Thursday, August 5

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONAH! I missed both of the kids birthdays on this trip. However, I have an Asian dinner plan for a celebration after I catch up on my rest. I have 3 recipes to try out:) This morning the teen girls needed one more short trip to the market so four of us ate an early breakfast and took a tuk-tuk to the market for an hour. The Asia's Hope van was waiting when we returned so we quickly changed clothes into painting garb and headed to the school. Along the way we stopped at the newly opened KFC, yes KFC - only rice is served instead of mashed potatoes and gravy. Jenna did find out that potatoes were available upon request. She was a happy girl. Most of the team has reached the rice limit as have I.
Knowing that a paint brush is a weapon in my hand, I brought all of the teaching gear to work on during the painting time. I sat in a small gazebo on the school grounds for over 3 hours. The director's wife and I cut and assembled several phonics games. The school kids were all sleeping. I am not kidding! They come to school at 7:30. They break for lunch at 11:00 and then ALL of the kids nap for an hour. There is something about the heat, the humidity, the dust, I don't know what all - but you really are ready for that siesta or rest when early afternoon rolls around. No rest for us today, however. When the kids got up we all spent the afternoon outside working on English with the games we had assembled. Of course there was play and a return of the wonderful banana chips that we sampled yesterday. The children leave school at 4:00. Some ride bikes and carry a buddy on the back of the bike. Some go in the school van. Sometimes there are tuk-tuks. We followed the kids home from PrekEng 4. This home is sponsored by a family from Brandenton, Fla. We only had about 45 minutes to spend with them but we had a wonderful, wet time. We filled around 100 water balloons, gave minimum directions and the balloons started to fly. What a hoot! It was over in a few short minutes - many wet hugs and goodbyes. We repeated the same sequence with PrekEng 3. This is Vista's (Dublin church) house. Neither of these groups of kids had ever experienced water balloons. They have now been initiated! We had to rush back to the hotel, shower and dress and walk to a nice restaurant around the corner from our hotel. We treated all of the house directors and their wives to dinner. It was very nice. I shared with them that I remember how special it was when Bob and I had the occasion to slip away from our three children for a quiet dinner. I can't imagine how nice it must be for these couples to slip away from their 25 children for a couple of quiet hours!!
It is time to go to my room and pack. We leave the hotel at 8 am on Friday. We arrive in Columbus sometime Saturday afternoon. So, that's a lot of flying and a lot of time hanging out in the airports - LAX and Dallas. Thank you for prayers for our flights, luggage, safety, etc. God is blessing the people of Cambodia through Asia's Hope. He has blessed each of us as we've had a chance to watch this organization in action. Thanks for sharing this journey with me.

Wednesday, August 4

On Facebook I mentioned the fact that people might be able to visit Cambodia cheaper than coming on an Asia's Hope team. But the extras that we have been able to provide have been so rewarding. Among them are painting walls inside and out, providing pneumonia vaccine for all of the children and staff at the newest home, repairing a kitchen roof that was leaking, buying 200 elementary writing notebooks for one home, providing two meals for the kids as part of the party evening, taking 170 kids and all of the staff from Battenbang to the swimming pool with slides and sprays for the afternoon, and taking the director of each home and his wife out to dinner tomorrow night. I'm sure there was more but you get the point. These things are not a part of their regular budgets so we have the chance to be a part of these special projects while we are here.
Today we did our tourist shopping at the Russian Market. We met Jen Morgan for lunch at a place she suggested. It was great. Most of us, but not all, are about done with the rice and veggies. I had a great bagel with cream cheese and cauliflower soup. Oh, yes!
The Daughters of Cambodia organization works with girls and ladies who want to get out of the sex trade. Most of them have been sold by their family or tricked into the business by people promising them a good paying job. Then they are locked up and their stories are very sad. If they are able to get to Daughthers they are given the chance to recover, to learn a trade, and to learn their worth. Our friend Jen Morgan worked with them for awhile. They have a small gift shop that we visited and they offer manicure and pedicure services provided by the girls who are learning this trade. So the five ladies took advantage of this opportunity this afternoon and got our $3.50 pedicures. They also have a cute little cafe upstairs from the salon room where a group learning to bake provides wonderful pasteries - well at least the brownies were great!
We visited Prek Eng 1 and 2 today and spent a couple of hours at each home with no goals except to enjoy the kids and play with them - active games, conversation, Uno, duck-duck-goose, etc. PrekEng 2 is Central Vineyard's home. These kids love to sing. They are the only group who offers to sing for us everytime we visit. Dinner was at 9:00 pm again by the time we got back to the hotel.
Oh yes, I mentioned my distaste for my small ugly room with no window! I did ask Sherrod if he thought it was appropriate to ask for another room and found out that Aaron who also had a single room was in a room just like mine only on another floor. We had to pay $5.00 more for different rooms, but the new rooms and the old ones are like two totally different hotels!! I now have a large room with a nice balcony and a full-sized bath. Thanks, Lord. I really didn't feel safe in the other location.
Tomorrow we will make one more market stop. We'll need snacks for a very long day. We will drive to Asia's Hope School where we will be painting, then teaching English. The driving here is more than crazy as some of you know. So please continue to pray for our safety as we move around the city.

Tuesday, August 2

The days in Battenbang were so good. My last trip we were very rushed there. Now there are 6 orphan homes, three of them in once location with a lovely large pavillion area where they all meet together. Church was there on Sunday. After church I was dropped off at Kent and Becky Good's house to see what our GBIM missionaries do in Cambodia. Becky was a lovely hostess. She served an Asian dinner of three different dishes, a fresh salad that I could eat (I've missed my salads), bread and brownie with ice cream. She had another guest from Lyon, France who is visiting Cambodia for a month doing outreach. It was fun to tell Samuel that I had visited his church and that his pastor's wife had been a babysitter for my children years ago. The Kanes and Goods have a ministry center in the middle of Battenbang where there are daily classes, Bible studies, English teaching for children, church on Sunday afternoon and a couple of young men who live there and are being discipled by the caretaker. I enjoyed the worship music with them in their service and watched the children in their worship time for a little bit before Becky took a tuk-tuk with me back to the hotel.
Monday was a wonderful/awful day. We visited three orphan homes in the morning. We kept the kids busy with crafts, playing ball, doing nails, and hair while the nurses saw everyone that had medical problems. The highlights were providing pneumonia vaccinations for all of the latest orphan home kids and staff - now they are free from this common illness for life; providing 200 writing notebooks for BB3 (Crossroads Community home). I got my second moto ride this trip to go to the market and back to buy the books. We took time for lunch and an hour nap and then returned to the large complex. I met my sweet little girl that I sponsor, RakSa on Sunday. When we arrived on Monday she was glued to my side. We did more crafts - 3 different things and played with everyone. Then the awful - the goodbyes, over and over during the day. The last one was at 7 pm. We went to a small restaurant called the Bungalow for dinner - the rice and veggies are all starting to look alike at this point!
This morning we packed up and when it was time to leave the lobby all 6 of the directors - house dads- were at the hotel to say goodbye. We headed for the bus station - very bumpy ride for 5 1/2 hours back to Phnom Penh. We are there now. We've had very nice accomodations the whole trip until now - this hotel makes me clostrophobic. Tonight we are going by the river, having pizza and doing sight seeing.
Everyone has done so well! No illness! We are, however, wearing down and looking a little glassy-eyed. Pray for our endurance and continued good health. Pray the kids we will see and interact with only once or twice more. Thanks for your prayers and notes!