No doubt plenty of stories have been flying around in various mass emails sent to and fro by those who shall remain nameless. James, you’ll get your name back when you deserve it. Particularly in relation to the ‘processing’ of my gluteus maximus through a motorbike seat handle, I would like to say ….”Erase this from your consciousness”. It shall not be spoken of on pain of death.
Onto more savoury topics.
Things are well under way. Perhaps our first course session was down on numbers, but high on quality of attendees. Between us, James and I have been asked some truly ‘whopper’ questions, ranging from ‘Why does God create the bad guy’ to ‘Show me in the Bible to believe in Jesus Christ’.
We have some truly spectacular characters at our classes. One young lady has been working her way through a provided course and is considering delaying returning to her greatly beloved family so she can have the opportunity to learn more. Soon we will have the company of 10 more young LCDI students (a school project for troubled youths). Certainly a challenge. Our first course starts in earnest next week, with the first lesson in the ‘Bible Reading for Beginners Course’. This course does not contain many of the first principles, but serves to establish the authority of the Bible and teach the students that there is more to studying the Bible than listening to your Pastor.
The Bible centre now has furniture. 6 wooden tables, 12 wooden chairs and a kitchen bench all arrived on the back of a motorbike and trailer – for the grand total of $2.50 delivery. The ladies have been shopping for pots, pans and utensils and we now have a nearly functional kitchen. Our attention is turning to the project of mosquito-proofing the house before the swarm season begins, lest the vile beasts descend upon us like the locusts of the great plagues, leaving drained corpses in their quest for blood! We have purchased an electrified tennis racquet to teach them what it is to be afraid. They shall rue the day they chose to direct their horde through our air vents.
But enough of the vampiric mayhem…. Miriam and Miranda have been scouring the markets (no mean feat..they are extremely dirty in places) for household items and always return triumphant with a ‘Moto’ load of goodies…none of which ever seems to be my favourite delicious thing. I seem to be lacking the delicious things of home. Thanks to the new-found strength of will that has infused itself into my heart, I no longer crave such mortal things as chocolate and Ice-creams……..
It’s not true…sob. I crave it. I crave it all. Before any of you visitors bring baggage loads of sugar enriched rubbish in an effort to satiate my choco-desire, please be assured that there are plenty of such comestibles in Lucky Supermarket (perhaps not of the quality of the Kmart homebrand chocolate chip biscuits, for example). I eschew them for the sake of my stomach. Yes, my dear friend, Bertrand the belly, shall be no more.
The ‘Boo’ has not been sleeping well of late and for all those with babies who like discussing such things, his bowel motions have been rather firm. For all those not interested or revolted by such news, please do not read the above. The ‘Boo’ is waking late in the night and not returning to sleep so quickly…. His cries echo through our tiled corridors like the wail of a banshee…that, or a bandsaw. Either way, it is painful to the ear and probably doesn’t serve to help him to settle. The dog wars, cat duets, shuffling neighbours, weird snuffling that comes from the polystyrene that the Landlady put over our top air vents to stop the airconditioning getting out and the only creaky door that doesn’t shut properly in the house, serving as his portal to the land of sleep, have not helped in our quest to find peaceful repose.
Our Khmer lesson go well. Ha Kez! The four of us make a great team. James constructs the sentences, Miranda and Miriam correct his poor pronunciation and I stand around smiling like someone who is pleased with himself but doesn’t really have a good reason why. We can say ‘My name is x’ and ‘sorry’. Once the paperwork for changing our names to ‘x’ comes through, we’ll really be cooking with gas. Also, I can count to 5. On good days, I can count to 10. We were speaking to a young lad the other day who could not believe that Toby was only 7 years old.
We are starting to clearly recognise ridiculous requests by moto drivers. Gone are the days where they would earn 3 dollars for a trip across town. Now, we just fix them with a look that says ‘we didn’t just get off the ferry from Siem Reap, we know how much a moto costs, Joe!’ They smile apologetically and we all hop on. Soon we’ll become adept at recognising a Moto that actually understands what we are saying.
Anyway, enough waffling for today…..Here’s today’s tip for travelling in Cambodia. If you go out for lunch and order a mystery dish just to see what you get….don’t unless you are willing to eat cold noodles covered with mayo and dried prawn shavings 2 inches thick.
Love to all and God Bless
Michael
Onto more savoury topics.
Things are well under way. Perhaps our first course session was down on numbers, but high on quality of attendees. Between us, James and I have been asked some truly ‘whopper’ questions, ranging from ‘Why does God create the bad guy’ to ‘Show me in the Bible to believe in Jesus Christ’.
We have some truly spectacular characters at our classes. One young lady has been working her way through a provided course and is considering delaying returning to her greatly beloved family so she can have the opportunity to learn more. Soon we will have the company of 10 more young LCDI students (a school project for troubled youths). Certainly a challenge. Our first course starts in earnest next week, with the first lesson in the ‘Bible Reading for Beginners Course’. This course does not contain many of the first principles, but serves to establish the authority of the Bible and teach the students that there is more to studying the Bible than listening to your Pastor.
The Bible centre now has furniture. 6 wooden tables, 12 wooden chairs and a kitchen bench all arrived on the back of a motorbike and trailer – for the grand total of $2.50 delivery. The ladies have been shopping for pots, pans and utensils and we now have a nearly functional kitchen. Our attention is turning to the project of mosquito-proofing the house before the swarm season begins, lest the vile beasts descend upon us like the locusts of the great plagues, leaving drained corpses in their quest for blood! We have purchased an electrified tennis racquet to teach them what it is to be afraid. They shall rue the day they chose to direct their horde through our air vents.
But enough of the vampiric mayhem…. Miriam and Miranda have been scouring the markets (no mean feat..they are extremely dirty in places) for household items and always return triumphant with a ‘Moto’ load of goodies…none of which ever seems to be my favourite delicious thing. I seem to be lacking the delicious things of home. Thanks to the new-found strength of will that has infused itself into my heart, I no longer crave such mortal things as chocolate and Ice-creams……..
It’s not true…sob. I crave it. I crave it all. Before any of you visitors bring baggage loads of sugar enriched rubbish in an effort to satiate my choco-desire, please be assured that there are plenty of such comestibles in Lucky Supermarket (perhaps not of the quality of the Kmart homebrand chocolate chip biscuits, for example). I eschew them for the sake of my stomach. Yes, my dear friend, Bertrand the belly, shall be no more.
The ‘Boo’ has not been sleeping well of late and for all those with babies who like discussing such things, his bowel motions have been rather firm. For all those not interested or revolted by such news, please do not read the above. The ‘Boo’ is waking late in the night and not returning to sleep so quickly…. His cries echo through our tiled corridors like the wail of a banshee…that, or a bandsaw. Either way, it is painful to the ear and probably doesn’t serve to help him to settle. The dog wars, cat duets, shuffling neighbours, weird snuffling that comes from the polystyrene that the Landlady put over our top air vents to stop the airconditioning getting out and the only creaky door that doesn’t shut properly in the house, serving as his portal to the land of sleep, have not helped in our quest to find peaceful repose.
Our Khmer lesson go well. Ha Kez! The four of us make a great team. James constructs the sentences, Miranda and Miriam correct his poor pronunciation and I stand around smiling like someone who is pleased with himself but doesn’t really have a good reason why. We can say ‘My name is x’ and ‘sorry’. Once the paperwork for changing our names to ‘x’ comes through, we’ll really be cooking with gas. Also, I can count to 5. On good days, I can count to 10. We were speaking to a young lad the other day who could not believe that Toby was only 7 years old.
We are starting to clearly recognise ridiculous requests by moto drivers. Gone are the days where they would earn 3 dollars for a trip across town. Now, we just fix them with a look that says ‘we didn’t just get off the ferry from Siem Reap, we know how much a moto costs, Joe!’ They smile apologetically and we all hop on. Soon we’ll become adept at recognising a Moto that actually understands what we are saying.
Anyway, enough waffling for today…..Here’s today’s tip for travelling in Cambodia. If you go out for lunch and order a mystery dish just to see what you get….don’t unless you are willing to eat cold noodles covered with mayo and dried prawn shavings 2 inches thick.
Love to all and God Bless
Michael
Comments
Reading this really shows me how much i'm really going to miss you guys. Even though we didnt spend too much time together when you were here!