Catherine singing a song of her own creation up on the top balcony. She’s wearing her Bluffton University shirt so you know it’s a good song.
Category: Daily life in Cambodia
Playdough Artist
Per COVID-19 protocols, after our recent bout of illness, Charlotte had to stay home from School until she was completely symptom free and cleared by a Doctor. That ended up being about two weeks. In that time she fully made some progress on Playdough mastery (well, she at least impressed her dad!).
Phnom Penh Flooding
Seasonal floods are a blessing in rural Cambodia. The rich silt, fish, and water they provide have sustained life here for millennium. There’s a rhythm, a consistency, to these life nurturing flood waters. This week Cambodia, especially the capital of Phnom Penh, experienced a different kind of flooding that is becoming more and more common…
Sick, again, over Pchum Ben
Pchum Benh is a long series of ceremonies honoring the dead. The week long holiday is actually the conclusion of these ceremonies when most Cambodians travel back to their ancestral homelands and perform ceremonies to honor their ancestors. I’ll write a more detailed post on this another time but in Phnom Penh it is the…
Phase 2 – Study Groups
Last week the girls started with their new school, The Giving Tree. The Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports evaluated this International School as being in Phase 2 according to their COVID-19 prevention guidelines. This means that The Giving Tree has resumed in person meetings with appropriate safeguards but not in large groups or…
#27 Street 504
One year ago we were so grateful to inherit a furnished house and not have to look for a place to rent while navigating new jobs, new school, new culture, and so on. The house never quite fit us as a family but it was still a blessing. Especially during crisis times, like a factory…
One Year Anniversary
August 10 marked our One Year Anniversary in Cambodia. We celebrated by splurging on lactose free ice cream with sprinkles, dried fruit, and a banana.
Summer 2020 General Update
I wanted to give you all a quick update before getting into more specific details. YAMEN Departures: In my last post I shared that Moudy, our volunteer from Indonesia, made it home safely. Last week Jonathan and Victor, our volunteers from Kenya, made it home safely. There were a lot of COVID-19 challenges to navigate…
Home Alone (Well Almost)
For the first time since early March our family is home alone. Well, almost, we do have one returning IVEP participant doing her mandatory two week quarantine in the downstairs bedroom. But, given that she’s in quarantine, we don’t see her except to deliver meals. It was a blessing to have a full house during…
Sundays during COVID-19
It’s 7:15 on Sunday. We’ve been up for a few hours already, though we had a lazy snuggle with the girls in the pre-dawn light. The plants are watered, laundry put away, compost turned, breakfast cooked and eaten and girls dressed. I’m preparing to wash the floors before our isolation pod arrives for coffee cake…