Greetings everyone,

Sorry it has taken us a bit to get some information to you all. We are still very much in a transition phase here. Life here takes some adjusting in many ways. I know that you have all been asking about what to pray for so here is the quick list:

What to pray for:

That our culture shock would be minimal and that we can successfully adjust to the different Cambodian way of life.

Our health will be strong. We are all dealing with food issues here.

We are safe in the very busy traffic- regardless of the type of transportation we take.

That Les and I will work well at our new jobs.

The girls can transition well into a different type of school system here.

We can be sensitive to our own cultural bias and preserve and build Cambodian national pride.

House

The house is nice and we seem to have very good landlords who have a high standard of care for the house and property. The house is on the outskirts of the city and we back onto a lake and seem to have more mosquitoes than other areas. We have a beautiful view of the lake from our roof top view. (The lake does not appear like a large body of water as it is covered with vegetation and homes with stilts are scattered at different areas over the lake surface.)
We have a 4 bedroom house but we are currently only using 2 of them. Maya is sleeping on our floor and Julia and Steph are sleeping in another room. The girls are a bit scared so they feel comforted by being with each other…. sounds good to us. The Landlords have 4 very whiny barking dogs. The landlords built a metal fence to keep the dogs on their side of the carport, however, the dogs are so scrawny that they can go through the fence bars and relieve themselves on our side. This leaves a very pungent aroma outside of our front door as the dog remains are decaying very quickly in the heat. Although it is not too bad around our residence, the smell of rotting garbage or sewer gas is an everyday occurrence. I think I am starting to lose perspective. One of my nightly routines has been to go around killing mosquitoes inside the house. I use a can of “garden scent” Raid to do the job. As I spray the mosquitoes at the front door, the waft of bug spray hits my sense of smell and I realize that I am starting to prefer this smell to the other ones available around the house and that this may in fact be the closest thing to a garden I will have for a long time.

We still need most of the furniture in the house. We almost had some kitchen chairs we thought we could afford and live with but just when it looked good… The lady at the shop told us she didn’t have 6 chairs. We did just buy an “Ant cabinet” to store dishes and food in the hopes of keeping out the ants. Oddly enough, the ants get into that cabinet just as easily as any other place in the house.

We have hired some house help. There is somewhat of an uncomfortable expectation that we as “foreigners” will hire and provide employment for someone. The lady we have hired is in her 50’s (it’s a guess) and lives away from her family for the employment opportunity. Her name is phonetically pronounced “Succumb”. She provides laundry, cleans the house, and provides a dinner meal on weekdays for $115/mo. There are some language barriers although she can speak a little English. She has made some very tasty meals for us to come home to.


Transportation

We are about a 12 minute bike ride from school. Initially we purchased some bikes with the idea we would take the bikes to school each day. We have four bikes and Maya is currently riding on the back of Lesley’s bike rack and she hangs on tightly while we wrap a bag around her and Les. Maya seems to be fine for the ride to school. We have had a few days of rain, so on those days we as a family have been riding in a Tuk Tuk to and from school. Our main mode of transportation around the city has been with a Tuk Tuk. We are certainly considering other means of transportation for our family. We are looking at a Modo (moped) and a car. Safety is the first priority. We have a very busy street to cross to get to the school and it is a gamble to take 4 bikes across in such unbelievable traffic. Maybe it seems unbelievable because we are not use to it. (I can’t imagine anyone ever feeling comfortable with the traffic here).

Food

The food here has been very good. In this city there are some good restaurants and the food at the school is ethnic and tasty (Maya may disagree as her little tummy has had the runs). We have a water cooler in our home for drinking water. The milk out here is something I don’t want to get use to. There is good coffee out here which I was surprised about.
While we have been adjusting to life here, we have eaten a number of meals at the Asian Hope Orphanage for Boys. It has been great to meet the house parents and to interact with the boys from the home. The food has been very good too.


Heat

The people around here keep telling us that it is the rainy season and the temperature is moderate. However, it feels very hot and muggy all the time. Our house has “aircon” in our bedrooms and Les and I have used it every night. The girls have used a fan and some aircon throughout the night to stay cool. We are told it is expensive to run and so we don’t try and run it unless we have to. When the sun comes out (it is mostly hazy now) it is very hot. As it is dark by 6:30 pm, the temperature seems more tolerable. There are people out in the streets playing badminton and many people having a meal. For our own safety, we are generally told not to be out after dark. At this point, it is a challenge to wear long pants to school. We all have a constant glow complexion to our skin. The hot windy air is filled with dust and car exhaust, many people wear masks while in traffic. We are considering the mask option too.


Steph, Julia, and Maya

The girls are adjusting well at this point. This past week the girls have been staying at the Asian Hope girls’ orphanage during the day while Les and I work each day at the school. Our girls play with one particular girl from the orphanage that is the same age as Julia. The other girls at the home are all older and are nice. The girls have gone swimming at the school outdoor pool on a few of the days. We went to dinner over at the girls’ home and met many of the girls. The home is not fancy but there is a lot of care and love over there.
We are careful to make sure the girls are hydrated. This seems to affect Stephanie more than Julia. Steph quietly cries and sheds tears when she is overly-hot or fatigued from the heat. Maya is a constant sweat ball. Julia just plods along and tolerates the heat better than most.
Also Julia loves to ride her bike and has also made a friend with the landlord’s daughter. Julia doesn’t like taking frequent cold showers. Julia thinks her bed mattress is very hard too.

Lesley

Lesley is working hard at her half-time grade 1 and half-time elementary music position out here. She is struggling to get ready (along with most staff) to be ready for August 11th (the first day of full classes). She is also struggling to find out what the curriculum standards are for the grade levels. She is fully consumed with trying to be ready for Monday.


Dean
The new job is a challenge in a number of ways. When you compound that it’s a new school for me, new country, new culture, and that the principal is away until the end of August... so therefore, there is no one around to let you know what is going on or where any of the files are… you understand that the learning curve has been steep and busy. On the flip side, the staff seems really nice and has certainly stepped up to the plate.


Life Tidbits

*I (Dean) was in a vehicle on Thursday that got stopped by the police after our driver ran through the intersection late. As soon as our vehicle went through the intersection (along with 10 others) a policeman stepped out from the curb and blocked the way and directed us to move to the side of the street. I was a bit nervous as I had heard about this happening to others. The police officer spoke some broken English although it was difficult to hear or understand him with all the traffic noise. However, after about five minutes and a $5 bribe we were permitted to carry on with our day. Not so bad.

*Les wanted to go into work on a Saturday and do more prepping. She went outside the house and discovered she had a flat tire on her bike. She took my bike to work and I thought I would stay back and figure out a way to fix this flat. I asked our Landlord’s son if he had anything I could use to pump up the tire. He found a bike pump and I quickly discovered it was not an easy fix. I asked if he knew where I could get the tire fixed and he said he would ask his Mom. Well next thing I know, we are all (Landlord, son, daughter, and our three kids) are riding a bike to get this tire fixed. Actually, I am walking the bike while Maya is sitting on the back rack. We all went in and out of busy traffic trying to find a bike shop. We found a place, and after a swarthy looking man worked down on the ground making what looked like some kind of made up tire from spare rubber in the shop… the tire was fixed. For his 15 minutes of work he wanted $1. I was pleased with the price, and after we got home I commented to the landlord how I thought the price was a good one. The Landlord made a quick remark how she thought the price was not good. She said I should have been charged $.50. I am learning that when you are a “foreigner”- you pay more. Some items are inexpensive here like the tire fix and many items like household products, electronics, some types of food, and vehicles are the same or more expensive than in Canada.


Church

We have gone to David and Patty Ens’ Cambodian church. It is not a fancy place but it is awesome to see how God is working and how the message of the Gospel is so real. The message was delivered by the local pastor in the Khmer language but that was OK because David was translating for a large group of us visitors. We had a chance to spend some time with Patty in the afternoon. David was driving some visiting group from the US around the city while we were over.
We went to the ICA church on another Sunday. Our Tuk Tuk driver had a tough time finding it, “THE WORLD VISION BUILDING”?! It is huge, how could he not know? Anyways, after a good long while we made it. The room was filled with so many different nationalities. It did seem odd and comforting at the same time to hear a conventional English church service delivered here in Cambodia. We had a chance to talk to Marie Ens and we had a very nice visit too.
I know that I already miss many things about Canada in the short 2 weeks we have been here. Family and friends are a given but I miss the beautiful clean parks and trails. Les misses any product with whole-wheat in it. Steph misses fresh air and Canadian milk. Julia misses her old room. Maya doesn’t miss anything yet. ;)

For whatever reason, Mathew chapter 5 keeps popping up here at every turn.