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.

26th Birthday Celebrations

Today is my birthday! I feel so blessed to have the people I have around me today that made me feel so loved. My birthday celebrations started out an evening early. Gideon took me out for a nice dinner last night. We ended up having to bring home left overs because we are no longer used to those portions anymore. I ordered a GIANT sandwich.

Today my lovely teaching assistant, Sorphorn, surprised me. She bought me breakfast, noddles and fried veggies, very Khmer style. She also bought me these flip-flops that I've wanted ever since she came to school wearing them. I actually went to the market to buy them, but I didn't because they wouldn't give them to me for the same price they gave her. So she went and bought them for me and surprised me today with them. Really I was so humbled by her gifts.

Gideon also had an ice cream cake delivered to Logos today so I could celebrate with my students. Gideon came in singing Happy Birthday and they all just stared at him. I hadn't told them it was my birthday. After eating the cake Odom, the one sitting next to me in the following picture says, " How many are you?" I respond, " I'm 26 today." He continues, " Oh.... You are long." "No I'm Old."

The kids loved the ice cream, but in Pre-K3 there are always consequences to giving the students ice cream. We just played the rest of the morning, and I won't go into the details of the other consequence that happened after nap-time.

It just seemed like the celebrations went on all day. Our landlords remembered my birthday and gave me a beautiful hand-made purse. Today Logos Lightening elementary soccer team had a game and it was our first non-loss of the year ( We Tied) !!! Yay Team!!! What an exciting day. During our stretches my team broke out into Happy Birthday. They did this all on their own with out the prompt of Mr. Walker. Also Gideon's 5th grade girls made me a huge happy birthday poster, and each signed it with a thoughtful note!

Thank You God for family,friends and students that made my day special!

Khmer New Year Whirl-Wind Break!

Hey all!

WOW! Does anyone else find it funny that sometimes it seems like you are more busy when you are on VACATION, than when you are working! IT'S CRAZY! This week Kristy and I have been on Khmer New Year Break! (Don't ask me what year it is! I'm still trying to figure it out since we had Western New Year in January, Chinese New Year in February, and now Khmer New Year in April! I think that puts us two years ahead... so 2013? IDK?) I am trying to figure out a way to get a couple more birthdays out of the deal though... but don't tell Kristy. Got any ideas?

Okay... enough rambling about the year... on with the good stuff!

Well... look at that... I guess it will be tough for me to get much better than that! That picture is some GOOD stuff. I mean really.... that guy is a stud! Soooooo good looking! What REALLY could be better than that? Okay... well... Humm... I conceed. She always has to one-up me! Oh well... at least since she is my wife it makes me good too! Soooo pretty!

AS FOR OUR BREAK --- :) We decided to go to a province town called "Sihanouk Ville", which is VERY popular for it's BEAUTIFUL beaches, and diverse choice of ethnic foods! We, however, went for the relaxation! We arrived by bus (which is insane, by the way!) on Saturday, and checked into our hotel --- The Orchidee --- If you can figure out how to say it correctly, you are already ahead of me! After settling in, we took a walk to the beach! Here are a few photos!

I loved the Ocean! It was soooo clean!

Kristy had a great time!

And for those of you who know me well... you will be surprised to hear, but I actually RELAXED on the beach for nearly 4 hours! Here are a couple of photos. I did ask Kristy what time it was like 20 times, but I did GREAT!

That is one of Kristy's feet and one of my feet! So... proof that I was there and relaxed, for all you DOUBTERS!

The beach was great, but another one of the best parts of this trip was FINALLY getting to eat Mexican food again! It was AMAZING!

We spent four days in Sihanouk Ville, just eating, relaxing and kickin it on the beach. I actually got to read a book for fun! Kristy got a sunburn, but still says it was worth it. We took a HIKE along a rocky part of the shoreline. It was HOT!!!, but sooo beautiful! Take a look....

The last day there, we had food delivered to our hotel room, and just watched movies together all day. It was so awesome just spending quality time together! WE NEEDED IT! I recommend it for EVERY couple! We finally arrived home late Tuesday evening tired and ready for some more relaxation. However, our landlords had other plans in mind. The told us that we needed to move up to our new floor THE NEXT DAY! AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!

The next day proved to be extremely less relaxed! We moved everything from our 1st floor to the 3rd floor! That night we spent unpacking and settling in. We did not end up going to bed till after 10 p.m. (that is really late for us here!) Here are some pics of our new apartment!

Our new HUGE kitchen!

Our ridiculously LONG hallway! (anybody else love RITZ crackers?)

Our new bedroom!

Our NEW living room!

Our NEW balcony!

After a couple days of settling in when were finally able to get caught up on school stuff and errands. We are really happy about our new place, because it is WAY cooler! There is a lot of wind that comes through the windows! Praise God! It has been a great break and although it sounds WEIRD, we are ready to get back to our kiddos! (students that is.... not our own children!

Finally, possibly the craziest thing about Khmer New Year is the fact that it marks that we have ONLY seven weeks until we jump on a plane for the States. We are getting really excited to see everyone! However, I am not going to lie about the fact that we might be equally excited to finally eat normal food! (okay... maybe seeing everyone is a little more!) We are sad that our first year is almost over, but excited to see family again!

Please Pray that we: 1. continue to draw close to God together 2. continue to draw closer together 3. gain more opportunities to witness to our landlords and our students 4. trust in God's provision in our finances 5. help God bring the Kingdom of Cambodia to Him! 6. Get enough rest!

Please Praise God for: 1. His provisions for us so far! 2. Him creating opportunities for us to minister to others. 3. We have made incredible relationships with new people. 4. Our new apartment! 5. A great time of relaxation!

Cultural Day at Phnom Penh University

This last weekend we got a chance to go with our landlords, Sotheare and Onn, to their place of work. They both teach English and the Phnom Penh University. The part of their school is called Institute of Foreign Languages. The IFL hosted a Cultural Day where each department ie. French Department, English Department, Japanesse Dapartment etc. performed some dances from that culture. We had everything from traditional to hip hop. After the performance was over at 11 am we ate lunch with our landlords and joined them in learning some traditional Khmer dances. The University hired a band to stay until 6 pm. Our landlords, Gideon and I were completely worn out after 2 hours of dancing and only stayed until 2pm. This cultural day was to start off the celebration of Khmer New Year. Next week we are on holiday for a full week for the new year. We had a blast with our landlords learning to dance even though we were hot and sweaty the whole time. Please enjoy some pictures of our exciting day!

Traditional Cambodian Dance

These tents are what they use for weddings too. Don't you think they are so beautiful.;)

Cambodian Boxing

Gideon got tired of trying to do the traditional dance and he broke out his hip hop moves!

They dance a lot with their hands, and move their legs and feet a little bit. They also do line dances.

This was the students from the French Department.

Money Offering Dance- they were raising money for the soldiers who are fighting at the border between here and Thailand. The dispute is over who owns a certain temple.

This video is for Carol and my middle school girls at ROL. It is the Hannah Montana dance performed by Cambodian College Students. I just thought it was amusing!

Seven Things

Megan, I'm finally posting my seven things for the blog award you passed on to us. I'm not really sure either what it means to get a blog award. I'm going to take a little spin on it and instead of posting 7 things about me I'm going to post 7 things we've done or just experiences we've had over the month of March. Here it goes!

1. For 3 out of the 4 weeks in March we alternated being sick and taking care of each other. We still managed to make it to school every day. Needless to say our morning work-outs have been effected by this and who knows if we will ever recover. We are enjoying not waking up as early.

2. Gideon's B-Ball team played their first game of the season. The game was a bit stacked. The other team were giants. There were only 2 guys smaller than Gideon's tallest player. His team only made one basket, but they had fun and that is what counts.

3. It is supposed to be hot and dry season here, but it has been raining in the nights and we've been having cool breezes during the day. It feels like Cambodian winter, a low of 75 degrees. We finally bought a flat sheet for our bed. We had been using a blanket that we brought over with us, but now the whether has been so nice we have been getting cold with just our sheet at night.

4. I've been spider hunting twice this month. Our apartment builds up spiderwebs on the tall ceilings quite often. So I have to get a PVC pipe and tie it to our broom. I try to kill all the spiders while I'm tearing up their webs, but I know some escape. I'm always so itchy afterwards. You never know if a spider has crawled down a web and landed in your hair. We did find a big hairy spider in our apartment in October the size of a tennis ball, but we haven't seen once since then.

5. We have discovered I have a fear of Cambodian cows. I've never been afraid of cows before, but these ones in Cambodia seem like they are out to get me. Especially the ones with the horns. We've been told if maneuvering either on foot, bicycle or moto through a heard of cows it is best to go where they have been instead of where they are going. Well where are you suppose to go if the Cambodian man is herding them straight towards you. You think they would want to avoid you, but no they just keep getting closer and closer. Some day I'll be writing a story about how I got head-butted by a Cambodian cow.

6. We have been following March Madness. Gideon always fills out a bracket, but this year was my first time ever. We are now waiting for the Final Four to play, because if Butler wins I will be the owner of the first place bracket. The whole Walker side of the family filled out a bracket, even our 3 month year old niece. If I win I don't get any money, but its still fun that I had no idea what I was doing and I could possibly win it all because of one team.

7. One of the roads on the way to our house is getting paved. The process started this month. Cambodians paving strategies are so interesting. So far it hasn't effected us getting to and from our house, but for some reason they start in the middle of the road instead of starting at one end and working their way to the other. Our landlord told us they are starting in the middle because the King's son own land in the middle and his area of the road needs to be done first. Oh and this last month they just put street lights along one the main road close to our house. It makes night driving much more pleasant. Our moto light is not that powerful.

I am passing this blog award to Cynthia and Tim @ Asian Blend