Snails detox and exciting marking

This week Soeun has been marking an exercise where students need to observe, interpret and apply a Bible passage in prep for a sermon or Bible study (SMBCspeak: triangle). He's been excited to see that students have worked hard and learnt a lot. Its unusual for me to hear Soeun talk about marking student's work as exciting, he usually finds it really tedious.

For those of you in Oz who packed an Operation Christmas Child box, you might be interested to read this blog by a girl who lives in Phnom Penh.

Mostly wedding meals aren’t that social, at least in my experience. The music is loud. You sit at a table with the nearest ten people who you may or may not know. Recently there was a wedding held on campus that was relaxed and fun. It was nice that it was so close; not having to travel was a plus. And I spent most of the day with people that I did know, students who live on campus with us.

The Cambodian pastor from Australia who did our wedding came to do this one too, and stayed the night at our place.

We also recently went to a wedding of a couple who had been engaged for four years. They got engaged before we did!

Cooking foreign food to share

Our house stinks! Soeun has been making kimchi again as you can see from the photos. He takes a bit to share each time he eats with the students. Its Korean but it seems to be very popular with Khmer too!



I'm making a peanut sauce for lunch tomorrow, we are having people over. Its made with stuff from the market, all khmer ingredients, but its not khmer food. We'll find out if they like it tomorrow. I'm also going to make sushi rolls.


And this is some very non foreign food- smoked fish.

Our friend’s father recently passed away after being sick for some time. Our friend and her mother are Christians, and are so thankful that their father/husband accepted Jesus just before he died.

Recently I’ve heard of a few Christians who have ended up having a Buddhist funeral. As soon as some dies, or when they are dying, the monks are called in to carry out the Buddhist rituals. Apparently it all happens automatically, with friends and neighbours playing their part. As the major religion is Buddhism, and many parts of life are very religious it seems that everyone knows the proper thing to do when someone dies. So this is how Christians end up having Buddhist funerals, even when they have lived their life as a Christian and their family knows they are not Buddhist.

In the case of our friend, if she’d wanted her father to have a Christian funeral, she and her mum would have had to confront her relatives with this strange idea. I’m guessing that wouldn’t have been an easy thing to do at any time- but especially hard if you were to do it the same hour your father/husband had passed away. So I think they just let everyone take care of everything, knowing it was only his body and that they will see him again.

Corn from our front yard!

Kimsoeun is excited today because he has just finished writing another song! I have been listening to him sing it the last few days but I can't understand that much so I can't tell you what's about- except to say its something to do with Jesus.

Nov 9

Click here to find out what is happening today in Phnom Penh:
Independence Day celebrations in Phnom Penh November 9, 2009. Cambodia celebrates its 56th anniversary of independence from France on November 9.

Graduation

Bible School Graduation was held recently. It was great to see old friends who came for the day. I also enjoyed singing. One of the songs we sang is picture below. I went over in my language sessions in the week leading up to graduation so I was able to sing all of the words!



In English we call it "Because he lives".In Khmer its called "God sent his Son". One of the words in it I learnt from an advert on TV for MSG. Ajinomoto MSG claims to "dissolve easily", that word for dissolve/ melt is what happens to fear (in the song).

Point of View

I just watched a show on National Geographic called Meet the Natives.

Some men from a south pacific island go to Western countries to meet the natives and learn about their customs- its interesting hearing a different point of view, I'm used to hearing the western POV of other cultures. The one i just saw they went to the UK and were shocked to see that there were homeless people. They said in their home place Tanna, no one is homeless.

I found that interesting as to me their society looks poor, they don't have electricity, running water, "proper" clothes- yet no one is homeless, but in our "rich" society we have people sleeping on the streets.

They were taken to see some pet dogs washed and groomed, were amazed people would go to so much trouble to look after animals; they made a deal with the English- they said: when we go home we will try to look after our animals more, and you should try to look after people more, like those homeless people.

Hearing this different point of view reminded me of China Ramblings by Suzanne Rowe. Most of the pieces in her book are about her experience as an Aussie in China, but she has some written from the Chinese point of view.

This one is from the POV of a Chinese teacher who has some foreigners visiting her class.

I didn’t want the children to be frightened so I prepared them well. These foreigners, I told them, are people just like us, but different too. Their skin is the colour of a grubby whitewashed wall with splattered speckles. Their eyes are blue, but not as blue as the sky. More like the blue-grey exhaust coming from a run-down tractor. Their hair isn’t yellow like the books say, but closer to the colour of a muddy river.

Later in she wrote about how she felt sorry for the foreigners when it was toilet time. In China the public toilets are just that- public. I'm used to cubicles but in China its a lot more open plan. Anyway, the teacher in this story found it strange that the white person wanted to go in by themselves.

Back in Cambodia

Some of you may know that I recently went away. These photos on my other blog say a bit about that: Holiday 09.

Now I'm getting to know the new students at the Bible school, so many girls this year.
Ali has great photos of Cambodia. I really like these ones from around Phnom Penh. As she notes, her commute in Cambodia is quite different from going to work in Sydney.

Mum visit (part 7) Kompong Cham

Kompong Cham is known for its rubber trees.


We visited a Bible school that has solar power and pigs.

Ain't no flood no more

Stepping stones

The water has gone down now, but the other week this is what the campus looked like. They used bits of the drain to make stepping stones.