier during the stay of our next set of guests. My cousin Jacob and his wife Diana arrive Monday. Emily is already plotting how to get done with her work faster so that she can enjoy as much time as possible with them.
Financially, the timing is perfect. This is the point in our journey when we wanted to begin building a “re-entry” fund. Although it’s sad to think we’re most of the way through this adventure, we have things to look forward to when we get home in July.
My income is a constant. I have all the work I can do and I can only write so many articles per day. It’s a regular stream. Emily’s income vacillates depending on how many sections she teaches, and with which universities. Somehow, at just the right time, she got more than the right mix of classes and things are looking good.
Just as amazingly, the new class she’s revising and teaching begins right after we land in Singapore in mid-April. Given the class requires live lectures and she wants everything to be perfect for it, Singapore is the best place in this region to be for communications.
In Bali, when she does a live lecture, we have to drive into town so she can use the one Internet cafe with a commercial broadband connection. There, amid whoever comes and goes she blabs on about norms, cultural differences, gender issues and racism.
In Singapore, she’ll be able to blab on about current events in sociology from the comfort of our hotel room. And if that doesn’t work, she can find top-speed WiFi at the cafe next door, on the street, in the park, at the metro station, outside a building, next to a kindergarten, in a public restroom….there’s nowhere in Singapore without great Internet.
Depending on how things are going and how she feels, we may spend a little more time than we had originally planned in the dominion of Lee Kwan Yew.
But hey, we have nowhere to be until June 27th.
In the meantime, the Internet at our house works well most of the time, and the once in a while it doesn’t, we can easily set up shop at one of the cafes or restaurants in town.
While it’s far from the most exciting part of the adventure, our work is no small part of it. It has made this all possible, it has sustained us and it has been very good to us.
Just like the rice fields, work has its seasons. Sometimes it’s smooth and gentle like the rice terraces in the distance. Other times, it requires the coordination to clap, shout, and harvest while still laughing and enjoying the beauty of the day.
Sent from my iPad
