Hello Family and Friends,
This last week my college friend Carol who is teaching in Indonesia came to stay with us for the week. I picked her up on our moto from the airport. Even picking someone up from the airport is an experience when you have not done it before. I was expecting there to be a place to park motos but I could not find it once I got there, so I just parked in a parking spot. Carol arrived and we walked to the parking spot to find the moto missing. I had locked it up since there was not any security guard watching it. Carol spotted a place where there were other motos and of course there is our moto. They had to pick up the back tire and wheel it all the way there just on the front tire since I had locked it up. Well the Khmer fellow who didn't speak any English looked pretty upset. The only words I understood out of his 2 minute speech in Khmer was bi pohon which means 2000 so I handed him 2000 riel and they stared at us as we drove out of the parking lot.
We headed up to Siem Reap on Saturday morning with Carol and 12 other friends from our Logos community. It was a fast trip, but we learned alot about ancient Khmer culture and got to see very cool ancient temples. The hotel we stayed at was very nice. Logos teachers get a discount there because the owners son attends Logos. We went to Angkor Wat to watch the sunset on Saturday evening. We also woke up at 4:00 to see the sun rise at Angkor Wat. We visited a couple other temples on Sunday morning but went back to the hotel to eat our free buffet breakfast. We were starved after walking around all the temples. They have some very posch restaurants in Siem Reap. We took some pictures that we will post later. I knew that the religion here in Cambodia had a mix of Buddhism, Hinduism and Animism. After visiting the temples I can understand why their is that mix today. The temples were built for Hindu gods. People from India migrated into Cambodia and built these temples it wasn't until later that those same temples were used as Buddhists temples after Buddhism came into Cambodia.
We left Siem Reap at 2:30 and got home at 9. We had to teach all week so Carol explored the city by herself and with Christine a girl who went to Siem Reap with us and is in Phnom Penh for five months with Action International. One night Carol and I worked out with the Cambodian ladies who do line dancing and step aberoics on the side of the street. It was awesome. Its not really a work out if we just followed the instructors, but Carol and I took it up a step to make it a work out. Carol got some great video maybe i will get it from here and get to show it to you all!
There was one other exciting event this week. Well I got in my first moto accident........in our own drive way. Due to the rainy season we have a pond in our drive way. I, Kristy, was driving through the pond at 6 am to get to school with Gideon on the back. I started to loose control and before I knew it I was in the pond and the moto was on its side. Gideon was still standing. He picked the moto up off my leg and we turned around so we can change out of our soaked pants. Our sweet landlords rushed over because they heard the sound. Sotheare was carrying her fishing box full of first aid gear and doctored my knee up that wasn't bad at all. She left the medicine with me telling me I should apply it two more times. My knee had gotten a little scraped up from the rocks on the bottom of our driveway pond, but that is it. I just felt embarrassed mainly. Gideon's TA told me she has fallen lots of times on a moto and she's been driving one her whole life. That made me feel a little better, and I felt less embarrassed after she told me that. We are so blessed to have such caring landlords. Even today when we drove through the pond on our way back from school Onn was standing in his gate in anticipation hoping we would make it through. We made it through and he motioned to us with his open hand beating back on forth on his heart showing us that he was nervous as we drove.
Here are some prayer requests: This next Monday and Tuesday all of our teaching assistants will be attending some professional development meetings which means that we have our students all to ourselves with no help. Please pray for me, Kristy, as I am little nervous about how those two days will go. Sorphorn is such a great help, and I rely on her a lot. Please pray for extra patience with the kids, extra energy and extra wisdom. Please pray for our relationship to continue to build with our landlords. Pray for opportunities to share Jesus with them. The other day I asked Sopana their eldest son what he learned in school and he said, " I learned a song about the Bible it is called In the beginning." He began to share it with his mom Sotheare. Praise God that they are hearing the good news from their kids.
Other Praises: We are celebrating our year anniversary this Sunday!
We love you all and miss you! Please send us an email or post a comment on our blog to let us know you read or if there is anything we can pray for you about. We will add pictures later this week from our Siem Reap trip!
Blessings! Kristy and Gideon
Friday, September 17, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
Bad Pronunciation and an Encounter with the Cops
We've had some fun and interesting experiences these past couple of weeks. The first story involves my Pre-K3 students and my TA. Every friday we play "Starfall". It is a computer website that helps kids learn the phonetic sounds of the alphabet. We have one computer in our classroom so all the kids sit on the carpet next to my desk, we turn the computer and put the mouse and keyboard on the floor. Each kid gets a turn to pick the letter they would like to learn about. Well one of our students chose X. During the various activities there is a picture of a fox. They computer says the word fox and asks the students to repeat it. Well my TA repeated the word fox, but in the Khmer language there is no such letter sound as X. She pronounced it more like fok leaving out the s sound that we say at the end of an x. Well all of our 3 year olds begin to repeat the word fox just like my TA pronounced it. As you already know it sounded as if they were swearing in an English accent all at the same time over and over again. I giggled inside and let Ms. Sorphorn know the correct pronunciation! :)
The second story involves our moto. We were so proud of ourselves that we had been driving around on our moto for three weeks and still hadn't been pulled over. You see our friends that are also new to Phnom Penh bought a moto and the second day they owned it they were pulled over, and have been pulled over two or three more times since that. The police here are very corrupt. They pull people over and ask for bribes instead of writing them a ticket or who else knows what they are suppose to do when someone does something illegal. Well when they see foreigners on a moto they think we can get a lot of money out of them. They don't know anything about our laws and they are rich. We thought for a while that the cops just thought I was the foreigner and Gideon was a motodop drive, a moto taxi driver, due to the color of his skin. Well that wasn't the case with these two cops. We were downtown and the one cop steps in the middle of the rode and waves his bat to pull us to the side. We sit on the moto starring at the cop and all he does is wave us over to his friend standing on the sidewalk. We get off our moto, walk over to the other policeman and continue to stare because he isn't talking either. Finally Gideon says, What is the problem?. The policeman pulls out his rule book all written in Khmer with some pictures of a stop lights and says, You were coming south and you turned right and the light was red. We said ok, we didn't know that was illegal. He says I need to see your cambodian drivers license. Well we don't have one. Nobody really has a drivers license. They can not pull you over for not having a license but if they find out you don't have one you have to pay a fine of 3500 riel equal to 80 US cents. The policeman says well i have to take your moto down to the police station. Gideon said no we won't have a way to get back home. I guess they always threaten to take your moto but they never follow through with it. We were waiting for him to ask for money, but he never did. So fianlly Gideon says we will pay the fine and be on our way. He says how much will you pay? I said 2 dollars, because that is what we heard is a good amount to pay the cops. We always hear don't pay them more than two dollars. The cop says, no not enough you should pay 5 dollars, really it is 100 dollars for Americans but for you five dollars. We knew that we shouldn't pay him five dollars, but we were nervous and we just wanted to be done with cops. So we slipped him five dollars; he hid it in his pocket very fast and told us to be safe as we drove away.
I talked to my TA who is Khmer about our encounter with the cops and she got soooo mad. She said it makes me want to hit them when they are like that. She said it is legal to turn right on a red light. She said do not be scared of the cops when you know you did nothing wrong. Next time ask them why everyone else turns right on a red light and they do not get pulled over. And then tell them you have 1 dollar or 2 dollars and that is all you have. Hold it out so they can see it and say this is all I have if you want it you can take it and i'll be on my way. If you don't want it I will wait here with you. We have learned that you keep one or two dollars in a separate part of your wallet so that when you get it out they can see that is all the money you have. It makes me want to read their traffic laws so that I know what is legal and illegal but i'm not sure there is any translated into English. It is so ironic that they pull you over when nobody follows any kind of traffic laws here and the streets are chaos. I guess we will learn by experience what is legal and illegal. I would rather follow the rules so when I do get pulled over I know I was not in the wrong. Also they must give you a reason they pulled you over. If the cop pulls you over and either can't speak english or can't give you a reason why you were wrong you have no obligation to sit there. You can just smile and say have a good day and drive off.
I hope you enjoyed these few stories. I hope it gives you a better glimpse of our life in Phnom Penh. We continue to thank God for your support of our calling here. We are so blessed to know you are praying for us as we think of you all and miss you all very much!
The second story involves our moto. We were so proud of ourselves that we had been driving around on our moto for three weeks and still hadn't been pulled over. You see our friends that are also new to Phnom Penh bought a moto and the second day they owned it they were pulled over, and have been pulled over two or three more times since that. The police here are very corrupt. They pull people over and ask for bribes instead of writing them a ticket or who else knows what they are suppose to do when someone does something illegal. Well when they see foreigners on a moto they think we can get a lot of money out of them. They don't know anything about our laws and they are rich. We thought for a while that the cops just thought I was the foreigner and Gideon was a motodop drive, a moto taxi driver, due to the color of his skin. Well that wasn't the case with these two cops. We were downtown and the one cop steps in the middle of the rode and waves his bat to pull us to the side. We sit on the moto starring at the cop and all he does is wave us over to his friend standing on the sidewalk. We get off our moto, walk over to the other policeman and continue to stare because he isn't talking either. Finally Gideon says, What is the problem?. The policeman pulls out his rule book all written in Khmer with some pictures of a stop lights and says, You were coming south and you turned right and the light was red. We said ok, we didn't know that was illegal. He says I need to see your cambodian drivers license. Well we don't have one. Nobody really has a drivers license. They can not pull you over for not having a license but if they find out you don't have one you have to pay a fine of 3500 riel equal to 80 US cents. The policeman says well i have to take your moto down to the police station. Gideon said no we won't have a way to get back home. I guess they always threaten to take your moto but they never follow through with it. We were waiting for him to ask for money, but he never did. So fianlly Gideon says we will pay the fine and be on our way. He says how much will you pay? I said 2 dollars, because that is what we heard is a good amount to pay the cops. We always hear don't pay them more than two dollars. The cop says, no not enough you should pay 5 dollars, really it is 100 dollars for Americans but for you five dollars. We knew that we shouldn't pay him five dollars, but we were nervous and we just wanted to be done with cops. So we slipped him five dollars; he hid it in his pocket very fast and told us to be safe as we drove away.
I talked to my TA who is Khmer about our encounter with the cops and she got soooo mad. She said it makes me want to hit them when they are like that. She said it is legal to turn right on a red light. She said do not be scared of the cops when you know you did nothing wrong. Next time ask them why everyone else turns right on a red light and they do not get pulled over. And then tell them you have 1 dollar or 2 dollars and that is all you have. Hold it out so they can see it and say this is all I have if you want it you can take it and i'll be on my way. If you don't want it I will wait here with you. We have learned that you keep one or two dollars in a separate part of your wallet so that when you get it out they can see that is all the money you have. It makes me want to read their traffic laws so that I know what is legal and illegal but i'm not sure there is any translated into English. It is so ironic that they pull you over when nobody follows any kind of traffic laws here and the streets are chaos. I guess we will learn by experience what is legal and illegal. I would rather follow the rules so when I do get pulled over I know I was not in the wrong. Also they must give you a reason they pulled you over. If the cop pulls you over and either can't speak english or can't give you a reason why you were wrong you have no obligation to sit there. You can just smile and say have a good day and drive off.
I hope you enjoyed these few stories. I hope it gives you a better glimpse of our life in Phnom Penh. We continue to thank God for your support of our calling here. We are so blessed to know you are praying for us as we think of you all and miss you all very much!
Saturday, August 28, 2010
A trip to the Zoo!
We had the opportunity to spend the day with Sothere, Onn, Sopana and Sokvathana last sunday. They took us to the zoo that is about an hour drive south of Phnom Penh. It was so refreshing to get away from the busy life of the city, see some cool animals and get to know our landlords better. Upon driving into the zoo we had to pay 5 dollars each because we were foreigners. We joked with Sothere that she was supposed to say that Gideon was Cambodian and then we would only have to pay for me. Onn said yeah he looks like me he could pass! Next time we will try it! While we were there Sothere bought a plate full of sugar cane to feed the animals. We could feed the deer and monkeys, but they asked us to not feed the bears! We love our landlords dearly even though their two boys are bundles of energy and had us exhausted by the time we arrived back home. We went out to breakfast that same morning with them and they asked us how long we were planning on staying in Cambodia. They said you can stay for a long time and we can be like family! Here are a few pictures of the highlights of our trip last sunday!
Friday, August 20, 2010
The Second Week of School!
Hello Everyone,
We have had some requests about pictures of our kids at school so here they are!!!!!!!
This is my morning class. Most of them are 3 and some of them will be turning 4 this fall. I have three Chinese, two Korean, and the rest are Khmer ( Cambodian). Can you tell who is who?
This is my afternoon class. Four of my morning students stay all day. It is such a long day for them and one of them still cries when he doesn't get to go home with all the other students. There are 6 students from P-k4 class that stay all day and join with us the second half of the day. You can tell that they learn so much english and school behavior in one year because the afternoon class is a breeze compared to the morning class.
So far school is going great. I'm still figuring out the best way to plan for my day. I'm trying to figure out how many activities I need to plan for based on their attention spans and the resources we have avaible. None of my kids speak english in the morning class. I am finding how difficult it really is to plan projects and activites that will be meaningful and exciting to them, but also on their level so that they understand what I'm saying. I find it hard to balance the need to provide time for them to explore and learn on their own, but also provide enough time for them to be hearing new english vocabulary. Anyway, pre-k3 has its challenges, but the kids hugs and the end of they day make it all worth it.
Welcome to Mr. Walker;s 5th Grade Class. Gideon has a blast with them. Gideon is still getting used to the change from middle school to elementary school, but I know he is doing a fantastic job. When we are in the lunch room eating I've heard numerous teachers give him high praise of his students attitudes in their specials classes, his classroom set up, and the overall job is doing. They are all really impressed. I think he is worrying a lot about this year because he is new to teaching 5th graders, but I don't think he has anything to worry about. A couple of his students have stopped by the pre-k3 classroom to meet me and introduce themselves so that has been fun! Gideon always comes home with stories about his students that shock him. The shock is that they are so motivated to be in school and do school work. He is used to teaching at a public school where it was like pulling teeth getting homework turned in for all the kids and here kids are asking why they didn't have homework the first week of school. Also one kid prayed during morning devotion that he was thankful the weekend was over. What? Who are these kids? Here are a couple other photos of his kids!
As for life outside of school well we seem to be spending a lot of time preparing for the school week right now even on saturdays. I think it will get better though. Gideon just started his masters program online this last wednesday so that keeps him busy in the evenings. In a couple of weeks I will start doing 3rd 4th and 5th grade soccer on thursdays after school for an hour. I'm really excited for that. Last night we went out to dinner and on the way home it was raining. We didn't think we would ever get cold in Cambodia, but we were proved wrong last night! We are still looking for a church. The past couple sunday we have had things that have kept us from going to church. Last sunday we made an appointment in the morning to get Gideon's bicycle fixed (yes we just bought it a 3 weeks ago and it hd already broke) thinking we had plenty of time to do that and then head to church well. Something that we thought we take an hour ended up taking three. So hopefully we will get to church tomorrow and find one that we enjoy.
Thank you for all of your prayers. Please continue to pray for us as we continue to adjust to our new schedules and routines of life. Please pray that we will be patient with one another. This last week we have come home extremely exhausted from our school routine and have been a little short with one another. Please pray as we continue to build relationships with our landlords. Pray that they see God in us!
We love you all and miss you!
Kristy and Gideon
We have had some requests about pictures of our kids at school so here they are!!!!!!!
This is my morning class. Most of them are 3 and some of them will be turning 4 this fall. I have three Chinese, two Korean, and the rest are Khmer ( Cambodian). Can you tell who is who?
This is my afternoon class. Four of my morning students stay all day. It is such a long day for them and one of them still cries when he doesn't get to go home with all the other students. There are 6 students from P-k4 class that stay all day and join with us the second half of the day. You can tell that they learn so much english and school behavior in one year because the afternoon class is a breeze compared to the morning class.
So far school is going great. I'm still figuring out the best way to plan for my day. I'm trying to figure out how many activities I need to plan for based on their attention spans and the resources we have avaible. None of my kids speak english in the morning class. I am finding how difficult it really is to plan projects and activites that will be meaningful and exciting to them, but also on their level so that they understand what I'm saying. I find it hard to balance the need to provide time for them to explore and learn on their own, but also provide enough time for them to be hearing new english vocabulary. Anyway, pre-k3 has its challenges, but the kids hugs and the end of they day make it all worth it.
Welcome to Mr. Walker;s 5th Grade Class. Gideon has a blast with them. Gideon is still getting used to the change from middle school to elementary school, but I know he is doing a fantastic job. When we are in the lunch room eating I've heard numerous teachers give him high praise of his students attitudes in their specials classes, his classroom set up, and the overall job is doing. They are all really impressed. I think he is worrying a lot about this year because he is new to teaching 5th graders, but I don't think he has anything to worry about. A couple of his students have stopped by the pre-k3 classroom to meet me and introduce themselves so that has been fun! Gideon always comes home with stories about his students that shock him. The shock is that they are so motivated to be in school and do school work. He is used to teaching at a public school where it was like pulling teeth getting homework turned in for all the kids and here kids are asking why they didn't have homework the first week of school. Also one kid prayed during morning devotion that he was thankful the weekend was over. What? Who are these kids? Here are a couple other photos of his kids!
As for life outside of school well we seem to be spending a lot of time preparing for the school week right now even on saturdays. I think it will get better though. Gideon just started his masters program online this last wednesday so that keeps him busy in the evenings. In a couple of weeks I will start doing 3rd 4th and 5th grade soccer on thursdays after school for an hour. I'm really excited for that. Last night we went out to dinner and on the way home it was raining. We didn't think we would ever get cold in Cambodia, but we were proved wrong last night! We are still looking for a church. The past couple sunday we have had things that have kept us from going to church. Last sunday we made an appointment in the morning to get Gideon's bicycle fixed (yes we just bought it a 3 weeks ago and it hd already broke) thinking we had plenty of time to do that and then head to church well. Something that we thought we take an hour ended up taking three. So hopefully we will get to church tomorrow and find one that we enjoy.
Thank you for all of your prayers. Please continue to pray for us as we continue to adjust to our new schedules and routines of life. Please pray that we will be patient with one another. This last week we have come home extremely exhausted from our school routine and have been a little short with one another. Please pray as we continue to build relationships with our landlords. Pray that they see God in us!
We love you all and miss you!
Kristy and Gideon
Saturday, August 14, 2010
The First Week of School!
Dear Family and Friends!
Praise God and thanks to all of you who prayed for our first week of school! Although there were a few "woops" moments here and there, Kristy and I are thankful for such a smooth and exciting week!
Kristy did an amazing job working with the 3 year olds this week. Just as she thought, there was quite a bit if crying on in the first couple of days, but she said that by Friday only one or two of her kids would cry! (I still do not know how she can handle it, but she does great!) Praise God for her week! I am so proud of her, because she always has really fun and exciting activities planned for the kids! I'm certain they are being blessed! A couple of highlights that Kristy wanted you to know was the times she got to sing with the kids and getting tons of hugs at the end of the day! She said.... "Those are the best parts of the day for me!". Finally, Kristy wanted to tell you how thankful she is for her Teacher's Assistant, Sorphorn (SO - PAWN)! Sophorn is so helpful and works very hard! From my perspective, there is definitely a ministry going on there too! Its quite amazing!
Teaching in fifth grade was a complete blast! I love my kids and know that it is going to be a great year! They are all incredible! I am still trying to get used to lesson planning for 8 subjects, but I'm sure it will come! A couple of highlights of my week, were playing "get-to-know-you" games on the first day and art! In fact, I got to use a couple of games I learned at the National Youth Workers Convention last year! Thank you ROL for giving me that opportunity.
We did have a few more highlights this week that didn't involve school that we wanted to tell you about. First, on Sunday Kristy and I bought a Moto! It was such an interesting experience! We sat at the 2nd hand dealorship for about 2 hours as they basically build the moto in front of us! Also, the dealer gave is his phone number in case the moto ever broke down! How awesome is that! It was amazing, but really that is how business is here! However, trying to get the moto home safely was definitely an experience! If driving a moto for the first time was not hard enough, Kristy had to hold on to one of our bikes while she rode on the back of the moto, because the peddle on my bike broke! After a slow-going ride we made it safely! Since then, riding has become easier and Kristy is even starting to feel a little more comfortablt driving by herself. She hasn't gotten out on the streets yet, but I'm sure she will soon!
Another highlight we had was eating at our co-worker's house. Her name is Taskeen and she is from Pakistan! She wanted o have us over, because she knew that I loved Indian food! However, what she did not tell us, was that the day she had us over was actually her 18 year anniversary! Moreover, she did not want to tell us, because she did not was us to get them a gift! Kind of neat hunh? Her food was absolutely amazing and just talking with her and her husband was a complete blessing. Her husband is a writer and he talked alot about politics! However, it was really neat to hear a non-american's view of American policy! So interesting! And to top it all off Taskeen invited Kristy to come over whenever she wanted to, to learn how to cook yummy Indian food! (I'm soooooo excited!)
Finally, the last highlight we had this week, was going out to lunch. We decided to eat a a new "Terrace" (very similiar to Starbucks" today! The food was great and really filled us up! But when we went to pay we found out that the restaurant was giving a 1/2 off discount because they were new! So we ate a full meal with frappes for 5 dollars! SOOOOO Awesome!
Well, that was our week here in Cambodia! We are still getting used to the food, heat, traffic, and schedules; but it is getting easier every day! Thank you to all of you who are supporting us with prayer and financial gifts! We are truly blessed to call you friends and family! The ministry we have here could not exist without your help! God is doing a great work through you all!
Praise the Lord for such and amazing week!
Humble blessings from Cambodia,
Gideon and Kristy
Praise God and thanks to all of you who prayed for our first week of school! Although there were a few "woops" moments here and there, Kristy and I are thankful for such a smooth and exciting week!
Kristy did an amazing job working with the 3 year olds this week. Just as she thought, there was quite a bit if crying on in the first couple of days, but she said that by Friday only one or two of her kids would cry! (I still do not know how she can handle it, but she does great!) Praise God for her week! I am so proud of her, because she always has really fun and exciting activities planned for the kids! I'm certain they are being blessed! A couple of highlights that Kristy wanted you to know was the times she got to sing with the kids and getting tons of hugs at the end of the day! She said.... "Those are the best parts of the day for me!". Finally, Kristy wanted to tell you how thankful she is for her Teacher's Assistant, Sorphorn (SO - PAWN)! Sophorn is so helpful and works very hard! From my perspective, there is definitely a ministry going on there too! Its quite amazing!
Teaching in fifth grade was a complete blast! I love my kids and know that it is going to be a great year! They are all incredible! I am still trying to get used to lesson planning for 8 subjects, but I'm sure it will come! A couple of highlights of my week, were playing "get-to-know-you" games on the first day and art! In fact, I got to use a couple of games I learned at the National Youth Workers Convention last year! Thank you ROL for giving me that opportunity.
We did have a few more highlights this week that didn't involve school that we wanted to tell you about. First, on Sunday Kristy and I bought a Moto! It was such an interesting experience! We sat at the 2nd hand dealorship for about 2 hours as they basically build the moto in front of us! Also, the dealer gave is his phone number in case the moto ever broke down! How awesome is that! It was amazing, but really that is how business is here! However, trying to get the moto home safely was definitely an experience! If driving a moto for the first time was not hard enough, Kristy had to hold on to one of our bikes while she rode on the back of the moto, because the peddle on my bike broke! After a slow-going ride we made it safely! Since then, riding has become easier and Kristy is even starting to feel a little more comfortablt driving by herself. She hasn't gotten out on the streets yet, but I'm sure she will soon!
Another highlight we had was eating at our co-worker's house. Her name is Taskeen and she is from Pakistan! She wanted o have us over, because she knew that I loved Indian food! However, what she did not tell us, was that the day she had us over was actually her 18 year anniversary! Moreover, she did not want to tell us, because she did not was us to get them a gift! Kind of neat hunh? Her food was absolutely amazing and just talking with her and her husband was a complete blessing. Her husband is a writer and he talked alot about politics! However, it was really neat to hear a non-american's view of American policy! So interesting! And to top it all off Taskeen invited Kristy to come over whenever she wanted to, to learn how to cook yummy Indian food! (I'm soooooo excited!)
Finally, the last highlight we had this week, was going out to lunch. We decided to eat a a new "Terrace" (very similiar to Starbucks" today! The food was great and really filled us up! But when we went to pay we found out that the restaurant was giving a 1/2 off discount because they were new! So we ate a full meal with frappes for 5 dollars! SOOOOO Awesome!
Well, that was our week here in Cambodia! We are still getting used to the food, heat, traffic, and schedules; but it is getting easier every day! Thank you to all of you who are supporting us with prayer and financial gifts! We are truly blessed to call you friends and family! The ministry we have here could not exist without your help! God is doing a great work through you all!
Praise the Lord for such and amazing week!
Humble blessings from Cambodia,
Gideon and Kristy
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Pictures of our Apartment and a little about Khmer culture!
This is our kitchen
This is our bedroom
This is our living area.
Our apartment is feeling more and more like home. Something that we have learned here is that it takes quite a long time to get all the errands you want done. Maybe weeks sometimes, because there is not one place like Walmart or Target that is a one stop shopping. You have to go to many different shops to get what you want. We have realized that a list of errands that we would have in the States we could get done in one day, but here it takes quite a bit longer. So it is important to feel accomplishment when you cross one or two things off your to do list. We are still in the process of learning where is the best place to buy things we like or need. Also we have learned that the foreigner price of items is way higher than the Khmer price. So when buying big items it is helpful to take a Khmer person along to help us out with the bargaining. Our bargaining skills are getting better and better. Gideon and I have found that one or the other has to be in charge of the bargaining; we can't do it at the same time, because than we fight afterwards saying " I was trying to get it cheaper than that."
We start school tomorrow! Please pray that the first week of school goes smoothly! Continue to pray for our relationship with our landlords, and that they will see God in us!
Love to you all!
Kristy and Gideon
Monday, August 2, 2010
Challenges and Delights
Hello All,
As it has been about a week since the last time we posted, there is a lot to share because everything is so new and exciting. To keep it somewhat simple I thought we could break up our experiences last week into two categories. Things we have found Challenging and things we have found Delight in.
Let's start with the Challenging:
1.Being exhausted after one trip to the market and purchasing one needed item for the household either because of the heat of the day or trying to communicate to people whose native tongue is different than ours.
2. Seeing a cock-roach shimmy across our bedroom floor.
3. Looking at walls and walls of pictures of those the Khmer Rouge imprisoned, tortured and killed at the Toul Sleng Museum.
4. Walking down the street and night and seeing the seated row of girls and the local bars who are prostituted out by a pimp. Knowing that these girls in some way chose this lifestyle but at the same time can't get out because they think it is the best way to make ends meet.
5. Being overwhelmed by what needs to be done to prepare for school before it starts next monday. Preparing for lessons without all the technology and resources that we are used to in the US.
6. Missing people at home
Now to the Delights:
1. Spending time with new and old staff at Logos. We have been able to spend time with lots of people here so far. We were invited out to eat every night this weekend with someone different and have enjoyed getting to know all of them.
2. We love our landlords, Sothearya, Onn and their two boys Sopana and Sokvatana. Since our last post we had a couple of conversations with them and found out that they are not Christians. They are Buddhists but say they do not take it seriously. We find delight in God allowing us to be part of his work in sharing Him with our wonderful landlords.
3. Gideon enjoyed playing B-ball with some missionary guys who get together every monday night at Logos to play.
4. Riding our bicycles around and learning how to make or way through the crazy traffic. We feel its a big accomplishment when we make it to a place we have never been in the city.
5. We bought a toaster oven so we can have toast and even make a small pizza.
We thank you all for your prayers.
Love,
Kristy and Gideon
As it has been about a week since the last time we posted, there is a lot to share because everything is so new and exciting. To keep it somewhat simple I thought we could break up our experiences last week into two categories. Things we have found Challenging and things we have found Delight in.
Let's start with the Challenging:
1.Being exhausted after one trip to the market and purchasing one needed item for the household either because of the heat of the day or trying to communicate to people whose native tongue is different than ours.
2. Seeing a cock-roach shimmy across our bedroom floor.
3. Looking at walls and walls of pictures of those the Khmer Rouge imprisoned, tortured and killed at the Toul Sleng Museum.
4. Walking down the street and night and seeing the seated row of girls and the local bars who are prostituted out by a pimp. Knowing that these girls in some way chose this lifestyle but at the same time can't get out because they think it is the best way to make ends meet.
5. Being overwhelmed by what needs to be done to prepare for school before it starts next monday. Preparing for lessons without all the technology and resources that we are used to in the US.
6. Missing people at home
Now to the Delights:
1. Spending time with new and old staff at Logos. We have been able to spend time with lots of people here so far. We were invited out to eat every night this weekend with someone different and have enjoyed getting to know all of them.
2. We love our landlords, Sothearya, Onn and their two boys Sopana and Sokvatana. Since our last post we had a couple of conversations with them and found out that they are not Christians. They are Buddhists but say they do not take it seriously. We find delight in God allowing us to be part of his work in sharing Him with our wonderful landlords.
3. Gideon enjoyed playing B-ball with some missionary guys who get together every monday night at Logos to play.
4. Riding our bicycles around and learning how to make or way through the crazy traffic. We feel its a big accomplishment when we make it to a place we have never been in the city.
5. We bought a toaster oven so we can have toast and even make a small pizza.
We thank you all for your prayers.
Love,
Kristy and Gideon
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