Christmas week in Cambodia...

Ben and I sit this lovely Saturday morning in Java coffee shop eating our yogurt, sipping coffee and waiting for signs of life on Skype.  It has proven to be more difficult lacking internet during the week than I thought it would be.  We are two of three Americans out at our campus, no one else speaks much English.  We live amongst Khmer students and Korean teachers, all very gracious and kind, but conversation is lacking to say the least.  Having barely a connection with the outside world is difficult, I think it is especially difficult being almost 8 months pregnant and knowing my little sister is going to deliver soon too.   Emotions run high. 

The weather is beautiful today.  Only 80 degrees and there is a nice breeze.  Besides waiting for family to pop on Skype we are going to take care of our car today, and move yet again. Let me explain... We bought an old school Jeep Cherokee with the hope that it will stay together on our bumpy road to and from school.  We needed something with a little more clearance than the Toyota we were borrowing.  The jeep does fine, but it is a rough ride.  It is definitely beat up, but for this time and place, that is good.  We will include a picture next weekend hopefully. Ben is pretty excited about it. He likes old beaters like that. We need to get the oil changed and the tires taken care of today though, simple tasks that tend to take hours more than you would think necessary. 

As far as moving AGAIN, our team leader had to leave the country for personal reasons so his house, which was our landing ground on the weekends, is no longer available. For the next few weeks we will house-sit for our pastor and his family while they are in the states for Christmas.  Then we will be staying with a family from our church when we get back from Thailand with a baby.  They have kids already, and they are really great people, so it should be a good fit, it just means being uprooted again.  

I wanted to include a few random pictures, but the thing isn't working right now. My sister mentioned, as well as another friend, that they thought we were roughing it much more than we are. Cambodia is definitely still developing, and they lack the infrastructure that makes life consistent, but we have electricity and solid walls.  The disparity of wealth and poverty is the most shocking thing about being here.  You can drive past a Range Rover and into the countryside to our campus where we have no water for hours and days on end.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to all, and hopefully you are enjoying your North American weather! We are missing it.