New things! New year, new market, new teeth, new friends

Even though there are a lot less Chinese people here than in China, Chinese New Year is still celebrated by many. In the lead up the market was extra busy and full of shiny red and gold, then yesterday arvo quiet. A few fire crackers around, and some people decorating their houses and putting out fruit etc.

 Well I was going to write that we are all healthy now- after a month of passing back and forth colds between the 3 of us.. Baby's first time to be sick.. but now Soeun is a bit unwell. We've been having lots of limes, ginger and other fruit and veg. It didn't help that we slept badly last night, partly to do with the mossies. It was really weird- suddenly at 6pm we had HEAPS in the house. I've never seen such a sudden cloud of them like that. We zapped heaps with the racket, then sprayed our room. The floor is still littered with dead mossies.

 The near by market keeps growing and changing each month, there are some photo over here on overflow blog.

I recently met another white person who lives near us! very exciting, she invited me to a play group in the area as well as church. I didn't know there were other expats that met here, its great to get to know some Nth Americans.

Meat arriving at the market

Beautiful Aerial Footage of Cambodia Shot With a Drone

Last few days on the streets

Some of the main events of the last few days include the shooting on Friday morning, where around 4 people died and more injured, then yesterday morning Freedom Park was cleared. It has been the place where the protesters have been hanging out and having rallies over the last few months. The PPP clip has some more details also this blog is a helpful summary:
http://hkorm.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/849/

Democracy unraveling

Christmas, protests, cold weather, power cuts, plumbing problems etc etc

We've just had a time of busy-ness and sickness, hopefully things will be a bit calmer in the next little while. Christmas is always a busy time for Khmer Christians, our church had Christmas on 22nd, then the youth had Christmas on 28th, then a big overnight thing on NYE. All these events take up a lot of Soeun's energy and time. To make it worse I asked him to take Dec 25th as a holiday and we were going to have Christmas lunch with some Aussies.... but then I got sick on Christmas eve and he spent the rest of the week bringing me fluids and looking after the baby!

When the main roads are blocked due to protests this is another direct road into town.

Countdown NYE food at church! Are the chicken using their feet to countdown?!

So after the NYE thing he came home exhausted and a bit unwell.

Yesterday I took a friend and her kids to an indoor play area in town. We were going to stay there all day to make the most of the one hour tuk tuk ride. But the daily protests  turned violent and people advised us to go home, as they were worried the streets would become more chaotic. A few people were killed, that was what everyone was talking about.

We had a power cut for about 10 hours, so I didn't have much internet access, and I discovered Baby does not like the dark. I was very glad when the lights came back on around 7.30pm!

Baby is enjoying sitting and eating with a spoon. Doesn't seem to matter what s on the spoon , he just likes eating from it.