Much has happened since last we blogged. For starters, Andrea flew back home at the last minute to attend her brother’s wedding. We are very thankful to her family members for making this possible, as it was important to both her and her brother. While the wedding was beautiful, it was a turn-around trip for Andrea who is now doing her best to recover from jetlag.
Upon her return to Phnom Penh team Cambodia arrived in full, and headed out to the beach town of Kep for a five day “get-to-know-you/goal planning” retreat. We were able to meet the other members of our team, experience the wonderful Cambodian countryside, and relax a bit in our own private bungalow. Even though we were without air-conditioning, and the bugs/reptiles/furry creatures were rather nasty, we had a splendid time.
On Sunday afternoon, sadly, we piled each team member into taxis and headed back to Phnom Penh. However, our countryside journey did not end there! Cruising on the narrow highways leading to the city, our taxi driver recklessly weaved between tuk-tuks, cars, motos, and bikers while keeping a steady sixty-mile-an-hour pace. Needless to say, we were rather unnerved. To make matters worse, halfway through our journey the taxi driver vaporized a mangy dog standing in the middle of the road—he dragged it a good quarter of a mile—smashing both his radiator and our hearts. We waited by the side of the road for about an hour-and-a-half, got into another taxi, and were on edge for the rest of our long journey home.
So, what’s up next for us you ask? Well, this week we will be making a more permanent transition to NPIC (our university in the countryside). By this I mean, that Monday we are going to spend our day shopping for furniture that we will be trucking out to our campus housing on Wednesday. Our future goal is to stay at NPIC Monday through Friday, and Phnom Penh Friday afternoon through Sunday evening. So, our trial run of this schedule will start Wednesday of this week.
We will spend the majority of our time studying Khmer (always), and preparing for a weeklong class we will teach in October at another school (Life University—our NPIC gig does not start until November fifteenth).
I know all of this is confusing, but we’ll keep everyone posted as to our comings and goings, and hopefully in time all will be made clear. If there is one thing we have learned so far, it is that one must be patient in Asian culture, as our typical western obsession with time has no place in Cambodia!
We love and miss you all,
Ben and Andrea
5 comments:
Ang - It was SOOOO fun to see you at Marko's wedding! Thankful you are back in Cambodia safely!
Miss you! God bless you both...your in my prayers!
Hey! I wished I had the chance to see you while you were at home. As I was putting two and two together, by the time I figured out that you were here in Colorado for your brother's wedding you were already back in Vietnam. I'm glad you were able to be apart of your brother's wedding.
so did you score a goal last week or not??
hey guys, sister steph here. So, how far is the university from the city? I hope it is not too far since you plan on doing that every weekend? I miss you guys.
steph
We miss you two! Ang...you're looking good! You too Ben. We approve of the long hair. :)
Glad to hear you're settling in. How is the language training coming? What are you able to use now? Can you order food? Hire a tuk-tuk?
I'll admit...I was a bit sad to hear that we missed you during your brief stay, Andrea. If you're like me, however, you just want quality time with a few precious ones. I hope you had that with your brother and your family.
We are still working on travel arrangements for this spring. We shall see. We can't wait to meet Baby Peters!
Much love!
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