Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Merry Christmas to all of our Family, School and Church Family, and Friends.... The Lord Bless and keep you all under His guidance and blessing. Well we just want to let you know that we are so thankful for your support. Your kindheartedness is very evident to us as a family. Although this process has not been stress-free, it has been made easier with your prayers and generosity. Moving to a new country, culture, and job with our family has been an interesting process to say the least, yet we have experienced such a blessing from our family, our church, school family, and our amazing friends. Your encouraging words, your worries and concerns, are all meant with such care, and they do not go unheeded.

As we have completed half of a year here in Cambodia time is flying by. We are slowly figuring things out here and so I thought I would share with you a few tidbits we have gleaned in the short time we have been here…

What tidbits are we and have we been learning?

1. When people tell you to Drink water, what they mean is….Drink water, water and more water otherwise you will be dehydrated by noon and passed out by 3pm.
2. Simple tasks back in Canada are not very simple at all. (Like turning off your water in your home, or changing your light bulb- give yourself at least a day or three to get it figured out)
3. Sudocream is the best weapon against Chaffing! (Thanks to Mrs. Mobach for that tidbit. Did not understand that until we got here.) (PS I am learning that there is a difference between Canadian Chaffing and Tropical Chaffing)
4. Tupperware may be one of the best things we brought with us to Cambodia to prevent the worms from getting into the rice, and all other bugs from getting into the rest of the food.(Thanks Lynn C)
5. Weighing the Pros and Cons of using and breathing residual RAID BUGSPRAY everyday indoors or potentially getting Malaria, Denge Fever, or Japanese Encephalitis is not as enjoyable as you may think. (Thanks Ruth)
6. Pop-up tent style mosquito nets are easy to use and a necessity.(Thanks Kara)
7. The hose sprayer beside all the toilets in Cambodia need to be a standard addition to Canadian bathrooms. Very useful!!! Maya really likes them too.
8. Don’t leave your moto helmet outside overnight because by morning your helmet will be filled with about 200 mosquitoes that will fly out and attack you when you pick your helmet up.
9. 
   
   
   There ARE two different states of living here: there is heavy sweating state (as experienced in a typical summer in Canada) and then there is the Cambodian tropical sweating state!!! (Where every part of you sweats and drips like a small rain storm and you can’t really tell if you were to enter or leave a shower or not).
10. These are good years for our Family
11. When you go to the market or need to buy anything for that matter, you need to accept that you will pay 5x more than a local Cambodian. I love that feeling of getting ripped off!!YES!
12. Termites like wood beds.(ALOT!!)
13. Stomach issues are a regular and common quandary here (even for the long termer). So you just gotta grin and bear it.
14. Don’t count or rely on your power or internet to work when you need it most.
15. Don’t touch dogs. They may contain every single disease, worm, and virus known and unknown in Cambodia.
16. Don’t eat the Rat meat offered on the menu- you never know where it has been (actually you probably do… but you don’t want to let your mind go there)
17. Rats do grow to the size of small Canadian Beavers.
18. Cockroaches grow to the size of small bats.
19. When a bat flies into your office, don’t wave your arms and swing at it wildly in panic, you will only look like an idiot to the rest of the office staff.
20. Whether you like it or not, you share your kitchen with ants (and I mean a lot of ants).
21. You have way more Geckos in your house than you think.
22. When someone says your street floods… they aren’t kidding and it also means your house floods too!
23. All bicycles here are made for people under 120 pounds. That may explain why I blow my bike tire every time I bike. OR the other explanation could be that all bike tires are simply made from a melted conglomerate of the many plastic garbage bags lying around the street.
24. Packages sent to us may or may not arrive to us. Sorry Inga, we have not got your package, but Steph and Jubes did receive the Xtream package.
25. Many Cambodians think Christmas is about a Western white God who needs gifts and presents.

Merry Christmas. FYI: We are off to Thailand for Christmas for some R&R. We are using monies from our parents to fund the trip and we will let the girls spend some of their Christmas money in Bangkok. We are then off to the Thailand coast (Hua hin) to try out the beach. It sounds good to me! PS the pics are from the puppet show street ministry.