Sad, noting what we miss

The college campus we live on just had their end of year events, and now many of the students have left, others are here doing work around the college such as painting.

Seeing the students enjoying their end of year events, such as performing songs etc, and showing funny videos they made ("tribute preacher" so funny!!) reminded me of how fun it was when we were both students here before, and fully involved in campus life. I couldn't help but feel strongly how much Soeun has missed by being sick this year.

He doesn't have regular classes, so it was never going to be like the first time around anyway, but this week we've been feeling sad thinking of the relationships, music and sport he could have enjoyed if he hadn't been sick. (...and all the while he is also missing Cambodia, double missing this year- what we've left behind and what we expected to have).

As I walked around campus yesterday I saw lots of students doing painting and sanding etc, working for the college. That also made me feel sad, as Soeun had hoped to get a job in his summer break like last time, but now he can't.

Anyway, we're going ok generally, I just thought I'd make a note of these. There are lots of things we are thankful for this year, but it has been very different to how we expected.

out of synch (did i say this already?this time last semester)

at this time of semester most of the students are finished exams so there are end of year events happening, like lawn mowing and library closing early...its weird for us as Soeun doesn't finish until the end of the week

cooking and eating with students

Dinner with students last night

 Last night hung out with students, cooked and ate together at their place. Today hung out with a Cambodian friend/student, cooked and ate at our place. Soeun came home for lunch and made himself soup, so I guess I was hanging out with 2 Cambodians- yay!

Cooking with Khmer people today

Soeun is not eating college food these days but cooking his own food to see if he can stop his dizziness that way. Its often tricky to time our food at the same time so it feel like we hardly eat any meals together. Sometimes we eat the same food, but we have already paid for the college food so I try to eat that as much as possible, and bring back bits that he may be able to eat (trying to stay away from preservatives, so plain fruit and veg is ok).

We didn't end up going to church on Sunday, Sundays always seem a really low part of the week. He asked me to give him gos kchol and then when back to sleep (no vomiting this week, although he felt like he was going to.)

one year since the stampede

FOCUS leadership team!

One of my favourite things about this year has been working with the other FOCUS leaders, some staff, some students. Today we had our first meeting with the team for next year. Both exciting and a bit sad: sad as some of the people we worked with year are leaving so aren't part of the team anymore (starting next year) and exciting starting to form our new team and get to know new team mates!! We had Indonesian food for lunch.

sick of sickness...

At the start of the year we were going to have a get together at a friend's church, so we could catch up with our friends and supporters as we had just arrived back in Aust. We ended up cancelling it and have a low key thing near where we live because Soeun was sick. I remember thinking, "When Soeun gets better we'll be able to do stuff, get started with everything here properly."

Well, that  was about 9 months ago.....! Still waiting. Some things I've settled into, like my job (although with less commitments that originally planned). But other things like church, feels like we haven't really starting participating in yet.  I went to our Bible study group once, and I go to the morning service most Sundays, Soeun hasn't been for ages (about 2 months). I'm finding it really hard each Sunday morning waiting to see if he'll be feeling well enough to go, then the disappointment finding he isn't.

Today we decided to go to a service in the afternoon instead, see how that goes. I'm sad I missed church this morning, but at the same time relieved as I've begun to dread Sunday mornings (the leaving sick hubby at home by himself part of it).

Water festival?

The river changes direction, flowing the opposite way at this time of year in Cambodia. Phnom Penh gets really crowded as people come from all over the country to race boats and celebrate Water Festival/ Bon Om Touk. We usually do a huge food shop before hand and stay home away from the crowds, the last few years we've been flooded in anyway.

National boat races happen every year in Phnom Penh at this time of year.

Last year a few hundred people died in a stampede during this crowded festival. Someone we knew was caught up in it, they got out alive, but with a really horrible story. Here is the link to what I was blogging at the time, as the news unfolded.

Our street in Phnom Penh this time in 2008, instead of motorbikes, floating things became preferred method of transport. Fishing was also popular. 

Giving Soeun a lift to work during "floody season".

The Phnom Penh Post had this article yesterday:

"The annual Water Festival is reviving memories of the hundreds of people killed last year in the stampede on the bridge to Diamond Island. Many survivors say they cannot block the images of tragedy from flashing in their minds and creeping into their dreams... click to see all


I'm not sure what festival is like this year, normally its a big celebration, not sure if that will still be the case? Also we heard that it might have been going to be cancelled due to the bad flooding this year. Hard to imagine?
oh stop press, just found this article which says its still on but not as big as normal

Sun never sets on Little China

I went to small shop down the road to buy eggs. I couldn't  see them so i asked the girl at the counter. "Do you have eggs?" she said "what?" i said "eggs". "what"? "eggs"? finally i attempted to say it in chinese (ji dan) and she understood me and said "oh, you mean eggs!"
A Facebook friends suggested "Maybe we all need to learn Chinese?" 

limping, brick dump, laughing

Sunday morning we were feeling so sick of Soeun being sick, feel like we are limping through this year. Felt disappointed he wasn't coming to church again (due to his sickness), esp as the last 2 weekends I was out all weekend without him, each time he couldn't come out it was disappointing, and then we get to the end of the weekend and feel like I've been out the whole time and he's been home sick by himself. Almost didn't go to church as I'm so sick of going out while he is at home feeling unwell.

Then in the afternoon we found out some stuff which felt like a huge load of bricks had been dumped on us, felt stressed, maybe started to feel a bit anxious again. Neither of us slept well on Sunday night.

But very thankful we both had lots of fun yesterday. Soeun played soccer in the rain. It was great he was able to play and it didn't make his dizziness worse (almost 2 weeks not eating college food, a suspected trigger). In Cambodia he played soccer or volley ball about 5 days a week.

I had a great day at work, really enjoy my colleague's company (lots of laughing) and the stuff in staff training is so interesting. It was a really refreshing break from thinking about anxious stuff and sick stuff.

And today I had an exhilarating walk home in the rain too!

cooking photos

Snails flavoured with a Cambodian curry mix, photos from when we made it in Cambodia see here.
And from today, Soeun cooked some pork flavoured with a similar mix of herbs and spices, it here on our food blog.

fragrant

Some enjoyable things about being in Aust:

 As soon as I open the door I can smell these small white flowers. I don't remember ever seeing them before, but these days they seem to be every where.

 Green and walkable spaces in the city! Phnom Penh is like one big construction site. Parks and walk ways don't make money so I think they are considered a waste of space so we are enjoying walking around the city in Australia. (Also in Cambodia it's either too hot or pouring rain or flooded.)

a great day!

Thanks for those of you who have been praying for us.

Recently we had a nice day out, a meal paid by someone else and time together enjoying footpaths and parks, something we miss when we are in Cambodia. With ongoing unwellness and everything a lot of the time we're not really happy to be here, so it it was nice to have a day when we both felt really happy and enjoyed Aussie things!

Straddling two worlds

A story on the news explained that some people in Aust. had their water pressure reduced. A lady was interviewed and she said it had been hard to have a shower and use the washing machine.

I felt like laughing. When the lady turned her shower on to show the so called low pressure it didn't look that bad to me. In Cambodia our water pressure was so low sometimes no water came out at all. We must have been used to it cos we only really noticed it when Aussie visitors discovered it for themselves and asked us why the water stopped while they were showering. 

And when we visited friends and family outside of Phnom Penh there wasn't any water pressure to worry about when showering as there was no shower and certainly no washing machine.

But it is a problem here in Australia, the news went on to explain how it effected businesses and fire safety. 

I guess this is one of the many things I struggle to get my head around as a person trying to straddle a rich and a poor country.