Life and stories...

Sorry for the delay in updates. Life carries on and gets busy with work and then you realize it's been a week or two without any word! So sorry about that.
We are doing well, and still grinding through the regular work weeks. The girls are doing well at school, and I can't even say that Maya is doing well--she is doing unbelievable! Her little mind is like a sponge right now, and every song, letter, number or whatever that is being poured into her head is just expanding exponentially! It's so cool to see her recognize letters and phonic sounds, and sing songs about everything. Really, this was our kid just three months ago, who couldn't make it through the first few weeks of school, and prior to that, was having all kinds of developmental assistance in Canada before we left. Just a late bloomer I guess, but boy, is she blossoming now. We're pretty impressed and thankful.
We are all doing about the same, I guess that's another reason for the lack of news, because, Thank God, there isn't really much news. Just lots of work! We have experienced a rather nasty part of Cambodia just recently, as our power has been going out a little too regularly and for quite lengthy periods of time.
The first night it happened, it went out just before Maya fell asleep, so the sudden plunge into darkness caused her quite the panic attack, and it took a long time for her to settle. Funny, how I had candles on hand, because only a few weeks before, I had bought them for Canadian thanksgiving (and never used them.) Seriously, we had never lost power for more than 2 minutes in the evenings, and even at that it was pretty rare, now suddenly it had been happening more regularly and for longer! I guess it was because we had been bragging to others about how great our power was at our house. rats..
Anyways, so that night it was out for about 2.5 hours. Now, it is easiely +30 at night, inside the house, where the air flow is less. No power means no air con--OK, I could live without that. but it more tragically means, NO FAN either! This, I was not prepared for. I have realized after even just trying to sleep that one night for a couple of hours with no air flow, how incredibly spoiled I was in Cambodia, to have the comforts I had and how much I rely on them. Just when you get to thinking, "ya, I'm handling this Cambodia thing pretty well," well, then the electric goes off, and God shows you just how much you still really need him. haha



A couple nights ago, it went off around 9. It did not go back on until about 10 the next morning. That meant, we attempted to sleep the entire night with no air con or fan, and quite frankly, Dean and I shared a couple hours of sleep between the two of us and that was about it. We are so not used to that intense dead air. Showers are cold, because the electric water heater is nott juiced up. The kids were fine, as Julia often sleeps with out even putting the fan on, and kids don't use their air, but for heaven's sake: It was tough on us old folk!
We asked our landlord about it, and he said they have never had this problem so bad before. So, apparently, he has had the line changed to the same line as the chairman of the electric board, who happens to live a few houses down from us! (that tells you a bit about our neighborhood!). We have had no problems since, and it is SO easy to take for granted so quickly. It's a good lesson, really. God allows these kind of silly little trials, so that we don't get too dependent on the things that don't really matter! haha. It was an interesting time, to say the least.
We have another holiday week coming up next week, Tues to Friday off. This is water Festival time, and apparently PP gets absolutely insanely packed, as people come to the city for the Festival. PP is insanely packed as it is, so we are planning to go to a different city, Siem Reap, for a few days.
And yes, for all you Amazing Race fans, that was the city, Siem Reap, where the team went. I did not get to see the show, much to my chagrin, as it is my fav. tv show, but I've heard all about it and for some of you, it seemed quite interesting to watch. That is our life right now--the stuff you saw, the roads, the driving, the garbage; that is exactly our everyday life. You really get used to it fast, too.
A couple of interesting things we have have seen recently. Some dead end roads close to our house are being paved. This means the main road we have to travel has had sand, gravel and then concrete carried over it, so it is unbelievably dusty and dirty right now. We HAVE to wear masks on the bikes, because the air is filled with grit. We've watched these teams of guys shovel out heavy gravel by hand and with baskets--no large machinery, and then pave this road by hand--no cement truck, just bags and bags of cement, mixed by hand, poured by hand, shaped by hand. What incredibly laborious work! It was amazing, really. It was a fair chunk of street, too, maybe about a kilometre long! Seriously!
The rain, which has been alot lately, although is supposed to be letting up soon, really fills and floods this main road, so the pot holes have gotten so much worse. people set up big branches in them to warn others not to hit them. The drive to school is alot of swerving to get out of the pot hole way. And these are not just any ol potholes, they can be up to a foot deep. It's nasty! No calling the "City" to complain and ask to get them fixed. Locals pile brick or whatever they can (logs of wood) to fill in and repair the road themselves.
There is a demolition crew taking down a house right next to Logos, which is beside Maya's preschool building, which is also my Gr 1 and the K classrooms. It's noisy, but the worst is the falling brick and concrete that they have nets set up to catch, so that it all doesn't fall on the kids in the playground. Huge bangs of falling house can be heard throughout the day and billows of sooty dust fly. And here's how they do it: a whole bunch of Khmer guys bang away at the house with sledge hammers. Yup, that's it. No wrecking ball, no imploding, just more grunt labor. They are all over the house, at the very top, sitting, climbing, standing, hitting underneath where they are standing with the hammers. No hard hats, no restraints, nor work boots. I did read in the paper, that although there are no official statistics (how would they ever collect them?) it is estimated that one construction worker a day is killed in the country. Amazing.
I was at the school Wed. evening for choir--it had been pouring rain, and when it stopped and I left, I could see fire light coming from the shell of this house, and could hear all the guys talking and laughing. Apparently the wrecking crews just move from job to job, living in the ruins they are taking down while they are working on the site. Not a pretty job, and these guys looked pretty rough and dirty. Where do they clean after working that kind of labour all day? We see many people bathing in the street, just dumping a hose on themselves, or scooping water from a bin. Washing their body, hair--you gotta clean somewhere, right???
Finally, on the topic of water and washing, we were driving home in a van from a group get together last Friday, when the heavens again opened and we drove through a terrential storm, rain was flooding the roads (there's not alot of drain sewer systems here--some streets, but not everywhere.) Every adult we could see on the sides of the roads were hiding out, trying to get away from the rain, and every child we could see, was playing in the downpour! The most unbelievable was two little boys, Maya's age or younger, "frolicking" if I could call it that, in the water collected on the side of the road. Yes, the road we and many others were driving on. These 2 boys were laying on their stomachs, "swimming" in brown street run off water, right next to the moving traffic--not an adult in sight, and they were having the time of their life! The water was deep enough they were pretty much totally immersed! It was yet another unbelievable picture of cambodia. These 2 little boys laying on their stomachs, swimming in the street...
Today, I walked down to the corner store after school. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a head poking up from what looked like a 2 foot, by 2 foot opening in the sidewalk. A young man, maybe 14ish, was standing in the sewer, in sewage water up to his chest, trying to unclog the drain! It actually took my breath away--they had moved the lid off the sewer, and had jumped in with a tool to unclog the drain! Although it was mostly probably rain run off, it certainly didn't smell too great, and we had to walk around him, his chin was just above the surface of the sidewalk, and he had some buddies there. He was in such a small space, filled with water, it just looked so dirty and dangerous. On my way back, there was another guy on the exact opposite side of the street, doing very much the same thing. And the two of them, squeezed into this little sewer manhole, working at digging out who knows what, to drain the street. It was something else, I tell ya.
I keep thinking this is the last thing, but this REALLY is the last thing. Seeing as it was the King's birthday last week, there seemed to be alot of "parties" going on, weddings, or whatnot, where people set up tents that take up half the street, then they play music all day and all night non stop, really loud, and, well, I guess, party! The noise is incessant, and can be deafening, depending how close or far you are from the good time. Lots of food, big instant kitchens set up, tons of people cooking in massive wok type pots. It's quite a thing to watch. Anyways. The worst part is, I think they run prayers in the morning, or for most of the day, before the music and the actual party starts with the food (I'm pretty sure most must be weddings.) So, there is this speaker on a microphone, who, in a nonstop, monotone voice, repeats prayers, or chants or something extremely repetitive, apparently without breathing and with absolutely no infliction in his voice, to the point of monotony. This goes on for hours and all you hear as a constant drone in the background is this voice going on and on.... When we come back to canada this summer, we'll all show you what it sounds like, cuz it's really strange. We basically had to get out of the house to have a break from it.
So, those are some thoughts, and stories for now. I'll be more spiritual next time. No big spiritual thoughts right now. Looking forward to yet another break, as they are coveted times. We hope you are all well, and write comments on the blog, cuz I keep looking for them and we don't get too many! Send e-mails, too, as they are always appreciated.
Take care!
L
:)