Wasn't Sengho, It was Long

I wrote that it was Sengho but I had his name wrong!  This was Long.  So sorry!

Alfven and I were inside with Kit chatting and there was a crowd outside, intently looking at something.  We guessed that Selena was trying to help the Dalmatian because her burns aren't getting much better.  She is having a very hard time healing and Selena said she would like to see if she could help her.  Selena is studying to be a health care worker.

After a few minutes we decided to go out and check on what was going on.  When we got there Long was laying down on a bench with his foot up on Selena who was holding ice on it.  He was whimper/crying but not loud at all.  His foot had 2 puncture type wounds on the top bone.  The kids said he had dropped a brick on it.  That is such a painful injury!  

The orphanage workers were so concerned!  They were worried he broke it.  Kit told them to take Long to the clinic which is a 5 minute ride into a little larger village.  We prayed as a group over Long and two staff pulled up a moto, sat Sengho between them and rode off.  

I asked Kit how the clinic works.  He said that they pay cash or they won't be seen.  He said if people can't pay they can die outside.  He said an X-ray and care would take about $20 but if he needs a cast it would be more like $100.  

When planning our trip, Kit had told us this village has a witch doctor down the street but no really good medical care close.  Ream had a surgical emergency back in the winter and they wound up taking her very far away to a Thai hospital for the best care around.  

Long got back after dinner and the foot was not broken.  He's not using it for the time being.  No matter how broken our health care is in the states, thank the good Lord we have some!  An injury here can be quickly life altering!

End Of Year Carnival

This morning started off like being shot out of a cannon!  The whole school showed up before I even got out of our room.  The kids were so excited and some came all dressed up in their party clothes.  Some of the little girls were dressed in fancy dresses and some of the boys were in new outfits for the occasion.  It was sweet to see!

We could see the yard had filled with children from our room.  We are staying in the orphanage on the bottom level in a wonderful and spacious apartment.  Our door opens to the hallway and is right across from the kitchen, down the short hall from the great room.  It's an excellent location because all the kids come by and stop at the door to ask for one of our kids or for us to come out or anything else including just watching to see what we are doing.  It's interesting that they really watch when we are interacting as a family.  Kit had said a while back that it's good for them to see how Christian families behave and treat each other and I can see it peaks their curiosity.  And we can also see through the big kitchen window from several windows along the hallway in our place and look out to see the yard.  In fact, tonight On (one of a large group including Grace) came running by and asked if I wanted to play.  I had finally gotten cooled off from all the days work so I declined but it's fun to see them running by the windows and having fun!  We can also hear the music they play down in the great room.  Tonight one of the songs was "My God Reigns" with Khmer lyrics!

Even just our meal time around the counter.  We gather and chat and joke and pray.  Their meal time is very quiet and quick.  They sing a Bible verse, pray and eat without much talking at all.  Just different but it can be fun to watch when things are done differently.

Here is what we woke to!  They did do a formation, prayer and get instructions in the yard before they were released to play games.

Some of the kids brought a sack lunch for eating mid-day.  Just like in the states but theirs was rice and vegetables and/or meat.

Totally cute and all dressed for the party!

Alfven and the boys worked finishing the shooting range.  Alfven is very into firearm safety and safety here is not really thought of.  He's spray painting the Enter to the firing line and the safe zones.

Tug of war was played all day long.  The kids loved this!  And some of the adults too.  Alfven helped out a team of girls that kept loosing and let them taste victory.

There was a ball game where you had to throw the ball through some metal croquet type hoops.

There were boards where three people raced by coordinating their steps.

This is just one of the random scenes of masses of happy children enjoying their end of school year :)

Alfven's shooting booth was very popular especially among the boys!  There were some very good shots and everyone seemed to have a great time.  Joseph helped out there all day too running the kids through their turns.

There was the good 'ole basketball throw game.  At least until the wind blew the board down and completely smashed the plastic hoops on it.  There were shards of plastic all over the ground and broken hoops.  And amazingly so, I turned around about 10 minutes later and the hoops were fixed at least to the useable stage and nailed/taped back onto the board.  They can fix anything around here!

There was the throw the ping pong ball into the fish bowl too.  And each game had a way to win some candy.  This was a fundraising event for the school this year as a new idea.  Kit will see what it cost to put on and how much was made.  The candy that was given out was about 1 cent a piece.  Our dollar gets 4,000 riel to give you a gauge.  The kids at the orphanage get an allowance each month too that is 1 dollar but here you can get something with it.

This was the pachinko game that Kit made out of plywood, nails and rubber bands.  The one we carried down that crazy road after Women's meeting Sunday.  to walk around and take pictures. Rachanna said she needed help at this booth so I helped out.  It was intense!  The kids were all yelling, just excited and yelling the prize that they hope they landed or that they won or wanted more balls.  The problem was they were all yelling in Khmer!  Thankfully I had learned my numbers up to 19 and on their riel is written one English number in the corner so I figured it out pretty well.  The kids just kept coming and coming.  We had a bucket of riel!  The only problem was that it was hot and the sun came through so I wound up being the big sweaty white woman at the game!  Ick!  Again, everyone was so gracious and pretended like they didn't see the sweat beads dripping off my forehead.  And if you notice, Rachanna and a decent amount of the kids were wearing long-sleeves and/or long pants.  I would say they were a little sticky compared to sweaty.  I gotta figure out how they do that!

At one point we had little peakers at the back of our booth :)

If you notice below there is the boy with the white smudge on his face.  It is a fun tradition in Cambodia to run around and tag people with baby powder, seemed like on the cheek.  I got tagged 3 times and you would see it on people all over.  It was fun for the kids and funny because with their dark skin and hair it really showed up.  I liked that it smelled good!

At lunch time a lot of the kids went home for lunch.  Some stayed and had their box lunches.  We were treated to box lunches too so we all ate outside under the tent.  Some of the kids from the orphanage got a fish and cooked it up for a shared fish platter lunch.  While we were eating everyone was toasting everyone!  When some of the older male teachers came over to toast us we did and then Kit explained that toasting is very big in Cambodia!  I love that the Cambodian people really know how to celebrate and don't need a whole lot to do it with.

After lunch I made the kids come do some laundry with me.  I figured people would still be out at the front side at the carnival so it would be a good time to wash and not worry about running out of water which does happen.  Needless to say my kids were not appreciative of my idea :)  We washed until the dancing started!

So we had to go back!  I left laundry to soak and we had a great time watching some more traditional types of dances.  And then …. they played Gangnam Style!  And Benjamin had to jump in!  He's in the blue shirt here and the boys were impressed with all his moves!  He was showing them his moves and everyone was having a great time!  Apparently he also did Mr. Robot-O but I missed that one.   Joseph said this week that he connects to the kids through work.  I think Benjamin's connection is dancing!  it was hilarious!

Benjamin and Grace took Anna around so she could play some games and win candy too while Alfven, Joseph and I worked at the booths.  As you can see, she was quite happy with her day :)

In the afternoon we helped to make the goodie bags for the group birthday party tomorrow.  We made 50 bags and as we started more and more hands arrived to help.  These kids are very helpful!  In fact, I had wedged Anna's balloons on a low rung of a ladder at the carnival because I was tired of holding them.  Of course the wind picked up and blew them right over the 10 foot wall!  Anna started yelling and Borin ran up the ladder, over the wall and brought back the balloons!

Below is a picture of how they get supplies to the third floor for Kit and Ream's apartment.  They use a pulley and buckets to unload the groceries to their kitchen.  It was pretty cool to see the system and again the teamwork of the kids.  There are three floors and each have 12 foot ceilings due to lack of air conditioning.  The tall ceilings help to keep the rooms cool and ours has ventilation holes in every wall on the top 3 feet.  The second floor houses the boys room and the girls room as well as a boys bathroom and girls bathroom.  Now, there were flats of drinks that several of us had to run up the three fights of stairs to a storage area.  We probably made about 6-7 trips each and there were 4 of us running them.

I might need Advil again before bed tonight :)  Alfven took Benadryl for all his itching bug bites.  I told Alfven by the time we get on the plane next week, we will all sleep the entire trip home and look like we came out of the jungle with all our bug bites.  Hopefully our clothes won't smell like they were hand washed :)

To The Mountain

Good Morning!  It's about 4:45 in the morning here and the friendly alarm clock is right on time.  I started to blog last night but the power kept going out.  It really wasn't a problem because of my computer battery.  The problem was that the flying bugs flocked to my screen as it was the only light in the place!  So I decided to wait until this morning :)

Yesterday was full and fun again!  In the morning I made it to the orphanage workers Bible study that Ream leads and again was blessed by hearing the Word and prayer in the Khmer language.  The Scripture that I read was Matthew 6:14 to the end of the chapter.  However, I am going to check with Ream today because I think we were supposed to be in Mark.  I obviously don't understand what the conversation and comments are when in the group setting so when asked to add my own comments and thoughts about the Scripture I just say what touched me not knowing if I'm repeating or contradicting what someone has said.  Last night when I went to reread the Scripture, I think I was commenting on the wrong Scripture!  I'm sure they thought I was crazy and figured out I was in the wrong place but they are so polite they would never correct me!

I was very touched by Matthew 6 because it talks about not worrying about what to wear and what to eat.  That if we seek first His kingdom and righteousness then He will provide.  And Matthew 6:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of it's own".  Sitting in the no air conditioning with several ladies who this is their home and with very, very little material things, what a new stirring in my soul of those verses.  I'm not sure those of us who are "blessed" with so many things are truly blessed sometimes.

Grace and I took a morning walk around the farm.  It's so pleasant in the morning with all the animals and crops.  The kids here are do their morning chores around 7 and their evening chores at 5.  Each set lasts about an hour but some chores last longer and some less.  If they finish early they are allowed to go help someone else with their chores and they do.  The teamwork here is amazing!

Grace is walking between the barn on the left that has pig pens not used right now and chickens upstairs.  The right side is where the goats and cows usually stay.

And when we looked over the fence this is what we got to see!  The neighbor plowing his field.  Now Joseph saw this picture and said I was the photo stalker in the bushes again :)  But I had greeted the neighbor before I took his picture.  Thankfully there is youtube and I have several phrases in Khmer memorized :)  We've actually used them a lot especially when we went to the villagers houses.

We had set up the evening before to go with the High School students to the mountain in the morning.  So around 7 there were three moto's and a tuk tuk to take us up to the mountain.  We loaded the kids into the tuk tuk, a worker took herself and 2 others on her moto, Al and Joseph rode a moto and I took Rachanna on my moto.  We headed out!

It had rained the night before so the roads were very muddy and that made them slick especially for Al's moto because it kept stalling and had no tread on the tires.  It was like a muddy motor cross course, complete with cows, dogs, other moto's, kids, chickens, etc!  The worker lady wound up in someone's front yard spewing mud on the people there, Al did drop lay the moto a bit on it's side and Joseph in the mud after hitting a very large hole and I just kept praying that the Lord would not let me drop Rachanna in the mud!  I had a total advantage too because Rachanna had learned to ride a moto so she giving me hints and helps on where to go and best way to get through the mud.

The roads are so messed up because of all the bombing in the Khmer Rouge reign.  I won't go into it deep here but if you read up it will help you understand Cambodia.  Pol Pot got into power and his regime was called the Khmer Rouge.  He wanted a peasant uprising and killed all those who were educated, government workers or anyone almost (if you wore glasses, village elders, etc).  Anyway, in his craziness he bombed out the roads and infrastructure of the country and threw them back into the depths of third world.  This is pretty recent because most people over 30 remember the regime and Pol Pot died in the very late 90's.  The Killing Fields is a movie based on this time in Cambodia.

Below is the group that went with us and this was taken on our way back so if you notice Joseph is in the tuk tuk this time :)

We got to the mountain and it was beautiful!  There were over 150 steep steps up the side of the mountain.  It wasn't too hot until we started climbing them.  In the pictures below you will see the entrance to the steps has the booths for selling refreshments and foods but we arrived too early to see it on the way up.

You will see Alfven and Anna starting up the steps here.  The two little kids next to them met us at the base of the climb and followed us the whole time were were there.  We knew there would be beggars and often people use their kids to do it but I think they actually just enjoyed hanging out with us.  They found centipedes and would show us or point out things that they liked.  They pointed out the monks and Buddhist rooms but we just said no and waved our hand no.  If you see in the following pictures they will be in them, quietly in the background.

So we climbed the steps and came to this pretty little pagoda.  From below I thought that was what the mountain was about but when I finally reached it I realized it was just for a rest which was sorely needed!  By the time we reached the actual top I felt like Po in Kung Fu Panda when he reached the top of the steps.  Both Alfven and I took Advil last night just to try and stave of the thigh pain :)

This is a picture of the group at the first large pagoda we came to.  Apparently it was the monks bath house.  It had a beautiful view of the land and most importantly, a breeze!

We did a little rock climbing on the side of the mountain but mostly took pictures.  The kids really liked to take the posed pictures up here.  We got smiles!  They are shy sometimes but here you can see how they normally look.  This is a wonderful group of girls!  From the left to the right it's Wut, Pow, Rachanna, Jon and Keo.

We were all taking pictures and laughing so I did ask the little kids if I could get their picture at one point and they said yes.  So this is them :)  If you notice too, they did this whole climbing adventure with no shoes!

For those of you into horticulture I'll put in some of the very cool plant life we saw.  This tree is growing right on the side of the building.  The roots are outside the stone and fed by the continued running water down the side.  I'm wondering if this is one of those banyan type trees but I'm not sure.

The girls pointed out the beautiful flowers growing up the trunk of this tree.

The kids would go down to the lotus flowers and pick the flowers and get the pods that have the lotus seeds in them and snack on them.  We all tried the seeds and they were very good!  It's amazing how resourceful they are with what grows naturally on the land.  Kit says that he needs to teach them all these things so that they know and are respected in the villages if they choose to stay local as adults and go agriculture on farms of their own.

Then we got to the cliffside temple and king's house of ancient Cambodia.  These ruins are older than Ankhor Wat.  Benjamin was feeling king of the world!!  But he also would not go in or get his picture taken because near the ruins because it houses a worship area to Buddha.

We grabbed treated the kids to a snack on the cliffside.  The ice to keep the kids cool has to be carried up the mountain which I can't even imagine!  We also bought the little kids who were following us something to drink.  The girls chose that green fruit that they gave me at the zoo that you eat with the hot salt.  Joseph said he likes spicy so when he ate it and started burning down his throat and drinking everything in sight they were laughing so hard.  He was a good sport!  Benjamin and Alfven tried it too and both were amazed at the heat in the salt!  I knew enough this time to try very little salt and decline seconds :)

There was also shaved ice at the snack stop.  This is Wut showing us how to use it and make herself one.  It was an amazing old tool!  We couldn't try the shaved ice because it was from unfiltered water.

When we got to the bottom of the mountain after exploring the little kids were still with us.  I talked to Wut to see if it would be okay if I gave them some money.  It has two sides to the issue and I do understand both but I'm not sure there is a hard and fast rule.  The one side is that giving promotes begging and the parents sending their kids to beg.  The other side is that the kids are in abject poverty and we are to follow Jesus example to give to the poor.  And then which is the best way to give?  We struggle with it on a different level in the states because we don't want to enable.  Anyway, I chose to give a couple dollars which is about 8000 their money.  Most people live on less than a dollar a day and I'm sure these kids were on the lower end of that.  I tried to say the name of Jesus in Khmer so they would maybe someday understand that because of His love for me, I have love for them.

This is a photo of a  man cleaning a bird at then base of the mountain for selling as a snack.

We headed back on a much dryer road and less adventuresome ride :)  When we got back we started getting the farm ready for the End of School Carnival today.  The Uys were in charge of the shooting booth, of course!!  So Alfven and the kids stayed and worked while I went to a larger village market to shop with the workers.

Four workers and three kids and I took a tuk tuk to the market at a larger village.  We are having a birthday party for the kids that have birthdays in July, August and September on Thursday and the workers take $10 for each child and ask what they want for their birthday.  Rachanna's birthday is going to be celebrated so I asked her what she asked for. She said hair conditioner and clothes.  It was awesome to see how they worked as a team, looking for just the right thing at the market and they would all agree that it would be good for Rachanna, or On or Chantrea.  They would try clothes or sandals on to make sure they would fit.  I loved the care that they chose for their friends!  The workers held a list and kept track of what was asked for, what was bought and what was spent.  There was definitely some haggling going on too :)

The market was like the ones of the pictures I posted earlier.  Sort of like stalls in county fair barns.  They were packed in every square inch with items for sale.  Each seller wore a fanny pack and had their little booth to run.  There were lots of various smells.  Some not so good.  There was trash in the walkways and so much trash on the street that was so dirty that it all looked the same color as the mud.  There were also people riding moto's through the aisles of the market.  A very different experience that I enjoyed!

On the way to the market I talked to Sothea who is one of the older guys here.  He is taking his 12th grade exam in September and hoping to pass so he can graduate.  The older kids, because they have to go to public school have to study extra because Kit and Ream will not let them pay for grades.  It puts them at a great disadvantage but it's the way that is honorable and best for their learning.  He is hoping to go to university in Phnom Penh and study architecture.  He is bright and could have a wonderful future if given a chance and able to be funded.  He said that he needs a $400 computer to be able to enroll in the architecture school and is praying to the Lord to provide the money he needs to buy it.  There are no jobs around here to be had for these kids to make money.  People are begging for food and making subsistence living.  If you feel any desire to help him let me know.  I need to check with Kit and see if there is any plan for getting him a computer but I am going to look into it.

When we came home I checked on Alfven's progress and he was doing great!  There was a flurry of excitement for the carnival!  And there is a mass of activity this morning getting ready for it too.  Lots of excitement and laughter!

This is a picture of the burn area.  The trash and field debris gets burned every morning and every evening.  This is one of the first things that we say when we arrived last week and it made an impression on me.  Still mulling over why.  Maybe it's because the girl who tends it is so young.  Maybe because it's so different than what we do with our trash.  Maybe because it's very smart for this type of living environment.  

Well I better run and help with the carnival!  There's people going everywhere in preparations.  The ladies in the kitchen were up before me getting things ready!  I'll post how it goes :)

Moto Day

We went to sleep last night to very loud music at a neighbors house.  There was a wedding tent in the village that we could see when digging for crabs so that might have been carry over from the party.  The weddings here last 3 days and have different scripted ceremonies in them.  

This morning we got up and went to the flag ceremony at the school.  This happens at the beginning of the school days.  We got there and enjoyed the kids just running around playing, the chickens in the play yard and the teachers riding in on their moto's.  The kids really like coming to this school!

They line up according to grade and size.  Then they do some exercises in unison, raise the flag, sing the anthem and then head into worship to start their day.

After we saw the kids school day start, we hung out at the snack place where the ladies were cooking the waffles and vegetable cake again.  Below is Pow and I hanging at the table just chatting.  I've found that if you just sit next to the kids they will start talking very sweet and quiet.

While we were hanging out, Alfven was up in the office with Kit.  There was a woman who had come in to try and get her kids into the school.  She has three children.  One in 1st grade and one in 3rd grade and an older child who wasn't with her.  None of the three children could read or write.  The classrooms are packed but there was space for her youngest in the pre-school room.  The others will go on a wait list but there are many parents who realize this is the best education for their kids.  A lot of the kids in higher grades in public school can't read or write.  Teachers just pass them to the next grade because they get paid by how many kids pass.  The primary grades will cost the mother $7.50 a month and after grade 4 it will be $10 a month.  Kit is not sure the mother can afford it but that never keeps the kids out.  The deciding factor is always not enough room.

Kit and Ream are praying to buy a new larger land and be able to build a larger school for more children to come, hear and about Jesus and get a wonderful education in order to change Cambodia's future.

These are the two houses directly across from the school.  There are many, many houses that look like these.  Most look very similar up and down this street to where the market is.  I was able to take the pictures from behind the wall of the school.  I hate making people feel like a spectacle by my taking pictures.  So Joseph laughed at my skills and said I was that freak hiding in the bushes :)

The picture above is Alfven practicing the Cambodian way of loading a bunch of family on the moto for a ride :)  I'm not quite sure what to say about Benjamin's scarf!  Kit gave them to us to keep the dust out of our mouths and nose but somehow he wound up looking like Red Riding Hood :)

Kit, Ream, Ream's father who is the pastor of the church and all 6 of us went around to many houses to visit with local farmers in the village.  Ream's father tries to go visiting the neighbors so that he can help any way he can as an outreach of Jesus love.  The families that we met were so gracious and hospitable it was amazing.  People don't call ahead for a visit here.  Below is the first house we went to.  We saw many catfish ponds where people raise catfish for personal consumption and for market if they do well enough.  I loved the way this family grew the plants (herbs and lettuce and vegetables) around the pond in white rice bags.  The Cambodian people try to use and reuse everything!

Ream pointed out that this is a traditional Cambodian kitchen.  The heating elements and fire were in the back which is sort of hard to see but you get the drift.

Grace and I rode on one moto.  She was slightly worried at my skills but she eventually said "This is awesome!"

Sorry about the post right down the middle of the man!  This was a very sweet house of people.  They are the only house of Christians that we visited and Kit said that this was a distribution for the Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes last year.

This girl and her niece lived at this house.  She was a very sweet girl who spoke English very well.  She is 15 and we chatted a bit.  But the most precious thing she said was "Thank you for visiting my house".

Kit took Joseph on his moto.  We were mainly on the back dirt roads but we did have to get on the main street with all the crazy driving for about a block.

We swapped around for the kids to be most safe so Anna rode with Ream and her Dad who are excellent at the moto!   As you can see she was very happy for the adventure too!  This was a grand adventure!

When we got back it was time to do the laundry again.  I think Benjamin's expression tells it all :)  They did a great job though and are keeping their clothes clean.

Between laundry, the playground and chores I helped Selena with getting ready to teach her CPR class.  She has a kit and the blow up dolls to teach the staff at the school some basic CPR skills.

While out in the yard today I noticed that Kit had put paper around some fruits.  It's to keep insects off.  I found it a very interesting way to grow fruit and keep insects away.  These farms are truly organic!  They don't use chemicals because they don't have any.  So lemongrass and basil keep bugs away from lettuce and other leafy vegetables.

I hang out a bit on the front steps of the house watching the kids play and hanging with the older girls.  The girls gave me a wood apple to try.  It was okay but I wouldn't eat it again with all the other delicious fruits around here.  They are always kind to offer me new foods.

In the yard, the girls loaded up on each other's back for a game of Chicken and the boys were playing something where they were at war.  It was great to see them running around playing and having fun!

Grace was riding Chanrea and trying to stay away from the goat.

This is Benjamin playing with the guys.  I was able to catch him in mid fall.

Anna spent a lot of time with the rabbits.  They are definitely her favorite!

Well a storm has rolled through and now it is a nice steady rain to sleep by.  We are looking forward to what the Lord has in store for us tomorrow.