No Power but see a light?

Its the light at the end of the tunnel. Khmer New Year is almost here. A chance for our first break since Christmas. No breaks or holidays in between. Les is preparing hard for the Easter concert with all of the elementary students for the end of the week. Earlier this past weekend, she has been hit hard with something that has made her ill. She is recovering but she is weak. To top it all off we had no power for about 24 hours last night and that means no fans or aircon to help sleep at night. Needless to say Les did not get much sleep as she tried to sleep downstairs on the kitchen floor where it is slightly less hot. It didn't really work. Thankfully we have power tonight and we are enjoying the fan and aircons.

As I have iterated many times that life out here in Cambodia is not dull, let me again give you a few examples. This past weekend I was driving my moto on the "Dike road", (a dusty and dirty ring road around the city) when I saw a large older disoriented naked lady just walking down the road. At first I thought it was a male from the back, but I quickly realized that was not the case. Not really sure what she was doing or where she was going but it was somewhat sad that nobody seemed to bother to find out.

Then yesterday morning I see Barry Plett, a Canadian from Steinback and former Logos teacher visiting again with his family, doing some strange dance moves towards the potted plants at the school. I came out of the office to discover he had stepped on the head of a fairly large rat. Apparently the funky dance moves I was watching was his quick reaction time to killing the pesty rodent who was hiding in the flowers. One down, many to go.

Then of course last night, we had no power as Steve and Betsy Brandt and their two teenage kids Jason and Terri, a great family out visiting with the Pletts and staying with us, had to endure the heat. To cope with the heat and no light issue, we had dinner with them outside the house and created a fire inside the BBQ pot as a source of light. The temperature was cooler outside as the wind swirled as if it was indicating a good thunderstorm was approaching. However, the storm really never hit hard. In the end it actually was a gentle rain that started around midnight, that seemed to do nothing but increase the humidity.

We had some chicken curry heated on the stove (its a propane stove) and we all ate and enjoyed each others company for the evening around the camp fire. Steve and Betsy found the food good and they enjoyed sitting outside without the power. Their whole family had a good attitude about it. Unfortunately it looked like we were not getting our power so that meant going to bed in the heat. The Brandts said they did all right but I think they were being polite.

Throughout the night I dripped and had little sleep. Les had even less sleep than that. Maya woke up in the morning with, what seemed like, a hundred mosquito bites all over her little body. During the night, she bumped her mosquito net and opened up about a 1 inch gap to allow those blood suckers easy access to her. Poor little girl. She also woke up in a pool of sweat! I could keep going but I think you get the picture.

Needless to say, we are looking forward to the break and a quick chance to go to the coast via bus for the Khmer New Year.

Anyways, I should be going. Blessings and Happy Easter to you all.
Deano

PS Doing Canadian taxes from this side of the world... not easy.