I will post a few of them here, but the whole album is at the bottom of this post.
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| From The dusty way to work |
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| From Neighborhood Kids |
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| From dumping garbage in water to create fill and property |
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| Click here to see all 80 pics |
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
What we now See on the Way to Work
I thought I would let you all see some of the everyday things we now see on the way to work to the New Logos school. It is a bit different than the drive you might be use to. It is all fascinating to me to see everyday movement and life in Cambodia. These pics are not all in the correct order but consist of some of the typical things we encounter to and from work.
I will post a few of them here, but the whole album is at the bottom of this post.
I will post a few of them here, but the whole album is at the bottom of this post.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Happy Birthday Mom
For some people, the idea of leaving the comfort of Canada and moving out to Cambodia is difficult or even seems impossible. For some people, this loss of comfort is too big a sacrifice and they feel they can't do it. Although we have been challenged through this process, we certainly know that God has blessed and made that path possible for us and we are thankful that the sacrifice has not seemed overwhelmingly difficult.
Yet there are those moments when we are out here and it feels like a sacrifice to be here. For me, those moments happen when I get my heart string pulled toward home. Those moments are those special times. You know what I am talking about, Christmas is a top contender, but special birthdays are also high ranking.
Today is my Mom's 60th birthday. All of my brothers and sisters will be flying into Winnipeg to celebrate this day. You got it -- except us. Gulp....
We really do love it here, but I really would like to be there in Winterpeg to be with the whole clan and celebrate Mom's big day. It is not possible - we are too far away and it is too expensive. Today it feels like a sacrifice to be here in Cambodia.
The question is, "is the sacrifice worth it?" The answer is still "Yes!"
Still, I think to myself, "This too shall pass" as a means to comfort myself.
At any rate, just wanted to wish my Mom (AKA Oma) a happy 29th birthday for the 32nd time!
Here is a little clip from us to you.
Blessings,
Dean
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”- Philippians 4:8
Yet there are those moments when we are out here and it feels like a sacrifice to be here. For me, those moments happen when I get my heart string pulled toward home. Those moments are those special times. You know what I am talking about, Christmas is a top contender, but special birthdays are also high ranking.
Today is my Mom's 60th birthday. All of my brothers and sisters will be flying into Winnipeg to celebrate this day. You got it -- except us. Gulp....
We really do love it here, but I really would like to be there in Winterpeg to be with the whole clan and celebrate Mom's big day. It is not possible - we are too far away and it is too expensive. Today it feels like a sacrifice to be here in Cambodia.
The question is, "is the sacrifice worth it?" The answer is still "Yes!"
Still, I think to myself, "This too shall pass" as a means to comfort myself.
At any rate, just wanted to wish my Mom (AKA Oma) a happy 29th birthday for the 32nd time!
Here is a little clip from us to you.
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| From Happy 60th Oma from all of us in Cambodia- click to see video |
Blessings,
Dean
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”- Philippians 4:8
Friday, January 15, 2010
...Just another story for the blog...
a blown power box at the new school...the consistent running out of water in the building...girls covered in cement dust after volleyball practice....Dean turning 41...Maya getting her first stitches...
Could all this happen in just one short week in our time here in Cambodia? Yes it can and yes it did!
First week at the new Logos! Truly it went really well, despite some predicted setbacks. The traffic was OK, as parents had to park a ways out and walk to drop off and pick up kids. Not everyone was happy about that, but you can't please everyone. There is a PA system installed for names to be called at the end of the day to come to the gate for their ride home. Complete garble on the first day, so by Wed, it was replaced with our very efficient, well working and loud old system that we had at the old Logos. SO, by mid week, everyone could actually hear their names being called and report to go home! Improvement.
Power, that powerful word. We expected some troubles, and all day Monday, the power was on and off. (Sucks when using computers, cuz you can lose stuff.) By Tues, it went off late morning and stayed off for the rest of the day. The prob was not the limited power in the area, but rather, we blew the main power breaker coming into the school. By Wed, the powers that be (note the pun) declared almost an all out ban on air con use, which was draining the most energy, and asked us to use none or just one per room. This worked much better, and we had power all day for the rest of the week. The school is located outside the city, so there's lots of wind and airflow, and the design is such that if windows are open, the breeze is quite cooling and not as much air con is needed. It also cooled off a bit by the end of the week, so that has helped too. However, with the breeze comes the dirt, and that is coating everything, but at least it's better than no air flow and no air con, and a cookery. So, we learned as we went, that's for sure.
Water. There is one tiny little hose that brings water into the entire school building. It is then pumped into tanks on the roof, which then flow down. I'm not sure of the exact physics, but the tiny little hose could not filter enough water into the tanks for the use required on Monday. That meant we ran out of water from the taps and to flush toilets by mid day. It didn't help that when the guards outside shut off a certain tap, it actually turned off ALL the water flow into the school (they thought it was just their own hoses or something!) Kind of funny, but that got remedied quickly. Tuesday, they started to put in anther pipe to pump more water in, and it definitely improved throughout the week, but occasionally there would be no water on the top floor, but flowing freely on the main! Still working on that a bit, but as with the other issues, things improved throughout the week.
What else? The gym floor that got grinded/sanded down for a smoother surface caused the girls first volleyball practice on Tuesday afterschool, to be "dust"ball! With every step, jump and landing, the dust rose up and covered the girls. Not great for lungs. Dean asked for the floor to be power washed to clean it off, and found to his amusement that the "powerwash" was nothing more than a garden hose and a few guys with brooms! ( I couldn't help but think of my mother "hosing!") But still, this week saw the following: a roof put up to shade the playground, computer desks installed, internet up and running, more tables for the library, the small kid's pool up and running, the large pool getting less and less green every day, photocopiers working and the laminator found... I mean, does it get any better than this??? Things really were coming together while classes resumed as much like normal as they could.
So, Dean turned 41 on Thursday, and it was not quite the party it was last year, but he got a lovely "cambodian" birthday present from his family of kettle chips, Starbucks coffee (purchased by our friends who just came back from KL) and a toblerone! (Western treats!) He spent the better part of the day with a "birthday boy" badge pinned on the front of his shirt, and when so many kids were wishing him happy birthday and asking him is he really was a "birthday boy," he thought he'd remove it! Dean and Dan ran most of this week, like crazy, trying to keep staff happy, parents and carpools running smoothly and the pick up at the end of the day as practical as the mayhem could allow. Lots of parking lot attending, dealing with workers and running around to classrooms, asking if everyone was OK. Needless to say, they're pretty beat today (Friday) and will need a good rest this weekend. I guess Dean will rest after hosting a volleyball tournament tomorrow, where S & J will play their last tournament on the same middle school team.
And finally, probably the story you've all been waiting for... poor Maya. That little sweetheart had her birthday last weekend, but I'd promised her she could take a cake in on Friday of the first week of school, to share with the class and have a little celebration. Thurs night it was whipped up, and Friday, she carried it into the school, placed in on the wood coffee table in the office until time to go to class. Now, Maya's mother, who is also on staff :) was on duty Friday morning, chatting with another teacher, when she started to hear her name being called loudly by other students, from the office. There stood Maya with blood all over her mouth and shirt, crying and screaming.
I ran to see her. She was apparently running to see her cake and tripped, landing with her mouth on the corner of the wood table. As the blood got washed off, it was apparent that her bottom lip was split open pretty good, and I was sure some stitches would be needed to close it up. Found Dean, he took one look and agreed, so maya and mom were off to the hospital, at 8 in the morning, during rush hour traffic. I won't go into the details about the trip there, as May was really ok, she'd settled down a bit, had a cloth on her lip, and actually fell asleep a bit in the car from the shock. But it took me nearly an hour to get across town, when the return trip took about 20 or so minutes!
Aside: Our car actually got hit twice in that trip, if you can believe it. First time, I felt such a small nudge from behind, that I thought, "did I just get hit?" Waved to the guy behind me and he gave me the sorry wave! Then, I got wedged between two cars and one of them slightly sideswiped the side of our car trying to get past me. Hard to believe, eh?
So, we went for the first time to SOS, an international hospital with foreign doctors, a very safe bet for good care out here, and I didn't care what the cost would be, as we have good insurance. I just thought with her face and her lip, I wanted a good clean stitching, for future healing. As she fell asleep in the car, I could see more closely that there was actually a large laceration on the inside of her mouth, too! Her teeth must have gone right through her lip. It looked pretty nasty.
The care at SOS was great, we got in right away (which I have noticed is what happens when you're actually paying for medical care out here! No waiting!) and the doctor agreed that stitches were necessary. Options: local anasthetic or the "woozy" drink that would knock her out a bit, then the local anasthetic. Either way, there was a needle involved and we decided to go for it and just "help" Maya deal with the stingy pricks of the needle. Help in this situation, meant calm her down as much as possible, then hold her as still as possible while the medicine was administered.
She screamed blue murder. It wasn't fun, but we all stayed calm, and I think she will forgive me one day! I was like 4 inches from her face holding her arms down while another nurse was holding her head still, while I watched the doctor insert a long needle into the open wound. Reason #476 that I am a teacher and not a nurse! Then the fish hook to pull two stiches through the flesh. Reason #477. The anasthetic didn't seem to make too much difference, as Maya was pretty upset during the stitching too, and she had to be very still (which she wasn't) so it was pretty tricky. As soon as it was over, she just wanted to get out of there and go back to school. She stopped crying quite quickly and was up and ready to leave. ? You see, birthday cake was waiting for her at school. This was the motivating factor, and by around 11 am, we were back at school, I was getting ready for my next class and she was participating fairly happily in her class.
She was still a bit out of it, I could tell, for most of the day. She couldn't use her bottom lip really, so was sucking up spit. It was swollen (still is, of course) and just looked sore. But she was so brave, and we all told her so, and in 5 or 6 days we'll have to do it all again to have the stitches removed! haha. The doctor did not stitch up the cut on the inside of the lip, as she said it would heal perfectly fine inside the mouth. I asked a couple times and she was confident, and even by the end of today, it was looking better.
I tell ya, it's a good thing I've been there, done that with two other kids already! So officially, all our kids have had stitches somewhere on their face! I was there for Stephi's two, and Dean took care of Julia's lip stitch when she was about 4. SO, now Maya's joined the party! All of our girls have also had general anasthetic for some kind of surgery or test AND they've all had head lice, ALL when they were in their first year of schooling. Weird, hey? Well, at least they all haven't had emergency, life-saving laparotomies! One is all I can hand of that..
So, there's something to be said for experience...
Our plan for the weekend is to R E S T. I hope this happens. The week, although it was nothing of the physical stress for me (Lesley) that it was for Dean, was still tough for me mentally. I think just the whole getting back to school after a break (you know, getting into routine)was tiring, but the expectation that the school would be "done" by now and there's still so much that needs "doing" was hard for me to get my head around. Just a bit of a loss of enthusiasm, although I can sense that rallying again. I just have to be PATIENT and not forget the positive side of all this. I have very much enjoyed having a humungus music room (4X the size it was in the old school!) where was can sit a whole class in a circle and still have room to move around and play games. It was a fun week that way.
ANyways, thanks for listening, and thanks for your prayers for us and the new school. Please keep praying. The school is a building, and yes, it's nice and there is still lots to do, but all in all, it's still a building. There are so many students, and staff serving there, that prayers for the hearts and lives of those kids and the staff are still coveted. Our school also sits at the end of a road where we see alot of people living very basic lives and small local children often gather outside the school gates to play. There's a tremendous opportunity to make a difference even in small ways, just outside our gates!
PS And yes, there are even what we all think are Maya's "teeth marks," indented in the wood of the table in the office where she fell! She was complaining that her top tooth hurt, and we'll have to monitor it. It didn't feel too loose, but it was definitely her top teeth that broke her fall. Ouch! Good thing they're all babies and are eventually coming out anyways. :)
Bye for now, all.
Could all this happen in just one short week in our time here in Cambodia? Yes it can and yes it did!
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| From mayainjured |
First week at the new Logos! Truly it went really well, despite some predicted setbacks. The traffic was OK, as parents had to park a ways out and walk to drop off and pick up kids. Not everyone was happy about that, but you can't please everyone. There is a PA system installed for names to be called at the end of the day to come to the gate for their ride home. Complete garble on the first day, so by Wed, it was replaced with our very efficient, well working and loud old system that we had at the old Logos. SO, by mid week, everyone could actually hear their names being called and report to go home! Improvement.
Power, that powerful word. We expected some troubles, and all day Monday, the power was on and off. (Sucks when using computers, cuz you can lose stuff.) By Tues, it went off late morning and stayed off for the rest of the day. The prob was not the limited power in the area, but rather, we blew the main power breaker coming into the school. By Wed, the powers that be (note the pun) declared almost an all out ban on air con use, which was draining the most energy, and asked us to use none or just one per room. This worked much better, and we had power all day for the rest of the week. The school is located outside the city, so there's lots of wind and airflow, and the design is such that if windows are open, the breeze is quite cooling and not as much air con is needed. It also cooled off a bit by the end of the week, so that has helped too. However, with the breeze comes the dirt, and that is coating everything, but at least it's better than no air flow and no air con, and a cookery. So, we learned as we went, that's for sure.
Water. There is one tiny little hose that brings water into the entire school building. It is then pumped into tanks on the roof, which then flow down. I'm not sure of the exact physics, but the tiny little hose could not filter enough water into the tanks for the use required on Monday. That meant we ran out of water from the taps and to flush toilets by mid day. It didn't help that when the guards outside shut off a certain tap, it actually turned off ALL the water flow into the school (they thought it was just their own hoses or something!) Kind of funny, but that got remedied quickly. Tuesday, they started to put in anther pipe to pump more water in, and it definitely improved throughout the week, but occasionally there would be no water on the top floor, but flowing freely on the main! Still working on that a bit, but as with the other issues, things improved throughout the week.
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| From Shalom Church has first service at New Logos. Pastor BJ from Action International leads worship |
What else? The gym floor that got grinded/sanded down for a smoother surface caused the girls first volleyball practice on Tuesday afterschool, to be "dust"ball! With every step, jump and landing, the dust rose up and covered the girls. Not great for lungs. Dean asked for the floor to be power washed to clean it off, and found to his amusement that the "powerwash" was nothing more than a garden hose and a few guys with brooms! ( I couldn't help but think of my mother "hosing!") But still, this week saw the following: a roof put up to shade the playground, computer desks installed, internet up and running, more tables for the library, the small kid's pool up and running, the large pool getting less and less green every day, photocopiers working and the laminator found... I mean, does it get any better than this??? Things really were coming together while classes resumed as much like normal as they could.
So, Dean turned 41 on Thursday, and it was not quite the party it was last year, but he got a lovely "cambodian" birthday present from his family of kettle chips, Starbucks coffee (purchased by our friends who just came back from KL) and a toblerone! (Western treats!) He spent the better part of the day with a "birthday boy" badge pinned on the front of his shirt, and when so many kids were wishing him happy birthday and asking him is he really was a "birthday boy," he thought he'd remove it! Dean and Dan ran most of this week, like crazy, trying to keep staff happy, parents and carpools running smoothly and the pick up at the end of the day as practical as the mayhem could allow. Lots of parking lot attending, dealing with workers and running around to classrooms, asking if everyone was OK. Needless to say, they're pretty beat today (Friday) and will need a good rest this weekend. I guess Dean will rest after hosting a volleyball tournament tomorrow, where S & J will play their last tournament on the same middle school team.
And finally, probably the story you've all been waiting for... poor Maya. That little sweetheart had her birthday last weekend, but I'd promised her she could take a cake in on Friday of the first week of school, to share with the class and have a little celebration. Thurs night it was whipped up, and Friday, she carried it into the school, placed in on the wood coffee table in the office until time to go to class. Now, Maya's mother, who is also on staff :) was on duty Friday morning, chatting with another teacher, when she started to hear her name being called loudly by other students, from the office. There stood Maya with blood all over her mouth and shirt, crying and screaming.
I ran to see her. She was apparently running to see her cake and tripped, landing with her mouth on the corner of the wood table. As the blood got washed off, it was apparent that her bottom lip was split open pretty good, and I was sure some stitches would be needed to close it up. Found Dean, he took one look and agreed, so maya and mom were off to the hospital, at 8 in the morning, during rush hour traffic. I won't go into the details about the trip there, as May was really ok, she'd settled down a bit, had a cloth on her lip, and actually fell asleep a bit in the car from the shock. But it took me nearly an hour to get across town, when the return trip took about 20 or so minutes!
Aside: Our car actually got hit twice in that trip, if you can believe it. First time, I felt such a small nudge from behind, that I thought, "did I just get hit?" Waved to the guy behind me and he gave me the sorry wave! Then, I got wedged between two cars and one of them slightly sideswiped the side of our car trying to get past me. Hard to believe, eh?
So, we went for the first time to SOS, an international hospital with foreign doctors, a very safe bet for good care out here, and I didn't care what the cost would be, as we have good insurance. I just thought with her face and her lip, I wanted a good clean stitching, for future healing. As she fell asleep in the car, I could see more closely that there was actually a large laceration on the inside of her mouth, too! Her teeth must have gone right through her lip. It looked pretty nasty.
The care at SOS was great, we got in right away (which I have noticed is what happens when you're actually paying for medical care out here! No waiting!) and the doctor agreed that stitches were necessary. Options: local anasthetic or the "woozy" drink that would knock her out a bit, then the local anasthetic. Either way, there was a needle involved and we decided to go for it and just "help" Maya deal with the stingy pricks of the needle. Help in this situation, meant calm her down as much as possible, then hold her as still as possible while the medicine was administered.
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| From Maya falls at Logos and splits her Lip. Les takes her to SOS hospital |
She screamed blue murder. It wasn't fun, but we all stayed calm, and I think she will forgive me one day! I was like 4 inches from her face holding her arms down while another nurse was holding her head still, while I watched the doctor insert a long needle into the open wound. Reason #476 that I am a teacher and not a nurse! Then the fish hook to pull two stiches through the flesh. Reason #477. The anasthetic didn't seem to make too much difference, as Maya was pretty upset during the stitching too, and she had to be very still (which she wasn't) so it was pretty tricky. As soon as it was over, she just wanted to get out of there and go back to school. She stopped crying quite quickly and was up and ready to leave. ? You see, birthday cake was waiting for her at school. This was the motivating factor, and by around 11 am, we were back at school, I was getting ready for my next class and she was participating fairly happily in her class.
She was still a bit out of it, I could tell, for most of the day. She couldn't use her bottom lip really, so was sucking up spit. It was swollen (still is, of course) and just looked sore. But she was so brave, and we all told her so, and in 5 or 6 days we'll have to do it all again to have the stitches removed! haha. The doctor did not stitch up the cut on the inside of the lip, as she said it would heal perfectly fine inside the mouth. I asked a couple times and she was confident, and even by the end of today, it was looking better.
I tell ya, it's a good thing I've been there, done that with two other kids already! So officially, all our kids have had stitches somewhere on their face! I was there for Stephi's two, and Dean took care of Julia's lip stitch when she was about 4. SO, now Maya's joined the party! All of our girls have also had general anasthetic for some kind of surgery or test AND they've all had head lice, ALL when they were in their first year of schooling. Weird, hey? Well, at least they all haven't had emergency, life-saving laparotomies! One is all I can hand of that..
So, there's something to be said for experience...
Our plan for the weekend is to R E S T. I hope this happens. The week, although it was nothing of the physical stress for me (Lesley) that it was for Dean, was still tough for me mentally. I think just the whole getting back to school after a break (you know, getting into routine)was tiring, but the expectation that the school would be "done" by now and there's still so much that needs "doing" was hard for me to get my head around. Just a bit of a loss of enthusiasm, although I can sense that rallying again. I just have to be PATIENT and not forget the positive side of all this. I have very much enjoyed having a humungus music room (4X the size it was in the old school!) where was can sit a whole class in a circle and still have room to move around and play games. It was a fun week that way.
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| From Trying to make a kid's ride work in Cambodia. Dan Hein pushes the unit. |
ANyways, thanks for listening, and thanks for your prayers for us and the new school. Please keep praying. The school is a building, and yes, it's nice and there is still lots to do, but all in all, it's still a building. There are so many students, and staff serving there, that prayers for the hearts and lives of those kids and the staff are still coveted. Our school also sits at the end of a road where we see alot of people living very basic lives and small local children often gather outside the school gates to play. There's a tremendous opportunity to make a difference even in small ways, just outside our gates!
PS And yes, there are even what we all think are Maya's "teeth marks," indented in the wood of the table in the office where she fell! She was complaining that her top tooth hurt, and we'll have to monitor it. It didn't feel too loose, but it was definitely her top teeth that broke her fall. Ouch! Good thing they're all babies and are eventually coming out anyways. :)
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| See all Pics |
Bye for now, all.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Maya really is 6, Grand Opening, Signs and Guns
Well, I thought I would try and write today. It has been such a busy time that I have found it difficult to sit down a write a comment on the blog.
First things first, Maya of course celebrated her 6th birthday on Saturday. The one comment I will say about that is -at around 4pm when I got back from work -I asked her what it felt like to be 6? She answered me very quickly and announced she was in fact, not yet 6! I was taken aback and asked her to qualify why she was not yet 6 on her birthday? She clearly stated that she had not yet had any birthday cake, therefore, she was not yet 6! Needless to say we had cake later on in the evening so she is safely 6 years old.
As you may have read earlier with Les, we had the Logos Grand Opening. I think it went well but I am glad it is finished. It took quite a fury to get everything looking good for that morning. You know, asking workers to take down their sleeping hammocks out of the gym, workers to hide their drying laundry off of the trees, and trying to hide all construction type messes and equipment. It worked well- we fooled em all! (2 hours later after everyone left it went back to a construction zone! Fixing aircons, grinding the cement in the gym, placing up metal shade covers recovered from the old school, getting the pool less green- you get the picture).
Actually the Grand Opening all went smoothly. I felt very honored, along with Dan Hein, to be part of and make the final cut on the Grand Opening Ribbon in front of the school. There are quite the emotions that run through me as I look at the new school building. I am so thankful to have been, and continue to be, part of the process and I feel very blessed to watch how God has used so many people and miracles to make this place a reality. Truly- I am so amazed.
As much as there is a building for tomorrow's first day of classes, there are still many things to deal with. As we have been in the building for a short time we have noticed a few things that will need to be addressed. We are not sure we have enough power from the road at this point to run the whole school. We were unable to fill the pool with our water supply and we ran out of water 5 days in a row. (Thankfully we had about 12 water pumper trucks come in to fill the pool. Unfortunately the pool was still green for Grand Opening. However, each day the water is less green!) We paid to have the gravel road in front of the school repaired and flattened again from all the damage of the rainy season. We used it for the move and only about 3 days later, the municipality tore it up and started to place drainage pipes in the side of the road (Good). The bad part is they have left the job and the road for about 2 weeks and the road is impassible for our parents and cars to drop off their kids at the school (Bad). So we will pray that the road gets fixed again and we can have a reasonable way of getting kids to and from the property. As it stands now, most kids will walk about .5 km to get from a main road to the school gates. Doable, just nice and hot and not in the original plan!
One last comment I will leave you with today. Our school is a bit hard to find and so we have made some signs to place on the main roads to help point people in the right direction. We need to get permission from the local authorities and make the appropriate payments to place our sign on the road. We tried to get our one sign standing and cemented in by the side of the road on the Friday evening before Grand Opening. Well, Dan and I were called out to the location where one of the local authorities said we were unable to place our sign in the particular location we had been given previous permission. Part of his argument stands in that he wanted us to pay him $20/month to place our sign on HIS property. Anyways, we said we were going to stick with our plan to place the sign across the road away from his property so we would not need to pay him anything at all. He left at that point. We told our sign guy to start digging and not to stop for any reason and get the sign in before dark as it was already 5 pm. Well as it turns out, within 15 minutes of our leaving a gentleman came back (not sure if it was the same guy) with a number of military police and they all pointed machine guns at the sign-guy and told him to stop or they would "shoot him dead"! Needless to say, we did not get our sign in that night. So on Monday, that sign issue will be one of the many things that will have to be addressed and taken care of. Cambodia is never boring!
Blessings to you all,
Deano
PS Our internet is finally working again after a 2 week series of problems where everything cut in and out. I finally downloaded the Canadian Football Grey Cup Game onto my computer. I have just finished the 1st quarter of the game. It looks like a good one. Not much of a Grey Cup party- just me and an electric fan watching it on a laptop! Woo HOO! Can't really get many people around here to be excited about it. They haven't started living yet!
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| From logosgrandopening |
First things first, Maya of course celebrated her 6th birthday on Saturday. The one comment I will say about that is -at around 4pm when I got back from work -I asked her what it felt like to be 6? She answered me very quickly and announced she was in fact, not yet 6! I was taken aback and asked her to qualify why she was not yet 6 on her birthday? She clearly stated that she had not yet had any birthday cake, therefore, she was not yet 6! Needless to say we had cake later on in the evening so she is safely 6 years old.
As you may have read earlier with Les, we had the Logos Grand Opening. I think it went well but I am glad it is finished. It took quite a fury to get everything looking good for that morning. You know, asking workers to take down their sleeping hammocks out of the gym, workers to hide their drying laundry off of the trees, and trying to hide all construction type messes and equipment. It worked well- we fooled em all! (2 hours later after everyone left it went back to a construction zone! Fixing aircons, grinding the cement in the gym, placing up metal shade covers recovered from the old school, getting the pool less green- you get the picture).
Actually the Grand Opening all went smoothly. I felt very honored, along with Dan Hein, to be part of and make the final cut on the Grand Opening Ribbon in front of the school. There are quite the emotions that run through me as I look at the new school building. I am so thankful to have been, and continue to be, part of the process and I feel very blessed to watch how God has used so many people and miracles to make this place a reality. Truly- I am so amazed.
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| From logosgrandopening |
As much as there is a building for tomorrow's first day of classes, there are still many things to deal with. As we have been in the building for a short time we have noticed a few things that will need to be addressed. We are not sure we have enough power from the road at this point to run the whole school. We were unable to fill the pool with our water supply and we ran out of water 5 days in a row. (Thankfully we had about 12 water pumper trucks come in to fill the pool. Unfortunately the pool was still green for Grand Opening. However, each day the water is less green!) We paid to have the gravel road in front of the school repaired and flattened again from all the damage of the rainy season. We used it for the move and only about 3 days later, the municipality tore it up and started to place drainage pipes in the side of the road (Good). The bad part is they have left the job and the road for about 2 weeks and the road is impassible for our parents and cars to drop off their kids at the school (Bad). So we will pray that the road gets fixed again and we can have a reasonable way of getting kids to and from the property. As it stands now, most kids will walk about .5 km to get from a main road to the school gates. Doable, just nice and hot and not in the original plan!
One last comment I will leave you with today. Our school is a bit hard to find and so we have made some signs to place on the main roads to help point people in the right direction. We need to get permission from the local authorities and make the appropriate payments to place our sign on the road. We tried to get our one sign standing and cemented in by the side of the road on the Friday evening before Grand Opening. Well, Dan and I were called out to the location where one of the local authorities said we were unable to place our sign in the particular location we had been given previous permission. Part of his argument stands in that he wanted us to pay him $20/month to place our sign on HIS property. Anyways, we said we were going to stick with our plan to place the sign across the road away from his property so we would not need to pay him anything at all. He left at that point. We told our sign guy to start digging and not to stop for any reason and get the sign in before dark as it was already 5 pm. Well as it turns out, within 15 minutes of our leaving a gentleman came back (not sure if it was the same guy) with a number of military police and they all pointed machine guns at the sign-guy and told him to stop or they would "shoot him dead"! Needless to say, we did not get our sign in that night. So on Monday, that sign issue will be one of the many things that will have to be addressed and taken care of. Cambodia is never boring!
Blessings to you all,
Deano
PS Our internet is finally working again after a 2 week series of problems where everything cut in and out. I finally downloaded the Canadian Football Grey Cup Game onto my computer. I have just finished the 1st quarter of the game. It looks like a good one. Not much of a Grey Cup party- just me and an electric fan watching it on a laptop! Woo HOO! Can't really get many people around here to be excited about it. They haven't started living yet!
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| See all 72 pictures of Maya's birthday, Logos Grand Opening |
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Happy Birthday Maya, and Happy Opening Ceremonies Logos!
Greetings again, loved ones.
Today was a very special day in two ways, it was Maya's 6th birthday and it was also the official Opening Ceremonies for the new Logos International School Campus.
Last night before going to bed, Lesley made up a bunch of Happy Birthday signs, so when we hauled Maya out of bed this morning, she was very excited to see the well wishes all over the walls. Also, yesterday, we went to the best toy store in PP, and spent some of her "birthday" money to buy a special toy. As much as I pulled her to the barbie section, she was pretty fascinated with these action figure toys and watches. It's from an asian cartoon out here called Ben 10--very popular. The character Ben can turn into 10 different aliens-cool. So, we wrapped those up for this morning, and had her "open" them over a quick breakfast of nutella and yoghurt!
THANKS, X-Stream! Quick interjection: The XStream group from SOA sent us a Christmas package that was full of licorice and Tim's and NUTELLA for Julia and the girls. So, Nutella is being consumed at an alarming rate both morning and night here at our house. Who invented that stuff? I mean, it's basically cake icing that you can smear all over toast and claim it to be a meal??? I don't get it, but the kids sure do and they're loving it! Thanks guys, we appreciate it a ton!
Out the door we whipped to get to Logos for a 9 am Opening ceremonies program. Lesley had to direct the elementary choir with 2 worship songs (15 kids out of all the Gr 3-6's showed up to practice, which was a poor turn out, but if Jesus can feed 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish, why can't we make beautiful music with just 15 kids?) Dean was the MC and host for the event, so he was up late last night putting the finishing touches on his speeches. He did a great job and the event was really nice, and very touching actually. Khmer dancers, Korean dance, high school choir. Very nice.
We had the head of Asian Hope fly out for the event, and when he saw the school driving up, he said he had tears in his eyes. It really is a sight to see, especially when you've been on the end of working toward it and waiting for it for so long. The builders were honored, the education minister was there and lots of parents, staff, students and general interested ex-pat community. A Special thanks to Dan was expressed for the vision and tenacity to see this through. Food was also baked up by the Asian Hope girls home (dozens and dozens of cookies) and was free refreshments for all. (That was quite a highlight.) All said and done, it was over at 11:30 and all the staff headed for a meeting, to prepare as best we can for the traffic mayhem that is going to ensue on Monday morning! :)
We then had an impromtu birthday party for May. We nabbed Sophie and Tabby to come over after the ceremonies, and they had lunch with us (Kraft dinner, big treat) and played for the afternoon (sometimes more with Julia than Maya!). After a bit of down time with Tom and Jerry, we headed off to Pizza company for a birthday supper. Maya was quite happy with the day, although it was pretty low key for her, but kept asking if she was already 6. Yes. Then she would say, "next is 7, then 8, then 9..." SLow down, May, not too fast, ok? 6 is enough for now!
We took lots of pictures of today, so they should be posted some day soon. Just a quick entry today. More to tell you after this week, maybe after Monday, to depict some tales of complete mayhem, or a rather smooth transition! Time will tell which it will be. We're already expecting the power to fall short, once all the kids get in there, and all the air cons are turned on! And hopefully the pool will be ready to use--it's currently losing some of it's green color, as it's being treated! :) Should be interesting. We're all pretty excited, though.
Ok, lots of love to all, and will talk soon!
Today was a very special day in two ways, it was Maya's 6th birthday and it was also the official Opening Ceremonies for the new Logos International School Campus.
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| From logosgrandopening |
Last night before going to bed, Lesley made up a bunch of Happy Birthday signs, so when we hauled Maya out of bed this morning, she was very excited to see the well wishes all over the walls. Also, yesterday, we went to the best toy store in PP, and spent some of her "birthday" money to buy a special toy. As much as I pulled her to the barbie section, she was pretty fascinated with these action figure toys and watches. It's from an asian cartoon out here called Ben 10--very popular. The character Ben can turn into 10 different aliens-cool. So, we wrapped those up for this morning, and had her "open" them over a quick breakfast of nutella and yoghurt!
THANKS, X-Stream! Quick interjection: The XStream group from SOA sent us a Christmas package that was full of licorice and Tim's and NUTELLA for Julia and the girls. So, Nutella is being consumed at an alarming rate both morning and night here at our house. Who invented that stuff? I mean, it's basically cake icing that you can smear all over toast and claim it to be a meal??? I don't get it, but the kids sure do and they're loving it! Thanks guys, we appreciate it a ton!
 |
| From logosgrandopening |
Out the door we whipped to get to Logos for a 9 am Opening ceremonies program. Lesley had to direct the elementary choir with 2 worship songs (15 kids out of all the Gr 3-6's showed up to practice, which was a poor turn out, but if Jesus can feed 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish, why can't we make beautiful music with just 15 kids?) Dean was the MC and host for the event, so he was up late last night putting the finishing touches on his speeches. He did a great job and the event was really nice, and very touching actually. Khmer dancers, Korean dance, high school choir. Very nice.
 |
| From logosgrandopening |
 |
| From logosgrandopening |
We had the head of Asian Hope fly out for the event, and when he saw the school driving up, he said he had tears in his eyes. It really is a sight to see, especially when you've been on the end of working toward it and waiting for it for so long. The builders were honored, the education minister was there and lots of parents, staff, students and general interested ex-pat community. A Special thanks to Dan was expressed for the vision and tenacity to see this through. Food was also baked up by the Asian Hope girls home (dozens and dozens of cookies) and was free refreshments for all. (That was quite a highlight.) All said and done, it was over at 11:30 and all the staff headed for a meeting, to prepare as best we can for the traffic mayhem that is going to ensue on Monday morning! :)
 |
| From logosgrandopening |
We then had an impromtu birthday party for May. We nabbed Sophie and Tabby to come over after the ceremonies, and they had lunch with us (Kraft dinner, big treat) and played for the afternoon (sometimes more with Julia than Maya!). After a bit of down time with Tom and Jerry, we headed off to Pizza company for a birthday supper. Maya was quite happy with the day, although it was pretty low key for her, but kept asking if she was already 6. Yes. Then she would say, "next is 7, then 8, then 9..." SLow down, May, not too fast, ok? 6 is enough for now!
We took lots of pictures of today, so they should be posted some day soon. Just a quick entry today. More to tell you after this week, maybe after Monday, to depict some tales of complete mayhem, or a rather smooth transition! Time will tell which it will be. We're already expecting the power to fall short, once all the kids get in there, and all the air cons are turned on! And hopefully the pool will be ready to use--it's currently losing some of it's green color, as it's being treated! :) Should be interesting. We're all pretty excited, though.
 |
| From First Staff Meetingg at the New School |
Ok, lots of love to all, and will talk soon!
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| See all 37 pics here |
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
What a Day
Today was the reason why God invented holidays, for those of us who are rich enough to be able to take them!
Dean and I went furniture shopping this morning before heading to Logos, in order to get a few things for the new school. the X-Stream group from Seven Oaks in Abbotsford has fundraised some money for us, and I was hoping to use some of it on library furniture, Dean needed something for the office.
High: We went to the "furniture street" and looked around a bit--I found good seating at a shop and was elated when the deal was settled. Low: When Dean and I parted ways, (we were each going to run separate errands on our motos before going back to school), I headed down the street, only to be pulled over by my favorite people, the Cambodian traffic police. Not again.
Turns out, the street we were on, that starts out as a normal, two way street, suddenly turns mid stream into a one way, and the cops sit about 50 metres past the well hidden "do not enter" sign, and pull people over. I was shocked, had no idea that this street was like this, and apparently, neither did Dean! There he was on his moto, we had said goodbye not 1 minute before, and he'd been caught too. He, however, had called "the powers that be," some of his "connections" and apparently had got the fine down to $2.50. So, I jabbered on and on in english about how unfair this was and "you shouldn't treat foreigners who come to your country to help this way" kind of yada yada, and dug out my $2.50 to pay.
I pay, and peel out of there as fast as I can, only to get another 50 metres, turn right, where the arrow said I could go, and another cop comes off the sidewalk to pull me over! I was shocked and really ticked, and tried to avoid him. He got hold of my moto and I stopped, but then I just gave it the gas and pulled off. He hit the back of my bike with his baton, but missed me. Others we know have been hit by the baton that they all carry (if you try to run, some of them try to hit you) and others I know have had their car hit.
By now, I'm shook up, and start to crying. I pulled over further on, tried to decide where to go or if I should just go home, but I just could not stop crying! Behind a helmet and a facemask, my eyes just poured tears! It's just not fair--I didn't DO anything wrong!!! (or so I thought.) I finally turned around to head to one last store before going home for lunch, but couldn't even make it there. Decided to stop for "coffee" (an iced coffee, that is,) and try to regroup. Still crying, not sure why.
I sit at the coffee shop, Dean calls and I try to tell him why I'm so upset (he didn't see me get pulled over by the second cop just seconds later) and you're not going to believe what he called my attention to. You know when I left the first cops? Peeled out of there after shoving my money at them? Ya, discombublated BRAINO, took off in EXACTLY THE SAME DIRECTION--AGAINST THE ONE WAY THAT I HAD JUST BEEN PULLED OVER FOR!!! That's why the second cop tried to get me--he saw me coming the wrong way off the one way! What a fool, and an idiot! Even Dean said the cops were waving after me, and he was trying to yell for me to stop but I was gone. I don't know what I was thinking except that I was trying to get to a certain street, and it was that direction and I just went brain dead.
Well, at least the second pull over made sense now, however, I still was feeling a little rough. SO, I sat crying, in the coffee shop, and pulled out my bible. Hey, maybe not reading this little book for a few days has something to do with my state of mind??? Brothers and Sisters, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
What do I open up to? Acts 9, I think, where the Roman Centurian invited Simon Peter to his home, and Peter has the vision of the animals coming down on "what looked like a sheet" and he was told that what you eat doesn't matter, where you go (to a Gentiles home) doesn't matter. Jesus came and died for everyone. And I was so convicted.
You see, it's been crunch time for us. We've made the family decision that we are pursuing a third year at Logos. And now the doubt is creeping in and our enemy is using what he can to disuade us that this is what God wants for us and that staying in Cambodia longer is God's will for us! I mean, in my tears and fury, as I ran away from the authority here in this country, I just swore and said out loud, "I HATE this place!" I mean, that is what Satan wants me to believe!!!
It's so easy to think at this stage of the game, "you know what? I don't HAVE to stay, I could just go back this summer, after enjoying a lovely trip to Australia, then resume "normal," easy life! I've done my share, I've obeyed God, and now I can have my life back" It's easy to slip into this selfish thinking! Even this past Sunday, we heard from one of our favorite guest preachers at ICA (Timothy Paton, a frenchman, with a lovely thick accent when he preaches in English!)) He asked," Are you still passionate about the lost? Do you still see the poverty, the suffering, the need for Good News... are you still passionate about what brought you here?" Yes, it would be easier to just say, "yup, all finished. Boy, wasn't that a great ride!" But God wants us to TRUST him. I've gone the way of trusting myself, and let me tell you, greater things come from the smallest submission to God, than the greatest effort I ever put forth!!!!
Over Christmas, at Stephanie's insistence, I read the book "the Hiding Place," the true story of Corrie Ten Boom, the famous dutch woman who worked for the resistance in WWII, and who helped as many jews as she could, hide from the germans, then was taken to a concentration camp herself. What a great read, if you haven't ever read it, I recommend it, because it is so incredibly faith building. The way Corrie and her sister Betsy, who died in that camp, just kept thanking God for EVERYTHING they had there (including the fleas, amazingly, that kept even the guards away from them, so they could share god's love and hope with everyone there.) I mean, if those ladies could thank God for their situation in a concentrations camp, then couldn't I thank God for the opportunity to stay here (where it's anything but a prison camp--we have so much freedom here, to share God's love, it's amazing!) Can't I be thankful, maybe even for the police???
So, then, I thanked God for the bible reading. I thanked God that he came for everyone, the Jews and the Gentiles. I thanked Him that he died for all the Cambodians, even those sitting right there in that cafe, ignoring me as I cried. And I even thanked him for the police, for making me see my horrible indignity towards them, and my pride and arrogance, and I wondered what Jesus would do to a heart, if the next time I was stopped, if I gave freely, even more than required, and told them that this money was for their children, and that JEsus loves them. Don't you think that's what Jesus would have done? Maybe...
Anyways, I regrouped and saw alot of stuff more clearly, but the day didn't get that much better. Hormones were raging, let me tell you. I went home, had lunch with the girls (I feel guilty for leaving them, especially Maya, but they have some things to do and we're trying to arrange for hanging out with friends.) I got to school and, of course, nothing (and I mean NOTHING) of anything that was supposed to be done, was done. The computer desks being fitted for the library weren't installed (supposed to be done yesterday), the library floors not swept or mopped (swept into piles yesterday, still there), and the music room was untouched, although I had been told yesterday by the head cleaner that it would be cleaned today. It's something that Cambodia can do to you, is to take away your hope sometimes, that something might get done that someone tells you will get done, depending on who that person is. It's like a big, happy surprise when something actually get's done on time, or the way you have asked for it to be.
I swept the rest of the library. Ly helped, bless him. He has so much to do and tomorrow he's even taking a 16 year old girl that his family knows from the province, to the dentist and paying for her to have a whole bunch of her permanent, rotten teeth removed.
I waited for about 2 hours for cleaners to come back from lunch (i'm not exaggerating) and when I did, I begged for the library to be mopped. They continued to sweep the hallway. I took the broom from her hand, and said, no, go mop the library. The poor girl took off like a shot and started mopping the library. I waited outside the library door until she was actually DOING it. I left to start sweeping the music room.
It was not likely that when I went back to check on her work after about 20 minutes, that I would find her mopping. I didn't. The other cleaner was there, telling me something in khmer about going upstairs. I just couldn't take it anymore. I lovingly went to the person in charge of them to ask WHY they REFUSED to clean the floor (that I swept for them, because they didn't do that either!!!) SHe said it wasn't their area! The girl that cleans the library floor didn't come back from lunch, even though she's getting paid and said she would return.
Do you know that on Monday, I asked for cleaners to clean the music room and library, and was told that they wouldn't be coming in until THURSDAY, one of the resons being because they didn't get lunch. Seriously. The school is a MESS, it's still a construction war zone, and there is enough cleaning for our staff, who I must add are being paid to do this job, to clean from today until the very moment that kids arrive on Monday morning (not to mention we're hosting an opening ceremonies on Saturday!)
I guess I finally came to the realization that the buck stops with me. Once I finally accepted what I've known all along to be the inevitable, I just left them not cleaning the library I resolved to clean up the music room myself, and I spent hours today sweeping concrete dust and left over air con garbage into a huge bag. Glad I had a mask. At 5 o'clock, when I left the school, the cleaners were out at the gate just siting around with the guard, one was drinking an iced coffee from a bag. What to do???
ANyways, enjoyed a lovely ordered in supper at our friends the Dedert's place and we all got to hold little Calvine, who by the way, is doing pretty good, gaining weight and reaching some milestones. He's super sweet, STeph can't get enough of him. It was nice to enjoy some company.
For me, today was a reminder of my sinful nature, and evertime I think I'm doing a good job or that I'm "not that bad" of a person, I think all I need to do is remind myself of today. It was a mess, just like my music room. Thank the Lord He came to save me from this wretchedness! However, tonight, I'm going to rest well. That will help a little. And I'm going to give thanks for the cleaners.
Dean and I went furniture shopping this morning before heading to Logos, in order to get a few things for the new school. the X-Stream group from Seven Oaks in Abbotsford has fundraised some money for us, and I was hoping to use some of it on library furniture, Dean needed something for the office.
High: We went to the "furniture street" and looked around a bit--I found good seating at a shop and was elated when the deal was settled. Low: When Dean and I parted ways, (we were each going to run separate errands on our motos before going back to school), I headed down the street, only to be pulled over by my favorite people, the Cambodian traffic police. Not again.
Turns out, the street we were on, that starts out as a normal, two way street, suddenly turns mid stream into a one way, and the cops sit about 50 metres past the well hidden "do not enter" sign, and pull people over. I was shocked, had no idea that this street was like this, and apparently, neither did Dean! There he was on his moto, we had said goodbye not 1 minute before, and he'd been caught too. He, however, had called "the powers that be," some of his "connections" and apparently had got the fine down to $2.50. So, I jabbered on and on in english about how unfair this was and "you shouldn't treat foreigners who come to your country to help this way" kind of yada yada, and dug out my $2.50 to pay.
I pay, and peel out of there as fast as I can, only to get another 50 metres, turn right, where the arrow said I could go, and another cop comes off the sidewalk to pull me over! I was shocked and really ticked, and tried to avoid him. He got hold of my moto and I stopped, but then I just gave it the gas and pulled off. He hit the back of my bike with his baton, but missed me. Others we know have been hit by the baton that they all carry (if you try to run, some of them try to hit you) and others I know have had their car hit.
By now, I'm shook up, and start to crying. I pulled over further on, tried to decide where to go or if I should just go home, but I just could not stop crying! Behind a helmet and a facemask, my eyes just poured tears! It's just not fair--I didn't DO anything wrong!!! (or so I thought.) I finally turned around to head to one last store before going home for lunch, but couldn't even make it there. Decided to stop for "coffee" (an iced coffee, that is,) and try to regroup. Still crying, not sure why.
I sit at the coffee shop, Dean calls and I try to tell him why I'm so upset (he didn't see me get pulled over by the second cop just seconds later) and you're not going to believe what he called my attention to. You know when I left the first cops? Peeled out of there after shoving my money at them? Ya, discombublated BRAINO, took off in EXACTLY THE SAME DIRECTION--AGAINST THE ONE WAY THAT I HAD JUST BEEN PULLED OVER FOR!!! That's why the second cop tried to get me--he saw me coming the wrong way off the one way! What a fool, and an idiot! Even Dean said the cops were waving after me, and he was trying to yell for me to stop but I was gone. I don't know what I was thinking except that I was trying to get to a certain street, and it was that direction and I just went brain dead.
Well, at least the second pull over made sense now, however, I still was feeling a little rough. SO, I sat crying, in the coffee shop, and pulled out my bible. Hey, maybe not reading this little book for a few days has something to do with my state of mind??? Brothers and Sisters, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
What do I open up to? Acts 9, I think, where the Roman Centurian invited Simon Peter to his home, and Peter has the vision of the animals coming down on "what looked like a sheet" and he was told that what you eat doesn't matter, where you go (to a Gentiles home) doesn't matter. Jesus came and died for everyone. And I was so convicted.
You see, it's been crunch time for us. We've made the family decision that we are pursuing a third year at Logos. And now the doubt is creeping in and our enemy is using what he can to disuade us that this is what God wants for us and that staying in Cambodia longer is God's will for us! I mean, in my tears and fury, as I ran away from the authority here in this country, I just swore and said out loud, "I HATE this place!" I mean, that is what Satan wants me to believe!!!
It's so easy to think at this stage of the game, "you know what? I don't HAVE to stay, I could just go back this summer, after enjoying a lovely trip to Australia, then resume "normal," easy life! I've done my share, I've obeyed God, and now I can have my life back" It's easy to slip into this selfish thinking! Even this past Sunday, we heard from one of our favorite guest preachers at ICA (Timothy Paton, a frenchman, with a lovely thick accent when he preaches in English!)) He asked," Are you still passionate about the lost? Do you still see the poverty, the suffering, the need for Good News... are you still passionate about what brought you here?" Yes, it would be easier to just say, "yup, all finished. Boy, wasn't that a great ride!" But God wants us to TRUST him. I've gone the way of trusting myself, and let me tell you, greater things come from the smallest submission to God, than the greatest effort I ever put forth!!!!
Over Christmas, at Stephanie's insistence, I read the book "the Hiding Place," the true story of Corrie Ten Boom, the famous dutch woman who worked for the resistance in WWII, and who helped as many jews as she could, hide from the germans, then was taken to a concentration camp herself. What a great read, if you haven't ever read it, I recommend it, because it is so incredibly faith building. The way Corrie and her sister Betsy, who died in that camp, just kept thanking God for EVERYTHING they had there (including the fleas, amazingly, that kept even the guards away from them, so they could share god's love and hope with everyone there.) I mean, if those ladies could thank God for their situation in a concentrations camp, then couldn't I thank God for the opportunity to stay here (where it's anything but a prison camp--we have so much freedom here, to share God's love, it's amazing!) Can't I be thankful, maybe even for the police???
So, then, I thanked God for the bible reading. I thanked God that he came for everyone, the Jews and the Gentiles. I thanked Him that he died for all the Cambodians, even those sitting right there in that cafe, ignoring me as I cried. And I even thanked him for the police, for making me see my horrible indignity towards them, and my pride and arrogance, and I wondered what Jesus would do to a heart, if the next time I was stopped, if I gave freely, even more than required, and told them that this money was for their children, and that JEsus loves them. Don't you think that's what Jesus would have done? Maybe...
Anyways, I regrouped and saw alot of stuff more clearly, but the day didn't get that much better. Hormones were raging, let me tell you. I went home, had lunch with the girls (I feel guilty for leaving them, especially Maya, but they have some things to do and we're trying to arrange for hanging out with friends.) I got to school and, of course, nothing (and I mean NOTHING) of anything that was supposed to be done, was done. The computer desks being fitted for the library weren't installed (supposed to be done yesterday), the library floors not swept or mopped (swept into piles yesterday, still there), and the music room was untouched, although I had been told yesterday by the head cleaner that it would be cleaned today. It's something that Cambodia can do to you, is to take away your hope sometimes, that something might get done that someone tells you will get done, depending on who that person is. It's like a big, happy surprise when something actually get's done on time, or the way you have asked for it to be.
I swept the rest of the library. Ly helped, bless him. He has so much to do and tomorrow he's even taking a 16 year old girl that his family knows from the province, to the dentist and paying for her to have a whole bunch of her permanent, rotten teeth removed.
I waited for about 2 hours for cleaners to come back from lunch (i'm not exaggerating) and when I did, I begged for the library to be mopped. They continued to sweep the hallway. I took the broom from her hand, and said, no, go mop the library. The poor girl took off like a shot and started mopping the library. I waited outside the library door until she was actually DOING it. I left to start sweeping the music room.
It was not likely that when I went back to check on her work after about 20 minutes, that I would find her mopping. I didn't. The other cleaner was there, telling me something in khmer about going upstairs. I just couldn't take it anymore. I lovingly went to the person in charge of them to ask WHY they REFUSED to clean the floor (that I swept for them, because they didn't do that either!!!) SHe said it wasn't their area! The girl that cleans the library floor didn't come back from lunch, even though she's getting paid and said she would return.
Do you know that on Monday, I asked for cleaners to clean the music room and library, and was told that they wouldn't be coming in until THURSDAY, one of the resons being because they didn't get lunch. Seriously. The school is a MESS, it's still a construction war zone, and there is enough cleaning for our staff, who I must add are being paid to do this job, to clean from today until the very moment that kids arrive on Monday morning (not to mention we're hosting an opening ceremonies on Saturday!)
I guess I finally came to the realization that the buck stops with me. Once I finally accepted what I've known all along to be the inevitable, I just left them not cleaning the library I resolved to clean up the music room myself, and I spent hours today sweeping concrete dust and left over air con garbage into a huge bag. Glad I had a mask. At 5 o'clock, when I left the school, the cleaners were out at the gate just siting around with the guard, one was drinking an iced coffee from a bag. What to do???
ANyways, enjoyed a lovely ordered in supper at our friends the Dedert's place and we all got to hold little Calvine, who by the way, is doing pretty good, gaining weight and reaching some milestones. He's super sweet, STeph can't get enough of him. It was nice to enjoy some company.
For me, today was a reminder of my sinful nature, and evertime I think I'm doing a good job or that I'm "not that bad" of a person, I think all I need to do is remind myself of today. It was a mess, just like my music room. Thank the Lord He came to save me from this wretchedness! However, tonight, I'm going to rest well. That will help a little. And I'm going to give thanks for the cleaners.
Friday, January 1, 2010
2010 with gladness.
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| From Vietnam |
Happy New Year! 2010 arrived for the Weisses much sooner than it did for most of you! haha We would like to wish you all a Blessed New year, a year filled with health and joy. We also hope your Christmas Season was fun, restful and full of thanksgiving. I would say that was how our was. If you would like to hear about our life for the last two weeks, backtrack with me... It has been interesting, good and different. Here's why:
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| See all 65 pics here |
Flip back to Dec 21 and 22, Monday and Tuesday of the first week off of school. We had moved everything physically into the new school, but the school was still in a state of disarray in many ways-installing air cons, doors, white boards, meants lots of drilling into concrete and DUST! Messy and bad air for breathing. While most classroom teachers were able to unpack and set up their rooms before Christmas, myself (Lesley) with the library and the music room, found myself just wandering around, measuring things, thinking about what I could do then the dust finally settles. I didn't unpack a single library book box, to save on the dusty mess, and waiting for some counters in the music room did not allow me to unpack, really, anything. My plan was to wait until after Christmas break. I hope this plan does not backfire on me. Tuesday evening, we pack to leave for Vietnam.
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| From Vietnam |
Dec 23, Wed. We get up at 5:15 in the morning, to get to a 7 am bus ride. It was nice actually, with a bathroom on the bus for emergencies, so after the normal fiasco of mayhem at the Vietnam border (I'll talk more about this coming up) we arrived at our hotel by 2:30 pm. Pretty good time. We walked around the area we were in, checking out the sights. Ho Chi Minh--same, same, but different than Cambodia. A little richer, a little more advanced, but to our dismay, it was no Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur. For some reason I expected to come home with a pound of starbucks coffee, or have enjoyed a McDonalds burger and fries--sorry, not in HCM, or at least not where we were. Yes, there are markets )living in PP, been there, done that!), yes, there are some fast food joints, coffee shops (I like vietnamese coffee, not everyone does, but it's good for me) and yummy frozen yogurt shops. Can't complain, but still, we have those in PP. So, it was pretty much a same same, but different sort of trip and experience.
Vietnam is still a socialist republic. You wouldn't notice it really, just with the people, but what was noticably missing from the scenery, were the ginormous, mansions and the lexuses, but pop up and drive all over PP. At least not what we saw, was there any sort of that kind of corruption money there. Millions of motos, driving VERY fast, did I mention millions??? Crossing the street was an action of stepping out into oncoming, speeding traffic (much faster and busier than PP) and edging ever so slowly, until you see motos going around you, and eventually, you make it to the other side! It was even really hard to just walk from place to place in the downtown area that we were in: Motos are parked all over what would be considered the sidewalk, so in order to walk, you have to keep jutting out onto the road, where the traffic is moving. It wasn't easy or pleasant, especially with Maya, so we ended up taking the taxi's alot for safety. They were so cheap, $1 or $2 max got us just about everywhere we needed to go, so it wasn't like it was breaking the bank.
Our Ho Chi Minh hotel was quite nice, with a lovely breakfast buffet included, so it made the Christmas portion of our trip feel a little more fancy. It was nice to have a bit of a special time at this hotel. It had a pool, which was hard to find in the downtown, and it was worth it, as the kids used it everyday. It also had carpeting in the room (nice treat!) AND a bathtub, which we all used at least once. Now you wouldn't think we are hard done by to not have a bathtub in Cambodia, it's not problem really, but when you finally DO have one, it's like, "Alright! A Bathtub!" We all felt it, and used it and enjoyed the hot soak! Funny! You never know how much you miss something til you don't have it!
We also did sight seeing, lots of lovely old buildings, including a cathedral, left by the French (Yes the French inhabited most of Vietnam until they were driven out in the 50's, so there's still alot of french speaking, etc around.) After visiting some war monuments, and reading about the history, I tell you, the Vietnamese have been at war with someone, for most of the 20th century, and it's such a sad history for the people. THey are fervently proud of their country, and appeared to fight to the nose for it. INteresting history if you're interested in that sort of thing.
Anyways, in a nutshell, it was really lovely to see Saigon, the "Paris of the Orient." We enjoyed our time there.
Dec 24, THursday, Christmas Eve: We decided to get tickets for the Water Puppety show in the evening, after a nice supper. IF you're an Amazing Race fan, this is the same exact theatre, (we're pretty sure:)) that was showcased on the show. ANyways, in trying to find a restaurant previous, we thought we'd just go somewhere close to the small theatre, ran around looking, and ended up in the "non-restuarant" part of town, and sort of got frustrated. We tried to head (on foot) to where we remembered seeing a nice one the day before, but when we finally got there, it was CLOSED for the evening. It was right across a park, that was starting to get really filled up with people, celebrating the eveing. As it turns out, as we stood outside this restaurant delibreating what we were going to do now (hungry, and running out of time to see the puppetry show) the waiter motions us to a seat, and says they wil give us a meal, special for us! Turns out as a read a sign later, they were closing at 6:30 and we had arrived at 6:15, or something like that, so whether they felt guilty for trying to close up early, or if they just took pity on us pathetic foreigners, either way, they served us up the best meal we had on our whole trip!!! And, seeing as there was no one else in the whole place (we sat out on the patio on the street) the food came fast, they ended up not even charging us for the drinks, AND we considered this just one glaringly obvious gift from God that night! It was really a cool experience--they didn't have to serve us, but they did, and did so very well, and with a smile and best wishes! It was truly a neat experience.
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| From Vietnam |
So, we were only 5 minutes late for the puppety show, it was cool and the kids really liked it, then we tried to get back to the hotel. Well... Let's just say it was around 8 pm. Every cab we tried to hail was full, and so we just started walking. We were in a long walking distance to our hotel, but it was doable, however, we just kept thinking we would catch a cab sooner than later. I can't beging to tell you about the traffic--basically, what seemed like EVERY citizen on HCM was out that night, because of the celebrations of Christmas eve. As we walked, we had to walk on the roads, as the sidewalks were jammed with people and motos, restuarants, and stuff!!! Little kids dressed up in Santa outfits (this is a favorite thing for asians to do to their children!) it was an absolute zoo! Crossing the street on a normal day is taking your life into your own hands. We had to cross a 6 point corner intersection, that was simply a sea of motos, people. No lights, as it was a round-a-bout, so it was just unbelievable. I didn't think we were going to make it, but slow and steady, it was possible. IT took us about 45 min. of walking through what would be parade-like-traffic (you know, like when you leave a bomber game or the santa claus parade with hundreds of other human beings?) we finally staggared into our hotel. Is this what traffic is always like? I mean really, what did we have to compare? It was only our second night there. However, on talking to another tourist who had been in HCM for 3 christmases now, he said he had never seen anything like the number of people and the traffic as it was that night. Apparently Christmas Eve is a time to get out. THink TIme Square on New Years Eve and you'll get the picture.
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| From Chi Chu Tunnels |
Dec 25, Friday, Christmas morning and day. Uneventful and a little sad, but I think we went to the market. Steph was sad the night before after our harrowing trip home, as the pining for a tradition Christmas was high in her heart, but was ok after a little while.
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| From Vietnam |
Dec 27, sunday morning, we left our lovely hotel, and prepared for a train trip north, to a coastal town called Nha Trang, which is a beach, resort type town. Not sure what to expect, but had heard fairly psitive comments about both the train ride and the beach. The train was anything but what we had expected. It's a funny story, actually. Alot of our friends out here tell us, "just another story for your blog." and they're right. When interesting things happen, it just makes for such great tales on this blog! I write this just as much as a record for our family, as I do for all of you to know, so I hope you don't find me long winded.
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| From Vietnam |
ANyways, the train. We book seats in the regular car, so you're seated like a bus, or airplain. The train arrives at the station with decent looking cars, until we get to the one we're booked in, and it's OLD looking, and fairly gross. The smell inside the car is of old, smelly socks, or something stale. THe seats are old, the paint is scratched up. Ok, well, what did we expect for a Vietnam train? It certainly didn't look like some pictures we saw on the internet.
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| From Vietnam |
Rules: No smoking on the train. Apparently the news that smoking can kill you has not reached any of south east asia. Everyone here smokes, and cigarettes are dirt cheap, and it's bad enough when people smoke in restaurants, or your hotel room smells of smoke--it's one of those things you just chalk up to SE Asia. Part of the experience. But on the train, smoking is allowed "between" the cars, and anyone who went there to smoke, left the door open to the passenger car! So, they may as well have been smoking right in the booth!!! I have to interupt here with the information that I was kind of sick by this point. I started the trip getting a cold, and these days, colds for me turn very quickly into sinusitis, so breathing, clarity of airways, was a challenge even if the air was ocean fresh! I was just struggling. The smoke was not helping. The final straw was the passenger behind me, who at his best looked like he'd been drunk for days, who just simply lit up sitting right in his seat! No concern whatsoever for anyone around him! (The train was packed.) I couldn't believe it, as this seriously broke even the SE Asian rules! I told Dean, he motioned the buy to butt out, finally another Vietnamese passenger told him he couldn't smoke in here, but had to walk 5 feet to the middle of the cars and smoke there, with the door open! It was hillarious!
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| From Drunk guy behind and a woman and child "sharing" the seat beside Les. |
I've got to run now, but when I come back, i'm going to write about the pushing getting on the train and on my seat partner and her little toddler, who, for 6 hours bumped, kicked, elbowed, pushed and finally drove me from my little seat. It was a joy, let me tell you. But seriously, I will keep writing when I have a minute. We're off to a wedding today of two of our teachers, Greg originally from Oregon, and Srey who is Cambodian. They had a heck of a time getting their paperwork ok'd from the cambodian government, so this is truly a day to rejoice! I will take off from where I left when I return. Lots of love to you all!
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