Pchum Ben 2017

I’m so thankful that I was able to fly to the States for Pchum Ben this year. Ever since Zoe was born in Cambodia we’ve been trying to figure out a good time to introduce her to family in the States. We wanted to do that while she was still a baby... and she’s growing so fast it felt like time was running out. She is more social than some babies I’ve introduced (cough*Elias*cough) to family. Look how she’s studying Papa!

It was so nice to be in Texas again.

Of course, it’s easier to just sleep than be social.

How much loving is too much?

She sure has a lot of people who love her.

So now she’s met her Mississippi family and Texas family, all before she’s quite walking. That counts, right?

We are so blessed to have most of our great grandparents for our children still alive.

We even got to attend a cousin’s wedding and see more grandparents and relatives there.

Besides the people, it was nice to see green grass!

Zoe loved exploring this new green stuff.

But coming home to the loves we couldn’t afford to fly with us was special too. Now the balance is between appreciating the opportunity to go home and battling the homesickness that surges afterwards. I actually got published on this topic on a website dedicated to helping expat Christian women. I don't share this to say I am anything, but maybe my hard-to-learn-lesson about homesickness will help you too: https://velvetashes.com/homesickness-feels-uncannily-like-grief/

Birthday Surprise: Blooms, Phnom Penh Cupcakery

The weekend before Talia's 10th birthday we went to Kid City in Aeon mall. Ben had looked up what Kid city had to offer and saw a rock climbing gym and science lab. We walked all over Aeon trying to find those as she loves both science and climbing. Ben finally asked the people at the soft play area of Kid City where that was and we found out that there's another Kid City... not in the mall... on the other side of town. Everyone enjoyed the playground that was available, however, and had a great time. On her actual birthday she got to have a pizza date with Ben.

She was embarrassed when they played her the birthday song and gave her a slice of Oreo cheesecake to share in front of everybody, but she enjoyed her prize as long as we were trying it. She's very uncomfortable with keeping something yummy to herself. We didn't mind tasting a little either. ;)

A few days later, her friends took her to Blooms, a cupcake restaurant in Phnom Penh that helps train women and gives them a job. For the business part of Talia's homeschool she  wanted to actually run a business. She decided to focus on cupcakes and make a website and YouTube channel about making cupcakes from whichever part of the world we happen to be in. Her fellow homeschool friends knew this, so Blooms was a great place to investigate!

 As soon as we entered the restaurant we were greeted by a gargantuan decorated styrofoam wedding cake. It was taller than we were! The case was full of fancy cakes decorated in Noah's ark, super heroes, Disney tales and much more. Then we got to the counter and had to choose which cupcake to try. There were many!

Talia chose a rainbow cupcake, dressed in her favorite colors of lime green, purple and blue; it was fitting.

I chose a salted caramel-stuffed chocolate cupcake with cheesecake icing. 

I'll just say: one is plenty for one day! They were delicious!

Plus, look at the cute decorations. This one was a jam-filled "doughnut" cupcake.

Besides cupcakes, her friends have her gifts of beginners knitting supplies; something she's been asking for for a long time. 

Talia is very blessed with friends and family and she fills our lives in return with love and laughter. Welcome to the double digits, Talia! We love you!

Double Digits! An Interview with a Nomadic Child

I can't believe the not-even-2-year-old we took with us as an only child has now transitioned into double digits and many more countries and siblings. In honor of her birthday, I interviewed her on her favorite and least favorite things about being a nomadic child and each country she has lived in.

 Do you remember anything about Guatemala? That's where you were 2-3 years old.

• I remember playing with sidewalk chalk and one time watching the ashes from a volcano explosion. I remember playing in a kid blow up pool. I remember Blanca; I miss her.

• I did not like that in the rainy season it rained so much our food or clothes got moldy easily.

 


 What are your memories from Ruwais and Abu Dhabi?

• I loved Abu Dhabi! There were lots of nice parks, the streets were really clean and the people were nice and the houses were big and clean. It was easy to make friends there. My friends Jaden, Tasneem and Elias live there.

 

• I sort of enjoyed the heat, but I didn't like the call to prayer. It was long and mournful and it felt creepy.

Do you remember visiting Spain and Portugal?

• YES! I liked the greenery and the farms, fruits and vegetables! And there was a mouse that ran up the wall of our cabin, in Portugal. I sort of liked him! 
• In Spain it was hard for us to get food at our normal supper time. 

How about San José del Cabo, Mexico?

• I liked Cabo because I met the best friend I've ever had there, Melissa. It had a nice climate and we could go to the beach!! There were several beaches close to where we lived. I liked the food, too! We never rode a horse on the beach, but we saw them several times and if we go back there I would like to ride one. I liked that they spoke Spanish, and I could communicate easily.

• There wasn't very much grass and it was really rocky in our yard, so we had to be careful when we ran and played.

What do you think about our current country of residence, Cambodia?

 

• People are really nice here and I like all of the new fruits. Things are cheaper here compared to other parts of the world.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

• There is a lot of air pollution and trash everywhere. And they dry rotten/fermented fish outside and it smells really bad! 

 

 

  What are some benefits to traveling around the world?

• We get to learn lots of new things and see new places instead of staying in one place our whole lives like a toad on a log. We get to learn new languages and try new foods and make new friends.

What is something you don't like about traveling?

• As soon as I make friends, somebody moves away. I miss my family in my home country.

Which countries are you interested in visiting again/next?

• I would really like to visit Sweden! They have lingonberries, fikka, foraging and snow! 
• I would like to go back to Portugal. I like all of the natural parks and hiking trails and animals. 

 

 

Morning Glory/Water Spinach, Vietnamese Persimmons/Golden Apple and Guava: New-to-us Khmer Food

I've learned several new fruits and vegetables lately. I thought I'd share them with you.

Below you see the water lily stems that take special talent to harvest. When you pinch off the stem, if you are not careful, mud will be drawn up the stalk. The Khmer lady who sells these has four children depending on her at home and something happened to her husband. She walks around town with a big basket of these carried on her head calling out the name of them in Khmer. Our neighbor said she uses these to make a salad with thin strips of the water lily stem, chicken, lime juice and herbs.

Water spinach, or morning glory, are the stems of the sweet potato plant. They are used in soup the same way you would use spinach and with a similar taste. Many times it is used in a soup with rice noodles.

I had no clue what these were when my friend gave them to us. My Vietnamese friend helped me out with the Latin name: Diospyros decandra, or a type of persimmon. One way the Khmer eat these is with the flesh mashed in a mixture of milk, sugar, and chia or basil seeds. The pulp is pretty astringent in the mouth, so all of that can be pretty necessary!

Here you see a guava. These were really popular in Mexico, but the ones I saw were smaller, many times made into preserves. Here guava is enjoyed dipped in salt, sometimes with garlic powder, chili or sugar.

The kids all tried a bite and thought it was good, but even better, the pasabulong from our Filipina friends who came home from holiday and were so kind to think of us:

The biscocho is from Iloilo and the piaya is from Negros Occidental.

Yep, it was yummy!

Elias had fun trying on his father's shirt... it'll be a few years before it fits.

 

The boys love to help cook! Here they were making cinnamon rolls:

 

One of them wants to be a fireman who owns a restaurant on the side when he grows up. The other one wants to build "helico'ters." I can't wait to see what they become!

Greening our Space in a Cambodian Concrete Jungle

If you had asked for my thoughts on Cambodia before moving here, I would have told you about the movie I saw in school The Girl Who Spelled Freedom, about the generation I have heard retell experiences from the neighboring Vietnam war. My perception would have included poverty, war and jungles. When I arrived in Cambodia, even from the air looking down over the giant, muddy river and then Phnom Penh, I could tell some of my perceptions were wrong. Instead of jungle, miles and miles of corrugated tin in varying degrees of disrepair or opulence met my view. A myriad of electrical wires snaked between them. Phnom Penh is a concrete jungle for most people. The lucky have a yard, but most yards have been concreted in so they don't turn into a muddy mess during rainy season.

When our neighbor went to visit his sister in France, he brought back a surprise gift for the neighborhood, tulip bulbs! All of us who received them have potted them and have (as you can see above) sprouted. Hopefully, they will be blooming soon! Ben's boss gave him many shoots of the plant you see below:

Our neighbor gave me dried pieces of coconut husk. It's spongy and helps hold water for these little hanging plants. I lined the bottom and sides with it, and it does seem to retain water better.

It's amazing how much of a difference tiny, green, growing things can make! Looking at the plants in the stark contrast of their concrete environment makes me happy. Our landlords have more growing on the balcony above, but we have added these plants in the main area where we see them the most.

Plant therapy! It's a real thing.

Things I Have Learned From My Neighbors; the Essential Khmer Words

I'm very thankful that a neighbor moved in that is bilingual. It has opened up a completely new world. In hindsight, it would have been better to take a few courses in Khmer, even if we are here for only two years, and life was so overwhelming, and we were trying to pay for the baby... so I'm not sure how well it would have gone. It's a proven fact that the brain does not retain knowledge like it should when you are in "survival" mode, and I was definitely in survival mode when we arrived. However, I would recommend taking language courses if you can! 

Our neighbor has taught me several things about Khmer culture lately. I thought I'd share a few with you.

-When a woman gives birth, they take the leaves from the turmeric plant and make something like a tea with it. Then, it is rubbed all over the woman's skin to restore health and vitality.

-Cradle cap in Khmer is translated "water buffalo poop." She laughingly explained it comes from the old times when people would jokingly say that the mom had left the baby unattended and a water buffalo had pooped on his head. She also said doctors don't recommend scrubbing cradle cap off of a baby's head because it is so delicate.

-Turmeric leaves are really big! The ones she showed me looked like the banana leaves you would use to wrap a Khmer version of a tamale. These leaves are chopped very fine and used to season... frog! This was the example she gave me, but I'm sure there are other dishes, too.

As Talia is homeschooling this year, she offered to teach her a simple Khmer lesson in the afternoons. Talia writes down the transliterated words next to the English and then comes home and teaches me. It's amazing how many words you can pick up from daily life but once you've gotten used to that and are in the frame of mind to learn, it is also amazing how helpful it is to learn more words to integrate with daily life from a bilingual person.

(The boys have started back to school too. Elias takes Khmer at school this year.)

Some must-know words in my opinion are these:

ah-nee-man: how much?
sadam: right (for giving directions in a tuk tuk)
schvey: left
soo-sah-day- good day

Then the numbers to 10 which you will notice are worded on a base 5 pattern:
muy- 1
pee- 2
buy- 3
buon- 4
pram- 5
pram muy- (5+1) 6
pram pee- (5+2) 7
pram buy-(5+3) 8
pram buon-(5+4) 9
dap-10

-One of the first things I like to know about someone is their name. The neighbor explained that here, it's different: people often call others as "mother of -----" using the child's name as an indicator. This reminds me of Abu Dhabi where Ben's students called him "Abu Ilyas" or "father of Elias." She said sometimes people don't learn the names of their neighbors until there's a big wedding and they go door to door finding out names for the invitations!

Who knows what we'll learn next!

Tom Yum Soup: Cambodian Recipe

When my friend told me she would teach me to make Tom Yum soup, I had this mental image of making a fabulous from-scratch dish... It started out OK: We chopped onions, tomatoes and got some of these small, white mushrooms.

Then came the disappointing part, ANYTHING CAN BE TOM YUM IF YOU ADD THE MAGIC CUBE!!!

...also known as an MSG-laden bouillon cube conveniently containing the flavors that I can't read in Khmer.

As I'm accustomed to making stock from vegetables or bone broth as the base of a soup, this was different. Still, I'm thankful she showed me how it's done. This part is easy enough to modify.

We added some bok choy and the coconut milk made a delicious broth. Next, I would love to learn the delicious noodle soup they served at Nature Lodge in Modulkiri and around the country, or at least I think I would...