another m'kiri pic

Bad news and a nice photo

We have a friend who was worried her house was going to burn down last night. We found out this morning her family's house is ok, but not everyone was so lucky.
Residents living near Wat Neakawoan Pagoda, located in Boeung Kak 2 commune, Tuol Kok district, Phnom Penh city, were victimized by a major blaze that destroyed their homes and belongings. The blaze also destroyed a number of housings for monks in Wat Neakawoan Pagoda as well. (click to read full)

Today I also found out one of the sick people we visited in Mondulkiri died on Saturday. She's the one I mentioned at the end of my last one, who lived in the house I took a photo of.

On our last night in Mondulkiri we stayed in the town (rather than in the village we had been in previous few nights). It was nice and green and quiet, as you can see from this photo.

Cross culture for Bible school students

It was funny for me to see nine Cambodians walking around a village in Cambodia acting like visitors from another country- taking photos, staring and pointing, trying to the greeting in the local language.

I tagged along with a Bible school group on their annual mission trip. Although we were still in Cambodia we were visiting a hill tribe/ethnic minority group called the Pnong.


I saw some people greet each other by shaking hands, instead of the usual greeting where people put their hands together as if they are praying. I thought they looked strange, maybe they were really good friends and it was a special thing the two of them did. But then I saw heaps of people doing it, that's how Pnong greet each other!


The Bible school team I was with was working with this church. I think the services are usually in Pnong language but many people can understand Khmer as well so the team were able to run programs.

The group knows Khmer person who has lived and worked here, and knows some Pnong, so it was through her that we got to know these people.

When we first got there we went for a walk around the village. People came running out to greet us, and we ended up visiting people and praying for them. We couldn't understand the language so sometimes we had to wait for it to be translated into Khmer. That was a weird for me, as I'm used to waiting for the English translation so I can understand, but in this case it was the Khmer that I could understand!

In this house there was a lady who was really sick, and had been for ages. Her husband has taken her to a few different hospitals in Cambodia, and has been to Vietnam too. She can''t move, speak, etc.

House we stayed in

We stayed in the pastors house, Kimsoeun and I had our own bedroom and his 8 students slept on floor jus near our room. Here is what we saw out our bedroom window and door.




And here is where the students slept.

Coffee and rice

Last week we went to visit an ethnic minority group in a province near Vietnam. They grow coffee in the area so they drink it too!

There were so many people in the house we ate each meal with about 20 or more people. They needed six mats to fit us all!
Below is a photo of breakfast.

On the left is some dried fish, at the front is a preserved radish like veggie (its called white carrot in Chinese cos that's what it look like when it's fresh). The white stuff is rice porridge. You might also be able to see a bowl of rice, and a bowl of kimchi. The kimchi isn't local to that area- we brought it with us (KS made it at home, he learnt from a Korean friend).
Not really my favourite breakfast! I've gotton used to eating pork, pickled veggies and rice.

This meal must have been a lunch or dinner.