CAMBODIA 2019

Concrete is being poured for the second floor of a building being built across the street from the apartment were we are staying.  The latest is that they are building posts frames and filling them with hand made concrete.  They have used ropes to hoist materials up.  It has been an interesting process. I remember ice trucks delivering ice to our neighborhood when I was a child.  We see that everyday here.  The vendors fill their ice chests with large ice chunks and with ice cubes.  Most homes do not have refrigerators and they use ice for any refrigeration needs.   We saw this tiny car that is solar powered the other day.  That was a first for us. And of course, there are tuk-tuks everywhere.  We ride them about once per week as we do our shopping and sight seeing in Phnom Penh. This is the first time we have seen the electric cycles.  We saw one being ridden down the street.  We wonder about the future of these vehicles. Cha

Avy is a busy lady.  She is the cook for the Best Center for 2 meals, 5 days per week.  Each morning she gets on her motorcycle and goes to the marketplace and buys food for the day. She brings large plastic bags of food back to the Center where she immediately begins preparing the meal.  It looks like we will be eating fish for at least a couple of meals.  We try to arrive each morning in time assist in carrying in the food.   I think that it is the season for corn on the cob as we have had that lately.  It is good corn but not quite as sweet as our sweet corn.  She brought back a bag of garlic as well.  There are usually a couple of bags of some sort of greens as well.  They will be cooked in soups as well as served fresh.  I recognize only a few of the varieties. Avy does have students who help with food preparation and service each day.  The students and staff also assist with clean up.   Can you tell me what kind of fish this is?  It looks good, but I could

Loren Hollingsworth comes to Phnom Penh each year to teach students at the Cambodian Bible Institute.  He also usually teaches a class at the Best Center.  This year he is teaching 3 evenings each week.  His knowledge of the Bible is astounding.  We have learned so much about the book of Hebrews.  Although Loren speaks Thai fluently, he needs an interpreter for Khmer students.

Every Friday Tom and I divert from English study to do something fun.  Since Valentine Day in the US was on Friday, what an opportunity.  Valentine Day is not celebrated in Cambodia.  We bought Oreo and some white sandwich cookies about the size  of Oreos.  Some decorator frosting was mixed us and colored ready to decorate cookies for the evening meal.  Each of our groups participated as well as the 3 new students who study English with Dara since we cannot visit with them very well yet.  We watched a video about decorating with zipper bags by cutting a small opening in a corner.    We were concerned how this was going to work, but it was great.  The corner is reinforced with tape and none of them burst.  The students were quite creative and seemed to enjoy the new experience.  The Youtube video was in English with English captions as well.  Some new words were learned as well as some new skills. We told them that in the US mothers would decorate heart cookies for their chil

 Bible Study and Worship are a very important part of the BEST CENTER.  After all BEST stands for "Bible, Education, Study, Training" Center.  All of the students have Bible Classes 2 hours per day with their Khmer teachers.  They study through the entire Bible during their 4 years at the Center and go home with Notebooks that they can use later.   Each Thursday evening the christians in the area are invited to dinner together followed by a singing period.  Once per month they turn part of that into prayer time together in groups.  On Sunday evening there is a worship time together with class study, followed by worship time with communion, singing and a Bible lesson. Sundays mornings we worship at the Phnom Penh Congregation about a half mile from the BEST Center and meet other Christians.    While the University Education is important to the students at the BEST CENTER, their Bible study is high on the priority list.  There is much required of them in learning scr

Guests from the US were invited to join Julie and Rhonda on an excursion to Rabbit Island just off the coast of Cambodia.  Tom and Helen felt happy that we were included as we joined a niece (Sierra) and two of her friends (all nurses at Mayo Clinic).  The island has been a favorite of Julie for some time.  This boat is a 'long tail' boat which means the long pipe with a propeller is lowered into the water behind to boat for movement.  Kep (pronounced Gip with a long I) is where we boarded the boat for about a 20 minute ride on a beautiful Thursday morning.  Kep is known for its crab catches.  We did not spend much time there as we headed for our restful destination after a dusty, bumpy ride in our vehicle, leaving Phnom Penh at 5 AM.  Since the traffic in Phnom Penh is terrible as people head for work, we wanted to get an early start and have more time for R & R. R & R is great, but sometimes getting there is not so pleasant.  When roads are being rebuil

English studies have progressed this week.  They are tested after every 4th online lesson.  So all of our students have taken at least one test since our arrival.  Paul has left supplementary materials to help us review with the students.  That has been helpful.  They also have a new 40 word vocabulary list every 2 weeks.  We study English for 4 days of the week.  But on Friday we plan what we call 'Fun Friday'.  This week we showed them pictures on the TV of the trip that they had taken last week to another province in Cambodia.  They told us about their trip.  Then we got out the 6 Yoyos that we had brought with us.  They found it challenging and fun.  Of course Tom got to show them the tricks that he could perform.  Then we showed them YouTube videos of  'professionals'.  Today as we were shopping we went into a toy store to see if they had yoyos.  They did.  They cost only $27.00 each.  These students had never tried one. Our 'graduate' students stu

Tom and I do a lot of walking in Phnom Penh.  Driving a car is not an option.  We have no moto and would question the wisdom of trying that if we did.  We do hire a Tuk-Tuk when we want to go a distance.  Today was one of those days.  The traffic is very heavy almost all of the time.  It seems there are more Tuk-Tuks now that there is a 'PassApp' that can be used to call them using phone navigation.  Since our smart phones do not work here except with WIFI we cannot use that app.  The Tuk-Tuk that we are riding in is the old style with 2 seats.  Most of the ones in the photo are the new 2 person style, although we have seen as many as 5 Khmers in them.  If you get to use their meter with the Pass App the ride is usually cheaper.  We still visit with the driver before getting into the Tuk-Tuk about the price as foreigners are many times charged much more than the Cambodians are for the same ride. Today is Saturday so we rode a TukTuk to the Riverside area for breakfas