Trip to Phnom Tamao Wildlife Preserve

On Sunday we decided to get out of the city and go to the Wildlife Preserve that is nearby.  Because the driving here is CRAZY, Shawn drove with one hand on the wheel and one hand on the horn for almost two hours.  The trip shouldn't have taken quite that long, but we traveled 25 miles an hour the entire way for fear of killing someone.  As for the driving, there are no rules.  Well, there is sort of one.  If it's behind you, you don't have to worry about it too much.  But, you can pass on the right, or on the left.  You can form as many lanes as you would like, and drive into oncoming traffic if your lane is too congested.
There are very few stoplights, so if you need to cross a busy street, you don't wait for a break in traffic, because there are none, you just blaze on through and by the grace of God you don't get smashed...you're also in front of the oncoming vehicles, or motos (mopeds) so the "they're behind me (or coming toward me) so I don't worry about them" rule applies.  Because of the sheer nuttiness of the driving situation here, we've decided that we're going to have our guard also be a driver so that I don't have vehicular homicide on my conscience. 

So we made it out of the city and onto the dirt road that leads to the Preserve.  What we didn't know was that the road is lined with beggars.   So we turn on the road, then this woman stands up with a bowl of water and throws it in front of the car.  Of course Shawn and I wonder what in the world is going on.  About 20 feet or so past this woman, another man gets up, throws water in front of our car and holds his hands out.  I now have the giggles because we are so confused, and of course it was completely inappropriate to laugh.  Shawn is just driving along waving at everyone while I duck my head so I can't be seen.  All I hear is "what is going on?  Oh no, I think that man had leprosy.  Jenny stop laughing.  Do we stop?  Should we  hand out Oreos to the children? "  When I got it together and raised my head I saw what was one of the saddest things I've ever seen, and was very ashamed for laughing in the first place.  (To all my friends who are defending my behavior now, I know I wasn't laughing at the people, just laughing because of how very comfortable I was).  Anyway, all along this approximately two mile stretch were beggars.  They were about twenty feet apart on both sides of a dirt road.  The children were very young, and the elderly were very old and emaciated looking.  There was a blind woman who really just broke our hearts.  No one should have to spend their time doing this.  The children didn't bother me as much as the old people did.  I can't imagine Gaga having to stand on the side of a dirt road hoping for handouts so she can eat that day.  But, we ran the gauntlet and made it to the Preserve.

They have quite a few Sun Bears and have a project going to help save them.

We enjoyed getting very close to the elephant.  This one danced when they played music, and kicked a soccer ball, and took money and food out of people's hands.  I was very grateful we weren't trampled.

 

I had a death grip on Mattie's shoulder ready to jerk her to safety if the elephant went rogue!

Phoebe decided to take a walk with our guide.

The Buddhist monks liked the Preserve too!

Everyone loved the kids.  This is just one of many people who came up to the kids.  At one point Greta was passed around to about 10 people so they could take a picture with her.  She did well and didn't scream but a little! 

On the drive home we tried to take some cultural pictures so here are a few of them.  They didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, but I'm sure there will be plenty of time.

The meat stands lined the road for about a mile or so.

This guy wasn't even holding up traffic!

   This poor fellow was hanging on for dear life!  They were using all available for space for people and rice!

This picture was just so cute I had to include it.  On a Greta note, she took her first real steps today at Champs (the Gymboree guy).  She walked to me twice!  Then she ate an orange crayon and drooled orange all over herself.  Good times.

Shawn's work

 As some of you may have noticed we don't talk too much about Shawn's work.  I have attached a few links that you all can go and read to see just what it is he does.  The first one is from a Dateline story they did on IJM.  All I can say is that there was no exaggeration at all. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4038249/

This next link is to one of the investigations that happened only a few weeks ago.

http://www.ijm.org/newsfromthefield/twelvevictimsoftraffickingrescuedfrombrutalcambodianbrothel

So, as you can probably determine if you read these any prayers you can send our  way would be appreciated. 

The Funeral or something?!

We know we haven't written in a while but things have been going really well.  The house keeper and nanny we thought we were going to hire didn't work out, so we had to start looking for someone else.  We interviewed with a pair of women who have been working for an American lady for the past 15 years and they decided to pick us.  They are that coveted in this community as they interviewed us, not the other way around.  They also took a major pay cut to come work for us as well.  They are $200 a month each and they both were making well above that.  It must have been my stunning personality and we are so excited! 

The other day I was riding in the tuk tuk to go and buy a printer and we passed all these people standing around a fire pit dressed in white.  Wow, really bad grammer.  The fire pit was not dressed in white, the people were.  Anyway, they were chanting, or praying or something and when I asked the Sina, the lady who's helping us part time what was going on, she said it was a funeral.  White is the color of mourning here, not black.  I'm not sure what they were doing on the side of the road   but I'm going to ask someone so I can figure it out.  I did frantically whip out my camera to take a picture which I don't think offended anyone since there was a guy there taping. 

We also went to a Cambodian version of Gymboree or My Gym today for Phoebe and Greta.  They both had a great time. The guy who runs it was a Jesuit priest and well, now he's not.  Or maybe he was just a seminarian and not a full priest.  I couldn't understand him that well and he was a soft-talker so I could have gotten it all wrong.  In the photo he's the one with the guitar...his name is Champ and he's from Thailand.  I took some pictures of the toys that he built for the kids to play with.  Just goes to show you that you don't need to pay a ton of money to have things your kids like to play with.  Phoebe stood at the tube for 20 minutes!

Phoebe is in the one in blue and Greta is the back middle leaning on one arm.  There was only two other moms there with their children, the rest of the kids had their nanny's there.

Greta was at the end picking up all the balls as Phoebe put them down the tube.

Look what a little chicken wire can get you!













The girls also started their Hip Hop Dance class at school.  They both loved it so it should be fun watching them over the next few weeks.  They are kinda spazzy but it's still cute. 

We also now have 2 vehicles for Shawn and myself!  The thing is, we're both too nervous to drive in the city so they are just sitting there.  Shawn has a very cool dirt bike, and I have my 1997 SUV.  Now, I'll tell you that it's a Lexus, but really it doesn't mean the same thing here as it does in the States.  Lexus' here are comparable to Toyota's, which we would have purchased if we could have found one that didn't sound like an aircraft about to take flight.  So, Shawn decides to go out and practice on his bike last night.  A few days ago I went to the Russian Market, which was very cool by the way, and bought him a bike lock.  I put the bike lock on his wheel so no one would steal it, purchased a tarp (which turned out to be a poncho...hood and all, not a tarp) to protect his bike from the torrential rains and thought I was doing good.  Anyway, he goes to practice last night.  He comes back and informs me that for the first 5 minutes on his bike everyone kept yelling at him and pointing at him.  He just waved and kept concentrating on not killing anyone.  Turns out he forgot to take the lock off the bike wheel, but really he shouldn't have even been able to drive the thing if I had put it on correctly in the first place.   Yes, we are now officially dumb and dumber.  I think this weekend we are going to go to the Wildlife Refuge here which should be exciting. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

TGIF

 The pool at ISPP






So it's the end of week one for the girls and the week has definitely had it's ups and downs.  Monday/Wednesday/Friday seemed to be good, and Tuesday and Thursday not so much.  Last night we had tears with Mattie.  She was very homesick and missed her friends at St. Edward a lot.  She was very lucky to have some very close friends there...Sophia and Elizabeth, and she's definitely feeling the loss now that she doesn't have them.  Emma also had some tears at school but she seems to be doing better now.  Actually today was a good day for both of them so although we know they'll be fine any prayers sent our way would be much appreciated.

We also went to our first horseback riding lesson yesterday.  They put the kids in a van and take them out to the Cambodia Country Club.  It was a small van and I was the only parent who rode out there with them.  So I had Greta in the Baby Bjorn, a backpack with their riding shoes, my little money thingy and Phoebe.  Mattie and Emma each had their backpacks and lunch boxes, so the 5 of us getting on that van was a disaster.  It was 800 degrees outside so sweat was dripping in my eyes as I'm trying to load everyone successfully.  Of course we figured it out and off we went with only a slight level of humiliation as this very very kind, but very very small, french teacher gets on to go with the students.  When all the children arrive they saddle them all up and they let them ride.  There wasn't much instruction and as previously noted it was 800 degrees outside, but Emma seemed to love it.  Mattie is going to pass on the horseback riding and do hip-hop dance.  They even compete here! With hip hop that is. 

Today, Phoebe and Greta and I also went to The Reading Room.  It's basically a room filled with books of about 15 languages, all used, including kids books.  This did not go over quite as well as I had planned because again, although only 200 degrees because they did have a fan going and the doors open, it was hot, and Greta kept pulling all the books off the shelves.  So instead of reading to Phoebe, which she wasn't that interested in anyway, I spent my time on the floor replacing all the books that Greta pulled off. But it was good that we went just to get out of the apartment.

I guess that's pretty much our news of the week.  Shawn is still loving his job and we are more and more impressed with the caliber of people that he works with every day.  Have a great weekend everyone.

Girls First Day of School

So the first day of school went beautifully!  Both girls came home happy.  Mattie said all the girls wanted to sit next to her (she was the new kid thus excititng), and Emma said she made 5 new friends.  It was great because the first question here isn't "what was their name?"  Here, the first question is (Kris you'll appreciate this one) "where are they from?"  It was neat because Mattie answered with Cambodia, Australia and Canada.  Emma answered with I don't know but they had an accent.  In fact, their primary teachers are from Australia and Canada and their principal is from England.  They also have swimming once a week.  Imagine, swimming as a class!  Let me tell you they were fired up about that. 

I also had my first day with the house helper.  She is so wonderful.  We went to the market to buy some fruits and veggies.  I would like to remind everyone too that although we're not paying them very much by American standards, it is quite a bit by Cambodian standards.  Working for an expat family is a coveted position as we employ fairly...ex. holidays, bonuses etc.  The cost of living is also quite a bit lower.  At the market we bought a bunch of bananas, 1 kilo of mangos (about 7) and 1/2 kilo of these fruits that before you cut them open look like mini blowfish, then after you open them up look like eyeballs.  They are yummy.  Anyway, we bought all of that for less than $3.00 and the price was raised a little because I am a Barang (literally an onion...a foreigner).  You can't buy 2 mangos for $3.00 in the U.S.  It was definitely an experience and I realized that I was very much a hindrance to Sina.  She's going by herself tomorrow.   Right now she's only had experience as a cleaner and general helper, so we're going to try and get her some experience cooking and as a nanny (she just sits with me and we play with the kids)  so she can get a better job later on.  We work on her English and my Khmer.  She's much better than I!

I guess that's all for now!

Cambodian Education

So, we are both parents and fetchers.

Today we took the girls to their first religious education class.  They enjoyed it very much.  It was taught by a Peruvian missionary.  Outside the school there were some signs posted to educate the children.  Their class just happened to be at this international school (not the one they are attending).  It was very informative.  See photos.

I guess I am very lazy, and I'm terrified I'll make a sound with my skirt when I walk.  I don't mind telling people where I'm going, so I'm good there, and I'll just bend at the waist to everyone older than me.  That should do it.

I'm in trouble with a lot of these

I'm good with the kid rules here.  Not going to do good about not expressing my feelings.  Speaking softly and gently...hmmm, I'm in trouble there too.  I'm thinking I should just stay inside.








I can only eat a small amount, so that's good.  Shawn can eat a ton!  Lucky Shawn.

We also got a house today.  We love it.  It's in the good neighborhood, near Shawn's work, the vet, and the girls school.  Most of the foreigners live in this neighborhood, so the girls friends will live nearby.  This is the top of our gate...notice the razor wire in the first picture, so we'll be very safe.  They didn't leave the key for us to go inside this time, but we will take pictures next weekend when we go by. 

Phoebe's Pool Contribution

We all took the girls swimming at the hotel where we are staying. It was kind of interesting seeing the differences between the US and Cambodia in one regard. Phoebe had an accident (number 2) which leaked through her swim diaper a bit. In the States the pool would have shut down, "shocked" with treatments of gallons of chemicals, checked and rechecked and after several days of closure reopened. Here, the attendant who hands out the towels poolside giggled a bit, and appeared to seem obligated to do something since we had told him about it. He gave the top of the water a couple of scrapes with a half-chewed up kick board in one place and then we were ready to go. 

The people here have all been very welcoming and friendly to us. One neat thing is with the pedestrian traffic lights here. In the US you generally get a bland white stick figure who stands motionless. Well here, in the land of neon lights, the man is green and walks (in motion) slowly while the number of seconds you have counts down. But after you get down to ten seconds or so left, something happens, then man begins to kick into high gear. He actually starts running and by the time the clock nears zero the man looks as if he is desperately crossing a finish line/scrambling for his life. It is rather amusing and we enjoy watching it every time we are at a crosswalk.

We have been running Vesta, our German Shepherd that we brought, each morning and she has been doing well. She didn't even flinch when we ran past the elephant going down the street the other morning. This time the elephant had a handler though so we felt relatively safe. She was terrified when I took her to the potty and the roosters crowed unceasingly behind our hotel. That was a first for her, being a city dog and all. She has started to overcome her fear of them now one week in. When we landed, the airport security had placed her in her crate on the conveyor belt and she had made an estimated five rotations until a soon-to-be colleague of mine rescued her. It was pretty funny to see her circling the conveyor belt though. Later.

Thursday, October 8

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy biiirrrthhday dear Hilhu
Happy birthday to you

cha cha cha

Wednesday, October 7 - I get a house helper

Today I interviewed a house helper.  Actually I interviewed two people, one to cook and clean, and one to do the laundry and iron and help watch the kids.  What does that leave me to do you ask?  I have absolutely no idea.  I guess I'll actually get to play with my kids instead of constantly telling them to clean something.  Just as an FYI, each woman costs $120 a month for 5 days a week 7am until 6pm.  How many of you want to move to Cambodia now?!?!   Shawn's doing great at work.  He's loving it and they had a recent success story so that was wonderful.  The girls start school on Monday.  Mattie is nervous and Emma is excited.  We still haven't found a house but we are enjoying our Khmer language lessons. 

Khmer word of the day:  bon tup tuk - bathroom   oh shoot, it might be bon tuk tup, I can't remember. 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day.  Oh, I do know goodbye:  Lea Hi

Monday, October 5

Had a good day today.  We looked at a few houses...didn't find one...but there is one that we were too late to see that looked great from the outside.  We met with a wonderful group of people from Dallas today who are supporting the work here.   It was wonderful talking with Texas people and though there were no Aggies in the bunch, there were a few Aggies by heart!  I will say it was very comforting knowing that an entire congregation of people are praying for us all.  We also went to play at a little girls house who will be in Mattie's class.  She was wonderful and gave me some great advice about how to protect the kids from the bugs.  On the ride home, after we picked up Shawn from work, we passed by an elephant walking down the road. I almost didn't get the camera out in time, but you can still see it behind the silver car. 

We also saw a dog riding in front of it's owner on a tuk tuk with sunglasses on.

Sunday- October 4, 2009

Didn't do too much today, but managed to find a foam mattress to put over the brick that we sleep on now.  I seem to have a crick in my neck/back so we thought that something softer than concrete would maybe help resolve the issue.  We cooked for the first time today.  We burned the potatoes and didn't cook the rice long enough, but it was edible.  We also had our first Khmer (pronounced Kmm-eye) language lesson today.  We hired a tutor for $3.00 and hour.  So far we're having him come 5 days a week for an hour.  Phoebe is doing awesome and will probably speak Khmer better than English.  Mattie writes down every word the tutor says and the phonetic spelling, and Emma just hops around the room.  Greta is just Greta...you never know how she'll behave.

Khmer word of the day...Sousaday - hello

In and Around

Things going well here.  We went to meet everyone at Shawn's office yesterday.  They were so nice.  The Cambodian women kept grabbing Greta and running off with her.  It was sweet.  They all had been praying for our safe arrival so that was nice since we arrived safely.  After the office visit (all of this was done via tuk tuk) we headed back to our temporary apartment for lunch.  The interns at Shawn's office had stocked the cabinets with Peanut Butter, Jelly, bread and Coke, so we were good to go.  We went to the grocery store on Thursday and got quite a bit of stuff.  They had tons of American food...like Old El Paso Taco sauce...who knew.  The meat looked a little risky, and the Black Forest Ham was really black, but other than that, it all looked fine/normal.  We did have a bit of trouble finding milk as everything in a carton that looked like it would be milk had some picture of a fruit on it.  We gave up after a while as 4 kids in a grocery suck no matter what country you're in.  We braved the market yesterday, but it was the indoor one and found a cell phone for me which is good.  Greta was having a meltdown of monumental proportions so I headed back with Bonnie, an intern, and Shawn stayed with one of the other interns that had come with us to help to finish getting some of the stuff we needed.  Shawn got caught in a torrential rainstorm so when he got back to the apartment he was soaked.  He did say that on the way back he passed right by an elephant that was in the middle of the road...unattended.  HMMMM?

We're going house hunting today so I'll write more about that later.

The Airplane Trip

Ok, the plane trip wasn't as bad as we thought it would be.  We only had one major glitch and that was pertaining to the dog.  The airline wouldn't transfer the dog to another airline so we had to go and pick up Vesta, our German Shepherd, in LA and then re-check her with EVA Airlines.  So I went and picked her up and Shawn stayed at the gate area with all four kids and all our carry-ons.  This included a double stroller (GO BOB), 2 pull-bags, 2 packpacks, and 4 little carry-ons for the each of the girls.  So, I get downstairs, walk Vesta, then head to EVA to re-check Vesta in so I can get back inside to help Shawn.  They tell me at EVA that they won't accept the dog until 1 hour before we leave, so this would have put me on one side of security and Shawn and the girls on the other side for the next 4 hours.  I called Shawn to tell him that he needed to load up all four kids...who were now asleep on the floor as it was 1am our time...and get outside to meet me.  After a little discussion of how he was supposed to get all the kids and all our junk outside, and how there was really no other way to do it, my phone started beeping letting me know the battery was about to die so I just yelled figure it out and meet me outside and then click.  About 20 minutes later Shawn came walking down with Greta in the Baby Bjorn, carrying Mattie, a backpack on his back, Phoebe asleep in the stroller with all the carry-ons and Emma pulling her bag and Mattie's bag.  I took a picture and will post it on here.  Hopefully it'll be clear as he was on the other side of the glass.  Anyway, all was well and we were all together.  I have to run now but more later.