July 21, 2008
Picnic with the kids...
John McCollum's team from Central Vineyard Church is here in Cambodia right now, and they had a picnic with all of the PrekEng orphanages...
Transform Cambodia dinner
Seda's organization had a dinner with some of their Australian friends and sponsors...
Seda and her sister Chantha...
As Seda and I were going out on our date night, we came across her sister selling food...
The orphanage directors, Savorn and me...
From left to right... Sophang, G, Narun, Savong, and Savorn...
Fun with Riatry...
We had a lot fun laughing with Riatry (Seda's nephew) one night about a week ago... what a card...
July 14, 2008
29 things I am grateful for in Cambodia
Here is a potpourri of things that have made me grateful lately... I hope that you enjoy it...
- All of the Asia's Hope teams have had a great time here this summer!
- I actually have had a few conversations that were completely in Khmer...
- I am feeling more confident that I can speak this language and that people will understand me, but some of the grammar is killing me!
- The love that orphans show...
- My moto has been working great, and I have not had a significant spill since March
- Seda and I have had our ups and downs, but we keep working to make our relationship better...
- I have never eaten anything here that makes me wish that I was dead
- I have gotten to do a few little guitar duets (I just play the chords) with a student who can play melodies very nicely on this old beat up classical guitar here...
- Teaching the Bible at the orphanages for church services...
- Being able to help people with my computer skills...
- Being able to help the teacher's at the Christian school understand a Christian school Science text book... we are learning all kinds of new words!
- Somehow, Seda has moments where she thinks that I am handsome...
- Every once in a while when I need some American food, I can go to LUCKY BURGER!
- Even though payday is only once a month, it still comes!
- The National Election for Prime Minister is this month, so I get to see a little of the Cambodian political process at work... (Hun Sen has never lost in almost 20 years)... just one more thing to understand (or maybe misunderstand) about this culture...
- I am not in the United States to listen to all of the political mumbo jumbo about the presidential election...
- I am not in the United States to mourn the debacle that is the Cleveland Indians...
- I received a job description from Asia's Hope that excites me...
- I get email from people all the time encouraging me in what I am doing here
- Matt Redman's song "Nothing But the Blood"
- My Khmer teacher, Nara
- All of the Asia's Hope staff here in Cambodia
- talking with my brother and his girlfriend on the phone on his birthday
- a really kind and gracious letter from my father
- The Fernando Ortega album "The Shadow of Your Wings"
- My new apartment... the shower is only cold water, but I am getting used to it... it is actually more like cool pool water...
- Shane Claiborne's book "The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical"
- two new pictures of my nephews that my sister sent to me
- (and this may sound corny), Facebook! It has been really cool to connect with some people that I have not talked to in YEARS!
- All of the Asia's Hope teams have had a great time here this summer!
- I actually have had a few conversations that were completely in Khmer...
- I am feeling more confident that I can speak this language and that people will understand me, but some of the grammar is killing me!
- The love that orphans show...
- My moto has been working great, and I have not had a significant spill since March
- Seda and I have had our ups and downs, but we keep working to make our relationship better...
- I have never eaten anything here that makes me wish that I was dead
- I have gotten to do a few little guitar duets (I just play the chords) with a student who can play melodies very nicely on this old beat up classical guitar here...
- Teaching the Bible at the orphanages for church services...
- Being able to help people with my computer skills...
- Being able to help the teacher's at the Christian school understand a Christian school Science text book... we are learning all kinds of new words!
- Somehow, Seda has moments where she thinks that I am handsome...
- Every once in a while when I need some American food, I can go to LUCKY BURGER!
- Even though payday is only once a month, it still comes!
- The National Election for Prime Minister is this month, so I get to see a little of the Cambodian political process at work... (Hun Sen has never lost in almost 20 years)... just one more thing to understand (or maybe misunderstand) about this culture...
- I am not in the United States to listen to all of the political mumbo jumbo about the presidential election...
- I am not in the United States to mourn the debacle that is the Cleveland Indians...
- I received a job description from Asia's Hope that excites me...
- I get email from people all the time encouraging me in what I am doing here
- Matt Redman's song "Nothing But the Blood"
- My Khmer teacher, Nara
- All of the Asia's Hope staff here in Cambodia
- talking with my brother and his girlfriend on the phone on his birthday
- a really kind and gracious letter from my father
- The Fernando Ortega album "The Shadow of Your Wings"
- My new apartment... the shower is only cold water, but I am getting used to it... it is actually more like cool pool water...
- Shane Claiborne's book "The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical"
- two new pictures of my nephews that my sister sent to me
- (and this may sound corny), Facebook! It has been really cool to connect with some people that I have not talked to in YEARS!
July 11, 2008
Hamlet
I read Hamlet again for the umpteenth time this past month... I love that book/drama/play... there are so many places that I connect with him on an emotional level... not that I would act in the same way, but I sure can understand his motivations... my favorite fiction story, without a doubt... this time I listened to the different acts and scenes of the play via a recording I have of Kenneth Branagh and the Royal Renaissance Theater Company as I read along... fantastic...
July 06, 2008
An email that made me laugh...
Here is part of an email from Dr. John... it made me laugh...
---------
Greetings, All!
I realize it's been about a week since my last communication, and therefore time for an update. Here's the scoop, here's my dilemma.
How does one write an exciting letter, making it easy and fascinating to read, that describes sitting in meetings followed by sitting at the computer typing up notes of the meetings? For that's what I've been doing. Actually, not just sitting in meetings.
It might be more apt to say trying to survive sitting in meetings. We've all been to meetings that we call, "deadly". Well, I am here to tell you a stateside deadly meeting doesn't hold a candle to a meeting in Southeast Asia . For these meetings are truly life-threatening. Picture this...
Set the environment -- ambient temperature is 100 to 110° on a good day, and of course there's little or no air movement. Sometimes your hosts will provide a fan. Being an oscillating fan it serves the purpose of giving a brief "taste" of a cool wiff, but moves on to for you a chance to truly appreciate it. Then it comes again making your hopes, only to have it fade away. Oh, by the way, is it passes through it blows your papers all over the place, so you have to be sure that everything is pinned down for the "coming of the breeze".
Even those of us who don't consider ourselves particularly sensitive to somatic input, can feel each one of the body's 13 gazillion sweat glands open up and start pouring forth their product. Those little trips turn into frank rivers and although Westerners start to squirm in their seats while they scratch the tickle, or try to sop up the river.
"Oh, yes sir, I am paying attention." Yeah, right. Between scratches, you must be ever vigilant for aerial attack. For at any moment, from any direction you may be attacked by a black fly. Oh, we're used to flies, you say. Yes that's true, these flies are differ in that their wingspan is just short of that of a B-52. Why, if one hits your forehead, you are out cold. (Maybe cold is good? At least the meetings over for you.)
And then there is the ever present wicker. Furniture, that is. It's a popular furnishing in this area. Ever sit on a wicker chair for any length of time? While I am endowed with moderately liberal padding, which I take with me to every meeting, I tell you it's not enough. No indeed, the wicker will prevail. The padding seems to have elaborated and you can just feel the creases and indentations, the imprint of "The Wicker" being created on a certain part of your anatomy.
After a while, it begins to get uncomfortable. So logically you shift your position. Well, it's not that easy. For those little grooves beginning to form in your posterior surfaces are behaving like tongue and groove carpentry -- they have locked onto, mated with their counterpart on the surface of the chair.
If you succeed in extricating yourself from the above situation, you shift and place your weight back down on the chair, right? Yeah, of course. Unfortunately, you find that in order to be comfortable, you must find another place where the tongue and groove's exactly match. For if you try to make new tongue and grooves over old tongue and groove's, I am here to tell you that is uncomfortable. So, you end up returning to your original position and just suffering the discomfort. Now, where were we? Oh yeah, at a meeting.
Now that you have a feel for the environment be reminded that half of the meeting, at least, is conducted by gentlemen, or ladies, speaking in an animated dynamic fashion in words that are totally incomprehensible to you. They will politely glance at you, making eye contact, seeming to assume that you understand what they're saying. Desiring not to offend, you return the eye contact, smiling like a moron apparently indicating that you understand everything. So they proceed to talk some more.
Oh, and you're supposed to be taking notes. So that is a meeting in Southeast Asia .
---------
Greetings, All!
I realize it's been about a week since my last communication, and therefore time for an update. Here's the scoop, here's my dilemma.
How does one write an exciting letter, making it easy and fascinating to read, that describes sitting in meetings followed by sitting at the computer typing up notes of the meetings? For that's what I've been doing. Actually, not just sitting in meetings.
It might be more apt to say trying to survive sitting in meetings. We've all been to meetings that we call, "deadly". Well, I am here to tell you a stateside deadly meeting doesn't hold a candle to a meeting in Southeast Asia . For these meetings are truly life-threatening. Picture this...
Set the environment -- ambient temperature is 100 to 110° on a good day, and of course there's little or no air movement. Sometimes your hosts will provide a fan. Being an oscillating fan it serves the purpose of giving a brief "taste" of a cool wiff, but moves on to for you a chance to truly appreciate it. Then it comes again making your hopes, only to have it fade away. Oh, by the way, is it passes through it blows your papers all over the place, so you have to be sure that everything is pinned down for the "coming of the breeze".
Even those of us who don't consider ourselves particularly sensitive to somatic input, can feel each one of the body's 13 gazillion sweat glands open up and start pouring forth their product. Those little trips turn into frank rivers and although Westerners start to squirm in their seats while they scratch the tickle, or try to sop up the river.
"Oh, yes sir, I am paying attention." Yeah, right. Between scratches, you must be ever vigilant for aerial attack. For at any moment, from any direction you may be attacked by a black fly. Oh, we're used to flies, you say. Yes that's true, these flies are differ in that their wingspan is just short of that of a B-52. Why, if one hits your forehead, you are out cold. (Maybe cold is good? At least the meetings over for you.)
And then there is the ever present wicker. Furniture, that is. It's a popular furnishing in this area. Ever sit on a wicker chair for any length of time? While I am endowed with moderately liberal padding, which I take with me to every meeting, I tell you it's not enough. No indeed, the wicker will prevail. The padding seems to have elaborated and you can just feel the creases and indentations, the imprint of "The Wicker" being created on a certain part of your anatomy.
After a while, it begins to get uncomfortable. So logically you shift your position. Well, it's not that easy. For those little grooves beginning to form in your posterior surfaces are behaving like tongue and groove carpentry -- they have locked onto, mated with their counterpart on the surface of the chair.
If you succeed in extricating yourself from the above situation, you shift and place your weight back down on the chair, right? Yeah, of course. Unfortunately, you find that in order to be comfortable, you must find another place where the tongue and groove's exactly match. For if you try to make new tongue and grooves over old tongue and groove's, I am here to tell you that is uncomfortable. So, you end up returning to your original position and just suffering the discomfort. Now, where were we? Oh yeah, at a meeting.
Now that you have a feel for the environment be reminded that half of the meeting, at least, is conducted by gentlemen, or ladies, speaking in an animated dynamic fashion in words that are totally incomprehensible to you. They will politely glance at you, making eye contact, seeming to assume that you understand what they're saying. Desiring not to offend, you return the eye contact, smiling like a moron apparently indicating that you understand everything. So they proceed to talk some more.
Oh, and you're supposed to be taking notes. So that is a meeting in Southeast Asia .
July 03, 2008
Don and Pat
Don and Pat are some dear Australian friends of ours. They are both volunteers here with Transform Cambodia... unfortunately, due to his health, they needed to make a quick return to Australia last week. We had breakfast with them before they left. Don and I only knew each other for a few months, but we had a great friendship that forged quickly.
More pics from the church service
Here are some additional pictures that Sophang took at the church service this past Sunday... Savorn and I were supposed to go to Battambang this weekend to do another service, but some scheduling problems came up, so we are going the following weekend...
July 01, 2008
Election posters
Here are few pictures of the reigning political party... the Cambodian People's Party... highly criticized, they have been in power, essentially since the UN left in the 1990's... some people view Prime Minister Hun Sen (located in the middle of the three men) as a dictator, some as the genius of a booming economy... he will probably win again, and even if he doesn't get the right number of votes, he may win anyway...
Election kick off...
The other morning I was awakened to incredibly loud noises... at first I thought that it was a wedding (always loud) or a funeral (usually loud)... but it turned out that the election that takes place every five years was officially kicked off... since most people in Cambodia do not have any idea what the internet does, the most effective way of promoting yourself is screaming through megaphones... here are a few pics from my balcony... I am not sure, but I think that none of the political parties are not allowed to do anything official to run for election until a few weeks before the election... that might not be a bad idea for the States...
Church Service at Prek Eng 1 June 29 08
The monthly church service in Prek Eng happened again this weekend, but with a new twist... the college students ran the service...there are some pictures missing here which I will try to fix at a later date (the college students prepared a version of 'God will make a way', and I shared from God's Word... I talked about the rich young ruler... have a great week... love you all. G
June 29, 2008
I saw a dead man today
Sometimes, there are just no words. Cambodia's traffic is famous for unsafe practices, but when the worst things happen, it is a bit hard to put them into words... Sopheap and I were on moto (I was driving), and I looked to my right to see a man trapped under a moto, which was trapped under a van... blood was coming out of his eyes, and he was not moving... apparently the driver of the van wanted to go around a car in front of him, and hit the man... I really don't know all of the details... it was just so sad... I thought about it the rest of the way back to the Student Center... my thoughts ranged from "he wasn't wearing a helmet", to "what will his family do?", to "is he with the Lord, or...", to the inevitable, "that could have been me"... it was obvious that the accident had happened only moments before we got there because the people in the van were just getting out and quickly removing all of their possessions... there is a real feeling of powerlessness when something like that happens in Cambodia... not only is a life ended, but a family may no longer have any way of sustaining themselves, and there is no way to call the police... they may not come anyway... wheh... okay, so we all know again that life is tough...
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