Rich and Ronda Dolan

I finally have my computer!!! I am so excited! We got it yesterday while Rebekah and I were on the way to her dentist appointment (on the back of a motorbike, of course), so we carried it CAREFULLY all over town. And I was grateful to be able to do it! Rebekah had to get dental x-rays so the dentist told us that one of her staff would take Rebekah to the dental school since that is the only place with the xray machine. The girl got her helmet on, gave Rebekah a helmet, and off they went on her motorbike. We were thinking, "that certainly would never happen in the US!" I wanted to add some pictures, but it isn't cooperating with me, so maybe next time. We did get our electric bill for half of September...it was 488,800 riel!!! That is about $122, but it seems like an awful lot in riel! And you have to pay the electric bill in riel so I had to go to the bank and exchange $$ for riel. I decided to get $150 in riel; I got back a stack of money (the largest denom...

Today,the 26th, is Randall's 21st birthday. I've been teaching John in class, so have been reminded how many times Jesus said He came to do the will of His Father. He did what He saw the Father do. While my kids don't always do exactly as I'd like, in general they do what I'd have them do. I'm so proud of all of them. Ronda still doesn't have her laptop. It's been here at the Fed-Ex place for about 2 weeks, but they won't release it. Other countries are sure different. We found out our shipment of clothes and mostly my books won't be here until about October 28th. They were picked up August 14th or so. We were told it would be about a month to ship. I guess that means from when they actually left New York or Singapore. That was much later than we thought. We will switch to language school at the university next week, so our schedule will change. I think the classes there go from 4-6 p.m. each day. Know we think of you often. rich

So here is a road paving for you!!! Just 2 streets away. I wonder how long it will be until we get our road paved! I feel sorry for the poor guy standing in the concrete trying to get it all smooth.

This is the Cambodian Bible Institute...otherwise known as CBI. We meet here at 8:30 am for chapel in the mornings. Then Rebekah and I leave while Rich teaches in the classroom on the bottom floor (it is behind the tree. Upstairs is where Tawn (Rich's interpreter and right hand man) and his wife Navy (pronounced 'Naw-wee') live in the back and the students live in front part. This is Rebekah walking down our street. We are in the very south part of the city of Phnom Penh. We are about 4 houses and one empty lot down on the right side. And I thought you might like to see Rich's new barber and his barbershop. Rich got a good haircut and nice shave for 75 cents. (No. It isn't Rich in the chair when this picture was taken) This barbershop is very conveniently located between our house and CBI.

I was just thinking about how different our lives are now and how they are the same. Some differences - we have been here 4 weeks and I haven't even bought any flour (for those of you who don't know, in the US I bought flour by the 25 lb bags since I baked so much), baking soda, baking powder, or eggs! We hang our clothes out on the line (in fact I have some now that needs hung), we walk to most places, and...most enjoyably, I have only been cold about twice since I have been here (which was a 'multiple times a day' occurrence in the US)...yeah!!! We are still figuring out our routine, which will change next week since our language school starting in October will be from 4-5:30 pm instead of 2-4pm. Here, the kids are out of school from 11:00- 2:30 for lunch, a lot of places are shut down at that time as well, so we are trying to get used to not being able to get too much done at that time. However, we are still surrounded by sweet people (they just look a little diffe...

Well, we've been in Cambodia for 4 weeks now. In some ways, it's gone by quickly. In other ways, it seems like forever since we flew out of L.A. My days have centered around teaching at the Bible Institute (we have student led chapel at 8:30 and then I teach from 9a.m. to noon each day), language class (we leave at 1:30 p.m. and get back about 4:30 p.m.) and then studying for both of those. Here are some of the things you wouldn't think about. Rebekah had to go to the University across town yesterday to have a "proctor" watch her take a College Algebra test. Yesterday and today, Ronda spent several hours trying to open a bank account. Required were a copy of our house lease, her passport, her drivers' license and a credit card. Once she had all that with her, it still would not work because the lease is in my name. I had to go with her (at lunch time) with my passport, drivers' liscense, etc... Then, I had to write out (with my own words) and sign ...

During language school today, it started pouring! Lots of thunder and lightening; it was really great! (In case you don't know, I love storms!) It had already rained once today...no big deal, but I did bring in the laundry from the line and close the downstairs windows, so I was pleased that it was all taken care of. Then, we got home... I had forgot to close the windows in the extra bedroom - the floor was flooded. The wind had really blown and shot the rain right in the windows even though there is an overhang. So Rebekah and I mopped and squeegied and finally got it cleaned up. Then she went to another room. The windows were closed but since the rain blew so hard, it blew the water in under the windows and under the door frame - another flooded room. To make an long, wet story short, it took us an hour to clean up all the water in the house. We got that cleaned up just in time to go to some of the other missionaries' house for dinner. It is about a 30 minute drive (n...

Yesterday, Sept 12th, Reuben's birthday. He's 19 now (that's dap-pram-boun in Khmer) and living in California. It's different being overseas when something like that happens. But, with e-mail, Facebook and Skype, it helps. It's weird to let your kids go out on their own, but that is what we helped prepare them for. I know they will be a great influence in the world. As I pray for my kids every day, I know some of their individual strengths and some of their individual weaknesses. I pray for their health, physically and mentally. I pray for their schooling. Mostly, though, I pray that they grow closer to God. rich

I just have to share with you how they pave roads here. First they dump pile-loads of rocks (the rocks are about 3" -5"across to give you an idea) and pile-loads of sand. They leave them there for at least a week. They are all down the middle of the road, so if you have a car and live down the road...too bad! You can't get your car down there! Then, when they decide to work on it. The workers (they look like teens usually) take baskets of rocks from the piles and hand-lay the rocks down, trying to make them fit together as much as possible. After that, they let the motorcycles, people, and cars run on them a few days to flatten them out. (really quite treacherous for motorcycles and bicycles!) Then they spread out the sand. Usually they do this entire procedure again before rolling in a couple cement mixers on carts and pouring a little at a time. It is quite interesting. One thing we have noticed here is that they may not be expedient, but they do employ a lot ...

Today is a good day. We worshipped with the saints yesterday. They have bible class at 8 a.m. and worshp at 9 a.m. Saleem, a Pakastani who was told by his father to leave the country or be killed when he found out he was a Christian, preached. He is one of the students at the school. I went to chapel today and they had a test afterward. Ronda and Rebekah stayed at home to meet the wireless connection guy. They also swept and mopped. That has to be done to every room, every day because of the dust. Today is Ronda's birthday, so after I caught up on the internet, I went and bought her a stand alone hammock. She wanted it to sit and go over her vocabulary words. By the way, she is si-sep pram-muey years old. (If you know Khmer, you can translate, if not, you're out of luck.) You didn't really think I'd tell you, did you? Must study for class - language and teaching John. Rich

Dear Friends: It's now Saturday night here. We still don't have internet service yet. Hopefully Monday morning. I went back to the On-line store Thursday and got switched over to wireless. I asked when it would be on and the lady said they would come out either Saturday or Monday morning. The service guys only work in the morning due to the heat. Rebekah's really catching up on school work now. She often has to use my laptop, at an internet cafe. The computers in these places aren't current enough to let her download her assignments. She dropped the College Algebra class because she couldn't get on to see her homwork. Then, that all got worked out, so she's back in the class and hurrying to catch up. Oh, by the way, she will be named as a National Merit Semi-finalist!!! How about that? I forgot to tell you that last Friday night, we had a baptism at the school. A medical doctor, Dr. P, who has been studying with Earl Bridges was baptized at the baptistry at the ...

Hey, Friends: Hope you're alive and well and walking with God. This is the end of our 2nd week here. Wow how time has flown. Heré's a little flavor of the country: WE love the people. Everyone smiles. After having been in Ukraine for a few weeks, that is a great difference. The town really is in smaller villages. Everyone knows everyone. That is great. There are a lot of cars, but not as many as America. There are 10 scooters or motorbikes for ever car. And, then there are tuk tuks. Those are a small scooter (about 100 hp - just a step up from the old mini-bikes) that have a rickshaw like thing on the back. It has two seats that face each other like a carriage. You sit on those and can be driven around. The tuk tuks are inexpensive (for us). But, the costs adds up, plus we need the exercise, so we have been walking a lot. We don't have a car yet and may wait awhile to get one. Craftsmanship here is good and labor is fairly inexpensive. I had a haircut yesterday f...

I thought I would tell you what a normal day is like for us.\ We get up at around 6-6:30 am (the Cambodians wake up early and go to bed early - by about 9:30pm it is pretty quiet). Rich usually studies, does internet stuff while Rebekah and I dust, sweep and mop. One of the things here is that the dusting, sweeping and mopping has to be done basically everyday as there is a thin layer of dirt each day. At about 8:15am, we all walk to the preaching school (CBI - Cambodian Bible Institute) for chapel. It takes about 15 minutes to walk, which is nice - not too far. The chapel time consists of 2 songs, prayer, and a devotional talk. The students take turns doing these. At 9am, school starts for the students. Starting on Tuesday, Rich begins teaching in the mornings on the book of John. Rebekah and I leave at that point and either make our way to the market, go to do some emailing/homework, or back to the house to finish cleaning. We also try to find some time in here to study our k...

OK. This is my first attempt at blogging, so you will have to bear with me. It probably won't be very creative but hopefully informational. What is Phnom Penh like? It is a wonderful place with many markets, many scooters/motorcycles and many smiling faces. It is tropical, so therefore hot. It is currently the rainy season although we have been 4 days with no rain at this point. The driving here is ...well...exciting. You just drive wherever. Most of the time, you stay on your side of the road, but it isn't necessary. If you need to turn left, and there is a gap in the traffice 50 yards before your turn, you just go ahead and get over on the far left side of the road, drive toward everyone else, until you get to your turn. It is great fun! Tuk tuks and motorcycles are readily available to take you wherever you want to go. There are many markets that serve different purposes; some are primarily food (these are in each section of town for the locals), and then there ar...