Desperation

I need to write this blog post, but I've been dreading getting around to it since last Wed.

So much has happened in the last week and a bit, that I hardly know where to begin. Everyone is doing great (save me, but that's to come.) Steph and Dean safely traveled to Bangkok this past weekend, along with the rest of the high school volleyball team members, for Logos' first ever international tournament. It was a humbling, but excellent experience all at the same time. (Kind of a microcausm of life out her ein general--lots of losing, but overall, a ton a great experienced.) Check out the Logos website for more details and pictures.
www.logoscambodia.org
Dean put alot of time into planning the trip, and he considered it a success. Logos, (again the microcausm of Cambodia) was a clear underdog, but you gotta start somewhere, right? LIke this country, start again somewhere.

Julia had a great weekend too, where she played in a basketball tournament on Saturday. She just loves basketball and plays it pretty well. My favorite shot was the tournament winning, after the final buzzer free throw that went in, to win the whole tournament for Logos! Wow, what a finish. My second favorite shot was the 3 pointed, thrown up in desperation, that was a swoosh---nothin' but net! The kind that gives goaches heart attacks!

But now I have to write about the car accident I had last Wed,which makes me reflective and gloomy.

I'm not going to go into a long story about what happened. Unfortunately, the truth doesn't matter here. But of course, I will say that everyone is fine. You can't get injured driving 5 or 10 km an hour, trying to make a u-turn in the school parking lot. But you can get knocked off a moto, if you are driving too fast around a blind corner and into the path of the car making a u turn into the school parking lot!
I said I was not going to go into all the details, nor do I want to continue to plead my innocence, like I have wasted far too much emotional time and energy on since this whole thing happened.

Anyways, suffice it to say, I had a collision with a moto and driver, whiched knocked the driver off his bike, and wedged the side of his moto under my bumper. His ankle was cut up a bit and was bruising, but he was walking around and yelling at me, so he was basically ok.

What ensued next was a classic Cambodian accident scene. Very few people here have any insurance. IT's just not what's done here. When accidents happen, the largest mob of a crowd appears instantly, and everyone starts talking and yelling at each other, and they all somehow come to an aggreement of who's fault it was, and how much money should be paid, right then and there. No one leaves the scene until everything's settled. If the police are called, they have to be paid a cut, and they don't really care about fault, they just want in on the purse, so they rule in favor of getting the most for themselves.

Needless to say, within 30 seconds of the moto and I "crashing," a crowd of about 30 people all came out of basically no where (their homes, I guess), NONE of which witnessed the accident. I am right outside the school gates, and people are starting to arrive to drop off students, so as you can imagine, this is begining to be quite a scene. I'm shaken up, the moto driver is mad, and this woman, who I figure must be his wife due to her involvement in the situation, is SCREAMING at me, and literally flipping out. The scene gets progressively worse, when Dean arrives to help me, and other staff members. We try to clear the accident so trafic can get through, and this woman went nutso on Dean, she started literally grabbing and hitting him to leave the moto as it was. She tried twice to reach into our car and grab the keys out of the ignition. I just held them away from her, I saw her coming. She's screaming in Khmer, others are talking and yelling, and more staff are now coming out to my aid. It was a nightmare.

See why I didn't want to get into this? I've been rehashing it over and over in my mind, and just can't relax about it. IT was just such a lousy way to start the day. Thank God we were right in front of the school, cuz wouldn't you know it, but I managed to hit the "commune" leader's son, (basically a local leader' son). So I think it was him, who had to come into the gate and negotiate with Dan, Dean and Robert, for damages. At least we could be safe and away from the crowd to speak in peace. Seriously, that was such a blessing, you would not believe it.

The angry woman continued on and called the police. THis could have meant my car getting towed into the office and I'd have to pay to get it back, but that never ended up happening. Negotiations continued for over an hour (yes, school had started by now and EVERYONE was talking about it!) and finally a sum was reached for "emotional damages" and we paid the moto driver. The police ruled that I was "clearly" at fault, and that the accident was NOT on school property (where he wasn't supposed to be driving, but it really was so that was just a lie!). The basic law of the road is that cars are held at fault no matter what move a moto makes on them. ANd then, of course, I'm a foreigner. Cash cow! I will automatically be held at fault and paying something to someone.

And I forgot to mention the even more crazy part. The angry woman that came out of her house, was wearing nothing more than a purple satin camisole top and some matching shorts. She was in her negligee pj's or clothing or whatever it was, with no bra, nothing else. ANd she was screaming, I mean yelling and screaming, pushing and pulling people and stuff, hitting the vehicle. She stared at me a number of times, and the anger in her eyes was unbelievable. She seriously has major issues of her own, and it sure showed. We've been praying for her.

So finally, you might ask, where was I all this time? After I parked the car, and the negotiations started, a dear fellow staff member, Mrs. Vuthy, in her stable, Khmer wisdom, simply ushered me away from the scene. She told me to let Robert and Dean deal with it, and I was to get away. So, I sat in the office by myself, mostly crying, and just waiting it all out! THe feminist in me was screaming that this was my problem, and I should be the one taking care of things. Not a single person involved in the negotiations on either side, had even seen what happened! DIdn't anyone want to hear what I had to say??

Unfortunately, as Dean has said many times to console me, the truth doesn't matter. It all just comes down to money. Once the amount was settled, the money was paid, and it was all over, just like that. Our car got fixed the next morning, a straightened out bumper and new headlight, to the tune of $25, and that was it!

Except for my S T R E S S ! haha. Let's just laugh about it, cuz that's about all I can do. The difficulty is in the way this whole thing could have been so simply avoided with caution and less speed. The way what actually happened caused such a calamity at the gate that morning, when level heads could have prevailed, and talks gone peacefully. The need for truth to actually matter, and not anger and the desperation for money. It's been a tough go trying to deal with all these things, for me. Why was there no truth, no honesty, no concern, compassion or forgiveness, no peace, no wisdom?

peace,
truth
wisdom
honesty
love
concern
respect
forgiveness
compassion

Jesus Christ IS ALL those things! If you don't know that, or don't believe that, don't just take my word for it and also, don't just dismiss it! Check it out! Test to see if it's true, or prove that it's not true! Seriously, if you seek it out, you will get answers that will probably knock your socks off! What is so much of the difficulty in this country right now, is the loss of truth, and the perpetuance of lies, deceit and corruption. We honestly pray that the next generation will be educated so that they can think critically beyond the "mob mentality" and ration will prevail. We also hope and pray that through the real truth, Jesus Christ, hearts and minds will be transformed, love will matter, the well being of others (instead of just ourselves) will matter, and honesty will become a value. Our hearts cry out for it.

Well, I'll write again soon. Still lots on the go with more sports and other events coming up this weekend. Canadian Thanksgiving celebrations scheduled for Oct 30, which is better late than never. hoping to see Davie and Patti then, too. Oh, and by the way, Maya has now lost her second tooth, 2 baby teeth gone is leaving space for just the one next one coming in! Yikes. We were warned about this from the dentist! It's all pretty exciting.

We will talk soon. Love yous all. Thanks for listening. Pray for us and pray for Cambodia, the moto driver, the angry woman. Our prayer list is endless.