What is this?????????

What is in the photo????
You tell us! Please send an email with your answer (or you could leave a comment on the blog but then everyone can read it- so only do that it you think you’re wrong). Winners might get a postcard from Cambodia. Answer/s will be revealed in the future. Feel free to share with you Bible study group etc.

Cow goes up the hill

Here is a picture of a meal we had at our house with KS’s small group. It’s similar to Chinese meals – Hot Pot/Steam Boat. All the food comes to the table raw (or in this case the floor) and you cook as you go in pot in the middle. Instead of a pot of boiling soup this is a small coal stove that is shaped like a hill. And most of the meat we cooked on it was beef- hence the name!

International Visit # 2 and traffic photo

An Aussie family we know who financially support the work of the college recently came to visit Cambodia. It was great to introduce them to the student they support, show them around and have some meals together. We were excited that as well as sending money to support work in Cambodia they could come and see and experience a bit.

It was also fun for me because we got to ride in tuk tuks (rather than moto taxi or bike) and we got to feed them fun/interesting Cambodian fruit.

Pancakes

Language and Culture sharing usually involves food. In China and here I have tried cooking and serving Western food.

Chinese kitchens don’t come with ovens, but I had a small one, looked a bit like a microwave (similar to the one we have now, see blog post from May). I used it to bake pumpkin and one of my Chinese friends really liked it. One day I went to visit her family for dinner. She had bought a pumpkin so I could show her how to make the baked pumpkin she liked. But she had no oven.

I’ve discovered pancakes are great to cook and serve to Khmer people if I want to feed them some Western food. I can cook them using the same things Khmer people use to cook dinner everyday- our gas stove and frying pan. All the ingredients I can get at the local market. Some Western dishes I would need to make a trip to a supermarket in town. Things like cheese, butter, cocoa we can buy in Phnom Penh but only at certain shops.

In the pancake batter I put water, eggs and flour. I serve them with sugar and lime juice. Limes are common here. They are sold along side chilli and ginger at the market, rather than with fruit, as they are used a lot to flavour meat dishes.

As my previous house mates can tell you I love pancakes, they are great for any meal!

Construction

I pass heaps of construction sites each day so I thought I’d share these photos. In a recent edition “Phnom Penh Post” there is an article about safety for workers. “Fuelled by increased investment, construction has been a boom industry in Cambodia’s urban centres for the past half decade, but rapid growth has outpaced regulatory controls.”

The author spoke to a worker who saw his friend and co- worker fall 14 floors and die a few months ago. He also said most construction workers are paid 8,000 riel per day (about $2 US), 7,000 for females.

As I may have mentioned once or twice before it’s quite hot here most of the time. Just riding home from uni (20min, around 10am) is often enough heat/sun to give me a headache (no matter how much water I drink). I can’t imagine what it would be like to spend the whole working day outside. They usually start early and have a long break in the middle of the day- but they still get a lot of sun.

Recently we...

KS has been spending his days preparing lesson on Jeremiah. The new year will start in about a month and for the first time the college will have semesters instead of terms.

Campus life is different with most of the students away. I was worried I wouldn’t have as much opportunity to (try) speak Khmer during these months. However there are a few girls still living in the dorms next door. And with less people around I think we tend to spend more time together, sharing food, talking etc, than during term time.

My classmate who was evacuated cos she has Dengue is getting better. It will be awhile before she is well enough to come back, but she is much better.
Another classmate was in a car crash recently and he has just started coming back to class. There are 63 stairs up to our 3rd floor classroom, according to him. He has plaster from toe to knee, so he has time to count the stairs and he slowly makes his way up and down each day.

I’m still riding my bike to class each day, although it enjoying less. About once a week I take a moto taxi if I’m tired or its raining or something. As I was riding home recently a moto accident happened right beside me. I don’t think it was fatal but hearing the moto crunch on the road and seeing people flying through the air increased my fear of the traffic here.