From Mark….
Hi there, or in khmer…‘arun sus sei dei’ (which kinda sounds like “aroon –sauce-a-day!”) …I’ve found it’s helpful to think of word pictures with some of the khmer words so obviously a meat pie with sauce always comes to mind with this khmer greeting! But don’t be fooled in thinking we’ve got a grasp of the khmer language – cos we still haven’t started the language learning yet!~ we do hope to find a good tutor in the near future - so that at least we can get started with the basics of learning khmer.
Anyways – we’re both going pretty well and seem to be adjusting to life here ok in particular physically – I think we’re feeling a lot more settled than when we first arrived. Though, we definitely aren’t at the point of buying our meat down at the local (flea) markets as yet! – so, we still live to a fair extent with ‘foreigner’ comforts. Mind you, in spite of this – we’ve still managed to get the occasional bout of gastro which seems fairly hard to predict or avoid even if eating from trusted restaurants. Anyway – enough said on that front.
Since we last wrote a lot has happened. For the most part our attention the last month and a half has been on coordinating efforts for a conference for pastors, leaders and church businesspeople that we hosted here in PP only two weeks ago. It all went really well. The conference speakers included our senior pastor Pete McHugh and a team of nine from our church in Melbourne (mix of pastors, business people, board members and other brilliant tag-alongs!). We had between 40-50 khmer attendees – who were clearly really blessed by the teaching and encouragement given in the conference. As the training was really practical - focusing on the role of the pastor and the businessperson in church life plus defining the role of governance in churches – we found that it’s really given us a spring-board to launch into all the economic development work that we’re looking to start here. So, that was great.
It was also fantastic to have all the CCCW team here – and to connect with them and ‘chew the fat’ over good company and good food! Also – just being able to talk aussie-to-aussie was incredibly refreshing. As we’ve been used to talking to all manner of foreigners since we’ve been here – getting back to talking in “real” english was fantastic!! (+ having people who actually understand our sarcastic sense of humour!)
In the midst of all the “business” stuff, we managed to sign a rental contract for a house (single level apartment style) which has worked out great. The house is in a good location and our landlord is a local “commune leader” – which means he knows the police and government contacts (which helps with many “issues” let’s just say that!)… though he does live right next door, so we can’t really play up which is a abit of a bummer! We are still however in the slow (read: incredibly painful!) process of furnishing the house as there was basically nothing in it when we moved in. We’ve been told by local expats that a rule of thumb is to allow up to 4x what it would take back home for normal daily living tasks – so this has at least helped us in normalizing our frustrations in finding the most simplest of items and furnishings for the house!
Also, we bought a new motorbike (100cc) a couple weeks ago which means at least now we have some form of transport (Yah!!). I’m also looking to purchase a 2nd hand dirt bike so that we can at least get out to the province/rural areas to have a look as well (gotta be that country boy thing coming out again – I spose!)
From Jo…
it’s been about three months that we’ve been here now; at times it seems we’ve been here much longer! The last few weeks have been pretty hot although we are supposed to be coming up to the ‘cold season’ (if there is such a thing in Cambodia at ~30C)! The hottest month is apparently April where basically very little work gets done, so we have been told.
Moving into our own place has been absolutely fantastic! However, the process of furnishing it is a different story – everything just takes sooooo long here! We were told by a number of expats that if you get two things done on your ‘to do’ list each day then that’s really good! I think we previously mentioned about the quality and costs of things here, e.g. to clean the house, we had to buy a mop – the mop handle broke in half after mopping just one room; I bought a pair of shoes to wear for the conference and it broke after about 2 wears; our bed base was hammered and sawed into shape so it could fit together (this meant it was a very tight fit to get our mattress to fit the base), and so on. We were also told to expect things to fall apart each week (so encouraging) and did we ever find this to be true!! e.g. our fridge had to be repaired only a few weeks after moving in, (although it is 2nd hand), a number of light globes have blown in different rooms, our shower head holder broke, our bath tub cracked (it is plastic – so no surprises here!), etc, etc. Basically, each item that we have bought has a story behind it, from buying a vegetable peeler that peels/cuts chunks out of the vegetable, to buying a ‘brand new’ motorbike that has to be checked out that it is not a stolen bike before it can be registered.
We have got a water filter so we don’t have to buy bottled water to wash and cook our food in and brush our teeth with, but for whatever reason, it just doesn’t quite have the same taste of our water back home (and this has completely nothing in relation to Mark having worked at Melbourne Water before we left)!!! We are slowly getting used to this but again, it takes time to cook (nearly the double the time back home) whilst trying not to pour down with sweat! We have had a number of blackouts as well but fortunately the electricity has come back on during the night when we use the air-con to sleep! Most locals get up at about 5am and are in bed by about 9pm, basically when the sun rises as many do not have electricity and it also means getting most of the work done such as going to the markets to get food, before it gets too hot.
Ahh, all in a day’s work in Cambodia.
Please, don’t let me put you off visiting – it really is a lovely country with beautiful people, very cheap food and clothes (in particular local places) and lots of yummy mango shakes and seafood!
Of course, having the team from church come over was such a blessing to those who attended the conference but obviously very much so to us. The team were a great group of people who got along really well with each other and also met and built some good relationships with the pastors/business people who attended the conference and were also able to share at different churches on the Sunday. Whilst the teaching was practical and very invaluable and very needed in the churches here, I believe the way our team displayed unity, love and respect for each other and much fun gave the local Khmers at the conference more than a glimpse of what relationships are really all about. Again we feel really blessed and proud to be part of such a fantastic church.
Well, thanks for sharing the journey with us – we value all your support, encouragement and friendship! Missing you all heaps and we look forward to hearing how your journey is going too!
Lots of love from Mark & Jo
PS. GO Aussies in the cricket!
On the back of a moto on the way to the Water Festival (the city swells to 2-3 million people over the 3 day festival!)
Jo with the Water Festival fireworks in the background
The cccw team on a tour about the city on moto's
One of the sessions of the pastors conference
The cccw team at the infamous Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) for the after conference celebrations...a great night had by all!
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