Oh Ticks!

Over the weekend Crystal noticed that Leena had a tick between the toes of her paw. She tried to remove it but wasn’t successful. I don’t remember ticks in Prey Veng last term but, then, Prey Veng had roving bands of chickens. We looked up the name of Leena’s veterinarian and made plans to take…

Local Grocery Store

There isn’t a market in our immediate neighborhood of Phnom Penh so we need to travel some distance to a market, shop at a smaller grocery store, or visit a western style supermarket (there’s one about 15 minutes by foot from our house but…expensive!). I wanted to share some photos of the smaller grocery store…

Phnom Penh Mennonite

This morning I attended Phnom Penh Mennonite while Crystal took the girls to New Life Fellowship. Arthur and Phyllis, the Area Directors/our supervisors, came with me to Phnom Penh Mennonite and we met the five new YAMEN/SALT participants there along with one of the Exchange Coordinators, Phillip. The service format was greetings/introductions, three songs, three…

The Cat Came Back

The big disappointment we had when we arrived two weeks ago was that Sumo the cat had disappeared 1-2 weeks before we arrived. By the time we had been here almost 2 weeks I thought there was no way that Sumo would be back but… Needless to say the girls are very happy.

Three Churches in Cambodia

I thought you might be interested in seeing some some photos of the three Churches in Cambodia that I’ve visited (only one on Sunday) since arriving last week. Prey Veng Christian Centre This is one of the two churches that I usually attended when I lived in Prey Veng ten years ago (the other was…

First Low Point

We’ve been working on setting up a kids room at the house so the girls have their own space. We also thought it would be great for hosting families and might occasionally double as a therapy room for Crystal. We picked what had been the computer room – it’s in the hall between the kitchen…

First Monday Devotion

Crystal led team devotion this morning for MCC Cambodia. She had us build a house with Duplos without using our thumbs. Then, halfway through, she let us start using our thumbs but told us we couldn’t bend our elbows! Crystal asked us if it was harder to complete a task without using a part of…

Prey Veng Education Program Ten Years Later

On Day 6 in Cambodia (yesterday), I got out into the countryside on my first field visit to see Chhourn Maly at work. This visit was at the Kraing Kaet Primary School. I was the initial Partner Adviser for the education program in Prey Veng during my first term with MCC and it’s exciting to…

Along the Sewage Canal

One of my hobbies when I would visit Phnom Penh during my last term was to walk around the city. It is not a gentrified city, instead the poor live in makeshift homes squeezed into any free bit of land they can find. They live there until the land is sold out from under them,…

Our Trip from Pennsylvania to Phnom Penh

We were given a ride to the airport by a very interesting young Mennonite from Paraguay. He was volunteering for a year with MCC’s meat canner and planned to enter seminary on his return home. Originally, he was drawn to working as a Missionary in Nepal but had since felt called to the Low German…