Rich and Ronda Dolan

Here is the way we ate at the beach and some of the food. These ladies, and some girls, would carry these big plates of food on their heads. Then, when you wanted it, they would slice it, season it, whatever it needed for you. No work, no mess - just eat! On the left, sitting on Rebekah's chair is the plate of lobsters. They are seasoning them for us. Then the other lady on the right is fixing a mango for us. Her plate of food it sitting on the end of my chair. Of course, fresh food is always best and this was great! The 2nd picture is the squid kabobs that we ate. Like I told you, they were very good. We were actually a little surprised at how good they were. I didn't get a picture of these ladies carrying their grills in pots suspended on a pole that they carried. I'll try to do better next time. Or you can come see for yourself! The last picture is another picture of God's beautiful creation that we got to enjoy. As we end 2007 and look at the many ways G

As most of you know, we decided to go to the beach for Christmas. This was our first trip out of Phnom Penh other than to go to the Zoo on Saturday, Dec 22nd. The countryside was very pretty with hills and lots of trees. Rice fields lined the highway. It is harvest time here so there is much work being done in the fields. I will send pictures of that on a later email. We got to Sihanoukville at around noon on Monday, Christmas Eve. We drove around and found a place to stay since we didn't totally trust the looks of places online (all of you that have been to the Alpen Hutte for a ski trip understand exactly what I mean!) The first picture is the view as we ate our Christmas dinner. The 2nd is Rich and Rebekah waiting for dinner to come. By about 10 am everyday, we were at the beach. We just laid around on the beach, swam, slept, worked on language, read, cross stitched, ate wonderful food and did it all again. We would stay and watch the sunset set each evening before

Here is a picture of Rebekah and I with our van. It is a 15 passenger diesel and, in case you can't read the side of it, it is a Toyota. It has been really nice - saving the money on tuk tuks! In the picture you can also see our 'yard'. The gate behind us is our landlord's (ours is the one open behind the van). The house is right at the front of the van, so you are looking at most of the front 'yard'. All of the houses here, big or small, are gated. I think you can tell that the top of the gates and fence have spikes to discourage anyone from climbing over. In this note, I just wanted to tell you some of the sights that we see around town an any given day. There was a man, with a numb for his left leg, driving his moto down the road hold a crutch with his left hand. On the back of his moto was big blocks of ice to be delivered. I so admire his willingness to work when he could easily justify begging instead. We saw another man on a makeshift bike. The

Dtree is our new student in the school. He came from another organization and expressed a desire to study with us. Last Wednesday, he was baptized after talking for several days with many of the students and Tawn. So please keep him in your prayers. He seems to be a very devote student. He takes many notes, writes down everything he can find. He has also brought his brother to Wednesday evening classes. We thank you for your prayers on our behalf. There is so much to be done that it is difficult to have the patience and wisdom to know what order to put them in. Naturally, for now, much is on hold or at least slowed, so that we can learn the language. As you all are in the holiday time of the year, don't forget the really important things...God, your families, love for the brethren. PS. For those of you priviledged to see my boys during the holidays, give them lots of hugs for me. Much love, Ronda

These pictures are just a couple shot I took around town. About 9 Christian young people (college aged) came and we had a devotional, fellowship meal at one of the missionaries' house on Saturday night. We told whoever wanted to go could meet at the church building and we would take the van. This is what we got the van for! We put 21 people in our 15 passenger van! We got into a major traffice jam along the way and ended up heading down a side street (following another car). The street ended up at one of the markets where people sit and sell stuff all over the street, so that we could hardly fit down. It took us an hour to get about 3 miles. But the fellowship was great. Even though the Thais sang devo type songs that the Khmers didn't know and the Khmers sang their songs that the Thais didn't know. For the most part, we knew them all and sang in English!! We did finally get 2 songs that we all sang. I'm sure God thought it was beautiful. Bow, the young pre

I tried cropping this better, but then the blog wouldn't take it, so this is what you get... This says, in my phonetics, "jum reeap sua" on the first line; and the rest says, "sok sabuy jeea dtay? This is the formal general greeting which means " Good day, are you well?" We can now read. But due to the fact that they don't put spaces between words, if we don't know the words, we can't tell when one word ends and the next word begins. It does make it interesting. Especially when they combine a lot of words to give it different meanings. But we are learning and know a lot more than we did 3 months ago. This picture is of one of the high school's parking lots. I don't know if you can see it clearly, but there are TONS of bicycles! They stack them so close together, that I think the kids on the end would have to come first and get them out in order! There are some motos (motorcycles) on the left couple rows. We can't believe it

Here's a hodge podge of thoughts . Our shipment finally arrived from the U.S. last week. (Well, we finally got it. It's been here for several weeks.) I've been in hog heaven finally having my books. I did find some treasures. For instance, the logbook and journal I had to keep when I was a ministry intern. I was so green! I'm teaching Isaiah now. It is great to have my books to help me study. We added another student to the school this week. His name is Try. He seems to be a good one. Last week, two of the students here baptized 15 people at the village they went to preach at. All of these are between 13-26 years of age. (Don't know if I told you before, but Ronda & I are the oldest members at the Phnom Penh congregation.) I cautioned the boys about not relying on numbers to measure our effectiveness. At the same time, they were excited. And, they should be. We had a wedding or funeral celebration yesterday(one street over). Loud music started at 6;15

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Of course, how could we not with how much God has blessed us. These are some pictures of the long boat races at the Water Festival. It was really very exciting. The Partners In Progress Ship of Life was docked so we actually got to watch from the ship. Great seats! Friday night we watched the fireworks and the barges all lit up with the different emblems (king's, parliaments, courts, etc.) Rebekah got some pics of those so hopefully, I will get one to put on soon. On Saturday, we watched some of the races. There were over 400 long boats involved. Most have between 60-75 people per boat. 3 of the pictures are of them headed upriver; they went right by the ship, so was closer to us. The 2nd picture is of a couple racing. With the exception of the front and rear guys, they all stand. They are in pairs all down the boat. There were a few boats that had oar holders and they stand on the side of the boat to row (we were amazed that th

We got gifts for Thanksgiving!!! Our shipment got here on Wednesday, so we were thrilled. Of course, 25 of the 30 boxes are Rich's books so it didn't take Rebekah and I long to go through our stuff. But even that, there is stuff that we packed that we were wondering why we packed it (Rebekah "How many pairs of socks did I pack...I don't even wear socks here!) This first picture is road paving the street in front of CBI, the preaching school. They just put the bamboo shields across the road and you can't get a car in or out until they move on. It is nice now that it is finished. But thought you might like to see their roadblocks. No warning either...just one day we showed up to the road being blocked off. This little girl was walking with her mom to the market. They are very family oriented here. It seems no matter what the parent does (trash pickup, food place, seller, etc)the kids are right there all day long, unless in school. Truly family businesses.

I am going to try to stick on a couple picture each time so you can get the feel of town. This picture is dark, but we were on our way to language school in our tuk tuk and these boys were riding their bikes down a busier street and decided it would be easier to 'grab' a ride, so he is hanging onto our tuk tuk. They thought it was great. The boy on the back has a big grin, but it is hard to see. Today, Rebekah and I started teaching language at the PIP house (Partners In Progress) for the next 6 weeks while all the teachers are in the US. It is probably good because it helps to remind us that English words don't all make sense either, so not to get too wound up when Khmer doesn't (like silent letters on the end of words...why not just leave them off!?) Unfortunately, I couldn't zoom in fast enough to get a good picture of this sweet baby. When the family 'car' is a moto (motorcycle), like most families here, you all get on, you load it down, etc. We

Time for an adventure. Yesterday (Monday), I went to pay our internet bill. You can only pay in cold, hard cash. The company does not takes checks, credit cards or on-line payments. Kind of ironic to have an internet provider that does not have an on-line payment option, isn't it? We have to pay by the megabyte, and Rebekah does her school on-line, hence our bill is somewhat expensive. This month, it was over $200. Driving the motor-bike, I set out for what would become a great adventure. There are ATMs at most Cal-Tex stations here. Unfortunately, I stopped at what must be the only one without an ATM. Still needing to get money, I decided to head to the bank. Go for the sure thing. Because this particular intersection is the busiest one in town, I wisely decided to make the block and head out. Too bad for me, the street I turned onto was a one-way street. There is a sign showing that, but it's covered up and you can't see it until you've already turned onto the street.

Just a couple pictures while we are walking down the street. The first lady, with her bike loaded is our 'Walmart household department'. If you can't tell, she has brooms, dusters, rugs, spiderweb dusters, etc. You can see them all over town. The 2nd picture is a boy who says hello to us most mornings as we walk by for chapel. However, when I got the camera, like most of the small children, he started crying. OK. Now for the language. Sometimes, things are just funny...or embarrassing. They use a lot of compound words. For example, the word for toothbrush (jrah-doh-tmayny) is really 'brush (noun for a 'brush'), 'to brush' (doh) and 'teeth' (tmayny). A funny one, however is the word for towel, which is really 3 words compounded: gahnsing (scarf), pbuah (stomach), go (cow). I don't know if their first towels were made from the cow's stomach or not, but that is the word! Now, for a little embarrassing one, everytime you say the word for mil

From left to right is: Cheav (pronounced 'Chew'), Veashna and his wife Lynna. Cheav is 21 years old and has been a Christian for 1 year. He is the 3rd child of 6, however one of his older brothers is deceased. His likes chicken and pork and in his free time likes to listen to music and play football (soccer for those of us from the US). Veashna is 23 years old and has been a Christian for 2 years. He has one younger brother. His favorite food is sour soup(I haven't had any yet). He and Lynna have been married for almost 2 yrs. Their 2 year anniversary is January 14th. Lynna is 20 years old and has been a Christian since February. He is the oldest and only girl; she has 4 younger brothers. She tried to explain to us her favorite food and all is got is that it is a soup with mashed up fish as well as other stuff (we haven't had that either!). You can't really tell from the picture with her jacket but Lynna is really tiny. She is really sweet. I hope you have enjoyed

This is our recycling system. Both men and women pull these carts down the streets to pick up recycling. You can see them walking all day. This is a picture I got while we were riding down the street. They are on the back of a motorcycle (called 'moto'). It was drizzling so she had the baby's head covered. I can only get this to let me put on 2 pictures at a time, so guess you'll have to wait until the next blog. I have marked my calendar to try to add every 4 days, so we'll see how I do. Walk with God always and in all things. Much love, Ronda

Meet Chanty(on left) and Sokchea. Both of these students are 21 years old. Chanty has been a Christian for 2 years and is #4 of 6 children. He likes to read and listen to Khmer music. Sokchea is the brother to Tawn, Rich's interpreter. Sokchea is #10 of 10 kids. He has been a Christian for 1 year and also likes to listen to khmer music. (I personally don't think it is all that great!) Both are very good songleaders as well. When I ask their favorite food, they usually respond with something that I fixed them for lunch so I'm not sure how true that is, but Chanty says he likes curry and Sokchea likes beef. I'll tell you...I am really enjoying starting each morning with a devotional with the students. It helps the day go well, to start it off by singing to God and listening to them practice their sermons. This is just a family that I saw in town. Mom and the kids doing down the road on the motorbike. You really have to come and experience the fun on the road. They can g

Let me introduce you to 4 of our students. On the left is Khim. He is 27 years old and became a Christian in 2004. He has 5 brothers and 2 sisters; he is #6. Both of his parents are deceased. On the right is Soktee-a. He is 23 years old and has been a Christian since 2004 as well. He has 3 brothers and 2 sisters and is child #2. Both of his parents are still living although not Christians. On the left in this picture is Saleem. He is 33 years old and from Pakistan. He became a Christian in October of 2004. He has one younger brother. His father is still living in Pakistan. He likes to listen to the news and also likes to be alone. On the right is Sokpee-a. He is 22 years old and became a Christian 2 years ago. He is the oldest and has 4 brothers and 1 sister. All of these guys have really great smiles, but get all serious when I get ready to take a picture. And, you will have to come and listen to them sing; it is great! I wish they could sit and sing with our youth gr

OK. This is your first khmer writing lesson. This is the word, (my phonetics) 'kan-yom'. It means "I, me, mine". The 's' shape in the middle is the 'cah' consonant. The squiggly line under it is the subscript for the consonant 'ny'. Then the circle at the top and the line at the bottom is the vowel sound "om". That makes the word 'kanyom'. As this word is very short in writing, most are not. A couple of the preaching students do their tests in English. When I asked why (because I would think that is much harder), they said it makes it shorter because English is shorter than khmer. The picture below are just to show that they get MUCH more in and on their vehicles than we do! The first is a van, but the rest are motorcycles. The pictures isn't clear, but on top of the stuff on the van are people riding. The 2nd picture is a load of garlic. Notice that in the 3rd pic, the girl is sitting on barrels of cooking oil. And the l

This is our moving van. We are loading our furniture to get it to our house. If you can see, the cushions are in the seat of the tuk-tuk. Rebekah and I both got in there as well! So much fun! Do you know what this is? The picture isn't very clean, but those are Pepsi bottles (l ltr). Inside of them is gasoline. These little stands are everywhere and, provided that you want gas that is a 'little watered down', you pull up and they sell gas. The green barrel is behind the stand. As you can see, it is selling for 3,500 riels; the gas stations sell for 4,100-4,400 riels. So it all depends on if you want cheap gas or gas that is better for your vehicle. Language school is plotting along. We know our consonants and, for the most part, our vowels. Now we are starting to put words together. One little problem...yesterday, he tells us that the sound the consonants make can depend on if the consonant is with a vowel or if it is the last letter of a word. Great!! Just what we needed!

This is a common sight in Phnom Penh - the entire family on one motorbike. Actually, this is not nearly as many as you see, but it was an easy picture to get. We got a motorbike from Tawn, who I will introduce to you later in this note, so we are learning to ride. Rich takes it most of the time, but I get a change to practice riding occasionally. This is a holiday and no one is out on the street, so I did take the opportunity to practice. The main thing for me is that, like I have told you in the past, traffic here is fluid; they don't actually stop. So, if they get to an intersection and need to turn, either right or left, they just pull out. I'm not used to people pulling out right in front of me. If you want to turn left, but don't know if there is an opening in traffic, you just take a tight left, drive toward oncoming traffice until there is a break to get over. It is quite exciting. So we are learning; but I still come to a stop at an intersection. Rebekah started le

Hey, friends: Thought I'd update you on the school a little bit. I have been teaching the Gospel of John for about 3 hours every day (starting September 11th). Yesterday I gave the students a test over John 1-11. It was 10 pages long, plus they had to write out their memory verses. (Those verses are John 20:30-31, John 1:1-5, John 1:9-14, John 1:29-34, John 3:1-5 and John 3:16-19). The questions were fill in the blank or essay type questions. All the students did well. (Maybe the teaching was great or maybe they studied hard.) It also probably means I did not expect enough of them. That will change. October 1st we added an Old Testament overview/basics class. It's held in the afternoon and taught by Tawn, my Khmer co-worker. It only goes an hour and a half, but is needed by several of the students. Many stories that we take for granted, these men do not know. George Carman is coming at the end of October to teach Hebrews in the morning class. That will allow me to focus on my l

Whenever you think you have a cruddy job, remember this picture! This guy sits by the side of one of the busier roads everyday, as does his fellow workers, straightening out bent up rebar. I'm not sure you could pay me enough to do that all day long everyday. Going to language school is even better than that. Remember the Big Chief tablet and huge pencil days? Well, back in kindergarten - that is where we are. I so feel like I need a Big Chief tablet as I try to write their letters. (Except in order to write their letters correctly, their paper is in squares, kind of like graph paper) I know I have told you some of this, but just as a brief overview: there are 33 consonants (all of which fall into 2 groups - the 'ah' group or the 'oh' group) and 28 vowels (or "wow-alls" as our teacher says) that each have 2 sounds. Then, instead of having 2 consonants side by side (ie. cl, sl, st, etc.) you have the first consonant and then the 2nd consonant is c

This is just a sampling of the traffic. Lots of motorscooters andbike. This is just one side of the road. As you can see, there are cars and motorbikes going both directions in the same place. They aren't aggressive, but they are 'fluid'. They don't really stop; they just keep moving around whatever. Rebekah and I did splurge Saturday and went to the beauty shop and got our hair washed and dried. It was about a 20-30 minute experience that involved a lot of head and neck massaging. It was great. Our splurge...$1 each. Pretty sweet, huh?? When you come, ladies, we'll make a point to go! Right now, we are having a beautiful rain! Outside, above my washing machine, there is a tin awning, so the rain sounds fantastic! You'll have to come and experience it with us. Today we start at the University with reading/writing language school. So far, we have had a month of conversational khmer. Nothing like going back to kindergarten and learning the alphabet

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