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!