Whirl Wind of a Start

We've gotten back into some of our old routines here in Phnom Penh. The guy who watches our moto while we buy groceries didn't recognize us for a few seconds, but as soon as we pulled off our helmets he walked over and said, " You here all the time, but not for long time." We told him we went back to the US for 2 months and he nodded his head and gave us a big smile.

Since we got back we've had to get used to an even bigger pond in our driveway, pictures to come. I haven't been brave enough to drive through it, but Gideon does a great job and making sure we don't crash. It really is quite dangerous. They, Cambodians, think it is helpful to put semi-crushed up bricks on the the bottom of the pond. Their hope is that if they put enough the pond will go away. It only makes it worse for motos because we can't see what we are driving over and makes the moto swerve back and forth. Our pond will only get worse as the rain gets harder and harder these next couple of months. We are hoping to move into a new apartment where there is no problems with flooding.

We are done with our first week of school. I have 9 precious children in Pre-K3, and out of those 9, 5 of them cried off and on for the first 3 days. On Friday they seemed to be a little more comfortable and were starting to be themselves and were having fun. The kids in my morning class have such different personalities then the kids in my class last year so it will be fun to get to know them. I still get to see my kids from last year in my afternoon class. One of my highlights from the week was at afternoon recess; I was pushing Vathana on the tire swing. He asked me to push him high. I told him, "I will, but not too high." He continued and responded, " No, Five High! Then we had a conversation about how high is one high, two high, three high etc..... :)

Gideon is enjoying his new 5th graders very much. Every day at lunch his old 5th graders come down to say hi and tell him how 6th grade is going. After the first day of school Gideon was telling me about his old class coming down and he said it felt awkward. I didn't quite understand why it would be awkward and he described it as if it was his ex-girlfriend catching him hanging out with his new girlfriend. :) His old class keeps asking how is your new class? Are they as smart as us? Are they as fun as us? Gideon's highlight from the week was surviving the week. He came down with a head cold on Wednesday, but he made it through the whole week.

We have already been back for almost two weeks, but it does not feel like 2 weeks has gone by. We have been so busy getting ready for school; and ready or not here comes week 2!

A Glimpse of What the North Rim of the Grand Canyon Has to Offer

We went on a three day trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon with my parents, Ron and Robin, and my younger brother Colby. We tried to pay for most of the trip because it was a thank you to my mom and dad for helping us sell our jeep, but it never works out the way you want to. They are too generous sometimes!

After seeing a little section of the Grand Canyon from the top it makes me want to see all of it from the bottom from the view of a raft. Maybe some day that will come true. We had a great time. We hiked a little ways down into the Canyon on the Kaibab Trail. That is the trail where you can hike all the way to the bottom and up the other rim if you wish. We went 2 miles down but the 2 miles up were not easy. We sat in on a ranger talk about the history of all the layers of rock formations. My mom wanted to stay and listen to the ranger talk about the Condors, but we had our own little educational session on those birds back at our cabin thanks to the iphone and wikipedia. We cooked out for breakfast and dinner. We also made my dad who is extremely afraid of heights drive us close to the cliff edges so we could get a view of the Colorado River. Please enjoy some pictures from our trip!

Colby, Kristy, and Gideon on the Kaibab Trail heading down.

Robin and Ron on the Kaibab Trail heading down.

Gideon found a really high rock to stand on!

Colby and Gideon had to keep going down the Kaibab Trail and at least get to the bridge before they turned around. So they hiked a little longer than the rest of us.

A cool plant that we had never seen before. Is it related to the the silver sword that we saw in Maui? That is our question! Please leave a comment if you know the answer.

Some more flora from our hike.

Angels Window with the Colorado River behind.

A gross squirrel digging the mule poop to find grain.

The mules only go down two miles into the canyon too!

My mom loves the mules, but not the smell of mule pee.

In front of our cabin we stayed at for two nights!

Where Is Home?

We are a little over halfway through our summer break back in the States and we are starting to truly miss our life in Phnom Penh. We have loved being in the States getting to visit with family and friends, gorging ourselves with food we had been depraved of, running and not being completely drenched in sweat after the first 10 minutes, spending time in the outdoors, and catching up on American culture (who knew that the game Angry Birds was so popular). While we were in Cambodia we dreamed and talked quite a lot about doing all of these things. We couldn't wait to get back "home." Now that we have been here for over a month and moving from house to house we are ready to be in our home in Cambodia. We really feel like we are on a really long vacation and can't wait to be back in some routine.

We miss seeing all of our c0-workers and friends in Phnom Penh. We miss driving our moto. We miss our students. We miss being in our own apartment. We miss the yummy mangos from our landlords. We miss the guy who watches our moto while we buy our weekly groceries. Yet we know that when we return to Cambodia we will yet again miss the people and things that we are leaving behind here. Through the transition of going back and forth from one side of the world to the other we get to really experience the truth that our home is not here

on earth at all. In neither place do we feel completly comfortable and at home because the only place we should feel that will be in heaven. All we can do is enjoy the places that God takes us to.

Enjoy some pictures of our summer adventures so far. We have three more weeks of adventures here so expect more pictures!

Gideon with our niece, Leah!

In Vail, CO for a couple of hours!

Bowling with Kristy's parents, Ron and Robin!

Our First Meal in the States!

There it is, our first meal. My little cousins, Kenzie and Reece, came with my parents to pick us up from the airport. My parents neighbor Lawrence came up and we ate chicken noodle soup, (Gideon got sick and was throwing up on the airplane on our long flight), watermelon, mango cheese and crackers, and bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. We ended up sleeping for 14 hours the first night we got here. The second night we only slept 4.
The second day here we took our dog, Filos, and my brothers dog, Kali, out to the desert for a little walk. We are loving the weather here. Its around 90 degrees but not sweating all the time. My dad comes home from work turns on the air-con and freezes us out though.
Filos followed Gideon everywhere. If Gideon ran he would run.
Our third day here we ate this beautiful chocolate velvet cheese cake my mom made for us. I had asked her to make it for us way back in December when I saw it posted on my facebook home page. She practiced one time before we got home to make sure it tasted good, and she said this second time was even better than the first. It was heavenly!

We are loving being here. We are always comparing Cambodia to the US. I asked my mom today if she gets tired of hearing all the things we don't have in Cambodia or things they do differently in Cambodia. She told me she loves it. Of course we miss all of our friends in Cambodia. Hope you all are enjoying your summers!

Wrapping Up the End of the Year!

There is under one week left of school this year. I think we are having mixed emotions about it. Gideon and I are both excited to be back to Colorado and Kansas to see family and friends. Also we are excited to get to feel a little normal and be around sights, sounds, and food that are more familiar. Gideon keeps mentioning how he does not want his students to go on to 6th grade. He wishes he could move up with them. He really has enjoyed the group of kids he has had this year! I on the other hand am ready to be done with my kids, at least a couple of them. I think I will be regretting that statement when it comes to the beginning of next year when I have to start all over again with students that can not understand a single word I am saying. I do not even remember what that was like right now. I will soon be reminded. I do love my kids, but a couple of them have taught me about patience more than I ever wanted to know. Here are some pictures of our precious students we had this year! We will miss them in our classes next year.

Pre-K3 doing what they do best! Art Time!

Gideon's class is getting ready to listen to each others presentation's on the Middle Ages in Europe! It's all about castles, knights, Joan of Arc, and the Crusades!

One highlight we had from this last week was our Scottish friend Michaela's 30th birthday party. It was a ceilidh. It is a traditional Scottish dance party. A lot of Logos staff and students showed up to learn the dances and dance the evening away. It was full of laughs, dancing, desserts, power outages, live musical performances, and a lot of bumping and running into each other on the dance floor. The high school students enjoyed it so much they are trying to get Miss Dimeck to do another one before the end of the school year. Please enjoy some pictures from the event.

Traditional Scottish dances are a lot like square dancing.

I am dancing with Ly our IT/Library Guy, and our apartment mate Sara!

Gideon did dance with me. We just did not get any pictures of that. He also helped run the sound system.

Life with an apartment mate is going good. She is probably ready for us to leave so she can have the whole apartment to herself. She asked us the other night when we got back from school if we wanted to go for an evening walk. She wanted to go for a walk along the dirt paths around our house. For a couple of reasons I just had to decline. 1. I was really tired from my school day. 2. It has been raining every evening and the dirt paths are now mud pits. 3. I don't want to meet the creatures that live along those dirt paths like poisonous snakes. Then she called me unadventurous. That hurt a little bit. :) All I have to say is she was not adventurous enough to make that trek all by herself. Who is the unadventurous one now. Living with someone you don't know is always a little awkward at first. By the time we get to know each other a little bit we will be getting on a plane and leaving, but the experience has been overall pleasant so far.

Please pray for safe travels back home! We leave June 4th and will be arriving into Grand Junction on June 5th. You can also be praying for our last full day of school. Gideon's 5th graders are leading chapel, and my students will be singing some songs during the program. My prayer is that I'm not the only one singing when we are upfront. I hope at least my one singer in the class will be brave enough to sing along with me in front of the other elementary students.

Thank you all for your prayers, support, encouragement, and love. Can't wait to see some of you soon!

Kristy and Gideon

A New Roomate

Last Thursday we were asked if we would be willing to house an intern that Asian Hope is having for 4 months working with our good friend Leanne. Her name is Sarah and she is working with Leanne on a anti-trafficking ministry in a village north of Phnom Penh. The ministry is just getting started. After a lot of debate and going back and forth as to weather the hassle of moving around some furniture and adjusting to a new person living with us was worth the money that will be saved and we decided it was.

Sarah moved in Tuesday night. We have not got to spend a lot of time with her, because unfortunately this is probably the busiest week of our year so far. Our schools production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat is this week. Although we did not have much to do with the production we decided to help usher on Thursday night and Gideon's 5th grade class decided to help out at the concession stand during intermission. So Gideon has had to be at all of the performances.

We feel like Sarah moving is a blessing because now we will not have to pay rent for an apartment we are not using while we are home in the States for two months.

A Few Things about Cambodian Culture I Can't Wrap my Mind Around

We are trying to adjust to the culture here as best as possible, and I think we do a pretty good job. There are just those ideas or mindsets of the people here that no matter how hard we try we can never truly think like them. Here are a few examples:

1) There is no such thing as customer service. If the waiter makes a mistake and brings you something other than what you ordered they will find a way to tell say you did order the thing they brought you and the waiter is never wrong. One night we were out to dinner with some friends. Gideon was trying to kill a fly and he accidentally broke a glass. Our friends joked with us you know you are going to have to pay for that. When the waiter came out with the bill he told us, 4 dollars plus 1 dollar to pay for the glass. They just don't understand that if you treat your customers nice and polite you will get them to come back more and then you will make more money. We haven't been back to that restaurant since.

2) 95 % of Cambodians are Buddhist. With Buddhism there is a great emphasis on karma. You get what you deserve. If something bad happens to you it is because of something you have done in the past, and maybe not in this lifetime but in your previous lives that you cannot even remember anything about. So with this idea people can cheat you out of money and it is not wrong of them to do so. It is the way of life, and you go on with out any hatred in your heart towards those people because you are probably to blame for this misfortune in your life. An example of this is when our landlords were building our apartment. In Cambodia the construction workers live at the house while they are building it. They come from the Provinces and bring their families with them. Part of what you pay to get the house built goes towards food for them and their families. Sotheary and Onn, our landlords, had set aside the money needed to pay the workers until the apartments would be finished. The workers kept asking for the money in advance. Sotheary and Onn gave it to them and they next day all the workers had left and gone back to their Province with out finishing the work. Sotheary said there was around 3,000 dollars worth of work left to do. They had to hire someone else to finish. When Sotheare was telling me this story I was shocked, but she told it to me in a calm voice with out getting mad or frustrated. At the end of her story she said, "Oh forgive them." For her she can easily forgive them, because that is what she is used to. That is what she expects from people. She expects people to cheat her. I guess its partially from her Buddhist upbringing and partially because it is the norm; that is the way life is here.