POIPET and Joel

Well, what can we say? Thanks so much to everyone for thinking and praying for us. All those items are so very much valued. You have no idea!! Thanks a million times over.

I thought I would also like to mention it was great to have Ron Peters and Rodger Brown here for a few days. Josh (Ron’s son) and Brent Friesen (both came to Phnom Penh a day later) and also ate dinner with us a few days during that time. Initially Ron and Rodger were scheduled to be here for a couple of days. They were here to establish some viable contacts about a Canadian

Grant Proposal about Land development for the many underprivileged. After their time here, they really didn’t have much success with that aspect of the trip. When they finally packed up and left our house they decided to take a bus north. While they were on their bus to Siem Reap, they suddenly and unexpectedly received an important call from an individual fairly high up in the government. They quickly asked the bus driver to stop the “no stop express bus” and drop them off immediately at the side of the road. Now stranded at the side of the road, all four guys evenually caught a Tuk Tuk back to Phnom Penh where we were surprised and thankful they could stay with us a few more days while some negotiations and conversations began. As it turned out, they met with a General and a General’s son (these guys apparently run the country). The connection came through Brent Friesen’s “TWU” connection. (I don’t get it either) but it is still amazing.

When Ron, Rodger, Brent, and Josh all delayed their trip north to Siem Reap and eventually to Poipet, I had an opportunity to go. They were all leaving on Thursday, our school was off for Friday, so I had a chance to head north to see the famous and lovely Joel Reimer in Poipet. After a 6.5 hour bus ride to Siem Reap and then a very dicey taxi ride for 3.5 hours on a gravel road, we made it to Joel’s casino border town. Many people refer to Cambodia as the armpit of Asia. Joel refers Poipet as the armpit of Cambodia. If he is not telling the truth, he is not far off. This place is all about the Casinos. The rest of the town does not matter. I give Joel full Kudos for his work there. He is well known in the town and the border patrol just waves his vehicle through without even stopping or asking him a question when he has a bunch of “white strangers” in the back of his truck.

Joel set up a few meetings. The first meeting was with Pastor Ross (Cambodian) who runs an orphanage in the city. We also met a Cambodian man who is really working hard to build, care for, and restore people’s lives in Poipet. Joel took us to an Aid’s clinic and explained what that looks like here in Cambodia. The clinic where we went to housed very poor people who could not afford the necessary drugs. One of Joel’s assistant pastors had come to hand out oranges to the ladies and men who wanted some. I am not sure if anyone was Christian, but many came forward to receive prayer. One of the ladies had a 2 month old baby girl with aids. This baby was incredibly cute, it was very hard for me to see and understand that.

(As an aside, today, as I write this a couple days after the fact, a mother came onto our school grounds to try and give away her young baby. The mother was probably around 20 year of age, she explained that she was too poor to take care of this child. We have a lady on staff who was able to help this woman and direct and guide her. At this point, I am not sure what has happened.)

Anyways, we also had a chance to visit one of Joel’s house churches. We took the truck as far as she would let us and then we walked for a while though a path until we arrived. The house was small, the floor was concrete, and the roof was grass. I was really thankful that the air inside the home was filled with a light smoke from a wood fire- the mosquitos would not be coming into the building anytime quick. There were a few families gathered. This was authentic. These people have nothing to impress, they have no Starbucks in their hands, and they do not want to be entertained. They just want to worship Jesus. That is all. They want to learn about Jesus. They are thankful for the opportunity to gather together and pray. As another aside, the singing could not be more off beat and out of tune, but nobody cared, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the kind of music that is perfect to God’s ears.

After some songs with Joel on the guitar, Joel’s assistant pastor and his wife took turns giving a message. Joel also preached in Khmer. Later we prayed for a family that has no money. Afterwards, I asked Joel if he ever gives money, he says he has, but he does not want the family to be constantly dependent on him.

There are other parts to this story… like how I planned to get back across the Cambodian border crossing without Joel or my Passport and how I missed the last bus, but needless to say, I will save that for a different time. By the way, I am back in Phnom Penh safely.

Continue to lift up Joel in Prayer.

Ron, the General, Poipet & McDonald's playplace

Hello all. Friday night here and just getting down a bit of info for you.
We've had company all week! It was Ron Peters, a coworker of Dean's from MEI, and his cohort Roger Brown, who actually, Dean taught his kids at MEI. They are here with an organization called the ICR, International Christian Relief, looking to distribute some aid in the form of obtaining land to settle people in need on, and start some agriculture business. Anyways, they were headed to the Poipet area, but had a few days first in Phnom Penh, hoping for some contacts and leads on information in this area.
Well, I'm not the best person to tell you the details of everything that happened in the week, but it was pretty cool. First of all, Ron brought our first "STUFF" or care packages from home! Steph received a t-shirt signed by all the Gr. 7's and a nice journal from one of her teachers. Julia received home-made cards from all the Gr. 5's! Nice! and Maya and the rest of the family received some well thought necessity items, from medications to candies, I heard packed by Aileen at the high school and others. We got cards, notes AND I was begging for split Track CD Christmas music and actually got some very useful stuff. SO, I'm well on my way to starting the Christmas program for Logos, a fun part of my job I really enjoy. Putting on the show...

So, Thanks to Ron and the MEI staff and friends who thought so much of us, continue to do so, and hold us up in prayer! It's really great, AND I really enjoyed having visitors and hosting. (It's strange though, when I'm not the one cooking for them!--can't take any credit for that!) Ron's son Josh and his friend Brent Friesen also came out the second day, and although they did not stay at our house, we enjoyed some time and meals with them, so it was a nice change (for me) to have a higher number of males at the table than females! it was weird, actually. Now I know what it'll be like to have sons-in-laws! Can't wait! (I think my mom can relate!)

So, Ron arrived Sunday night, so did Roger. Roger had been in VIetnam for a week. The boys arrived Monday. We had dinners on Monday, and Tuesday, they were planning to head by bus up to Poipet, a northern city, to see a missionary friend, Joel Reimer and look at land and other ideas up that way. They wanted Dean to go and Dean wanted to go too, but it would be for the rest of the week, and that was a fair chunk of time. Dean decided not to go.
Well, due to an interesting turn of events, they had an opportunity to meet with a Cambodian General's son, who was a friend of Brent's from Trinity. This meeting turned into an actual meeting with the General himself, who could provide them leads and hear their ideas about getting support into the country. In Cambodian politics, unfortunately, it's not what you know, but who you know, so when Ron and his team got picked up in the General's Lexus, they knew this was no small potatoes!!!
So Back it up a bit--No kidding, Ron & Roger were on the bus to poipet Tuesday when they get the call saying the general will meet with them. They immediately stop the bus, get off it and head back into PP. SO, they stay with us until Thursday, have their meeting, and now the timing was much better for Dean, so he actually got to go with them to see Joel! It's pretty cool how things work out. So, currently Dean, Ron his son and Brent and Roger are all in Poipet, and plan to return Saturday! I've heard from Dean and it was quite a bus and taxi trip to get there, but he said Joel is well. Dean will fill you in when he gets home.

So, that had been our week--it's been very busy, with alot of changes, and last minute plans, and it's good with me. I actually had parent teacher interviews Thursday night and today, but not that many parents sign up for interviews. That made today a great work day. The kids stayed home with Sokhom, which is alright, but when I got home at 3 they were still in their pajamas! Then we went out for some fun this evening, which included a McDonalds play place type of play thing at this mall. It smelled like dirty rubber, there were piles of kids and I saw at least two kids bleeding at some point in the hour we were there! Yikes! I should have brought something to read, as I had to sit there bored, watching Khmer karaoke videos while kids ran and screamed around me! Well, we showered and scrubbed when we got home, that's for sure. This is certainly an interesting place. Sometimes I pinch myself...
I've been praying for a more evangelistic heart for the people of cambodia. I get so wrapped up in just educating them that I'm asking for more of a desire to see them meet Jesus. Today, I was very convicted that smiling at them, and being "nice" or kind just isn't enough! I'll wait and see where God goes with that one for me. I do enjoy being here very much.
Will talk when Dean gets home.

Dirt Biking through Cambodia

A few of us guys had a chance to go out on a Saturday and go Dirt Biking in the country side. I must say, for me, this was a great way to see the country and get out of the city. David Ens, a Canadian missionary here in Cambodia, told me that Dirt biking is the best way to get around in this country. I must agree with him. A couple of us rented some dirt bikes ($15/day) and took off to the "Quarry". The "Quarry", as it affectionately known, is about 2 hours outside of the city and located at the bottom of a hill (that they call Mountain). The pics with the Cattle are located at the Quarry and I really think it is the perfect picture- the temple in the far background, the farm land and the cow trying to get into the picture. By the way, I hadn't dirt biked since I was 14 years old at Harv and Len's farm back in Winnipeg. My goal was not to get hurt....I was successful. We had a chance to relax under a grove of Mango trees and take a break from the hot sun. We also had fun trying to get through roads that were flooded with 3 to 4 feet of water, avoid large trucks, avoid large cattle, dogs, and people. It was a fun morning.

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

Particular holidays give that real sense of home for me, and thanksgiving is one of my favorites. I love the idea of great home cooking, and the smell of turkey throughout the house sends me drifting to familiar youthful memories from when I was a kid. (My mom was and is, a fabulous cook.) I can also safely say that Les is a terrific cook too. Les's thanksgiving dinner is a blend of family recipes and her own special way of making the perfect turkey. However, we are in Cambodia....

This year is different. We couldn’t find a turkey (although some of our American friends, who have been here for a while, have secured a turkey for their American thanksgiving at the end of November). We are just rookies out here I guess. Les did however, find a place where we could trust the cooked chickens and she purchased 3 for the large group attending our place. Despite the odds, we still managed to have a really good Canadian style thanksgiving party here in Phnom Penh.

We hosted about 25 Canadians and a few Americans at our house on Saturday night. We had people from Kelowna, Brampton, Saskatoon, Calgary, Winnipeg, Abbotsford, and a few more from the eastern side of Canada. It was great to share this holiday with so many fellow Canadians, all who were related to a ministry field in way or another. There was a kindred spirit to the whole evening.

Everyone managed to find an item to bring to the gala event. We even had Angela (a teacher at Logos) bake a pumkin pie while 12 year veterans Bill and Ilana (from Owen Sound) made a pecan pie and another pumkin pie! They even brought Whip Cream ($8/can). I was in heaven! We did not bring the turkey but in the process of trying to find one, we found a really good meat shop across town and I purchased a ham! (ASIDE: There is nothing like taking a 2kg ham and placing it under your moto seat for safe keeping! Here I was, in the scorching sun, driving my moto and I was sitting on my ham! Priceless!)

Les made her sweet potato pie with marshmallows on top- a family favorite. It looked a bit different from the Canadian version, (the marshmellows melt and brown differently and the sweet potato has a different color) but it sure did taste good. I think that was the case with many of the foods we had, they all tasted or looked a bit different. Yet at the same time they still tasted great and all the food looked great on the Thanksgiving table.

Our principal Dan, from Kelowna, even managed to find a can of cranberry sauce. We got it to the house and I realized, we don’t have a can opener. (We haven’t opened any cans since we have been here). I found a solution, I found our meat clever. I used it to slowly start to cut and wedge open the can. The only thing I kept thinking was, “don’t lose your fingers, cranberry sauce is not worth it”. Thankfully, no injury resulted.

After everyone introduced themselves and said where they were from, we said Grace and we made a special note of thankfulness for God’s mercy and grace to everyone out here. Once everyone loaded up their plates, we then asked everyone to take food from the table situated on the first floor and then head up the minor 4 flights of stairs to our roof top deck where the view is nice and the air can flow (at least a little bit). We enjoyed everyone’s company and the food was perfect. Actually I made a rookie cambodian thanksgiving mistake with my jello fruit salad. I placed some fruit salad on top of my plate of food and started to head up to the stairs. By the time I made it to the top, my jello salad had completely melted into a red liquid pool. I guess the 35C temperature had something to do with that. I had to drink the warm red liquid from my plate (it was a bit gross), but I tarried forth.

We had a couple of very dear Americans who were our guests. These ladies are from Logos school and it was just wonderful to have them share the evening with us. I wish we had more room to invite so many more. Jana, a YWAMer originally from Abbotsford had a chance to come out to our place for the evening too. She’s been out here for about 3 weeks with her group, she’s the one with the least experience in Cambodia. (Although we weren’t far behind with only 2 months under our belts.) Jana was gracious to help clean up the mess with us. Actually, we wished she could have stayed and cleaned up the whole house (kidding!)

All in all, it was a great way to spend our first Thanksgiving in Phnom Penh. We miss many of you back home, but it was nice to spend it with a group of people who actually know who “Stephen Harper” is. Through hosting this meal, we have had an opportunity to bless many of the Canadians who are here alongside us. We might as well put out an invitation instead of wait for the invitation. The Lord’s Blessings to you all this Thanksgiving holiday. I hope your turkey is tasty!

THings work out

Hello all.  Will try to update more often, and shorter versions.  Well, after all my "complaining" last entry, things have managed to go quite well.  Got my bank card relatively painlessly, Dean got another key for the moto that works--a $12 fix thanks to our generous landlords who called the dealership for someone to come out, and took care of the language problem for us, and also got the price down a bit for us.  Things turn out, they always do.

Steph has a basketball game tomorrow at the "French" School, Julia has soccer after school, one of us will go on the bus to watch Steph's game and the rest of us will stay back with Jubes.  It is the end of Term one, so marks are due this and next week, which will make for some more time working, but I'm doing ok with mine.  Now Dean is on the other side--he'll be the one reading all the report cards and signing off on them.  So, he won't be late with his marks this year.

Also, we want to wish a hearty Thanksgiving Blessing to all of you Canadians.  We hope you enjoy lots of good traditional food and family.  We will be attempting some version of a Canadian Thanksgiving celebration here, which we're not too sure what format it's going to take, but it will evolve over the week!  We're inviting every Canadian we know (including David and Patti and staff members, and even two girls we met at church who are from Winnipeg, of all places!)  So, we'll let you know how that goes.  I have a little propane stove, that I can't imagine trying to cook a turkey in, or any fowl for that matter--Dean thinks maybe we can find a place to cook it and deliver it?  Not sure, but you never know.  ANyways, we'll look into things this week.  We also have the lovely big roof to go out on, so we have lots of space.  

Hey, anyone reading this, we've had our first Canadian visitor, who I think will also be coming this weekend--Jana Klassen, a former student of Dean's who actually went on his missions trip to the Ukraine with him.  She's here for a few months with YWam, and she came over for supper last Friday.  Small world.  It was nice to spend an evening with her, hearing about everything God is doing in and through her.  

ANyways, Maybe Dean can put up a pict or two.

Happy Thanksgiving, and God BLess you and yours.  We'll be thinking of you all overeating!!!

latest and greatest frustrations

Hi all--loved ones, friends and family! Lesley here with a quick update. I have to write more often so that people will stay tuned. Sometimes, it takes so much effort and time to get to the technology when it's working, that things get put off.
Sunday night, and I've made some time for a few words before the school week.
Dean did update you on our trip to Sihanoukville. It really was a great break, weather was rainy but it's still warm, and that ocean was the warmest natural water I've even swam in, excluding hotsprings, so it was really cool for me. It's hard to fathom when the water is warmer than the air or the rain around you, so you just want to stay in there for hours. We enjoyed our accommodations, which was basic but nice, had nice "included" breakfasts at the guesthouse, and basically took tuk tuk trips to various beaches around, and even a boat ride to an island. I won't comment too much on that trip, because it was "interesting" to say the least, but definitely was an experience. When we see you all again, it will be a great story to tell. The island itself was beautiful, but the over all experience was, shall we say... very Cambodian.
When things don't work out the way we expect them too out here, that is when we tag the situation with comments like, 'Well, it's Cambodia" or "That's Cambodia for you." For example, with the boat ride, we went through a tuk tuk driver who said he could get us to a boating spot for $25, then the boat would be $25 from there. Ok. We get to the boating spot, and "oh, it's a Khmer holiday today, so the boat is $40. THere's no boat in sight, no dock anywhere , piles of Cambodian people enjoying picnics and visiting on this major buddhist holiday, on these rickety shack-type huts along the beachfront. Where were we supposed to get this boat? Well, you have to wade out into the water up to your waist, climb a rusty staircase that is heaving up and down in the surf, and get your kids on the same way!!! ANyways, we got them down to $35, and the tuk tuk driver ended up taking a cut because he was the main reason we were getting ripped off. "Does the boat have lifejackets?" "Yes, the boat has lifejackets." Next time I will ask if the boat has lifejackets that are the right size, not broken, with all working clasps, and if they have not been sitting in the bottom of a wet boat for years and are covered with bugs!!!
A nother prime example has been the last few days for us. These are the types of things that keep coming our way, minor plagues of inconvenience that just never seem to end in this country! It's just the way it is out here.
Oct 1st out here was Wed., it was our first day back from holiday, and the rent was due. I attempted to get money out of the bank, used the correct 4 numbers on my bank card code, but the wrong order, and the machine kept my card. In Canada, that would only be a minor inconvenience, as you would hop in your car, get to the bank, get your card back and carry on with life. Here, I have to find time during the weekday to get a ride out to the bank. When we set up our account out here, we were at the bank for an hour doing so, and that was not including the wait--their banks are super tight out here. We can't even set up online banking online--we have to go into the bank in person, and fill out another miriad of forms, so it is time consuming and annoying. Time during banking hours is tricky. So, I need a bank card, so I have to make time to do this this week. Really, it's not a fun task.
Steph had a pedicure which cut her toenail too low, and she had the makings of an ingrown toenail. We've been cleaning it out all week, and finally it's looking good. I just kept praying we wouldn't have a real problem there and that worked out. That was her one and only pedicure at a nice place that had clean utensils. Might be her last...
Bikes---Julia goes out to a flat tire on Wed. morning. (This has happened to us on many occasions-it wasn't new!) Our househelper Sokhom offers to get it fixed for us--very nice, I guess househelp can do that sort of thing (We're still trying to figure it all out!) and she gets the tire fixed for like, 75 cents. Julia goes to ride it the next morning, and the brake has been knocked out of kilter with the new tire, and is scraping in the wheel. STill driveable, so she gets to school. We brought asolutely no tools with us, which I regret. Just the basics would have been good, as it seems tricky for us to find the right pieces out here. We've borrowed our landlords tool box many a time. Friday, I did something to my kickstand, and now it's broken. Annoying that I can't stand it up, as that is how the bikes are parked at school. I'm going to have to find somewhere to lean it. One of the staff members got their bike stolen from the school bike parking lot, just outside the school gate, where the 24 hour guards are supposed to be watching it. Now it's all a big tado--we have to park our bike, get a ticket for it.... nothing is simple here.

Dean was driving home on Thurs. with the moto, and we all realized the back tire was flat, really flat. Since we bought the moto, it's needed a tune up (was stalling on starting, not a big deal, but an inconvenienc), and either a new battery or a charge, as it was dead one Sunday that I wanted to use it. (Dean could start it manually, but I couldn't start it or use it.) Fine. Dean doesn't have enough small bills for the air in the tire (which is just a guy on the side of the road with an air pump) so he has to come back and find me, I give him money, he goes back to pay the air guy--this is all on the way home after a long day at school, and the kids are tired. Our 10 minute bike ride home turns into a half an hour.. I know, it happens to everyone.
TOday I took the moto out this afternoon, and locked it with the key a special way, so that the spot where the key actually goes into the moto to start it, is covered. It's a safety lock so that no one can steal it. One hour later, I come out to the moto, and do you think the key would re-open this safety lock? I tried and tried, had a crowd of people helping me (there is usually a crowd of people for everything under the sun here). Very helpful, but non of us could get the moto safety lock to open (that means I can't even get the key in to even try to start it.) I take a moto dup home, trade with Dean and he goes back to see what he can do. One hour later, he shows up at the house with the moto IN a tuk tuk--he couldn't get it open either, and it cost $10 for this tuk driver and his buddy to load the moto on the tuk, drive it home with Dean and unload. It took 4 of us to wedge the heavy motorcycle off the tuk tuk, and carry it into our carport. Nice. So, tomorrow, among the rest of the things Dean has to do at work, he'll have to phone some dealership and get them to come open the lock. Dean's theory is that someone may have tried to steal the moto, and this safety mechanism stopped them, and maybe it got jammed. Whatever the reason, no moto until this gets fixed. Maya will be back to riding on the back of my bike, something I haven't missed since she takes the moto to school with Dean. (It's just akward.)

And there's more. If it sounds like I'm complaining, I'm trying not to, but just explaining some of the everyday difficulties we face. Long story short here--we're trying to get two orthodontic quotes for Steph. The first place made us get x-rays to the tune of $45 (OK, that's life) and made free molds, and has written up a quote and told us a proposal. I had to then take these molds and x-rays to the 2nd place so they could see it all, write up a proposal as well, and we'd compare the two. I made a huge effort on a tuk tuk to get these x rays and molds to the dental clinic which was on the other side of the city, one saturday a few weeks ago, along with other errands. So, they'll call us with an appointment. Well, we had the appointment yesterday. I find out the the x-rays that were fine for the other clinic, were too "unclear" for this clinic, so we needed to get new x-rays done anyways (another $15) AND the "free" molds I had so carefully delivered, were broken, so they had to make new molds, to the tune of $20, and we are no further ahead, because this appointment just turned out to be a repeat of all the things I had already delivered--they have no proposal yet, and I left there really upset, just that things aren't explained clearly. IT's a language issue and a cultural one.

Since I have started teaching at Logos, I have had two children fall asleep during music class. I have had one child wet themselves on the carpeted floor of the music class. I have had a head injury in the music class, an "instrument" wound no less, that saw blood pouring out of a child's head, while a rather horrified class looked on. AND, just this week, as Gr. 1 were all acting out the story of Joseph--when the brothers all ran to hug "joseph" at the part of the story when he revealed himself to them, the "brother's" got a little over zealous, and knocked some of the posters off the bulliten board, and a poor little students actually got puncture stabbed by a tack! Like, it's unbelievable sometimes, how things happen! Try explaining that one to a parent. She's ok, but it was a pretty deep wound for a tack. Strange.

Our Gr. 1 roof leaks, although it's been fixed a number of times. SO, during a heavy rain, we have to move desks out of the way, put rugs and bowls on the floor to catch the water.
Did we tell you about the termite infestation in Julia's wood bedpost? Yes, we came home one Sunday to find what we thought were ants all over the foot of her bed, but they were actually termites, I guess a nest of them, that had all hatched and there were bugs EVERYWHERE all up and down the bed post. Thankfully, it was one that was in plain view! We cleaned everything up and she spend 2 or 3 nights on the floor of Steph's room before it was safe to go back to her own bed.
We also have a "ant cabinet" that we store food and dishes in in the kitchen, that is supposed to keep ants out. It works ok, but in order to make it really ant proof, we bought these "ant cups" which are little plastic "moats" that you put the foot of the cabinet into, and then you fill the little cup with water, and apparently ants can't climb through the water to get into the cabinet. Everyone does this out here. Well, yesterday, I'm looking at the water in the ant cups to see if I should refill it--I look closely, and there's things SWIMMING around in the water! It's mosquito larvae!!!!! We're growing our own mosquitos INDOORS in our own home. How on earth could they find that water, to lay eggs in--it's unbelievable to me. So, our ant cups are now filled with water and Javex.
I 've got to stop there, so that it really doesn't turn into complaining. You HAVE to laugh at this stuff or you'll go crazy. It really is funny, even if some of it isn't funny until much later (and you realize no one is actually hurt!)
Hey, ladies from Love Cambodia--Our family went to the International Church ICA again this Sunday and you know who the speaker was? Linda Chisohlm's son, Neil Chisohlm, from AUstralia. He told a few stories of growing up and that he just came from a regular Australian home, where by the Grace of God, Jesus touched their lives. Now, he's a pastor, his wife is a women's ministries speaker, his in-laws are missionaries, and his mom is a missionary. It was really, quite neat. For those of you who don't know, Linda CHisohlm is a lady out here, good friends with Marie Ens, who runs a prison ministry, and our team spent some time with her actually in a prison when we were here a year and a half ago, and gave her money and bags of supplies for the young boys. We were priviledged to meet her and I just really enjoyed seeing how God can change a family. It was a good SUnday morning.
See, we have lots of good times, don't get me wrong! Watching our kids play sports, watching Maya come out of pre-school with her backpack on and waving her latest creation, and singing all the songs. These are good times. We have lots of them. THey are interspersed with the most interesting of situations that I thought you might enjoy and hopefully shake your head, but laugh along with us. God is GOOD!!!
L
:)
PS Had our last JE shots today, and so far, so good. We finally got a great doctor with good english, so it helps. Maya HATES needles and let us all know it, but within 5 minutes, she couldn't show you which arm had been punctured!

A Holiday to Remember

Since we have been going non-stop since we got here, we are thankful for the break and a chance to get away to the Cambodian coast.
We travelled in a 12 passenger vehicle (all the Cambodians would call it a 22 seater) almost 5 hours on a road that felt crazy and dangerous to us. There is no easy feeling of passing multiple vehicles on the left side of the road as all the traffic is heading into you, somehow, the vehicles either move off the road or else we duck back into our lane at the last minute because the vehicle heading toward us is a bigger vehicle (like a logging truck).

We left for the coast at Sihanoukville after school on Friday with a large group of staff from our school. The back hatch of the vehicle was left partially open to help accommodate all the luggage that was sticking fortuitously out of the back of the van. Our Khmer driver did a good job covering it with a plastic sheet in case it started raining on us. Aside: When we booked the van, we did the math, we had 11 people in our van and the driver, except we failed to realize that they drive in partners. So we had 13 in the 12 passenger vehicle. So Les and the girls were hot and squished in the back of the van. We did have A/C but it seemed to have little effect in the back where the hatch was partially open. We were all fatigued when we arrived later that evening around 9 pm.

We stayed at a very nice place just off the water ($40/night). Although I have never had a holiday in Mexico, the Spanish architecture of red roof tiles and red clay floor tiles gave me some odd sense of the familiar. For our family of 5, our room was large and the girls quickly noticed we had a TV. Since this is something we have not watched since we left Canada, it was something to look forward to as we fell asleep. I did notice a number of Mosquitos in the room, so before we went to bed, I did spray the room with some Raid. The odd Gecko somehow made it in and out of the room as we fell asleep.

The next day, we decided to go with to a beach that was farther away. We took off with the Freedberg family, also a new family to Cambodia, and shared a tuk tuk together to Otres Beach. As we bartered to get a ride from a local driver, the Tuk driver was explaining why we would have to pay $6 to take us to this far beach. He explained that there was a big hill that used lots of gas to get us to this beach. O.K. lets pay him for his efforts. We were taken! As we were traveling for maybe 5 minutes, we arrived at the bottom of this "hill" where he promptly told us he didn't have the power to get us up to the top anyways!

We climbed up this hill to a resort situated quietly at the top. Very beautiful sites from here. When we walked over to the other side of the hill we saw a very quiet beach. As we started to descend to the beach, the rain started to come down. We managed to get to a grass roof building that was situated right on the beach front. We were all in awe as we stared and marveled at the color of the water. The water was so blue, the rain so pure, and it all seemed like such a contrast to the city environment of Phnom Penh.

As we were trying to avoid the rain, we stayed in this hut. Inside the grass roofed building was this guy, (it seemed to be a restaurant). He showed very little interest in us and he seemed pretty content to just sit and watch the rain pour down on the deserted beach. We did the same. After about 10 minutes, we decided to go into this body of water, “The Gulf of Thailand”- wow- was it warm. I mean, really nice and warm. With the waves consistently crashing on us and on the yellow sandy beach- there was nothing better at this point - it was awesome. Some moments you wish could last forever, this was one of them. Here I was, I was swimming in the warmest water I had ever experienced, during a rain storm, playing in some terrific large waves, and watching my family having a ball, smiling, laughing, and we were all alone. It was almost an out of body experience- how could this even be real?

Well after a short while, the rain stopped, we had lunch at this place on the beach, and when we were done eating, other people started to show up. A large group of Koreans showed up with all their beach stuff. A couple of peddlers showed up trying to sell a string bracelet to anyone. Maya was creating a stir with her whiteness and her cuteness. At that time we knew it was time to go.

The rest of the trip was great, but nothing seemed to capture that time we had at Otres beach on that first day. There are other stories, but I will leave them for now. I am sure Les will add her thoughts on the trip.

Oddly enough the trip was relaxing, yet the 4+ hour drive back to Phnom Pehn is harrowing enough to stress anyone to require another holiday back to the coastal beach. That just seems to be the way it goes here in Cambodia.

Blessings to you all.

Dean