The Van: It isn't German

(Pictures: Two are of the shop where I originally saw the van, one is of paperwork for the van and the other is of the van. Notice the emblem on front :-)So we took another step in forward in getting settled in Cambodia. We purchased a van. This was a fairly long but exciting process. It started basically a week after we arrived. I was trying to gather advice and input from people who have been here a while as to what they would recommend as well as evaluating what exactly we wanted in a vehicle. We concluded that we wanted a van so we put out there to everyone we knew to keep their eyes out for a van for us. They also have a couple of email lists that are as close as we get to craigslist that list many items for sale. What it finally came down to was our tuk tuk driver, Wibol. I say "our" tuk tuk driver because we have used him a lot and have developed a relationship with him. Wibol knows all of us by name and is very protective of the kids. He is a Christian and has an amazing life story. So he told me that his brother was selling a van. I went to look at it an drove it and liked it. However, I wanted to look around. I took a few other vans out for test drives and had each of them evaluated by a trusted mechanic here to get his opinion. We ended up purchasing the van that he said would be his choice out of the ones we looked at. We have owned it for aobut 24hrs now and we all enjoy it. It wasn't until last night when Carolyn were heading out on a date in it that we realized: none of us have been in a vehicle for about 6 weeks. That is yet one more area of change we are experiencing. By the way, the van is actually a SsangYong Istana. It is a Korean company that has some sort of official partnership with Mercedes so Mercedes actually blesses them using their logo. Weird, I know.
From a more interesting personal story, when I went to pick up the van, it was at Wibol's house. Many family members live together, including Wibol's father and mother-in-law. They live in a typical Khmai house which is one level and many units connected to each other. In front is a large swampy area. As I was there waiting for 30-40 minutes for them to install the rest of the seats, I noticed 3 or 4 trash trucks backing in and dumping trash into the swamp. At first I was appalled. I thought "How dare they dump waste in the front yard of their house!" That was until Wibol informed me that his mother-in-law and some of their other family will enthusiastically go through the new trash to find anything they can that would be worth selling. One of the most coveted items is a large ricepaper bag. They are large bags that rice comes in. Many people use them for trash bags so in each load there are usually a lot. Wibol informed me that with each load they can make up to $10 from the items collected. I was amazed and humbled. Imagine, sorting through a pile of trash that was just dumped in your front yard all for $10. My perspective is consistently being challenged and modified over here. His mother-in-law also works at our hospitality house as a cook. She used to own a restaurant but then quit. She began working again when her husband had a stroke and could no longer work. Needless to say, we are thrilled that we can help them out a bit. May God's name be glorified!! Blessings!