Hobbit Feet: Welcome to Middle School.

Today I noticed my feet are swollen. My toes are all chubby and red and my fingers are swollen as well. It is because of the heat. Every day the temperature is around 90 degrees F. I call my feet, hairless hobbit feet. LOL :D

In orientation, the focus was on middle school. I learned that I have the attention span of a five year old. Even when i asked a question and someone gave the answer I would start to daydream. Again, orientation consisted of us sitting through classes as if we were in middle school. However, today all the classes in the morning, were bible classes. Normally I would love bible class, but it got boring. At least in elementary school the kids get to color. haha ;)

I have become friends with some of the teachers. Mostly the young ones and the teachers helpers since they are more open to talk to me and know the most English. Most of the teachers cannot speak well English which makes me wonder how they teach all their classes in English... I wonder if they really do speak English to the class all the time. One girl, Ratana who is my age and is a teacher's helper told me she would take me to the river front this Sunday to hang out. That should be fun and I'm looking forward to it. The only conflict that has occurred while being here, is there are too many people to do stuff with. Sumariah and Nahah below me are always waiting to do something with me. Hannah and Grace ask me do go with them when I have plans with other people and now Ratana. I love it, but I am terrible at telling people no, I already have plans. I need to learn. I want to do stuff with everyone. :D At least it is a good problem to have. I could be lonely, but that is definitely not the case.

Lunch was yummy. The Khmer (Cambodian) food we had today tasted very similar to a mix of Thai and Chinese food with a little bit of french bread added in. Gotta love the mix of cultures.

After orientation I went to the Tinan Market with BJ, Whitaker, and Evek (I honestly don't remember his name. I need to know it though. He was the math teacher last year.)Anyways... Cross your heart... Whitaker drove a Moto with BJ and I went with Evek. It was WHit's first time driving one. Definiatly made it interesting. The first intersection we went through the moto stalled. haha at least he survived. :D I rode side saddle at first because that is how proper ladies ride. Boy, it does wonders to your back! That is why on the way back I decided to sit like a guy. Evek wanted me to sit like that in the first place anyways. The culture is changing so it does not have a Taboo like it use to. I'll probably sit side saddle again, just so I don't have to worry about offending anyone. (p.s. I remember his name now.. it's Vanak)

We stopped and had ice cream after going to the market and Swenson. It was Eveks first time going into Soryia mall. That surprised us. BJ left his camera charger at home so we also stopped at a Cannon store. The people tried to rip him off after he paid by bringing the wrong charger and saying it was the correct one. Moral of the story is, do not pay till you get the product! Eventually they did bring out the right one after a few tries.

Want to know what is funny. The sun sets at 6:30 at the latest and will only get earlier through out the year and the heat drains all energy, so by 9:00 I am ready to go to bed. That means I am up and full of energy by 5:30 and that is after waking up at 5 and going back to bed cause I have a few minutes. I enjoy it though cause I like watching the sunrise. My porch is 3-4 stories up so I got a great view over the town. The steeple of the church is right above me. Akrim says the cross watches over me. It would take a lot for anyone to get to my apartment during the day or night. This is how I get to my place.
1. Walk up a flight of stairs passing the mission offices and then walk past the church entrance
2. Go through a locked door.
3. GO up two flights of stairs.
4. Go through a locked door and pass Akrim and Alia's apartment.
3. Walk up winding stairs
4. Go through my locked front door.
(I knew living on third floor at Lamson was preparing me for something :D lol)
I did not include the locked gate with the guard at the entrance of the mission compound :D. So mom... no worries, I am as safe as can be.


p.s. the rich people's houses are HUMUNGOUS!!!! and beautiful. It seems as if people are poor or rich. Not much in between. A lot of the nice houses are Korean. A lot of the development that is occurring in Phnom Penh is funded by them.

p.s.s I also learned today that mission work in Cambodia started in 1992. So the longest any of the teachers have been Adventist is since 1992 and the one that has been one since 1992, his Dad's a pastor. The church is really young here. Also since most government officials are Buddhist, it is illegal to hold evangelistic series, or go door to door. Sometimes our church can do stuff however, because ADRA has been here for ages and has good standings with the government. There is lots of work to be done here. Two out of three children who go to the school I work at have no idea what a bible is when they start school(and that is an optimist statistic) However as one looks at older grades, the more Christians there are and a majority of the 12th graders are Christians, so that is a good indicator that the school is doing amazing mission work.