bath time on the terrace

I have posted pictures of bath time outside our room on facebook and here as well (i think), but i really wanted to catch our bath time yesterday cause it was especially cute.  Ben and I were outside bathing Regan and she was a little fussy. Her crying must have called a few students to us, cause before we knew it there were Khmer hands in the bathtub with her rubbing her little hands. This particular female student who came over usually comes around and it was really cute cause she remembered Regan's name and was trying to calm her down with soothing words and small splashes.  It was really sweet and it was good to know she felt comfortable enough with us to do that. 

The students here love Regan. Walking to the office this morning it was like we had a child covered in gold or something.  There are a bunch of new students around campus today since the new semester is starting and they loved her. They were cooing and smiling trying to get a response from her cute little face.  It makes us quite popular to have a baby in this country. Even the Koreans yesterday were passing her around like she was good luck. It is pretty cute and it is a huge contrast to the Kiwi's reaction to a baby. They hardly noticed she was alive with the exception of a very few.  It will be interesting to see what it is like in the States after all this. 

no pictures today, the internet will not allow it. i have tried four times. maybe next time, sorry.

home again home again, jiggity jig...

Well, we are home. Cambodia is home. We had a long journey getting here, but it was worth the wonders we got to experience in New Zealand. 24 hours of travel with a 3 month old is not the easiest thing to do, but she was a champ. We arrived in Cambodia at 9 am on Saturday and we looking forward to taking a good long nap. However, before we walked in the door we were greeted by Korean neighbors who let us know that our place had flooded in our absence. If you have been keeping up with our blog at all you would now that this is ironic since water is usually something we lack, certainly we have never had a surplus, but Cambodia is crazy that way, always throwing you a curve ball. So we had a few hours of cleaning to do before we could even set the baby down.  It was a long day. 

It is hot here, about 105 degrees yesterday. No surprise there, but the rains have come early this year and today is actually not bad at all. 

We have a few more months to go, but more on that later. Time is of the essence with the internet here and I want to add pictures. 

A Sunday in NZed

Today we went to church with Amy and Blair. It was so nice to be in a group of fellow believers and to enjoy worship and community. We were able to put Regan in the nursery for a while too which was a nice break. We are still very much enjoying our time in New Zealand. Today we had to wear multiple layers and Regan is wearing long underwear for the first time in her little life. We are enjoying walking in the crisp weather and seeing autumn. We are also praying about our return to Cambodia and all that will entail. If you could do the same we would appreciate it.

Regan's trip to Zland

A note on news in Cambodia

I am not sure how much we shared in the past about the atrocities that have taken place in Cambodia in recent years, but if you know nothing about it, it is worth taking some time to Wikipedia the whole thing. You could look up Pol Pot or the Khmer Rouge. It was basically a huge annihilation of Cambodian people by their own. It took place between 1975 and 1979.

This was significant in why we chose this place to come and teach, but it is also significant to my post today. Many of the people we have met here are lawyers with the tribunal that is just now taking place. We were supposed to go to the trials starting last Monday for one man named Duch. He ran a genocide prison called S-21 which you can visit in Phnom Pehn.

His address to the courtroom and the jury was in the newspaper recently and I decided to include snipets here...
"Making good on a pledge to account for his past, the former director of Pol Pot's uppermost secret prison addressed his judges and the nation Tuesday both to acecpt responsibility for the killings of the Khmer Rouge regime and express remorse to his victims. 'I believe in general that at this time peopel regard me as a coward and an inhuman person. I would like to accept this with honesty and respect,' Duch told the court. 'In my position as head of S-21, I dared not think about any possibility beyond following orders from superiors, although I knew that enforcing the orders would lead to the end of thousands of people's lives. I attest under the law to all the murders in S-21, espeically to the torture and carnage.' "

Although he admits to the crimes he is accused of, his lawyers are trying to get him off the hook since he is the only one who is being tried currently and he was not the head of operations throughout the country. His defense lawyer says he was only one of 200 prison directors and he was not the deadliest, as at least one other man was responsible for as many as 150,000 deaths at another prison camp.

This approach is one reason the Cambodian people do not take the trials too seriously. The people we have talked to consider them to be mainly for show, and mostly ineffective. The coverage of the trials can be found on CNN in the States, but it is also constantly in the papers here. The Prime Minister, Hun Sen, declared Tuesday that he was opposed to further prosecutions of former Khmer Rouge leaders becuase he feared they would prompt a return to civil war. He also said that he hopes the UN backed court would run out of money so that the Cambodian judicial system can take over and speed up the exsisting cases. Hun Sen has connections with the Khmer Rouge party in his past, perhaps this is why he wants the UN to back off. This is from another article in the same newspaper, hopefully the irony is not lost on any of you reading this.

and the truth shall set you free...

So, i am not able to enjoy our latest adventure becuase I have not posted in so long. This time it is purely my fault, we have internet access and we have time, we are just lazy. We have had a really hard time deciding how to approach this actually, we are in new zealand. That is the long and short of it. We had some help paying for the tickets, we are staying with a friend of mine from when I went to school here, Amy Steven and her husband Blair, and we are able to use their car. We felt guilty for some reason, or like people would not understand us traveling like this. We are blessed beyond belief, that is all there is to it. This journey and escape from the heat is healing to my heart and soul and so I have to share it with you all. I will post pictures when we get back to amy's house. We are touring around the south island right now. Blair and Amy are incredible tour guides and gracious hosts. It is so nice not to have to worry about Regan being too hot, or the ants eating her up. We have two more weeks here and we are loving it. Thank you for those of you that read this and have been missing our posts. We will do better.

We are just loving being a family and seeing the beautiful scenery before us. Ben is struggling to understand Amy and Blair's accent, but we are working on that and he is learning a lot of new vocabulary. Look forward to another post, and pictures in two days. We would love to touch base on Skype as well since we have a reliable connection.

love and miss you all,
andrea