our house

I still haven't gotten around to posting pictures of the inside of our place, but here is what the outside looks like. The Khmae word for home is "p-tay-ah." Our house in Khmae would be "p-tay-ah you-ng."

When I drive we park the car inside on the ground floor, it is what would normally be the living room. This is the typical Khmae way, no garages, just park on the first floor on top of the marble tile (for real). Kenyon and I live in the apartment with all the plants on the balcony, that is considered the first floor.

There are two floors above us with single ladies. I spend a lot of time with these ladies. I even share an office with the lady who lives on the third floor, Lesley. We are seriously doing life together - work, home, and we have even started a ladies cell group that meets every other Saturday morning. I don't think I've lived this closely with anyone (other than my husband) since college. Lesley arrived about a month after us. I knew we'd be sharing an office and I knew there was a possibility she would be moving in to the apartment above ours.

Before Lesley arrived I said to a friend of mine, "I don't know this Lesley person, but I hope we get along or else life here could be difficult." Turns out, we get along really well. At the recent regional meetings we were assigned as roommates, it was great. A couple of weeks ago we had a girl's weekend in Bangkok and even opted to share a room though it wasn't necessary. We are planning a trip to Vietnam with her brother and my dad in January and another girl's weekend sometime in the future in Siem Reap. I am so grateful for Lesley's friendship. This picture is one from our weekend in Bangkok while shopping at the markets.

Tomorrow is Christmas, Kenyon and I will be spending Christmas in p-tay-ah you-ng. Now you can picture what the outside looks like. No white Christmas for us, it will be a sunny-living-in-the-tropics-now kind of Christmas!

monthly powdered milk delivery

Kenyon continues to visit the Sisters of Charity children's home. He and Caroline go on a monthly basis to take powdered milk to the babies. Here are some photos he took on a recent visit.

Sihanoukville

Here are some photos from our vacay in September on the coast of Cambodia. This photo is Otres Beach where we spent a whole day lounging and doing nothing else.

Kenyon on the boat the day we went snorkeling (before he got sick from the rocking waves).

A photo taken from our boat while traveling toward an island for lunch.

Maybe now is a better time to ask if you want to come for a visit - anyone? anyone?

truly international organization

I work in Cambodia. In my office there are 51 national staff, which means they are from the Kingdom of Cambodia. We also have a couple living here who are originally from Brazil, but they have lived all over the world for the past 20 years. My boss and his family are from Australia. We have two interns, one from Australia and one from Britain. Lesley, who I share an office with and who lives in my apartment building, is also from Australia, but has lived all over the world for most of her life - most recently spending three years in Afghanistan. In the last couple of months, there was a couple from the US that arrived - she has lived in Africa and grew up in the Philippines. Last month a new staff member arrived who is from Ethiopia and worked in many countries around the world.

I've learned something interesting from working in such a diverse environment. What is that? Our faith and purpose unites us. I have always said, "the God I serve spans time, space, culture and geography." Now I am living it. Jesus isn't limited to the Western image we have created. When we are serving the living God, he unites us, despite differences.

Prey Sala relief distribution

In September, our staff participated in a relief distribution in one of the urban resettlement communities around the city where I live. I've tried, unsuccessfully, to post photos of that event...until now.

In Asia it is very common for people to flash the peace sign while taking a photo. This is a beautiful girl attending the distribution with her family.

These kids were so cute while playing. The problem is, they were hanging from one of the support beams of the tent set up for the event. They almost brought the house down, literally.

This is my favorite photo from the event. After the men had unloaded the rice, sardines, oil and salt from the truck, the boys had to go check it out. One has, obviously, forgot his pants.

This photo features the primary way Khmae people move stuff from point A to point B. We would never think of loading down a motorbike in such ways...if only I had my camera everytime I saw some of these sights. This guy has loaded his booty from the distribution and is on his way home.

This sweet little one is getting ready to go in to the water toward her home. Picking up her skirt, while carrying salt for her family.

I try to learn a new Khmae word every day. It helps when they are contextualized. On this particular day I learned to say "you're welcome." Though this distribution was completely led by the national staff and all I did was show up in order to step away from my desk for a while and interact with people - everyone would come to me to say "thank you." In Khmae, thank you is "a-coon" and you're welcome is "mun aye tay." By the end of the day, I could have said you're welcome in my sleep.