Cambodia Traffic.

Tim Here! This is a video of an intersection, not a big one, just a small one. Most of the bigger ones finally have lights....although, how that whole system works is another story, all by itself; and yes, they have had almost 5,000 deaths over the last several years. Life is cheap...but in a way that makes it infinitely more precious! Like I said before, there is really no safety net over here like in developed countries. I am realizing just how important God is for a society. Withou God, Everything....and I do mean Everything, breaks down into its depraved and selfish little parts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS3PZELMVYs

Here is a typical traffic stop. Usually you never get off your bike, and usually they don't even fake writing a ticket, they just wait for you to pay....but on $30 US a month, a guys got to feed his family. Meanwhile, the rich get richer. http:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwCnRwgyOSs

For those who are FB friends, I posted a video that my good friend Bob found. It is like the freakin' wild west out here! grab some popcorn, sit back and enjoy the FB post: It has it all, good guy, bad guy, corrupt cop, insane homicidal driver, off the chain military guy trying to kill an SUV with his semi-automatic handgun...SUV vs Motto (Motto loses miserably) SUV steals motto and drag sit to death. Man chasing SUV down the middle of the street, police officer watching it all and doing nothing. I'm telling you, somedays it is just borderline chaos. And yet, watch the people who live here....Everything is normal...Jeeepers! This is social conditioning in action. I looked at this for the first time and thought, "Yep, this is something that would happen on a morning comute to work." If it weren't for the social custom of not showing anger visibly, and making sure not to embarass anyone, this place would fall apart. THere is rage, it is just kept plitely beneath the surface. Kind of simmering until something sets it off. This place needs God Really, REALLY Bad! Here is the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9wKVzP_Av8&NR=1

Keep praying, as the adveture continues...

PS. I also loaded a video on FB of some flooding that we have been talking about. Our Yamaha has continued to perform like a champ...above, in, or partially underwater. Thank You God! Here is a short clip that is so typical of life during the rainy season. Really, you just get used to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pvPzPC2eek&feature=related

As close to Autumn as we'll get!

Wow!! What two beautiful days we've had here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia! Absolutely gorgeous weather!!

Yesterday was Parent Teacher conferences all day. I had my classroom door and windows open all day. Lovely strong breeze blowing through the classroom and did not need the A/C on at all!

Today, Sat., I put on shorts as usual and Tim and I got ready to head to the corner store for milk for breakfast. I opened up the door to the balcony and wow, it was beautiful! I felt cold, so I went and put on my capris instead. LOL. Now I'm sitting on my couch typing and the cool breeze coming in from the wide open windows and the wide open door feels delicious on my skin. There is light cloud cover and a light mist now and then. I feel refreshed. Thank you God for this nice surprise.

I looked up the weather on the BBC and it says we're supposed to have a high of 75 degrees F and a low of 72 tonight! Wahoo! I can even wear jeans tonight!! Funny how we get excited about the strangest things. It is usually too hot and humid too ever wear jeans here. It'll be closer to 80s the rest of the week, but this is nice for now. :) It is supposed to cool down here, especially in late Nov, Dec and Jan. Of course, "cool down" is relative. LOL
I say it's kind of like Autumn in Tucson, AZ. :) :) We never get winter here....

I have a Japan test to grade today and some planning to do, but not much. Started a good book, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. There is a series of 3 books. Very good - a murder mystery, financial intrigue, and family saga all rolled into one. This book is well read in the States. I'm borrowing it from a fellow teacher. I watched "Letters to Juliet" last night. Another teacher friend bought it at the market. You can get DVDs, CDs here for about a $1.00 at the markets. What a sweet romance. :)

Well, not much for now. Just wanted to give ya'll a quick update. Love to all our friends and family.

Cynthia here:

I thought I'd get a photo of my report cards. I mean how times do you see this? In all the years I've taught, I've never had a report card say "Kingdom of Cambodia". Wierd huh?

The report card goes into the brown envelope; the parents get to keep the report card and the brown envelope comes back to us signed and dated, ready to be used again for the second and third quarters.

It has a been a very busy week, crazier for Tim who has 6 classes and about 120 kids. Tim and I are glad that report card time is over with. We still can't believe over 9 weeks of school has flown by, yet we feel like we've been here for about a year already! :) I've heard other new teachers say that. We're not sure why that is; maybe because we're so busy and so much goes on here. Tim and I have been in Phnom Penh for 3 months now.

The weather is cooling off now. We THINK rainy season is over with. There's been not a clound in the sky for 2 days now. In December it really cools down, which probably means 70s in the mornings and evenings. LOL kind of like Tucson, AZ where we used to live, except with more humidity, even when it doesn't rain. :)

We have a week off in late Nov, during the week of Thanksgiving (for the States). We're trying to decide where to go. Probably the beach, since we haven't been there yet. Well, we'll see.

Well, I'm going to see if I read for a bit, then see if I can get my husband to go to Diamond Island where there's a food festival going on. It's like a little island in the big lake here. You take a ferry to it, I think, or maybe you can drive your moto over a bridge to it? No idea; we'll find out when we get there. It's right here in Phnom Penh. I think there's just markets there. I'm not sure what's it like, never been before. I'll let you know!

Over and out...

What's wrong with this picture

O.K. It is a well known fact that at most Restaurants in Phnom Penh you rearely get everything on the menu. Below is an Example of what this restaurant did... Pick out something from an American menu that someone saw. It looked Cool so they put it on their menu to be hip and attract all the Westerners in the city to their restaurant. Problem is, their all day is obviously,,.. Not All Day! This particular place advertises 12 types of hot tea! WOW! 12 types, Way too Cool. Actually they have never carried 5 of the varieties they advertise in the menu. They have reprinted the menu at leas twice. The same items they DONT have go right back in the menu. They just smile if you order it again the next time and kind of look at you with an expression of..."Don't you remember we don't have that...WE'LL NEVER HAVE THAT! but no, they actually smile sweetly and just say "No Have" It's all part of the service with a Cambodian Smile. You as a customer never get upset at any of this because they have no idea anything is wrong... Load the menu with 40 items you don't really carry, or serve. As long as you order something they figure they have made money. Last night we ate here and my meal arrived a full hour after Cynthia's. There were only 6 people in the restaurant, including us. That is normal and nothing to get upset about. Just make sure you don't have anything planned for the evening. This place will teach you patience, or it will drive you crazy. Better to just go with the flow and "let it go."

Hey all...It's October, feels like the day we got here! LOL

Look closely at the signs wording combination for this interesting restaurant....they can't figure out why NGO workers and westerner won't eat here... I don't have the Cajones to tell them!

Tim here. It is Wednesday night and my grading is completed. Finished about 6:30 tonight. Came home with Cynth on the Motto and we stopped off at the "Total Mart" (Chinese version of a Quick
Trip or 7 Eleven) We celebrated our first semester by indulging in comfort foo; 10 Oreo cookies, some marshmallow cream pies, one bag of Vinegar and Sea Salt Kettle chips, and one bag of the rugular Salt kind. At the checkout we spied a familiar sight....P-nut M&Ms. They went in the hand tote, 8 bioflavinoid single serving yogurt containers, and one liter of lowfat milk. We feel positively decadent tonight, but Ohhh how tasty. We are also giving ourselves 3 hours of air-conditioning in the room while I write this blog and Cynthia reads. Yes Folks.... we consider this a HUGE blowout celebration in our neck of the woods. I even found a Raman noodle soup to split with Cynthia.... YUUUUMY!

Cynthia Just whacked me and made me come back into the post and let you all know that she is not eating all of this food TONIGHT! So There.... I have let you all know, and successfully navigated a delicate marital hurdle. Hey, its all about survivin' and thrivin' over here. LOL! 26 years of marriage, we still act like kids a fair amount of the time...Laughter is Sooo Good for the Soul!

Flooding in Phnom Penh!!

Check out this link below. This is the flood Tim talked about! It didn't rain all day today, so we thought that would help clear out the water, but now it started raining tonight and is still raining now! Please pray! We actually had many students and teachers late this morning because transportation stalled in the flood. Tim and I made it ok. Didn't know Yamaha motos could float. LOL.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010101143906/National-news/floods-take-toll-on-phnom-penh.html

Rain, Rain Go Away.....Not bloody likely!

Tim Talking - We had a pretty good downpour yesterday at school. Rained pretty much all day long. Black low hanging clouds. I told my seventh graders at one point during the class that it looked like "IT", the dark evil presence from the book "A Wrinkle in Time" was outside and heading this way. Since we are reading the book and had just watched the movie, every seat emptied to plaster themselves with Squeals of delight and feigned horror at the approaching black clouds. Could not have asked for a better visual if I had ordered it from Hollywood itself. Anyways... it poured down all day long, which is odd. Usually only in the afternoons hard, and then lightly into the evening. This was a hard rain and everything flooded. Cynthia and I of course have the Motto to ride home on. The streets were up to a foot deep in water and cars were stalling out in water that was over 2 or 3 feet deep on the roads. It was semi-organized chaos as everyone was trying to find ways around the flooded streets, many of which were still impassable today. We finally arrived home after several detours and many close calls with typical crazy Cambodian drivers. I was soaked up to the knees,but no further, thanks to my trusty paper thin plastic poncho. Cynthia was, of course on the back holding on like a trooper. She just has to listen me as I repeat my frustration expression as we have near death experiences every several hundred feet, or so. My term is "Freak" I borrowed it from a good friend of mine in Wichita, (Thanks Steve T) and it just fits when some Lexus blows by you and completely drenches you with absolutely no remorse. I know that in Cambodia, the natives just brush it off as nothing.... but I am not a native yet.... working on it, but not yet! So I periodically yell into my visored helmet "Freak!" and then I feel a little better.... I know God just looks down and must shake his head and mutter something like "Yeah, and I'll keep sending rain storms and people to drench you until you stop Yellin out "Freak" every time someone tries to kill you on your Motto!... Well, that's kind of the relationship God and I have.... I yell "freak" at someone in frustration, and God says... I'm going to Keep working on you Tim, because I love you. Good heavens I feel like I am just starting out again in life some days. But I am much more honest with who I am, so I feel that this gives God something much more mouldable to work with. I will try to get some pictures tomorrow, because everything is still flooded. You have to see this insanity to believe it really happens. Not only that, but it is weird walking into a staff devotions at 7:30 in the AM and seeing many of your fellow teachers with their pants rolled up past the knees, wet, bedraggled, and barefoot. Just the start of another day of school in Phnom Penh. Last year they actually closed one day when water was coming into the first floor classrooms. If I return to the states to teach, I will forever be ruined with hearing someone complain about not being able to get to school ever again.... I'm sure I'll just look at them and mutter something like, "Freak,...they have no clue." Then God will do something to modify my attitude yet again. I am so glad God is patient with me and lets me learn in my "Self Paced Program" of life. Anyways... Cynthia and I are healing well, but you really never get over the cough thing in this city. I think there are just too many germs all over the place and airborne. Maybe after a year, or so, we will have enough antibodies build up to stay healthy for an extended period of time. Until then we continue to develop the most amazing antibodies known to mankind. And we have learned that you cannot heal and get better, even with medication, until you stop everything and sleep. That seems like the only way to really beat the bugs. I feel like I have been here for a year already... I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but at least I am feeling at home here. We are able to order most things and make our wishes known in Khmer (Cambodian) and we are finding ourselves responding in Khmer without thinking about it with everyday expressions. It will take a while to get fluent, probably at least a year. The good thing is no matter where we go from here, we will probably be able to talk to each other and not have anyone know what we are saying! LOL. That could be fun. We are debating weather to go to the coast for a short break in November. We would also like to go to Viet-Nam...Expensive for a visa, but cheap while your there....$8 hotel room $4-6 for a dinner for two at a nice place. you can rent a motto and just motto between cities and towns. The people are friendly and seem to speak a bit more English than in Cambodia, so you don't need to act quite as much like a fool trying to communicate.

We will try to blog more often now that we are finishing up grading and the first quarter unit exams etc..... Love to everyone. We covet your prayers and know God is protecting us in so many ways, while letting us ramp up our learning curve over here. Keep praying that God will soften and reach the hearts of these students with His love. I am having many opportunities to share, counsel, guide and lead them by modeling Christ. I am just being my same -old weird self and the kids have accepted me for who I am in a way that only kids can.

All for now, I have to look for some really cool Medieval Japanese videos to spice up some teaching for my 8th graders, so it is off to YouTube and other places to hunt for some interesting teaching material. Thanks so much for those who are partnering with is with prayer and financial support. The Bibles Y'all helped purchase are still a huge hit with the kids. It is so encouraging watching the little ones open the Word of God and be thrilled to read about our Lord and His love for them.

Stay strong int he Lord and the strength of His might! Tim (for the both of us)