Khmer New Year in Phnom Penh.
I'm really not sure where all the h's go in this city name.
I'm in Phnom Penh living with Dary and her sister and brother. Jessica and Suzy are with me. We're living in a little studio apartment somewhere in the city.
Wednesday the entire DTS (just about) got on the 1:00 bus from Battambang. We're all in a holiday mood. Especially the leaders who for once in 6 months weren't in charge, and could kid around with the rest of us. On the way, as usual, the bus driver played hours of Khmer music videos, loudly. It would be entertaining if not for the lack of subjectmatter. Every Khmer music video is about a boy or girl who is in love with someone, but they don't love him/her, and always go off with the other guy/girl who drives a Lexus instead of a moto. By the end of the trip, I was making bets about the plot line, and comments in Khmer -- to the amusement of the Khmer students around me. I'm glad they think I'm funny. Otherwise I'd be wildly annoying!
Upon arriving there was mass chaos. Stuart wanted to coordinate everybody, but all the Khmer students wanted to take their guests and go home. So that was madness for a while. Suzy and I bought a pizza which was the best thing I've ever tasted, bar none, in my life. Canadian Bacon and Pineapple and sausage. Yum!
Yesterday we went shopping in the Russian market, and I bought a skirt I needed for outreach and got a tank top to wear. We ate fried noodles and pork in the market for breakfast with a sweet iced coffee on the side. And for dinner, after I'd helped Suzy and Jessica buy gifts for their family and friends (my team will spend three days in Phnom Penh on the way back from outreach, so I can do mine there) we went to the riverfront and ate in hammocks suspended around posts around the table. I've decided that's the most relaxing way to eat in the world. We bought sweetened popcorn there, and took it home to watch the Chronicles of Narnia.
Today we woke up and I cooked scrambled eggs and bread for breakfast (we bought the bread). Then we went to Bunsom's house and met his family and talked for a while. We're meeting everyone for lunch at the Russian Market.
Phnom Penh makes me homesick. Everything else in Cambodia is so foreign, that you hardly notice that you're away. Here feels like any other city (with Khmer flair, of course) but the first night as we were driving in a tuktuk through the rain, we could have been in Seattle for all I could see...we were in the western part of town. Ohhhhhhhh!
While I was hanging in my hammock at dinner a cat came up and laid down next to me (a well kept cat, not the usual strays) and I scratched it's chin and it's tummy and missed my Cai dreadfully.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Happy Easter!
The Lord is RISEN!!!
In Cambodia the churches don't celebrate Easter. I got all dressed up yesterday, but was the only one. Because even if no one else knew it -- it's Easter darn it. And I got misty because there were no Cadbury Eggs, White Lilies, and corsages from my father. Nor any standing outside freezing to death in our spring clothes in the daffodils while Dad tries to take a picture.
What did you guys do?
I got food poisoning from the day before and spent the day sleeping on the floor making frantic dashes to the bathroom.
I'm better now.
He is RISEN INDEED!!
In Cambodia the churches don't celebrate Easter. I got all dressed up yesterday, but was the only one. Because even if no one else knew it -- it's Easter darn it. And I got misty because there were no Cadbury Eggs, White Lilies, and corsages from my father. Nor any standing outside freezing to death in our spring clothes in the daffodils while Dad tries to take a picture.
What did you guys do?
I got food poisoning from the day before and spent the day sleeping on the floor making frantic dashes to the bathroom.
I'm better now.
He is RISEN INDEED!!
Saturday, March 31, 2007
You would not believe how long my nails are here. They grow like I've never seen (Hair seems to grow fast too, in a tropical climate, but I've been glad of it -- it enables me to get it off my neck) and I should cut them, because they're getting in the way, but I'm curious to see how long I can get them. I'm not even really filing them.
Today is Palm Sunday. I'm getting a little misty today because next week is Easter, and I won't be home to see the new flowers, and freeze to death in the garden while we grit our teeth and take pictures in our spring clothes, then run inside and change back into winter. Three people yesterday told me that it is spring there -- oh, homesick! And yesterday Makera, at lunch, turned on the American channel so I would feel comfortable -- and they were showing video of driving around in North L.A. around Santa Monica........ohhhhhh. No chocolate bunnies either.
Today I'm doing research to go on outreach. I'm not finding out much that we don't already know. Keeping looking...
Today is Palm Sunday. I'm getting a little misty today because next week is Easter, and I won't be home to see the new flowers, and freeze to death in the garden while we grit our teeth and take pictures in our spring clothes, then run inside and change back into winter. Three people yesterday told me that it is spring there -- oh, homesick! And yesterday Makera, at lunch, turned on the American channel so I would feel comfortable -- and they were showing video of driving around in North L.A. around Santa Monica........ohhhhhh. No chocolate bunnies either.
Today I'm doing research to go on outreach. I'm not finding out much that we don't already know. Keeping looking...
Friday, March 30, 2007
Dance Party
DTS Dance Party!!!
Thursday night they threw a dance party for us. We ate on the front driveway with flowers on the table and fried pork for dinner (a specialty here -- it's very time consuming to make). Then they tore down the tables, brought out the snacks, and cranked up the music.
Me with Larissa at dinner.
We danced a mix of American music and Khmer, and all the westerners tried their darndest to learn how to dance Khmai style. Khmer dancing goes in formation around and around a circle. Not like american folk dancing -- more like the electric slide, only with your hands also doing asian swirly things. I can't describe it, and trying to remember the foot pattern (to the beat, but the foot pattern doesn't alternate on the downbeat) and the hand twisties (not to the beat at all -- but must happen evenly over top of the foot pattern) is like trying to pat your tummy and rub your head with the wrong hand. I can do three dances now -- the feet at least. The hands are getting there. And I could do one really fancy schmancy line dance by the end of the song.(step step step kick, step step step kick, step step step ball change, left ball change, jump 180 degrees and kick. Repeat)
Dancing Western style. Sumuuen, Sombat, Molly, Phally, Alissa & Jessica. Sombat is the camera ham.
After all was said and done, my feet hurt, and I've never sweat so much dressed up before. But it was a blast, and a great way to have fun with the Khmer students as they taught us how to dance -- and then we taught them the lawnmower, the shopping cart, the sprinkler, the swimming guy, and the pony. That should hold them over for years.
Me. Collapsed in exhaustion.
Thursday night they threw a dance party for us. We ate on the front driveway with flowers on the table and fried pork for dinner (a specialty here -- it's very time consuming to make). Then they tore down the tables, brought out the snacks, and cranked up the music.
Me with Larissa at dinner.
We danced a mix of American music and Khmer, and all the westerners tried their darndest to learn how to dance Khmai style. Khmer dancing goes in formation around and around a circle. Not like american folk dancing -- more like the electric slide, only with your hands also doing asian swirly things. I can't describe it, and trying to remember the foot pattern (to the beat, but the foot pattern doesn't alternate on the downbeat) and the hand twisties (not to the beat at all -- but must happen evenly over top of the foot pattern) is like trying to pat your tummy and rub your head with the wrong hand. I can do three dances now -- the feet at least. The hands are getting there. And I could do one really fancy schmancy line dance by the end of the song.(step step step kick, step step step kick, step step step ball change, left ball change, jump 180 degrees and kick. Repeat)
Dancing Western style. Sumuuen, Sombat, Molly, Phally, Alissa & Jessica. Sombat is the camera ham.
After all was said and done, my feet hurt, and I've never sweat so much dressed up before. But it was a blast, and a great way to have fun with the Khmer students as they taught us how to dance -- and then we taught them the lawnmower, the shopping cart, the sprinkler, the swimming guy, and the pony. That should hold them over for years.
Me. Collapsed in exhaustion.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
ahhhh
Hog Heaven
Ahh. Garth lent me his Strongs Exhaustive Concordence and Tyndale Bible Dictionary. I'm so happy!!!!!
I'd neglected to bring my less-exhaustive concordence with me, and it's been driving me crazy! Now if only I could figure out how to take them in my backpack on outreach!
Saturday, March 24, 2007
French Architecture
I know every person who comes to a foreign country suddenly starts to think they work for National Geographic, and can take terribly personal pictures of total strangers for no reason. However. I'm going to add a few because it FEELS like I live in a National Geographic magazine sometimes. People walk past me with sarongs and baskets on their heads. A man with buckets hanging from a bamboo pole across his shoulders. Naked children eating sugarcane. A woman with a shop ironing clothes with a 19th century andiron -- scooping coals with a bucket into the mechanism to heat it. Women working late into the night in open shops full of sewing machines. Drinking 7-up out of a plastic bag full of ice chipped off with a rusted hammer. A woman on the sidewalk of a restaurant chopping up a whole chicken with a cleaver on a round piece of wood.
Here's my contribution:
The French Colonial Architecture is everywhere in Battambang. If you want your fill of picturesque distressed plaster walls, come here.
A woman riding past the YWAM base with her child. Since diapers are expensive, and washing cloth diapers impracticle for a society that washes all clothes in a metal bowl, most small children don't wear clothes on the bottom half of their body. And lots wear nothing at all. It takes some getting used to, especially when a naked little boy comes up to play with you...
Here's my contribution:
The French Colonial Architecture is everywhere in Battambang. If you want your fill of picturesque distressed plaster walls, come here.
A woman riding past the YWAM base with her child. Since diapers are expensive, and washing cloth diapers impracticle for a society that washes all clothes in a metal bowl, most small children don't wear clothes on the bottom half of their body. And lots wear nothing at all. It takes some getting used to, especially when a naked little boy comes up to play with you...
Teaching
Teaching at the Youth Center
Alissa teaching English
Teaching at the youth center has been my bar-none favorite thing about being here. Alissa and I team teach the 4 oclock English class. One week we decided that we'd use the story of Joseph to teach them to listen to spoken English for comprehension. We originally hoped to only take 3 days, but the story is long, even condensed, and took us six. The kids got really excited (I say kids, but most are teenagers, and some up to my age), and began asking really insightful questions (a HUGE step, since this culture values regurgitation of facts over analysis). We finished on Monday, and began teaching English curriculum again. But in the middle of class, during a lesson on "how far -- how near" a student raised his hand and asked if he could get a copy of the story of Joseph to read for himself. I was teaching and sort of was taken aback, and said "sure, anyone else?" The whole class raised their hand. (I'm working on typing up a copy now -- some Biblical words and concepts don't translate well into Khmer, and don't translate well either to people unused to 'religious' wording -- then Seeung is going to translate it into Khmer for all the kids) It's taking up quite a bit of work, but we're so excited that they're excited.
I love this part. I love teaching English -- because I LOVE the English language, and I love how telling stories engages them. Even better if it's a true story. And since Joseph is my favorite ever Bible Story...the best ever!
Seeung Translating into Khmer. His dream is to go to Canada for a degree in photography or architecture, but his family can't afford it. Seeung is 24 years old. Students that pass the exams to be international students are sometimes also required by the government to pay a 'fee' of about $3,000 to be allowed to go. Meiling's brother received top marks and the first place scholarship to study in Japan, but her family can't pay the 'fee.'
Alissa teaching English
Teaching at the youth center has been my bar-none favorite thing about being here. Alissa and I team teach the 4 oclock English class. One week we decided that we'd use the story of Joseph to teach them to listen to spoken English for comprehension. We originally hoped to only take 3 days, but the story is long, even condensed, and took us six. The kids got really excited (I say kids, but most are teenagers, and some up to my age), and began asking really insightful questions (a HUGE step, since this culture values regurgitation of facts over analysis). We finished on Monday, and began teaching English curriculum again. But in the middle of class, during a lesson on "how far -- how near" a student raised his hand and asked if he could get a copy of the story of Joseph to read for himself. I was teaching and sort of was taken aback, and said "sure, anyone else?" The whole class raised their hand. (I'm working on typing up a copy now -- some Biblical words and concepts don't translate well into Khmer, and don't translate well either to people unused to 'religious' wording -- then Seeung is going to translate it into Khmer for all the kids) It's taking up quite a bit of work, but we're so excited that they're excited.
I love this part. I love teaching English -- because I LOVE the English language, and I love how telling stories engages them. Even better if it's a true story. And since Joseph is my favorite ever Bible Story...the best ever!
Seeung Translating into Khmer. His dream is to go to Canada for a degree in photography or architecture, but his family can't afford it. Seeung is 24 years old. Students that pass the exams to be international students are sometimes also required by the government to pay a 'fee' of about $3,000 to be allowed to go. Meiling's brother received top marks and the first place scholarship to study in Japan, but her family can't pay the 'fee.'
Jess and I wearing my new tops
Jess and Me wearing "stuff from the box."
I got the box that afternoon with two pairs of shoes! I'd walked through mine almost, and the fabric part had holes where my toes had worn through. And not just flip flips == but sparkly flip flops!!! In red and green! And chocolate!
Thanks everyone who helped pack the box, put cards in, and send little hand lotions! Love you lots!
I got the box that afternoon with two pairs of shoes! I'd walked through mine almost, and the fabric part had holes where my toes had worn through. And not just flip flips == but sparkly flip flops!!! In red and green! And chocolate!
Thanks everyone who helped pack the box, put cards in, and send little hand lotions! Love you lots!
Friday, March 23, 2007
Life here is good. I've adjusted to rice finally.. The first few weeks I thought everything was delicious. Then one month ago I couldn't eat rice one more time if I had to. Now, since for the last month I've been buying less junk food, food tastes great because I can't just go eat whatever I want whenever I don't feel like eating lunch. Very yummy. I haven't eaten a bug yet,but I do love banana chips. I went on a mission to find a bag (8 kilos - 2000 riel) but I've been foiled so far.
Today I had my first major shopping excursion. I was out of almost every toiletry...so I had to go the Psar Bon Chuip to buy some. It's hard to know what to buy when all the brands are different -- and the ones you know are much more expensive. (I can buy Pantene here, but it's one dollar more) So today I bought one small Pantene ProV conditioner, Clinic Clear Itch and Dry Scalp Control VitaACE shampoo, Lux Vibrant Citrus Shower Cream with Vitamin C, Californian Oranges, Kiwi, and Grapefruit, CARE Hi-kamin Baby Powder with Cucumber, Apple and Grape (hope that doesn't clash with my citrus body wash). Toothpaste is the most difficult -- the favorite asian flavor being herb and salt. Gagh. So today I settled for Colgate Honeysuckle Herbal Salt Mint flavor. This should be an adventure.
Thank goodness yesterday is over. Friday is our voluntary fasting day -- and I've done it most of the time. This week though I started really obsessing about snack food. All week I jut couldn't stop thinking about it. Normally on Fridays people do different types of fastig -- it's not really strict -- and most people (including me) drink a lot of juice and smoothies to keep the blood sugar up through the hot day. Yesterday, given the junk food fetish for no reason, I went on just tons of water until after evening prayer time. AHHHH. I made it, but just barely. My neck was trying to go out too, so the combination of both put me in rather a bad mood all afternoon. But, once again we made it, and it's now our self-dubbed "Western Food Saturdays!!!" I had a doughnut and a three in one coffee for breakfast! For lunch we've bought peanut butter and jelly. I'll buy some drinks and chips, too. And hopefully banana chips as well!
My box arrived!!!! I have a picture of me and Jessica in the tops you bought. I couldn't wear both of them -- so I made her wear one for girls night that evening. I'm on the wrong computer to upload pictures, but I'll try to switch. Thank for the contacts...and best of all the CARDS!!!! I love them! And the chocolate is WONDERFUL!!! We can buy it here, but it's fairly (relatively) expensive. Most of it isn't really chocolate, but there is Cadbury and Snickers at the western store across the street from Psar Nat.
And Dad scanned a compassion letter that came in! Thanks Dad!
Today I had my first major shopping excursion. I was out of almost every toiletry...so I had to go the Psar Bon Chuip to buy some. It's hard to know what to buy when all the brands are different -- and the ones you know are much more expensive. (I can buy Pantene here, but it's one dollar more) So today I bought one small Pantene ProV conditioner, Clinic Clear Itch and Dry Scalp Control VitaACE shampoo, Lux Vibrant Citrus Shower Cream with Vitamin C, Californian Oranges, Kiwi, and Grapefruit, CARE Hi-kamin Baby Powder with Cucumber, Apple and Grape (hope that doesn't clash with my citrus body wash). Toothpaste is the most difficult -- the favorite asian flavor being herb and salt. Gagh. So today I settled for Colgate Honeysuckle Herbal Salt Mint flavor. This should be an adventure.
Thank goodness yesterday is over. Friday is our voluntary fasting day -- and I've done it most of the time. This week though I started really obsessing about snack food. All week I jut couldn't stop thinking about it. Normally on Fridays people do different types of fastig -- it's not really strict -- and most people (including me) drink a lot of juice and smoothies to keep the blood sugar up through the hot day. Yesterday, given the junk food fetish for no reason, I went on just tons of water until after evening prayer time. AHHHH. I made it, but just barely. My neck was trying to go out too, so the combination of both put me in rather a bad mood all afternoon. But, once again we made it, and it's now our self-dubbed "Western Food Saturdays!!!" I had a doughnut and a three in one coffee for breakfast! For lunch we've bought peanut butter and jelly. I'll buy some drinks and chips, too. And hopefully banana chips as well!
My box arrived!!!! I have a picture of me and Jessica in the tops you bought. I couldn't wear both of them -- so I made her wear one for girls night that evening. I'm on the wrong computer to upload pictures, but I'll try to switch. Thank for the contacts...and best of all the CARDS!!!! I love them! And the chocolate is WONDERFUL!!! We can buy it here, but it's fairly (relatively) expensive. Most of it isn't really chocolate, but there is Cadbury and Snickers at the western store across the street from Psar Nat.
And Dad scanned a compassion letter that came in! Thanks Dad!
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