06th - 12th March

The strangest thing happened this week: we wore jumpers! Not because we were ill and were suffering from a cold (or ‘man flu’) but because the temperature dipped below 30 to what we estimated to be 27C – ‘droh-chea’ (cold)! Jumpers for the morning, long sleeved T-shirts later in the day – felt like a British summer with a cool wind adding to what was a temperate climate for a few days!

The longer we are here the more and more we feel part of the family. We have our ‘western’ family with Matt, Nori, Emily and Sarah and our wonderful adopted parents – Alan and Andrene. We have our Khmer family of Chomno and Kim, their adopted daughter Mana (8 years old), Kim’s sister Eng, here husband and two children, all the restaurant girls and the staff who live at CHO. “Yung jia g’cru sat’dai muy” (We are one family)

It’s got to be said that by the time we have come to writing this blog, everything has become a bit of a blur and we’re not sure what happened on which days but we’ll do our best! We took the opportunity of a Saturday morning lie in and did not fall out of our beds until we smelt fresh pizza. Alan and Andrene taught the restaurant girls, Kim and Mana how to make pizza from scratch they tasted so good and was a great brunch! This was followed by watching ‘Ice Age 3’ with Mana, Alan and Andrene, Thea and Jeff. Jeff is a Pastor from the Calvary chapel church in California and is here for a few days to start to set up the bible school with Mao, which starts at the end of this year. He is returning in June to live here for several years whilst the bible school develops. In the evening we were hit by what was the biggest thunderstorm we have seen – a small token of what’s to come in the rainy season! A few drops of rain turned into a rain storm, leading to a torrent of water falling from the sky – standing on the balcony was exhilarating under cover, but when the wind changed direction we got drenched!

After church on Sunday morning, Chomno took us to the Casino Tropicana where we had their buffet lunch- ‘chingah(n)’ as you say in Khmer (delicious/tasty)! This gave us an opportunity to discus some of our ideas with Chomno. We returned to the Don Bosco sports centre where we played football and basketball with the under 14’s CHO girl’s football team – they are very cheeky with grins from ear to ear and they laugh constantly at us and our attempts to speak their language! We had a lovely evening at Eng’s (Kim’s sister) house with our Khmer family, Jeff, Alan and Andrene where we had an incredible BBQ, complete with roasted bananas and chocolate and endless games. They are all so wonderful and we love every minute we spend with them.

Monday was International Women’s Day, so some staff took the opportunity to take a holiday. There was no school at the Safe Haven, so we stayed at home and had a planning session with Chomno and amongst ourselves also. With no school at the Safe Haven today, the opportunity was taken to buy new shoes for the children. Many of them either have no shoes, are broken or are ill fitting, so Alan and Andrene (with a few CHO staff) took the children to the local market to buy everyone shoes. This was the first time many of them had stepped outside the 4 walls since April when the centre began. They went in small groups and came back with bright, colourful new shoes. They were so proud of their new attire and showed them off to us when we saw them later in the afternoon with smiles across their cheeky faces. None of the children have experience of a market (or very little), even a small one like the local one they went to and so meant that none of them were quite sure what to do. The beauty of the centre is that the children are safe, but, we do think it is important they have life experience so that they have an understanding of the real world because they can’t stay there forever; CHO obviously realise this but is difficult to implement appropriately. We would love your prayer support on this for CHO creating a suitable environment for the children to grow up in.
There are three houses, two ‘CHO’ houses with 24 children and a 3rd house with children that have been placed there by the government. These 9 children are all Khmer children who have crossed the border into Thailand illegally due to their parents and have subsequently been put into prison in Thailand. The Thai authorities send the children back to Cambodia but often their families just to send them straight back to Thailand where the same thing will happen to them again; to some children this happens countless times. Since the Safe Haven has opened, the Thai authorities have started to put these children here (and are more in ‘transit’ than at a home for them to stay) so this means they are not allowed to leave the centre. Their eyes are so deep and you can visibly see that there is something beneath their smiley exterior. We can’t begin to imagine what these incredible children have been through; all of whom we are so fond of and are a delight to be with.
In the afternoon we went to the safe haven and moved manure to the agriculture site, and in the evening we went out to a street cafe with Emily and Sarah to eat noodle soup.
We have been blessed with such a great family out here, so when we found out that it was Kim’s birthday on Tuesday, we had to do something. The restaurant staff had bought a cake and put up balloons, and we made a card to give to her, so we had a little party after home church at CHO, with all the guys who live here and everyone else at home church. There was music, dancing, with fun and laughter; the Khmer love a good shindig!

On Wednesday our schedule changed, so we now teach English at the safe haven in the afternoons, and do what we did in the afternoons in the morning. The mornings are when children learn better, so it makes sense for them to focus on Khmer and Maths then. Also it’s cooler for us to do physical work at the safe haven in the morning, so it works well for us!

Chomno is a visionary man, and he has a real heart for spreading the good news, so this week we started an outreach project outside CHO, involving music and testimonies on the street. It is from 7-8pm every Thursday, and we have a major responsibility in the event. It started small, like everything does, with mainly CHO staff, but the music captured the attention of neighbours and passer-bys, and we saw some people standing on the edges curious about what was happening, praise the Lord! We have loads of ideas about how to develop the event, and would love your prayers that this event would draw people in, and be a beacon, shining light in Poipet.

This week the White and Brown family’s children have been doing the bible studies at the safe haven for the children, and they have been teaching on the Easter story, continuing our story of Jesus’ life. It was nice to have a break and to see some other ideas on how to teach the children, they did really well despite being thrown in the deep end!
Unfortunately the Brown family had to leave on Saturday morning, so this Friday they took us and some CHO staff out for an amazing buffet meal at the casino. It was a good way to say goodbye, and they are so generous to take everyone out.

We hope that you are all well, and we really love your comments, keep them coming! We are looking forward to getting stuck into another week in Cambodia, till next blogging, Team Cambodia.