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Showing posts from April, 2008

Stolen

Our moto got stolen on Saturday! In the afternoon from our house. Rebekah and I had gone on the moto to her dentist appointment and got back to the house around 10:30. About an hour after that, we took the car to the airport to meet my uncle, who is here looking to see if he wants to do some business. Rich and Rebekah came home from the airport. I went with Harvey to his hotel and then we came got to our house about 2:30pm. Sometime between there, our moto was stolen. We thought that we kept the gate closed and locked and the moto was in the locked position (which our students said is easy to get out of). We have decided that they were probably watching, since we were in and out all day. The positive side is that our boys won't be tempted to want to drive it when they get here, because there is no moto. Unfortunately, there are bad people everywhere. Just the breaks of the game. Our car, however, is out of the shop and seems to be doing well. And, of course, there are m

People in our life.

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OK. The first picture is of my mom and dad, Loren and Penny Hollingsworth. They were here for part of February and March; Dad was teaching in the preaching school. I just now pulled this picture off my camera...how bad it that! Anway, we really enjoyed their visit and look forward to next time. The next picture is Jerry and Mary Alice Cantrell. They were here for 2 1/2 weeks; Jerry was also teaching in the school. We have enjoyed everyone that has come and stayed with us. It enables Rich to spend more time on language since he doesn't have to prepare to teach for 3 hours as well. Today one of my uncles is coming. He is looking to see if he wants to do business here. I am anxious to see him! The really exciting news is that in under 2 1/2 weeks, all of our boys should be here!!! We can't wait! As a side note, someone ask me, after the last blog, if the bananas were better here. YES! All the fruit is great since it ripens on the tree instead of on a boat, truck, etc

Want a banana?

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Well, Khmer New Year is over and the city is slowly getting back to normal. There are still a few shops that are closed but most are back up and running. This is how they transport bananas. There is a 'U'shaped wooden rack under those bananas that they tie the banana stem to. Then they just park at the market and sell them off their moto. We do have bananas here that the peel stays green; they are harder to pick out (since they don't turn yellow), but they are really good! The 2nd picture I took because of the guy sleeping in the bed of the truck on the rebar. We were on our way to language school and there is traffic everywhere. Must have been a hard day of work! Rebekah made it back from her trip to Thailand. She had a wonderful time visiting all of her Thai friends. Love, Ronda

HOT HOT Season is here!

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Here, if you have a cart, you have a business. You can either push them, pedal them, or attach them to your moto. This pictures is of a corn on the cob cart and a noodle cart. It's great! The other pictures is our recycling. We see them all over town pulling these carts loaded with recycling. Most have a little horn that they 'honk' as they go down the streets. It is HOT season! April is the hottest month here. Because of that, people use more electricity. In order to control that, they shut off the electricity to sections of town periodically. It can be for a few minutes or half the day (that's the longest time so far), it can be during the day or at nighttime. It can be once every few days or multiple times per day. We never know. And, it is really hot when you don't have any fans or anything. It is Khmer New Year here (actually starts on Sunday). So the students are off this afternoon and headed for their hometowns. Most businesses will be closed until the 16th.

Just different stuff!

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It occurred to me that I hadn't sent you the picture of the man carrying the toilet on the back of the moto! So, here it is. Let me just say that I am positive that it was not a new toilet (or a clean one) By the way, a lot of the people here wear the face masks. The next picture is of a lady riding on top of metal boxes on a moto. Usually, those metal boxes have fish (live) in them. She is also a good example of how they hate to be in the sun; it was probably 85 F at this time; they totally cover themselves up - they want white skin. The last picture is of Rich teaching chapel one morning at the school. A few other interesting facts: labor here costs nothing, so car repairs are cheap - just a little more than the cost of the parts. However, other things are not. Here are some examples: if you work out liters to gallons, diesel cost $3.75 per gallon and gasoline costs $4.08 per gallon. Now for the shocker...we buy the cheapest milk...it works out to $7.19 per gallon! Mu

Who would believe it?

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This picture is Ronda teaching at the Ladies' Day last month. Monday - Rebekah and I were going to go with the students to teach and preach in a village. The church there needed to wait until Tuesday. That worked out well, because the water pump went out on our van (that we were going to take). Instead, I ended up staying with the van for about 5 hours Monday afternoon. The mechanic came to the van and replaced the pump there. (I've only seen one tow truck in Phnom Penh and it's owned by the police.) Tuesday - the students all went out to the village. Tawn taught a lesson, then the students taught in small groups. They repeated that process several times during the day. Our van was still acting up, so the students loaded 7 people in a car and the others drove motor bikes. They left at 6 a.m. and returned about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday - the van was well, so the students took it at 5:30 a.m. They did a lot of teaching. Two people were converted and there will be more in the fu

My parents, Loren & Penny Hollingsworth

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My parents were here for about 6 weeks. Dad taught in the school all day so Rich could concentrate on language. It was great having them here. We had a wonderful time. On Thurs night, we had the students and Tawn over for supper and a devotional. Dad also tried to teach the students how to lead songs, some did real well and some...well couldn't really get the arm/mouth coordination. It was good for a lot of laughs! The last picture is of Sothea and Dad trying to lead a song. The 3rd picture is of Dad teaching and Tawn translating. We are blessed to have this group of students and to be able to have good teachers come and help them learn. Jerry & Mary Alice Cantrell will be here on Saturday (Apr 5th) for 2 1/2 weeks to teach. We start Level 3 of language school today...our versions of April Fool's Day. We are going to try hard not to look like Fools!! Much love to all of you, Ronda PS. Sorry it has been so long since I have written. Time flies!