endless summer

Ah, the sweet, sweaty days of summer. Here in Borneo, that's all we get. So, we have summer all year 'round. It's hot, hazy, and humid - every day. The changes that come our way are mostly in the moisture department. It's either just a little bit damp, or flooded. But always hot. Recently, we had buckets and sheets of uncharacteristic September rains - which caused a mini-flood.

This is one of our friends, standing in our church yard's makeshift parking lot. He's waiting for me and Nadia to ford the yard, where he will help us up onto the porch of the church.

Getting ready to jump across the over flooded gutter, our friend hoists her daughter up and prepares for the leap :0). She ended up by allowing the young man on the left to carry the little one across. (That gutter she's standing next to is about 4 ft deep).

Instead of whining and muttering about ruined shoes or muddy clothes, we heard only laughing that day as we all had a nice change of pace from our normal trip to and from church. The kids played and splashed in the yard, a few adults took a spill after tripping over hidden potholes or ruts in the driveway. We all laughed at each other, watching as we each picked our way over gutters, through the yard, up and down the church steps, attempting not to drop anything or make big splashy waves. It was one of those uniting experiences that we looked at as an almost refreshing change from our norm.

Another recent event in our town was the Autumnal Equinox. On September 23rd, the sun passed straight over the equator here in our city. Here's Nadia and her teeny-tiny shadow at 10am on that day. It's hard to say that there has been much of a difference. It's always bright, it's always hot, and the sun is always close.

Through all these months and days, through the minimal and monumental changes that take place, we're happy to have each other. We have been blessed in life and love, and we are grateful.