The Flood

Cynthia here:
So....we walked home in a flood on Friday night. Literally, a flood! Note to self - if you see black clouds when you're about to go walk somewhere, don't go! Grey ones are ok.
We were tired from a long first week at school and decided to grab a bite to eat (although here, you don't ever just run out and "grab" a bite). We walked about 8 minutes away to a little inexpensive restaurant we found and sat down for some good food and relaxation.
About 1/2 hr into our meal we hear LOUD thunder and see crazy lightening. We say, "Here comes the rain." But no rain came. The thunder and lightening keep coming and we keep saying, "here comes the rain, we'd better hurry." 45 minutes into our meal the rain came, and boy did it come. It was the strongest rainstorm we have seen since we've been in Cambodia (one month on Monday). It rained like crazy and we thought maybe it would let up a bit like it usually does....but no...finally we decided we should just walk home, it wasn't going to let up. The streets were flowing with water. While we were waiting in the restaurant, we jokingly said to the waiters and waitresses that we will sleep there tonight. :) They smiled and said yes yes. LOL

When we got up to go, the young lady brought me a poncho but not Tim! :) so, off we go....I was laughing as we delved into the pouring rain! What else could I do? It actually was kind of fun!
The water was up to our calves, at least. Tim was totally soaked! Except for my knees down, I stayed dry under my poncho! The sleeves on my poncho were gathered tight, it was awesome.
We tried not to think about what else was getting washed away on the streets and what else was swimming along in the water while we traversed the flooded streets.

My manyly, studly husband, being the good husband that he is, was in front of me scouting the way. I was looking down trying not to walk in a huge pothole, but of course we couldn't see even if there was one. As I'm trudging through the muddy, grimy, who-knows-what infested water, I hear this loud splash! I look up and Tim is lying face down in the street! He gets up and keeps on going. I couldn't help it - I had to laugh! For some reason I couldn't say it was hilarious to see him just lying there with this stunned expression on his face. Of course after a minute of laughing I catch myself and ask if he is ok. Yes he says. We laugh some more.

We finally made it home - Tim totally soaked through. As we round the corner of our street our landlord is sitting in an open air restaurant with his buddies. Oh yes, as we were walking out in the flooded streets, we noticed we were the only crazy ones walking out there! So...anyways, the landlord makes some comment and starts laughing!! Tim just holds his arms out and turns around like he's modeling his soaked clothes. The other men at this place laugh too and we also join in the laughing. Here in Cambodia they are not laughing at you, they laugh in order to keep face and so you don't feel embarrassed or shamed when something happens to you. For instance if you fall off your bicycle you may get laughed at, to cover your embarrassement and their embarrassement. Interesting....

Anyways...back to my story. So we trudge up the stairs. We strip down in the kitchen and throw our clothes in the washer right away! We run upstairs and scrub our bodies with soap, of course there is no warm water, so we clean with cold water. The whole time we are praying...God protect us from Hep A, B, C, D and whatever other Hep there is! LOL and protect us from Typhoid, Cholera, and any other disease we could get. Especially Tim...
When we're done, we scrub our shoes and set them out to dry. We come downstairs and we smell sewage...we realize it's from our clothes sitting in the washer. So we immediately wash those too! Now we know at least some of what was floating in the streets and what Tim probably fell into. Great!! Thank God that we have a God that heals! :)

For those of you reading this, please continue to pray for safety from all the diseases we could get here. We've heard that Dengue Feaver is a zinger! Dengue Fever comes from a mosquito that bites during the day (Malaria mosquito bites at night). Dengue is like having the flu, x 10. You know how with the flu your body aches? Well with Dengue it is called the "bone breaking" disease for a reason. Your bones feel like they are breaking you are in so much pain. You have immense headaches also and high fever. And you get this red rash/spots. There is no cure or help for it, you just ride it out. Except you can get meds for the pain, but that's all. There are various strains of Dengue, from mild to very very dangerous. Oh, and your white blood cell count drops. So you have to get that checked if you get Dengue. With the bad strain, you can hemorrage out your nose, eyes, etc. Just to let you the serious diseases they do have here. Malaria is not an issue here in Phnom Penh they say, unless you go out into the country/pronvinces. Besides they have meds for Malaria, so not so bad! Then there's Typhoid and Cholera...but we're not worried! God will take care of us and if we catch one of them, so we do. We carry on!

THe reason I know so much about the Dengue is because we talked to Principal at another school and she had just gotten back from a couple weeks in the hospital with Dengue. She had the really bad strain! And she made it... so can we.

We heard last night, that on slogans and advertising it says, "Welcome to the Land of Wonder." It is a land of wonder...we wonder every day what will happen next! LOL
Life here is certainly never boring!!!