What a week!

I thought that I would fill you in on our week.  Right now, Rich is teaching Greek to some of our older students in the afternoons.  So, in the mornings, he studies and then twice a week, he goes to language school.

This last week, Sunday through Tuesday was just normal.  However, on Wednesday, when we got up early to go to the stadium to work out, we came downstairs to the entire bottom floor of our house underwater.  Ugh!  Water was spraying.  Since we live in Cambodia, and therefore can't drink the water, we have a water filter machine that pipes water into the machine and filters it for us.  Well, sometime in the night, the tubing that gets the water into the machine broke off, so all night, the water was just spraying.  

Luckily, all our floors are tile, so no harm there.  And the front doors (gateway) don't have a lip on them, so we could swoosh the water straight out.  So early Wednesday morning, for 30 minutes or more, Rich and I swept water out of the house.  And, since I was busy, there are no pictures.

 Friday morning, I just got home from going to the grocery store and Rich calls from language school.  They came and got him out of class to tell him that our motorcycle had been stolen out off in front of the school.

This is a picture of the front of our language school.  You can kind of tell that inside of the outside gates, there is a little area to park motorcycles and bicycles before going into the school.  Rich parked the motorcycle inside the gate on the left side.  

The thief was very fast.  Before the head of the school, sitting at her desk in the front, could holler and do anything, they came in and popped the handlebars and it was gone.  

So she went up to the class Rich was in, crying and crying, and apologizing about the motorcycle being stolen.

Rich called me to bring the motorcycle registration to the police station.

So here is Rich at the police station.  I am standing at the front doors while taking this picture.

 I didn't know if they would not like me taking pictures, so I didn't take any of the police officer at first, but later I was told it was ok.

The other guy in this picture is one of the teachers at the language school who came along to help.

 So, Rich had to tell you story again, then he had to write it out in English and then the police wrote it out again in Khmer.  Then everyone had to thumb stamp each page and sign.

 This is the front of the police station.  Each community in the city has its own police station for that area.
We do have insurance, so we will be given an amount that the motorcycle was worth after 3 months.  They give the police 3 months to "find" the motorcycle.  As theft is a big problem here, the only way it would be retrieved is if they happened to come across it.
So that was Friday.

On Saturday, we went with some of our students to a wedding in the province of Spue.  The groom, Sokchea, is one of our graduates.

These 2 pictures are of us (first Rich and then me) with some of the students.
Sopheany, in the gray, was studying at the school until her parents told her she had to quit to work and go to university.  But she is dating one of our current students so we are blessed to see her often.
The girl in the blue, Ganya, studied for a while, but she also had to work.
She was baptized just after leaving
 school, so she attends services with

us.  Lynna, in the pink, is Veasna's wife.  Veasna is Rich's helper at the school.
Then the 3 guys are dressed alike because they are groomsmen.  They kept telling me how hungry they were, since they hadn't eaten yet.
Their names, from left to right are:
Kimsrun, Rong, and Veng.
(We had to take 2 pictures since I was using my "real" camera and they didn't know how to work it.)

 This is us with the bride and groom, Christian  and Sokchea.

We arrived at the wedding at 6:30pm and ate.  Here, you don't actually attend the ceremony part of the wedding unless you are family are very close friends.  Everyone else just comes in the evening and enjoys a meal and brings your monetary contribution.
The contribution can go to paying for the wedding (reimbursing the parents) or go to the bride and groom, depending on how they decide to work it out.

These pictures aren't good of Christian.  She is really a beautiful girl, but by this time, she is really tired.  She has been up since about 3am to get ready for the first of the ceremonies and has changed clothes and hairdos 7-10 times.

We are very excited for this couple as both are Christians.  Please pray for them as they begin their lives together. Pray for them to be strong members of the Lord's church and serve Him all their days.

And that was our week!


A note:  I probably won't blog again until January.  We have the opportunity to meet all of our kids and our granddaughter in Seattle, WA for Christmas!  This will be our first Christmas together since we came to Cambodia 7 years ago.  We are ridiculously excited!!

I (Ronda) am going early, leaving here on Dec.14th, so start baking and making candy, and all the food and goodies that comes with Christmas.

Rich will be leaving Cambodia the night of Dec. 19th.  Starting on Tuesday (Dec. 9th), he will be teaching all day for that week and the next; so by the time he gets on the plane, he will be exhausted.  Nothing like spending time with our fantastic family to energize us!!  We will leave Seattle to come back home on January 2nd. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope you get to see family this year as well.  We know that we will treasure each moment that we are all together.
Much love,
Ronda