My long house: here is a small tour

Internet

Today I will finally have the internet installed in my house. This will hopefully allow me to keep you all updated more frequently via this blog. And soon I will be able to post a few pictures of my times thus far in Cambodia. I thank God for the resources to be able to communicate with all of you often.

Swensons

For all of you icecream fans you will like this one. Swensons Icecream just opened in Cambodia -this is the second American food place in Cambodia the fist-Dairy Queen at the airport. So you can see icecream is a popular treat in Cambodia people want to stay cool. Swensons opened at Sorya mall on Friday and I went with some missionary friends. The icecream is pretty good and they have a lot of choices. There were many Khmi people there eating the icecream in this little place. Cambodia is developing more and more.

Prayer Covering

On Friday the Phnom Penh team had a time of prayer. It was really nice becuase what we did was travel to all the new houses that people on our team have moved into and pray over them. My house was one of ones we went to. Everyone spread out to all the different rooms of my house and prayed over it. It was a joyous event, one that was very important for me.

Ohn!

Ohn who I refer to as bong srey (older sister) is my part-time helper. She is a lady in her mid 30s and always shows up at my house with a smile on her face. She comes every morning Monday - Friday and keeps my house clean, does dishes, and two times a week she will cook for me. The only hard part is she does not speak much English, so I have to work really hard at speaking Khmi and explaining to her what I would like for her to do. So far it has been really positive and it is nice to have another presence around the house even when I am not there.

The Weekend

God is good. This weekend was a blessing to me. The family I stayed with during the first weeks I was here in Cambodia came to my house and helped me clean and set up many things in my house. They also had me over for meals. I spent Saturday evening with my missionary friend Rachael. She had me over for dinner and we spent a long time talking it was fun.

The adventure of my bed and wardrobe

I got my bed home and when I went to put it together it would not fit together. So Chris Manfred came over with a saw and we spent about a hour cutting wood and beams so that my bed would go together and so now it does. But it was a learning process. My wardrobe is one that you build with metal beams and when I went to open the box there were cockroaches. What fun. I had to spray the box with Raid and then after they had all died I had to clean all the beams and but the wardrobe together. That did not work to well either. Everything takes a lot longer here. But finally I feel like I am getting settled.

A House

Sorry it has taken a while for me to post on my blog I have been very busy and have not had time to get to the internet cafe. But I wanted to let you know that I found a house. It is located in Toul Kork an area of Phnom Penh that is in the northwest. This is where other missionary families and the office is located. It is called a long house in Khmi which really means tall. It is taller and skinner than shorter and wider. It is nice it has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, another sitting area and a covered roof. I hope to be able to post a picture once I get everything set up. This week I am shopping for all the furniture and appiances I need. I wil most likely move in on Sept. 3. Thank you for praying, pray as I transition and move in.

House Hunting

In Cambodia when you are house hunting you are truly on a hunt! Rachael my closest missionary friend in Cambodia has taken me on this it started today. She drove me up and down streets and as we drove we looked for signs hanging on the gates of the houses. If I saw a sing I would ask Rachael if that place was for rent. Sometimes the sign would read: House for sale, sometimes: Do not park here, and even sometimes: Do not pee here. I did see a house for rent. The house was divided into two sections so that two places could be rented. I looked at the section I could afford it had a living room, kitchen and bathroom on the bottom floor and then a bedroom and balcony on the second floor. It is very different looking for a house in Cambodia then in the states. I looked at a one bedroom apartment but it was out of my price range. Tomorrow I have an appointment to see a house in my price range it is large and has 4 bedrooms. Anyway please pray for this venture that the Lord would guide me to the right house, landlord and area of the city.

Language Learning

I began my language study on Thursday with a tutor. She is a very nice lady. Since we have started I have learned the 33 Khmi consonants, can recognize them and write them and have learned over 100 vocab words. When I say I have learned over 100 vocab words this means that I have gone over them each about 5 times in my tutor session and have tried to study them outside of the class. Each day in my tutor session about 1/2 hour is spent on review and the other 1 1/2 hours is spent on new things. Please pray that I would be able to retain the things that I am learning and that I would be able to study as well. I still have the vowels to learn and there are 23 and many of them have 2 sounds that they make.