Carnival for New Life School and Khmer New Year Break

Sorry it has taken us a bit of time to write- we headed into Khmer New Year in mid April and like everyone else- just put life on hold until it was all over. I am not kidding, leading up to and during the Khmer New Year holiday, in Phnom Penh, it seemed like a ghost town as everyone left and all the stores were closed for the week. Our family was no exception and during the Khmer New Year's holiday we went to the beach down on the coast in Sihanoukville in Cambodia. It was a relaxing time and we enjoyed the 33C ocean water. We stayed at a couple of different places- one nice and the other really nice. It was a real blessing for us to go and relax too as we would never had that nice relaxing experience if it weren't for the generosity of other people blessing us with the opportunity to go. A truly wonderful treat.
Our days were meant for relaxing. Les had fun exploring the beach town on a moto rental with the girls. She really enjoys the freedom of the moto and just learning a bit more about the town the different beaches, and the shops. Steph and I did some scuba diving just off of an island and we really enjoyed that too. Julia was not interested in coming diving with us as she was afraid she would see sharks. Steph and I didn't see any sharks, however, we did see a big jelly fish (over 1m in diameter) and a "Man of War" Jelly fish too. Lots of colorful fish to look at- it was a wonderful experience with my daughter. Maya's big holiday push is swimming, and so that was on the agenda everyday- mainly in the hotel pool. Maya doesn't like the waves and the salt of the ocean water so it is hard for her to go in the water at the beach.
A sad note during the holiday was finding out that Lesley's grandpa died at the age of 90 in Winnipeg. Les really wished she could have been there with all of her family and relatives. She did write a lovely tribute letter to her grandpa though, however, I know she would have loved to be there instead of writing a letter.

Leading up to Khmer New Year things were very busy. From trying to get the transformer set up at the school, getting the road repaired, and then last but not least, our school hosting a couple of fun carnival days for 'New Life' School.
Teachers and students from our school hosted 2 separate carnival days for kids to come in and swim, play on the field, have carnival games, puppet show, and have ice cream (ice cream is not quite what you and I think). New Life school is a small Christian Cambodian school in Phnom Penh. The head principal is a former Teaching Assistant from Logos and Logos has helped in many areas of establishing this school directly and indirectly.

From Lesley and Jess Hein getting the kids organized

From New Life School teaching staff and some students having fun

From Enjoying the Logos Pool

Many thanks to Jess Hein, Logos Teacher, and all those on the carnival committee (including Lesley) for all the planning and making the effort. Also special thanks to the grades 3, 5 , and 6 class for volunteering and making the carnival a fun time for these kids with the games and activities. The New Life kids and staff really enjoyed the experience!

Blessings,
Dean

Here are pics from the carnival. I will also try and put up a few pics from the beach.

april 092010.New Life carnival