So we've been here one month and the time has flown by. It has gone so quickly and yet it feels like so long ago that we were at home, slightly jealous of the snow (yeh right, we are loving the regular 35C!). We find the days are long and the weeks short.
This week we had a slight change to our schedule as the children at the safe have had exams on Wednesday to Friday which gave a change to our days as we spent the mornings helping on the building site at the Safe Haven. On Monday and Tuesday we continued our series on Jesus' life with the children acting out Jesus healing a paralytic and the feeding of the five thousand; the bread we bought made it more practial for them and encouraged them to engage in the story. We taught them british bulldog, which they absolutely loved and we are sure will feature heavily in the games in the future - if you have any ideas of new games we can teach the kids then drop us a line!
In the afternoon of monday and tuesday we finished working on the plant nursery (attaching the netting to the scalfolding frame), and we have continued our Khmer lessons, with our dynamic teacher Dara. We think we are improving, and continue to work hard at it, well we say that...
This week Rebecca from Hope for the Nations arrived for one week, but is returning to CHO some time at the end of April. Hope for the nations have a big presence in CHO, probably contributing the most financial support currently. Rebecca is great fun and we look forward to her return later in the year, when she will stay for our remaining time in Cambdia.
On Tuesday evening after a really good home church, with quite a few other western faces and a great talk on Colossians 3:15-17, we enjoyed playing some games with the girls from the restuarant, Emily, Rebecca and Sarah. Musical statues, musical chairs and teaching the Khmer 'big fish little fish cardboard box'were highlights! And they taught us the traditional Khmer dancing, watch out UK.
For the rest of the week in the mornings we worked at the safe haven building site lending an extra pair of hands to move rubble. We once again visited two school on a mat projects playing games and singing songs. The kids at school on mat are different to the safe haven children, in a way we are not quite sure of, possibly due to their different lives and home environment. But they share the same enthusiasm for playing games!
On friday afternoon after a morning of moving rubble at the safe haven, we led the weekly prayer meeting, and this week started a series looking at the various aspects of prayer; what, how, why, where, and when. As we prepare for these sessions it makes us really think deeper about prayer and our own prayer lives. We would love your prayer support on this.
After this session we played music with the worship band, and then went to Pip's house for drinks and nibbles. Pip is a Christian who has set up the 'Christian care for cambodia'(CCFC) who organise football and other youth orientated events. In Cambodia there is no real youth culture, after leaving school you are expected to work, and so this is a really valuable ministry, in Poipet. After this we cycled (we have a push bike each) to Matt and Nori's and watched a film, and said our goodbyes to Rebecca.
Thank you for all your support, especially to Joy James (our Tearfund coordinator) who we recognise has worked so hard for us despite our lack of organisation, thank you. We know we have said this alot, but we love reading your comments so keep them coming!
With our love, and till the next exciting installment, ciao! (is that the right language?)
Monday 22 February 2010
Tuesday 16 February 2010
7th-13th Feb
Hello, greetings from Cambodia!
Sorry for the delayed blogging, but internet is still limited.
We had our first communion at church on Sunday, and felt a real sense of unity with the Khmer, and enjoyed the service. Later in the afternoon, we explored more of Poipet, visiting the local market, and continued to get our bearings in the town. The town is built up around a central highway, with a population of 150,000 people. The market is situated on one of the many unpaved side roads, full of potholes, dust and dirt; they get worse the further out you go. As we walked through some of the back streets shiny new 4 story buildings dwarf tin shacks, the contrast couldn't be greater, and rubbish litters the area.
We started our third week at CHO with our regular routine, which continued throughout the week. We start with the morning devotion. We are lucky to have so many English devotions (translated into Khmer of course) due to the many teams that come through CHO. Alex and Paul both led devotions, Alex's on Love and Paul's on The Sermon On The Mount. Unfortunately on Monday it was in Khmer so we've no idea what was being said, other than through the bible passage - even though we we all had different passages open, depending on our interpretation of the English translation(!), but it allows us to spend time first thing in the morning with God and preparing ourselves for the day. We then travelled to the safe haven (10mins) down the road to teach our English lessons and the bible class. This weeek we started a series of bible classes, looking at Jesus' life, starting at his birth, and we will continue to go through the main aspects of Jesus' teachings, death and resurrection over the next few weeks. We then continued the epic battle to teach 'safe haven baseball' - differing from the usual game, given the majority of the rules are lost in translation! We still dream of the day when we teach them cricket, and they understand it (by 'we' we mean Paul!),but this starts with teaching Calum! ('I get the jist of your inferior sport!' -Calum)
We continue to teach English in the weekday evenings to the CHO staff with ever increasing class sizes (for Alex! - totalling 24 to Paul and Calums 3 and 6!) This week we spent Monday and Tuesday working with the Agriculture team at CHO, where we are helping to construct a plant nursery at the end of the safe haven site. We have been moving rubble, and putting netting in place to protect the young plants from the intense sun; we have never fully realised that the expression 'dripping with sweat' could be an accurate description of ones predicament. We came across our first snake, but we are men, we can handle it (well most of us) and it got it's head mashed by the Khmer. On Wednesday and Thursday we vistied 2 more school on a mats, and had fun playing games and teaching songs to the kids.
We are still getting deeper into the Cambodian culture and history, and are looking forward to our week long holiday starting on the 20th, to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. We spent this weekend in Bangkok on an implusive holiday with Sarah and Emily. We are still surprised at the stark contrast between Cambodia and Thailand, literally within seconds of leaving the border. In Bangkok we spent saturday looking round a market, and saw 'Avatar 3D' in the evening. It was good to return to Poipet on Sunday, and we felt like we were coming home.
Love to all at home. Keep the comments coming as we love to read them. 'Til next blog.
Sorry for the delayed blogging, but internet is still limited.
We had our first communion at church on Sunday, and felt a real sense of unity with the Khmer, and enjoyed the service. Later in the afternoon, we explored more of Poipet, visiting the local market, and continued to get our bearings in the town. The town is built up around a central highway, with a population of 150,000 people. The market is situated on one of the many unpaved side roads, full of potholes, dust and dirt; they get worse the further out you go. As we walked through some of the back streets shiny new 4 story buildings dwarf tin shacks, the contrast couldn't be greater, and rubbish litters the area.
We started our third week at CHO with our regular routine, which continued throughout the week. We start with the morning devotion. We are lucky to have so many English devotions (translated into Khmer of course) due to the many teams that come through CHO. Alex and Paul both led devotions, Alex's on Love and Paul's on The Sermon On The Mount. Unfortunately on Monday it was in Khmer so we've no idea what was being said, other than through the bible passage - even though we we all had different passages open, depending on our interpretation of the English translation(!), but it allows us to spend time first thing in the morning with God and preparing ourselves for the day. We then travelled to the safe haven (10mins) down the road to teach our English lessons and the bible class. This weeek we started a series of bible classes, looking at Jesus' life, starting at his birth, and we will continue to go through the main aspects of Jesus' teachings, death and resurrection over the next few weeks. We then continued the epic battle to teach 'safe haven baseball' - differing from the usual game, given the majority of the rules are lost in translation! We still dream of the day when we teach them cricket, and they understand it (by 'we' we mean Paul!),but this starts with teaching Calum! ('I get the jist of your inferior sport!' -Calum)
We continue to teach English in the weekday evenings to the CHO staff with ever increasing class sizes (for Alex! - totalling 24 to Paul and Calums 3 and 6!) This week we spent Monday and Tuesday working with the Agriculture team at CHO, where we are helping to construct a plant nursery at the end of the safe haven site. We have been moving rubble, and putting netting in place to protect the young plants from the intense sun; we have never fully realised that the expression 'dripping with sweat' could be an accurate description of ones predicament. We came across our first snake, but we are men, we can handle it (well most of us) and it got it's head mashed by the Khmer. On Wednesday and Thursday we vistied 2 more school on a mats, and had fun playing games and teaching songs to the kids.
We are still getting deeper into the Cambodian culture and history, and are looking forward to our week long holiday starting on the 20th, to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. We spent this weekend in Bangkok on an implusive holiday with Sarah and Emily. We are still surprised at the stark contrast between Cambodia and Thailand, literally within seconds of leaving the border. In Bangkok we spent saturday looking round a market, and saw 'Avatar 3D' in the evening. It was good to return to Poipet on Sunday, and we felt like we were coming home.
Love to all at home. Keep the comments coming as we love to read them. 'Til next blog.
Sunday 7 February 2010
Day 19: 1st-6th Feb
Sua s'dei (Hello!) from sunny Cambodia where it is currently a mild 33C - it is getting hotter by the day!
We have continued to teach English at the safe Haven, and are getting to know these adorable kids really well; we've noticed they've become more affectionate and from the moment we arrive until we leave, we have children hugging and clinging on to us. We enjoy teaching them and of course playing the many games! This week we have tried to teach them rounders, which was interesting! A cricket bat does not lend itself to the game, and our lack of Khmer resulted in a bizarre match, but none the less was enjoyed by all. Stuck in the mud on the other hand went down a treat, and the times we have played it have been chaotic with kids bumping to each other left right and center! The kids at the safe haven have a kamikaze approach to sport and games.
This week we have started teaching some of the CHO staff English in the evenings. Paul is teaching the top set, Calum the middle and Alex the bottom. Teaching the CHO staff is a different experience to teaching at the safe haven, but makes a nice contrast. This week instead of having Khmer lessons in the afternoon, we have worked at some of the CHO projects. On Monday and Tuesday we worked at the safe haven moving bricks, and digging holes to help with the construction of the furniture workshop. The YWAM team were doing hair cuts at the safe haven, so Calum jumped at the chance to be liberated from his mop of hair, into a stylish new do. We visited two school on a mat classes on Wednesday and Thursday, and taught them some songs and games. The song 'Hallelu-Hallelu-Hallelu-Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord', never goes down well until you introduced sitting down and standing up to the different parts, it then becomes the best song in the world! We were struck by how simple and appropriate the school on a mat project is for the communities, and how it reaches right into the heart of these villages.
On Thursday we were reacquainted with the familiar taste of western food, enjoying the novelty of burgers and chips.
Calum led his devotion on Friday morning on weakness, and in the afternoon we led the weekly prayer meeting. We are scheduled to plan these meetings every other week, and have many ideas for the future. We did have to be gently reminded that we were doing it this afternoon, as it had slipped our minds(!) so we quickly put something together, and the result was received well. After this we went to a park in the casino district and played some baseball and football with Dara and Moses. As we have found, when you start playing sport anywhere, kids appear and join in. We had so little in common with these children, so dirty and unwashed, unloved, yet we were all equals and could appreciate the simplest of games, the international language of football.
We were able to have our first lie in on Saturday, and had a casual morning relaxing and catching up on sleep. We played football with the safe haven children in the afternoon - absolutely exhausting in the mid day sun, running around with energetic kids. On our way back we stopped at a local village where we had an impromptu volley ball match with some twenty kids. It amazes us how poor these areas are, practically living on a rubbish tip - this seems to be the case in so many areas of Poipet, as they literally deposit their waste outside their house. But despite this they are full of joy and with an everlasting smile on their face. On our return home Chomno greeted us and invited us out to dinner with the whole family, and the restaurant staff who we have spent a lot of time with. We enjoyed a pleasant evening with some good food, and some mystery meat balls in the soup which Chomno claimed to be 'sausages', though this failed to convince us! They are such fun to be with and despite the language barrier we love our time with them.
Thank you so much for reading this blog and keeping in touch with us, we love reading your comments, and given the limited internet use, we are sorry we can't always reply. You are in our prayers and thoughts we are looking forward to another busy week in Cambodia-Poipet.
We have continued to teach English at the safe Haven, and are getting to know these adorable kids really well; we've noticed they've become more affectionate and from the moment we arrive until we leave, we have children hugging and clinging on to us. We enjoy teaching them and of course playing the many games! This week we have tried to teach them rounders, which was interesting! A cricket bat does not lend itself to the game, and our lack of Khmer resulted in a bizarre match, but none the less was enjoyed by all. Stuck in the mud on the other hand went down a treat, and the times we have played it have been chaotic with kids bumping to each other left right and center! The kids at the safe haven have a kamikaze approach to sport and games.
This week we have started teaching some of the CHO staff English in the evenings. Paul is teaching the top set, Calum the middle and Alex the bottom. Teaching the CHO staff is a different experience to teaching at the safe haven, but makes a nice contrast. This week instead of having Khmer lessons in the afternoon, we have worked at some of the CHO projects. On Monday and Tuesday we worked at the safe haven moving bricks, and digging holes to help with the construction of the furniture workshop. The YWAM team were doing hair cuts at the safe haven, so Calum jumped at the chance to be liberated from his mop of hair, into a stylish new do. We visited two school on a mat classes on Wednesday and Thursday, and taught them some songs and games. The song 'Hallelu-Hallelu-Hallelu-Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord', never goes down well until you introduced sitting down and standing up to the different parts, it then becomes the best song in the world! We were struck by how simple and appropriate the school on a mat project is for the communities, and how it reaches right into the heart of these villages.
On Thursday we were reacquainted with the familiar taste of western food, enjoying the novelty of burgers and chips.
Calum led his devotion on Friday morning on weakness, and in the afternoon we led the weekly prayer meeting. We are scheduled to plan these meetings every other week, and have many ideas for the future. We did have to be gently reminded that we were doing it this afternoon, as it had slipped our minds(!) so we quickly put something together, and the result was received well. After this we went to a park in the casino district and played some baseball and football with Dara and Moses. As we have found, when you start playing sport anywhere, kids appear and join in. We had so little in common with these children, so dirty and unwashed, unloved, yet we were all equals and could appreciate the simplest of games, the international language of football.
We were able to have our first lie in on Saturday, and had a casual morning relaxing and catching up on sleep. We played football with the safe haven children in the afternoon - absolutely exhausting in the mid day sun, running around with energetic kids. On our way back we stopped at a local village where we had an impromptu volley ball match with some twenty kids. It amazes us how poor these areas are, practically living on a rubbish tip - this seems to be the case in so many areas of Poipet, as they literally deposit their waste outside their house. But despite this they are full of joy and with an everlasting smile on their face. On our return home Chomno greeted us and invited us out to dinner with the whole family, and the restaurant staff who we have spent a lot of time with. We enjoyed a pleasant evening with some good food, and some mystery meat balls in the soup which Chomno claimed to be 'sausages', though this failed to convince us! They are such fun to be with and despite the language barrier we love our time with them.
Thank you so much for reading this blog and keeping in touch with us, we love reading your comments, and given the limited internet use, we are sorry we can't always reply. You are in our prayers and thoughts we are looking forward to another busy week in Cambodia-Poipet.
Tuesday 2 February 2010
Day 13: 23rd-31st Jan
The fact that you are reading this is an achievement in it's self as a series of unfortunate events have resulted in delaying this post! We are still yet to get internet on our laptop, it's in the pipeline.
Last Saturday, we visited the local market in Poipet, which is made up of a maze of small streets, crowded with people and produce. In the afternoon we played football, with forty plus kids under 16 and some CHO staff, in a local field. It was great fun and good to get stuck in with the youth work that CHO do, football is a global language, so communicating was no problem. In the evening we had a bible study with Matt and 3 guys from CHO.
We experienced our first church service on sunday morning, and we were amazed at how similar it was to our own churches, with both worship and a talk in Khmer. The worship was very familiar to us as we knew many of the songs, translated from English. For the rest of the day we planned lessons and bible classes for the following week, and relaxed before our first full working week.
On Monday we started our English lessons, bible class and of course new games at the safe haven centre. The safe haven is a centre for children and women who have been rescued from the merciless human trafficking industry. The school on the site was opened in October, and there are many new developments taking place on site, including a carpentry workshop for vocational training. We each teach english to a class from monday to friday for 45 mintues, and then all the classes gather together and we teach a bible story to them together.
On Tuesday instead of going to the safe haven, Mao, a senior manager of CHO, took us to visit the various projects in and around Poipet that CHO do. This started by visiting an HIV/AIDS hopsital in the centre of Poipet. There is a large clinic for dailty outpatients, and a smaller ward for those who are too ill to live at home. The hospital it's self offer support and medical care for over 300 patients. It was incredible to see the work CHO do in action. When entering the smaller ward, for those seriously ill, we were struck by the helplessness of the people lying there, and how AIDS really devastates lives. We were all moved and found it difficult how to react appropriately, this is something we would appreciate your prayers for, as we want to serve in the hospital. We moved onto a motor bike training school, where a new class had just begun to teach children how to fix motor bikes. This is an example of the many vocational training projects that CHO provide. The children obviously enjoyed it and were very good at it as far as we could see! This was followed by visiting a sewing buisness and sewing school, also one of the vocational training projects. After lunch we visited two safe houses which provides orphaned children with a new foster family, giving them a hope of a better future. School on a mat is a informal school class which are held in the villages surrounding Poipet. Children who otherwise wouldn't be able to attend school can recieve a part time education four times a week. They teach; Khmer, English, Maths, Sanitation and Hygine, Human Rights, as well as trafficking and HIV awareness. The last stop was a small holding run by a man and his family, CHO provided the neccessary support and training for them to start this buisness which now supports the family.
From Wednesday to Friday we continued teaching at the safe haven in the morning which we love doing and also the Khmer lessons. Both Paul and Alex have led a morning devotion each this week, Calum will do one next week! On Friday after teaching in the morning, we attended the weekly prayer meeting and bible study. This was led by Anna from a YWAM team who are currently visiting CHO, and we enjoyed the message on hearing God's voice. This was followed by the first of a series of seminars led by Dr Susan, a missionary from America and her friend Dona who founded the charity 'Hope for the Nations', who support CHO. We were greatly challenged by this talk, on recieving Jesus and living with him in your life, and look forward to the talks to come. The three of us have also played a few 'special songs'- these are worship songs from the UK, which they asked us to do. It was nice to play music and worship together.
On sunday after the morning church service, Dona and Dr Susan invited us to spend the afternoon with them at Siem Reap. We leaped at the opportunity to see more of the country, and enjoyed spending time with them, as they are so humble and fun to be with. We were amazed at the contrast between Poipet and Siem Reap-it is much greener, bigger and cleaner. We visited a vibrant market in the centre of the city, full of aromas and colour. As our time was limited we unfortunately could not visit the renouned Angkor Wat, our fleeting drive past it wet our appetite for when we plan to visit it in a few weeks. We reutrned to Poipet in the CHO van which has been affectionately named 'the death mobile', given it was hotter inside than the 30C outside!
We are really enjoying our time here, and feel that as every day passes we are more at home and settled. Thank you for all your prayers, they are so appreciated, please keep them coming! Tune in next week for another exciting installment, we have no idea when that will be though.
Last Saturday, we visited the local market in Poipet, which is made up of a maze of small streets, crowded with people and produce. In the afternoon we played football, with forty plus kids under 16 and some CHO staff, in a local field. It was great fun and good to get stuck in with the youth work that CHO do, football is a global language, so communicating was no problem. In the evening we had a bible study with Matt and 3 guys from CHO.
We experienced our first church service on sunday morning, and we were amazed at how similar it was to our own churches, with both worship and a talk in Khmer. The worship was very familiar to us as we knew many of the songs, translated from English. For the rest of the day we planned lessons and bible classes for the following week, and relaxed before our first full working week.
On Monday we started our English lessons, bible class and of course new games at the safe haven centre. The safe haven is a centre for children and women who have been rescued from the merciless human trafficking industry. The school on the site was opened in October, and there are many new developments taking place on site, including a carpentry workshop for vocational training. We each teach english to a class from monday to friday for 45 mintues, and then all the classes gather together and we teach a bible story to them together.
On Tuesday instead of going to the safe haven, Mao, a senior manager of CHO, took us to visit the various projects in and around Poipet that CHO do. This started by visiting an HIV/AIDS hopsital in the centre of Poipet. There is a large clinic for dailty outpatients, and a smaller ward for those who are too ill to live at home. The hospital it's self offer support and medical care for over 300 patients. It was incredible to see the work CHO do in action. When entering the smaller ward, for those seriously ill, we were struck by the helplessness of the people lying there, and how AIDS really devastates lives. We were all moved and found it difficult how to react appropriately, this is something we would appreciate your prayers for, as we want to serve in the hospital. We moved onto a motor bike training school, where a new class had just begun to teach children how to fix motor bikes. This is an example of the many vocational training projects that CHO provide. The children obviously enjoyed it and were very good at it as far as we could see! This was followed by visiting a sewing buisness and sewing school, also one of the vocational training projects. After lunch we visited two safe houses which provides orphaned children with a new foster family, giving them a hope of a better future. School on a mat is a informal school class which are held in the villages surrounding Poipet. Children who otherwise wouldn't be able to attend school can recieve a part time education four times a week. They teach; Khmer, English, Maths, Sanitation and Hygine, Human Rights, as well as trafficking and HIV awareness. The last stop was a small holding run by a man and his family, CHO provided the neccessary support and training for them to start this buisness which now supports the family.
From Wednesday to Friday we continued teaching at the safe haven in the morning which we love doing and also the Khmer lessons. Both Paul and Alex have led a morning devotion each this week, Calum will do one next week! On Friday after teaching in the morning, we attended the weekly prayer meeting and bible study. This was led by Anna from a YWAM team who are currently visiting CHO, and we enjoyed the message on hearing God's voice. This was followed by the first of a series of seminars led by Dr Susan, a missionary from America and her friend Dona who founded the charity 'Hope for the Nations', who support CHO. We were greatly challenged by this talk, on recieving Jesus and living with him in your life, and look forward to the talks to come. The three of us have also played a few 'special songs'- these are worship songs from the UK, which they asked us to do. It was nice to play music and worship together.
On sunday after the morning church service, Dona and Dr Susan invited us to spend the afternoon with them at Siem Reap. We leaped at the opportunity to see more of the country, and enjoyed spending time with them, as they are so humble and fun to be with. We were amazed at the contrast between Poipet and Siem Reap-it is much greener, bigger and cleaner. We visited a vibrant market in the centre of the city, full of aromas and colour. As our time was limited we unfortunately could not visit the renouned Angkor Wat, our fleeting drive past it wet our appetite for when we plan to visit it in a few weeks. We reutrned to Poipet in the CHO van which has been affectionately named 'the death mobile', given it was hotter inside than the 30C outside!
We are really enjoying our time here, and feel that as every day passes we are more at home and settled. Thank you for all your prayers, they are so appreciated, please keep them coming! Tune in next week for another exciting installment, we have no idea when that will be though.
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