Rain, Rides and Random Tidbits

April is usually the hottest month of the year here, making life miserable for the many who live in the provinces without air conditioning, but this month has been different. Rainy season has started a little bit early! This is good for a little cooler weather, but brings its own challenges with the downstairs of many homes flooding and the deep water making roads dangerous.

The buckets were to catch the water from the leaking pipe.

We have it better than many people, but when it rains hard the drain in the downstairs kitchen bathroom begins flooding the house with black stuff. One cleaning lady, for example, says they live with their bottom floor flooded for half of each year because of the poor drainage. Last Saturday it rained really hard and the kitchen flooded, not only the floor, but the sink drains had black stuff coming up out of them. And worms. Yuck. The worms were trying to crawl out of the sink. I kept washing them back down, but it wouldn't drain until much later when it stopped raining. The drain pipe under the sink chose that day to spring a leak along with one of the faucets. I'm thankful for bleach! Of course, people didn't stop getting hungry, so the dishes piled up until that got fixed. I'm thinking next time I should wash them in the bathroom. Though the water draining might still be a problem. I'm sure we'll figure something out.

You can't quite tell, but everything is covered in water...

Next week everyone has a week off for Khmer New Year. Elias and Ezra have been learning a song in Khmer at school.

Zoe smirking before her embassy appointment.

 

We had our appointment at the embassy to get Zoe her passport. It went smoothly and they said we should have it soon. On the way home it started raining. Most tuk tuks have canvas flaps that they pull down and velcro to the poles when it rains, but this tuk tuk didn't have them. We got a little wet, but after living in deserts, the rain is still nice. I do wonder if that's why Zoe has a cold today, though I kept her wrapped up in her blanket.

You've got to respect a man who can tune his ukulele while holding a baby.

Talia said they had a monkey fall out of a tree into the pool at their school. She was excited to report that monkeys can, in fact, swim, because he swam to the edge and climbed out.

Elias was proud of a sailboat he drew.

Our neighbors have two sons that are really nice and play with our kids. Their father was telling Benjamin about how school works for them here: His son rides his bicycle through city traffic to school and then pays to park it. Then, each day he must pay his teacher 1,000 riel. That adds up to about $5 a month. That doesn't sound like much, but it is for this country. Teachers only make $200 a month here, and that is after the recent raise from the government. That is barely enough for even a frugal Cambodian to make ends meet. Most people live with their families for this reason, in tall houses like this:

Crazy that you can see at least 7 different houses here. Some have more than one family inside.

If you live in a country where education is free, count your blessings!

Starting School in Cambodia and Working with Children of Prisoners

School started August 10th, and with it a very different schedule. Our mornings (and the night before) are busy making sure the kids have everything they need for the day, breakfast, teeth brushed, uniforms on etc. before we get out the door and on a tuk-tuk.
Their school has a dual language program with English and Khmer, all on the same level. Because this would mean Talia taking 4th grade subjects in a language she completely doesn't understand, she comes home after the English program. The boys, however, are at the right age to learn Khmer, so they stay later. At first this meant making 3 separate tuk tuk rides throughout the day to get everyone to and from school, but now Talia takes the school bus (whose route just started) home and is excited to do that for the first time. They seem to be adjusting well, and like their classes.

When they started their school, I started my work with Prison Fellowship International. I work with the Children of Prisoners Program to help children around the world who have lost a parent to prison  get sponsors. This program began after a prison ministry program. The mentors would go into the prisons and hear the same request almost every time. "Will you please tell me how my kids are?" When the mentors went out to find the kids of these prisoners sometimes they found grandmothers on their deathbeds struggling for all they were worth to stay alive and protect the children. Sometimes those children were being rented out as slaves. Some were sold into prostitution without a protector there to prevent that. Some begged on the streets to survive. The hardest news to relay was when they had to tell a prisoner that their child had died. This program was started to connect these very needy children with a sponsor who would supply (usually only $28 a month) to help the child stay in school, have access to healthcare and counseling if needed. The prison ministry part also focuses on helping prisoners reintegrate with society and their families after they come out so that these children can have a family again. Otherwise, what often happens is that they end up right back in jail. There is so much more information connected to these three ministries by Prison Fellowship International, but basically, my role gets the information about the children edited and verified so that it can be sent to the main office and they can get a sponsor. The people I work with here in Cambodia are wonderful people, also, with varying roles in this program.

I realize my blessings every day as I see the photos of children from these countries. I'm thankful my children have food, shelter, people who love and protect them and the ability to go to school.