Saturday Evening News

First, an update on 'K'.  She is doing a little better.  Drs. in Singapore concluded that she did not need the surgery that had been performed, instead she had an infection in her kidneys, liver and lungs.  They began strong antibiotics and is expected to be in ICU for 3-5 days.  Thank you all for praying!

As of 5pm on Saturday evening, 'R's Indonesian partner, 'H', has not arrived. He was supposed to be here yesterday afternoon, then this morning, then this afternoon....you get the picture:-) We are doing very well without him, so that's good. Sihite, whom I mentioned earlier, has been put in charge of us until 'H' arrives (poor guy!).

Last night, when Steve came back, I asked about the cow. Evidently, she was feeling better as she charged at him when he went into the brush looking for her. Thankfully, she just got his arm before he managed to 'scare' her into heading the other direction. Something about this 2-legged creature that puts a rope around her neck then pokes her with several needles isn't impressive! She thought she would get her licks in first! The water trough was coming along fine and barbed wire for the fences had arrived. For dinner, we ate the rice (cold) that Sihite had brought at 3. Not real exciting, but we didn't want to go out and try finding something else.

Sihite stopped by this morning about 8 and we headed to the farm. First thing we did was check on the sick cow. She jumped right up and walked away from us. She looked like she was straining and that she hadn't been drinking. We were told that they take food to her twice each day, but there was no evidence of water. We hoped she was getting some when no humans were around. Next, we went to the 'back 40' (actually 15), to see if the peanuts planted with the grass was coming up. We were very excited to see some little heads peeking up from the soil. After that, we decided to follow the trail to see where they were getting their water. We knew that they were pumping it from the river, so followed the hose.  I wish I could send you a pic.!!  It was so steep that they cut steps into the dirt to keep from sliding down.  They would not have been able to stop once they got started!  We walked at least 400 ft. down this trail before giving up (we could see the river another 200 ft. down and decided that was good enough!).   What amazed us the most was seeing where they had been cutting trees down to make boards and posts for the corral and chute.  It was down this trail!  We just can't fathom the strength in those men.  About this time, as we are huffing and puffing, it dawns on us as to why we are so tired (all the time, not just at that moment :-)  ).  Tarutung is at about 4500 ft. above sea level and the farm is over 5000.  That's almost a mile!  I know, I know, we are slow.  We are blaming it on the altitude!

Next, came lunch.  Turbo invited us to eat with him and the other workers.  We were leery because of sanitation, but felt we couldn't refuse again (we already had twice).  We had rice and spicy pork.  Jordan would have loved it!  They cube the entire pig; innards, skin and all.  Trying to politely pick through the dish to only get 'meat' was interesting. 

After lunch, we checked on our cow again. She wasn't looking very good, but still wanted nothing to do with us.  After speaking with the vet, who doesn't work weekends, it was decided to give her some homemade electrolytes.  He wanted us to 'drench' her, but we didn't think we could get that close.  Two young men carried the 5 gal. bucket of water mixed with salt and sugar.  We set it down to see if she would drink and PTL she did!  We honestly didn't think we would have been able to get close enought to put a rope around her neck and stick a bottle of the electrolytes down her throat - several times!  It should make her feel better and thirsty for more water.  We are curious to see her tomorrow.

Well, it is almost time to figure out what to do about dinner.  We still have some rice left and, of course, bread with peanut butter.  Just a little short on protein, forget the veggies - they don't eat many as far as we can tell :-)