Burdens, Broken things, and the Loatian/American Story (?)

Hi all. Before I say anything, please make sure you scroll down to the post before this one, as Dean put up some pictures of Sureyah and the termite riddled textbooks. You may have missed it before. Happy for Sureyah, Sad for books.

Well, we've had a heavy week in many ways, although it's hard to explain sometimes. Just that there's been alot going on in the area of students with difficulties in our school, from family troubles, to personal issues, to suspected problems, to spiritual issues. We (teachers or staff) are only given so much information in light of privacy issues, so often times there's alot of guess work going on, alot of misinformation, and alot of grey area. ALOT of grey area. Nothing is just cut and dried, or easy or simple or defined. I guess when it comes to relationships, that just how things go. I don't need to tell specifics here, they are not what's important. Things, issues, problems come up: teachers, parents, students try to figure out how to deal with them. There are phone calls, meetings, prayer requests, and it's all in the name of safety, growth and protection for many involved. When my red flags go up, then it is very important to act on them out here. There is no where else to go in Cambodia--no social services, no child and family welfare, no police or government agency looking out for these kids. Basically, Logos is the bottom line for some of these kids and we need to be here to help and guide. It's been a toughy anyways, but some meetings and information have proved to be very valuable and helpful for me, and it's good to ask questions and seek out information and help when it seems it is necessary.

And then, things break down. And it all seems to happen at the same time.
If I were to list all the things that I am currently working with that are not working, I wonder if you could relate: (or would you just get annoyed). I'll do it quick
1. 2 facemasks on kid's helmets (dropped and broke)
2. 2 of 4 new adapter chords for school keyboards (both 3 weeks old, but were replaced)
3. 7 Logos Keyboards: 2 were originally not working at the end of last year. 2 were working, but I soon found out that they were "mistuned" to put it politely, with the rest of the band. (Like, out by semitones! Unuseable.) Of the 3 that are now working, one has just stopped. That makes 2 working elec. keyboards, for 3 students. Working on repair of one.
4. Car battery wires got fixed, then the light on the door would not go off. (That prob seems to have disappeared.)
5. 2 flutes need new pads.
6. Photocopier gives me shocks when I'm not wearing shoes (so, wear shoes!)
7. Found more termites in another library cupboard. Will be checking them ALL this week.
8. 2 of the 3 fans we had repaired just before leaving this summer, currently not working.
9. Fridge is leaking water out the front door.
10. Fry pan is fried. I don't usually cry because making pancakes is difficult...
11. Ants have gotten into all my tupperware containers because Sokhom does not know how to close them properly. That means throw out everything. I will show her how to do that tomorrow.
12. Rolling Clothes hanger apparatus: the wheel broke off. Left Sokhom a note and money to either get it repaired (this things rolls in and out of the house on a regular basis and is imperative part of our laundry facilites--it's basically our dryer!). She returned the next day with a non-wheeled clothes hanger. I said it was the wrong kind, could she please exchange it for a wheeled one. She returned the next day with the the old rolling one sort of fixed, but the new non-wheeled one is still here. Not sure what exactly cost $20. Will also deal with that tomorrow.
13. Moto stopped with bad gas last week.
14. Trying to purchase $1.50 worth of gas, invariable ends up giving me 1.5 litres of gas, and costs me $1.41. Why can't I just get $1.5 worth of gas???????
15. the power keeps going out in the library building, for short times. The breaker is going. However, it keeps shutting down the computer, and then have to start all over again... Sigh

Anyways, trying to get stuff to work out here, on a reliable basis, is tricky.

So, this past weekend, Steph had a scavenger hunt all over Phnom Penh in tuk tuks, with all the Gr. 8's. I should get her to write about it because it made for some funny stories. Last weekend, Julia slept over at her friend Sarikah's place, who is Singaporean/indian. That made for some great indian food (Julia's favorite) that she ate with her hands (cultural!) and had hot dogs with chili sauce and hot chocolate for breakfast. (!) I should get her to write about that too! haha.

We have started playing volleyball again with a few friends and family at Logos on Sunday afternoons. It is usually a good time of a bit of competition and exercise. Dean had his first ball hockey match this past THursday night, so finally, THE BIG BAG OF BULKY HOCKEY GEAR IS OUT OF MY LIVING ROOM! Hooray for small miracles.

Maya is writing and actually reading words! Hooray for more small miracles!!!

We have only a 4 day week coming up, then we are off to the beach for what you canadians would call our "sept long weekend." Out here it's Pchum Ben, a buddhist holiday where the khmer people must visit 7 wats, or temples, and pray to their dead ancestors for among other things, to come back. It's a spiritually dark holiday, and many Christians here at this time feel the oppression. Our friend and co-worker Tess Scholtz was sick all week, with fevers off and on. She has typhoid. Do you know how one gets typhoid? It's only from contracting the disease from food or drink that has been contaminated by in infected person's FECES. Now that's gross. She's on meds and is on the mend.

So, that's our life lately. Here's the final story of my post. We just had our CMA friends over for coffee, our neighbors just down the street, Bill and Ilana Lobbezoo. They are friends with David and Patti and we met through them. They had an interesting story to tell me, but I have to back up the story a bit.

Recently at our church, ICA, there's been a warning notice in the bulliten, about a loatian/american man who is a known con artist, for members to be aware of him. I read this on returning to PP this summer, and immediately knew who they were talking about. In the last weeks of school, I was walking up the street by the school, when I was approached by this man who openly told me he was a loatian american. He had good english, and was looking for a specific mission organization that was supposed to be on this street, which had a particular type of sign. He asked if I knew where it was. I did not. He showed me a phone number of the person who sent him and I phoned this person to ask where it was, they were not sure. it was all fairly confusing, and he had been at the Logos office asking for this place earlier in the morning, as well. He never asked me for money, but talked alot about his problem in finding this place, the contacts, as he needed help getting his passport renewed, or something of the sort. I think I even offered to get him a motodop to drive around to look, as he had walked apparently hours to get here. ANwyays, I ended up leaving him on the street, unable to help him. So, when I saw this warning in the bulliten a few months later, I knew it was this guy.

So, just this evening, Bill and Ilana tell me about reading the bulliten and said they knew this guy. Here's the deal: One or two days after we left for Canada, this guy apparently shows up at the front gate of our house. Sokhom is here, and he says he knows us Canadians, but we weren't there, so Sokhom sends him a few doors down to the Lobezoos! (She knows them and that they're canadian too.) Well, Bill and Ilana deal with him and actually help him out a bit. He needed a taxi to the loatian border? I don't know, something like that.

So, when they're telling me this, I'm in shock cuz as far as I knew, I never told this guy my name and certainly not my home address. I said the only way he would have known where I lived was to have followed me home! Ilana says no. Apparently he went back to Logos, and described me to the front office staff, either told them I was a friend, or something, so they told him where I lived. Nice, eh? Anyways, I guess I'll ask about that, too, tomorrow, when I get to school. Good thing we weren't home, and the notices in the bulliten have gone away, so I wonder if he has too. Weird and creepy.

Thanks to all who read. We're expecting Angela Booey (sp?) out here by next Sunday. Hopefully we'll spend some time with her before she settles in at the YWAM location. Sureyah's finished his first week, so I'm anxious to know how he's doing. Many of the Logos grads are now into full swing of post secondary school, so wishing them all the best. Jo Lam, if you're reading this, how's Boston????

Best run. Thanks for reading and God Bless.