Rich and Ronda Dolan

Friday, when I went to the school to teach English at 4pm, I heard Veasna's voice, so knew that he was still teaching.  Not wanting to interrupt, I waited out of sight, in the front part of the school. I could still hear him teaching in a very loud voice, but noticed that there were students walking around.  Huh!  I wondered what the deal was.  So I asked one of the students why he wasn't in class.  He said it was over.  Then I asked why Veasna was shouting and he told me that he was giving his mid term test orally to each individual student.  OK... So I asked again, "why is he shouting when there is only one student?" The response I got didn't make sense to me, so I figured that it was just my lack of understand Khmer (the Cambodian language). I asked another student who seemed to say the same thing. So, I went into the school and while Veasna was getting his stuff out of the way, I asked him why he was shouting.  He said " Well I am just ...

I can't remember if I blogged this picture already, but here it is.  I was walking home from chapel toward our house and this is what I saw.  We used to see ox carts all the time, but as the city is getting bigger, there aren't so many in the city now.  But remember, Phnom Penh has 3-4 million people.  It gets a little crowned with the car, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, walkers, and ox carts!  I took this picture one day on our way to chapel.  (that is Rich's arm in the picture in the blue shirt).  The lady in the purple shirt is the mom.  She is a recyclables collector.  And she takes her kids to work with her everyday!  In front of her littlest one is the green scale to weigh things.  So, she just puts her kids in the cart and takes off walking.  There are tons of people here who do this for their job.  This is James Glasscock and Rich in front of Wat Phnom.  This is what the city of Phnom Penh was names f...

 This is Pbaj (which means 'diamond').  She was baptized at the Phnom Penh congregation a couple weeks ago.  Please keep her in your prayers as she starts her life for Christ.  And this (in the red shirt) is John.  He is James' son.  James is the preacher at the Phnom Penh congregation.  Please pray for him as well. These cute little guys are most of our current students (we have a couple more now).  They are so funny when I take pictures - they get all serious faced!  They really are happy (most of the time - unless there is a test!) and a lot of fun.  Please keep them in your prayers as they study and learn all the wonderful things about God and His plan for their lives. (Also pictures are:  Rich (back left) and James Glasscock (next to Rich) and Veasna, our other teacher (in blue shirt, 3rd from the right in the back) Much love, Ronda

James has been here for nearly 2 weeks now, teaching all day.  He is teaching on the History of the Church in Acts.  He is giving the final tomorrow. This picture is of James teaching at the University Church of Christ and Try is translating. James was one of our youth group kids in San Angelo, TX.  So it is great to see the Christian man and teacher he has become.  He is currently preaching at the Early, TX Church of Christ.  He and his wife, Tanya have 2 daughters, Emma and Ellie. This is his 2nd trip to Cambodia to teach.  We look forward to the time that his family can accompany him as well. Last Saturday, we did the tourist thing and went to the National Museum, pictured here.  Most of the museum contains Buddhist statues (or parts of them) and inscribed stone tablets that they have found all over Cambodia.  We also went to the Royal Palace.  Since the king is in residence, you can't actually see the palace. This is...

Cambodia just released the results of the their nation-wide, end of 12 th grade instruction exam.  Like many European countries, this is a serious test. You have to pass it to get into college.  Two years ago, when things went like normal, around 87% of those who took the exam passed. However, that was with well-known cheating, selling of test answers and/or bribing of teachers.  This year, there was a crack-down on all forms of cheating.  No cheating or pay-offs allowed. 93,000 students took the test.   11, that’s right 11 out of 93,000, made an A.  219 made a B, 907 a C, 1823 a D and 20,157 made an E (the lowest possible passing grade, something like 50%).   Only a little over 25% of those who tested passed.  Two years ago, around 87% passed.  The Education Ministry advertized and advised that there would be a crack-down this year. Either the students didn’t believe them or they just weren’t properly prepared.  11 made...

Most of you have heard that Rich also had dengue fever.  However, according to the doctor, you had the "classic" kind instead of the "severe" kind like I got. His fever was never really high(although he did run a fever for several days and was miserable) and he also didn't have the problem of his platelets dropping.  The doctor did keep him in the hospital for a couple days just to make sure that he didn't have problems. So we are grateful for that.  His doctor pronounced him all well as of yesterday. Thank you so much for your prayers. James Glasscock  is here teaching on the History of the Church in Acts.  We are excited that he is here.  He was one of our youth group kids from San Angelo, TX.  He and his wife and 2 girls now live in Early, TX where he preaches.  He will be with us for 2 weeks.  Hopefully, I will get a picture later. Love you all! Ronda

I am so grateful for all the prayers on my behalf.  Dengue fever is not fun! I had dengue fever the first time in Thailand when I was 12.  It wasn't fun then either.  It is amazing how one little mosquito can wreck havoc on your whole body. Just to give you some information, I felt fine at noon on Thurs, July 24th.  By 12:30, I had a high fever and was shaking with chills.  Since it was quickly getting worse, I did the unusual thing for me and told Rich that I probably should go to the Dr. (that was about 3pm). The blood test showed dengue fever.  Since I am older, one of the problems is that dengue fever can cause your body to go into shock. (Which is why older people can die of dengue fever)  So they said I would probably be in the hospital for 2-3 days.  Dengue causes your white blood cell count and your platelet count to drop. Finally, on the 3rd day, my fever was gone.  But my blood and platelet counts were still dropping. ...