scraping by

I flew into Singapore from Jakarta on Wednesday, and a good friend whom i’ve indebted myself to several times already cheerfully agreed to meet me at the airport. He drove me to a shopping center that has lots of travel agents, and East Asia worked with me to get a flight to Osaka on Monday (Thai airways) for 497sgd (355usd). If i could wait another week, the price would come down around 90-100sgd, but that is not acceptable right now, so i went thru my waist pouch that i haven’t used around my waist for a year or two now, and looked for anything that might be of value to a money changer. Singapore dollars – no need to change 🙂 Fortunately, when here a couple of months ago a couple of supportive fellow-believers helped me out, and most of that is still left. But hmmm, well, this Thai baht shouldn’t be too necessary anymore – throw it in. What about this Indian rupee note? ahhh, throw it in the pot too. Oh yeah, the jackpot Indonesian rupiah (i say because 100,000idr = 11usd).

The 3 Indian guys in the booth don’t bat an eye, but quickly ring out the total on a paper and hand over the sgd. In counting it, i think i’ll have 19sgd left over after paying for my ticket. But, surprise! I didn’t count one 50 note, so have 69sgd – sweet 🙂 The elderly couple hosting me for the 5 days while here remind me that i sold 10 Thai 1858gc while here last time, and they need to pay for that – another 60sgd. wow! I’m up to almost 100usd, and still have my 30usd and 2,000jpy to spare. How’s that for being taken care of?!

I sure do thank the 2 people in Indonesia who purchased 1858 Great Controversy books so that i have this opportunity to make it to Japan without resorting to something else 🙂 And of course the 2 in Singapore that made it possible for me to go to Kota Kinabalu, then Jakarta, then Manado, then Jakarta, then back to Singapore again – thank you! Made God richly bless all of you, and may your job not give you Sabbath problems A-san!

2 thoughts on “scraping by”

  1. Do you now have no back-up money in your bank account at all? Are you in Japan to earn money by taking on a job? For me you are the most adventureous person in my life. It’s all these small vital details of not knowing that puts me in a dither because of missing connecting the dots in the various junctions of decisions you make for the next move,

  2. I still have some funds in a bank in America, but haven’t touched it since leaving there last April. I’m not planniing to earn money in Japan, but if the opportunity arises, maybe i should do it? Strictly speaking, it is not legal with my 90-day “tourist” visa, but in fact, it seems to be OK, unless you work for a regular company.
    .
    I really do appreciate your concern for the dots, probably you are more interested than i am myself – ha!

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