Some of Marije's Pics

I thought you guys might enjoy some pictures of the countryside. These were taken by Marije on a trip to one of the provinces. (A Khmai Kitchen)
(A Khmai Washroom)(Upstairs in a Khmai house > I think those are the bed mats)
(Rice Fields)
(Polling across the river)
(Palm Trees)
(Kids watching the sunset)

Our Latest House Guest

While I was away, this guy decided to come visit my roommate. She found him in her bedroom. Just for a sense of reference the larger tile that he is on is 8.5” wide by 7.5” long.

The opening of a window!

So awhile ago I had mentioned that the door had closed for me to work in the assessment center... well God worked a little miracle and I had my first day there today. The girls were a variety of ages and there were too many that looked around 7 years old. Why?! Why would anyone want to have sex with kids? Anyways, while Bev is away in Canada, I am helping another lady in filling in Bev's place doing sports and games. Today I also had to lead worship for the kids as the lady who usually does it had to leave to take care of her son. (Bible Study and a time of singing is provided for the girls if they want to attend). So here I was leading songs in Khmer – one of which I vaguely knew in English and the other I had never heard before... but I had a CD so I mouthed along and followed the actions the kids were doing. Thank goodness children’s songs are repetitive :p Anyways, when I put on the last song, the one I had never heard before, the children all closed their eyes and put their hands in the traditional form of showing respect. It was interesting to notice the height of their hands as that dictates the degree of respect being shown. Wow! It was pretty amazing to watch them sing from their hearts.

PS. Sorry there will be no pictures in relation to the assessment center as that is not allowed.

Thank you to everyone who was praying for me this week. I was sick for a couple days but now I am feeling much better! Thanks!

Siem Reap Trip Highlights

1.) Cambodian’s get car sick easily as most are not used to driving... each kid had a personal sick bag.

2.) We spent Tuesday visiting the Temples. Some were really neat. One is just covered in massive tree roots.

3.) For lunch we ate in a Khmer traditional home.

4.) In the evening we took them to a buffet which featured Aspara dancing (which is the cultural dance).

5.) On Wednesday morning we toured a silk factory and saw how they make silk from the worm to the beautiful scarves. It gives a new definition to hard work and low pay.

6.) In the afternoon we went to the Cambodian Cultural Village which featured a series of dances about Khmer history and culture.

7.) For lunch on Thursday we ate at KFC...notice that rice is a part of the KFC meal here.

On a different note, this trip was an awesome experience for me. I learned to have a shower with a bucket and dipper, go to the washroom on the floor in an outhouse and then rinse it out of the house (there was no hole), and practice Khmer with the kids and help them with their English.

In the mornings we took turns leading devotions and some of the kids shared that they are not sure what they believe right now. So please pray for them as they go through this phase. Now we are all home safe and sound and it is time for life to go on as normal. I will post more pictures on facebook when I have access to a better internet connection.

Thanks for your prayers!

Tigers, Elephants, King Cobra’s and Scorpions

So most of those animals I did not see, but, we drove through a palm oil plantation which has a problem with wild tigers and wild elephants, and drove past an area where Ken (an AG missionary from the States... see picture below) said he saw a king cobra once. It was cool to know they were around.

As for scorpions...

...they are just common play things.

This weekend I went to Kompong Som, which is located on the Gulf of Kompong Som and the Gulf of Thailand, to visit an AG orphanage. The kids were so awesome! I had a blast.

We brought a bunch of the kids back to Phnom Penh for a day and then tomorrow we are taking them to Siem Reap for the rest of the week.

The Simple Things In Life

A New Appreciation for Life

On Monday I assisted a team from Utah in taking a group of kids from one of the many orphanages here to the Phnom Penh waterpark for the day. Most of the kids who came had HIV and/or mental and physical disabilities. It broke my heart to watch these children. Some were nothing more then skin and bones with huge gaping wounds. One guy, guessing from his height he may have been 15, sat in the water and spent the whole time swimming in a circle in one spot. He had the hugest smile on his face the whole time! I am glad that we were able to give these kids a special day... just please pray that they don't get any infections or anything from the nasty water.

Wrestling

This week I have been a bad teacher! Both Tuesday and Thursday I have let the kids get out of work a little because they were having to much fun. On Tuesday they made masks (which I was going to have them talk about in terms of colours and facial features) but they were so enthusiastic about making them that I let them spend an extra 30 min on it. One odd thing I noticed was that a lot of the kids drew crosses on their heads in between their eyebrows. When I asked about it I learned that apparently its apart of their favourite wrestlers costume. They don't even have a tv and yet they are influences by stuff like wrestling. Sheer craziness.

Changes

This week I started volunteering at a school in a Vietnamese community just outside of the city. It is a very poor community and half of it is flooded. They are guessing that by next week the water will have reached our school to. To get to everything they either use a boat or walk on narrow wooden planks that they have put out to connect all the houses. I forgot my camera so I couldn't take any pictures, but I promise to next time I go.

Prayer Requests

- Tomorrow I am going away for a week to the provinces. I will be going to visit and AG orphanage and then we are taking the kids to see Angkor Wat. So please pray for safety and a good time for all going.
- Wisdom about some schedule decisions that I need to make
- Wisdom in teaching/leading the English class/Bible Study

God is Faithful!

This week was what you would call a long week. It started off with a couple sightings of what Marije and I thought was a rat... but it turned out to be just a mouse. Our landlords are Buddhist, like many Cambodians, and thus they believe in reincarnation. That means that they will not kill a rat or mouse because it could be one of their ancestors. Instead, they use this glue to trap the animal and then set it free outside; however, I think that the glue has got to have some side effects on the animal. I felt bad for our poor mouse as I watched it struggle in the glue, but at the same time I am happy that it is no longer living here.

(1. Our landlords searching our kitchen for the rat. 2. The glue trap. 3. The mouse. )

I also spent a lot of time with Gary and Bev before they left for Canada. They have gone home for furlough for 3 months. I will really miss them!

This week the weather was really nice (at least I thought so). It rained consistently for a couple days. I loved it because the rain really cooled things down. I loved being able to wear a thin long-sleeved sweater and jeans without sweating. However, with the cold weather also came the cold! My moto driver joked that I got sick because I like the rain. So, I was feeling a little under the weather this week. Then to top it off I also was sick to my stomach the evening that the English Bible Class that I am teaching started. I was a little late because I had a date with the washroom... but thanks to everyone’s prayers I felt fine when I got there. Teaching went well, but it was a little intimidating because the Pastor and his wife were there and there were there were only two others besides the pastors and myself. One whispered to me that she felt intimidated answering the questions because she didn’t have Bible College... so I whispered back to her ‘neither do I’. So please pray for me – for wisdom leading it and that I would do a good job.

(A not so good picture of the Khmer church where I do the English Bible Class.)

Another good thing that happened this week was that I had a meeting about a potential volunteer opportunity in a Vietnamese community/slum just outside the city. I will be going to check it out on Wednesday to see if it’s feasible. Please pray for wisdom as to if this is where I should be... and if so, how I should rearrange my schedule to make it work.

For a little retreat from the city, my roommate found a resort a couple kilometres outside of Phnom Penh that allows you to come and use their swimming pool. So we hired a moto driver to take us for an hour. We had a really nice relaxing time. It was very refreshing! ( I find it kind of cool that instead of having to pay to fly to go to Mexico/Cuba and stay at a fancy resort I can just ‘hop a moto’ and go... it’s quite nice and a lot cheaper!)

Sorry for such a long post this week. Thanks for all your prayers!
Love you guys!

It's not what you do, but how you do it!

Since arriving, as you know, I have faced a series of setbacks. For the most part I have had a good attitude about it, but lately I have found that my frustration has increased. This Sunday I met a girl who is doing something similar to what I want to do and I found myself thinking ‘why not me?’

The message that seems to keep hitting home is that it is not about what I am doing work wise. Rather, am I being obedient? Am I doing what God has given me to do to the best of my ability? It is rather a hard switch mentally to focus on the journey rather than the destination.
Please pray for boldness and that I would improve upon my language skills (as language is really important for getting to know people).

PS. I just want to say thank you to the small group that gave me all the stuff to bring over. Since plans have changed, I have used some of it at the orphanage... I hope you don’t mind. It had been such a blessing. The kids used the funky construction paper and some of the drawing paper to make books about themselves. They also love the jumbo skipping rope. (I have to confess, they keep sending everything back home with me and so I also use one of the skipping ropes to exercise at home). As well, my two year old loves the balls. Almost every day, when he gets bored of sitting and listening to the lesson he will tug on my leg and ask for a ball (his favourite is the pink stripped one). The markers and pencil crayons have also been put to good use. It has been nice to have the resources to make my lessons fun.

Contact Information

For all of you who have been asking me about where to send mail, I can recieve mail at the following address until November:

PKNS
Attention: Marije B. Leusink
PO Box: U23
#19B St. 1U5, Sanghat Phsar Doem Thhov, Kham Chamhar Mon
Phnom Penh, Cambodia


(Note: it goes under my roommates name but with a B. as the middle intial standing for Beca so that she knows its for me.)

Thanks!

Random Thoughts and Notes

My roommate and I are currently sharing our apartment with geckos. I keep finding gecko dung in random places like in the dish drying rack and the sink in the washroom, but they are just a regular part of life here. We also have a new addition to our house -- a rat! At least I think it’s a rat, I only watched it dash away when I turned on the lights in the kitchen, but it was about 6 inches long and had a long tail.

Every night at 10/10:30 we are serenaded by the dog choir. A couple are still going at it as I write this (it's 11:30pm).

There are many layers to the streets of Phnom Penh. From the road you see the villas and basic buildings but on most streets are hidden alley ways. In those alley’s are the small shacks and tiny homes that people live in that are hidden behind the villas and away from the public eye. I had the opportunity to go with Bev to check on some of the child care plus families that live in some of those alleyways.
I have decided that I prefer to ride side saddle on motos as it is a preventative method against getting another Asian tattoo (aka moto burn) and it is easier to jump off at the gas station or in the event you think you are going to be in an accident.

Today I had to help my moto driver walk the moto into the gas station as we ran out of gas.

I now have a regular moto driver who drives me home from my language class each day. His name is Steven and he tries to talk to me while driving. I am discovering how hard it is to a)hear him above the sounds of the street, the moto, with a helmet on and b) to process what he saying (in Khmer). Nonetheless, he just keeps on asking me questions even though half the time I have no clue what he is talking about. At least I have been able to understand some words and the sounds of the moto give me an excuse to take a minute to think about what he is saying.

Thanks for all your prayers and support and encouraging emails!