Distribution to Victims of Fire

Yesterday our family was able to take part in distributing donated items to families who lost everything in a fire that happened about a month ago. I would have to say the event was overall a success but it left me with a feeling of "there is so much to do". It was definitely a morning of paradox. On Monday Abby went to school, although the kids are off all week for Khmai new year, and sorted clothes, food, toiletries and other small items to be distributed. Along with a couple teachers and 1 other student they made about 70 bags to be given out, each geared toward a specific gender and age group. Then Tuesday morning all of the bags were loaded in a van and we all went over to the site where the displaced families are now living. Once we got there, we all got out and started interacting with the kids and it was a lot of fun. Even though we can't communicate verbally with them, there was still a lot of smiles exchanged. We had one of the teaching assistants from Logos walk around the "village" and let some of the most needy families that we were there to give out some needed items. That worked for a little bit...until it was clear that we had more people lined up to receive bags than we had bags. Toward the end people were grabbing the last few bags instead of waiting. Although those who received bags were happy and thankful, it was sad to not be able to give to everyone. It left all of us with a feeling of joy to serve but a desire to do more. That is the paradox. We could have avoided the sadness if we had done nothing but we would have missed the joy and all of the smiles. To be honest, I wouldn't trade either.

New Life School

It is so cool to be here in Phnom Penh working with Asian Hope to see what kind of difference they are making outside of the obvious. We have 3 schools, a girls and boys home and a hospitality house. They are all great ministries and I enjoy being a part of them. However, since moving here I have realized that our impact is felt beyond the confines of our official programs. One such example would be New Life School. NLS is a small christian school that was started only a couple years ago for the poorest of the poor in Phnom Penh. Each day they receive children from orphanages who could never pay tuition of a private school or the price to pass through a state school. They would be relegated to a life of servitude and probable abuse. Now they are given a chance at a new life through education and Christ. So how does Asian Hope play a part? Well the principal and the 6th grade teacher (both are Khmai women in their mid to late 20's) were once teaching assistants at Logos International School. If you ask either one of them, and I have, they will both tell you that they would not be where they are today without their experience at Logos. Their time with us taught them lesson planning skills, classroom discipline/control, and gave them the confidence and experience needed to affect a change in so many other lives. This is one of the reasons why in most of Logos' classrooms they have an experienced western teacher and a Khmai teaching assistant: it allows us to help produce excellent Khmai teachers who can then leave our school and make an impact in areas that we couldn't. We also support NLS with ongoing teacher training and curriculum.
With this in mind, we wanted to bless the students and staff of New Life school. So last week we bused in all of the kids (in 2 shifts on 2 different days) to enjoy a carnival at Logos. Our 5th and 6th grade classes helped plan and host these students. They were able to run in grass on an obstacle course, swim, play basketball, throw water balloons, get their faces painted, listen to music, watch a puppet show and maybe best of all, eat ice cream. Our hearts were truly blessed to watch these kids light up with all of the choices of activities. I am not sure who had a better time the kids or those of us who could watch them enjoy themselves. I wanted to share some of these pictures with you but really wish I could bottle up the sights and sounds of that day. I look forward to many more of this type of event...they are priceless for these kids. Please know that any of you reading this would be a welcome set of willing hands and feet during any of these events. If you are interested, leave a comment. Blessings!

“Normal” Can Change

Life here is starting to take on some sort of normalcy at times. For that we are very encouraged and I am somewhat surprised. I guess I thought we would eventually view our lives here as normalizing but I just didn't think it would be this soon. Don't misunderstand and think that I am saying we are fully settled. That is absolutely not true. What I mean is just that the newness and differences are now taking on some sort of familiarity. For that I am thankful and excited. For example, I had about 5 hours with Alex and Cameron to get 5 things done and when I completed all 5 in that amount of time, it really was an accomplishment. I felt like I had a successful and relatively efficient day. The 5 things were: haircut for Cameron, flip flops for both of the boys, 2 light bulbs, flea/tick collar and a few groceries. Back in the states I would have run to Walmart or Target and been done…45 min to an hour tops. Here, 5 hours is a successful day because for 5 things you may need to go to 6-8 places or maybe more. In short, so many things that were normal or taken for granted have to be re-learned and now seen through the filter of where we live now. Another example of that is driving. I have used the example of watching an anthill after it is kicked to compare to the traffic here. Everybody drives in a way that allows them to get to where they want to go the quickest. It may mean cutting someone else off, going the wrong way on a street or just driving through an intersection when it is not their turn. Most, if not all, of these moves would earn someone showing you the universal sign of displeasure in the states but there isn't any road rage here. People just understand that that is how things go here. It is part of the pulse of the traffic here. Inside I can be saying "what is he thinking? It isn't his turn!", but slowly I am learning understand and join them where they are at instead of being the one non-conformist (besides, I really didn't have a choice).

However, in the midst of these things we have found joy and peace. Not because of the differences but in spite of them. We have embraced the differences although not always enjoying them. In almost everything we have found beauty and something to enjoy. Here is a great example: the dirty air. Phnom Penh has very dirty air. There is a lot of pollution from all of the cars (mostly diesel) and motos…in the city. That is compounded by the fact that most streets surrounding the city as well as quite a few within the city are dirt. This combination causes a lot of particulates in the air. So you can look at it as an annoyance and nuisance, which it definitely can be. The other option is to look for the positive you receive from it: beautiful sunsets almost every night. With the risk of sounding "Pollyanna-ish", it really is an amazing thing. Blessings!

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!

The Accident

The Accident

 

 

Okay. We are 10 days out from the accident and I wanted to fill everyone in on the details of the past week and a half since it all went down. I haven't yet partly because of time and partly because it was one of the most horrible things I have seen, watching Carolyn get hurt so badly. With that said, here is the story:

It was a dark and stormy night (not really but that sounded like the beginning to a good story). Actually it was hot, humid and clear last Saturday night when Carolyn and I left to go out. We had helped host the open house for Asian Hope's new hospitality house earlier in the day and had just gotten ready to go out with friends for the evening. We were both looking forward to going to a Mexican restaurant that we heard had good, relatively authentic Mexican food. So we took off on our moto, me driving and Carolyn sitting side saddle in back. We had done this many times before so we didn't give it much thought at all. We took a few back streets to make it out to the main road, Russian Boulevard. We waited in the left turn lane to get the green arrow. We were in front which ended up being a very good thing. As our light gave us the go ahead, we were able to take off and leave the other cars and motos behind (when you are further back there are so many vehicles trying to go at once that as a group they take off slower). So we were a ways in front of the other cars with an empty road in front of us. This is the main road in Phnom Penh so the speed limit is higher although we weren't going more than 25 mph. Just then I looked up and saw a Land Cruiser pulling out in front of us from a side street without stopping. He was crossing our lanes of traffic and was going to head in the opposite direction on the same street. When I saw him enter our lane I braked and turned to the right to avoid him. That is when Carolyn fell off the moto. The moto didn't go all the way down but it did tip quite a bit. This is where it is good that we were far enough ahead of everyone else as Carolyn was laying in the street. I went over to help her to the side of the street where she could sit down and we figure out what to do next. It was nice as we also had many Khmai come to help us as well. They asked us if we wanted an ambulance. I said yes right away as there was a lot of blood coming from her forehead which later we realized was lacerated from her helmet visor cracking when she went down. Her arm was also banged up pretty bad. A couple minutes passed and we decided the best option was to go to a clinic that the locals said was just right around the corner. So we went there and our illusion that it was the best option was quickly dispelled. The "clinic" was a storefront (see picture) with some pharmacy items in the front. Then you walk through a doorway and there are 2 beds right next to each other, I mean right next to each other. Then if we had walked through the next doorway we would have been in the living room of the family that owned this clinic. There was an old lady sitting on a couch watching TV right there. It was crazy. Once I got a better look at Carolyn's head, I knew we needed more than this.
I would have maybe stayed there for a paper cut, maybe. So I called a friend to come and pick Carolyn up and bring her to a hospital that was close and I would meet them there.

So we left and went to Royal Rattanak Hospital. It is a satellite location of a very good Thai hospital. It was clean, bright, sterile and just what we needed. They took great care of Carolyn as they cleaned, sutured and dressed her wounds. They also took an x-ray of her head which cleared her of any fractures (I am an even bigger proponent of helmets now). We left there with an appointment to return on Wednesday for a follow-up. Carolyn rode home with our friend and I followed on our moto. Since the staff seemed to forget to check for correct pupil dilation, I checked that at home several times that night. We also looked up symptoms for concussions and they pretty much matched with what Carolyn was experiencing: dizziness, ringing in her ears…etc. The follow-up appointment was on Wednesday and the Dr. said that since Carolyn was still experiencing those symptoms in her head that we should do a head CT scan. The funny thing about that is, just as they were saying she needed one, I saw an advertisement for "Brain CT scan for 50USD" but the rest was in Khmai. When the receptionist said the CT scan would be $185 I told them I wanted the special $50 price. Then they tried to explain to me that that special price was only for Khmai. Of course Cambodia is known for bargaining so I told them I still wanted the $50 price. After a little more conversation as well as some phone calls, they acquiesced and gave us the Khmai price. We praised God when it came back clear.

A week and a half later, Carolyn is still recovering from the trauma. The stitches in her forehead look great and the road rash on her arm is healing up nicely. Her black eye is going away little by little as each day passes. She is still dealing with some ringing in her ears and headaches, which can be frustrating and discouraging. Please pray for continued healing for her and protection for all of us as we continue to seek God in our lives over here.

Masks, Weddings, Laughter and License Plates

There is never a boring day over here. Even menial, daily tasks can become adventuresome and something new is always experienced. For instance, in one second I fully realized why so many wear masks (like surgical masks) outside over here. I was driving the moto and a large truck passed. He kicked up much of the dust and sand from the side of the road and in an instant my gum was filled with tiny particles of sand. Yum. Another thing to get used to is how weddings are celebrated here. Picture the second busiest road in your town. Is it a major artery for your city? Great. Now imagine a young couple in love is going to be getting married. So the family rents a large awning to set up tables, chairs, dance floor, music, food...etc. Where better to set it up? Why don't we take up half of the street in front of our house? Perfectly logical, right? That is exactly what they do here. At least half of the width of major streets are bottle necked by wedding tents, elaborately decorated in pink and yellow. The next thing I am recognizing is just how out of place I/we must seem to the Khmai. Fair skinned, light hair yet we don't go home like most westerners. We just keep showing up. One thing that always garners a laugh from the locals is a new phrase I learned. It is: "bien moto high" (strictly phonetic...I couldn't attempt to write Khmai and I am sure you wouldn't be able to read it). It means "I have a moto" and is used while pointing in the general direction of your moto. I use it when walking out of a market when invariably there are a half dozen moto and/or tuk tuk drivers ready to bring tourists to their next destination. It is probably the last phrase they are expecting to hear come out of my mouth. They always laugh and smile.
The last thing that I will share with you this time is my license plate story. There is so much to the story but I will just hit the highlights. The purchase of the moto (found on the "The Moto" post) was only the beginning. When purchased, the dealer gives you a record of import tax paid since there is no sales tax. Then within 15 days, the seller has to accompany you to the license plate place to verify the authenticity of the transaction. So I showed up at the sellers at 7:45 this morning. I had all of the appropriate documentation including passport, visas, signed proof of address, proof of employment, $50, sales receipt...I think that was it. Then I took off on my moto following Meng, the son of the owner of the shop, on his moto. That in and of itself was a challenge. He was weaving in and out of oncoming traffic, up onto sidewalks and through some less than green lights. Nonetheless I made it to the right location right behind him. That definitely boosted my driving confidence. So we pull up to an open air but covered waiting area with 120+ people and there is not another fair skinned person anywhere. That doesn't bother me at all since we are in Cambodia. I walk in and I feel so out of place yet at peace. Out of place because every sign, every form, every name tag is completely illegible to me and at peace because this is right where we are supposed to be. To give you a little indication, the font on the top of the license plate says "Phnom Penh" in Khmai and that is the font that everything is in. As one of the brothers that works at the moto shop was filling out all of my paperwork for me, I was told the wait would be about 1 1/2 - 2 hrs. Then about 40 min into my wait, the guy who filled out my paperwork for me motioned for me to follow him. I then got up, followed him past the row of windows with the workers, through offices in the back, up some stairs, along an outdoor corridor and into an office. The man in the office looked important as he had pictures of himself shaking presumably the prime minister's and king's hands. After short dialogue in Khmai (not with me) I gave my thumbprint on a couple more documents we went back downstairs. Much to my pleasant surprise, about 15 min later I was out the door (or gate) with my new plates. I don't really question what happened, I just know where I am going for my next moto.
These definitely are interesting times and we are embracing the differences and appreciate the opportunities to share them with you. Blessings!

A view from Chapel

This is a video clip of a Middle/High School chapel service at Logos. The kids have chapel twice a month. It is usually comprised of worship, fun and a teaching. We joined them a week and a half ago and enjoyed it. The video is a shot from the 4th floor cafeteria of Logos where the chapel time takes place. This is also where our church is held. It is a strange mix of beauty and poverty. I hope you Enjoy. Blessings!!