Clay Pots

One of the peacebuilding exercises that we’ve seen Women Peace Makers (WPM) and Peace Bridges Organization (PBO) use here in Cambodia is to split the training participants up into small groups with the assignment to work together to paint a clay pot with their vision of the future that they want for their communities. This…

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!).

Lotus Imagery in Hanoi

The national flower of Việt Nam is the lotus. On my trip to Hanoi the first weekend in January there was lotus imagery everywhere. But what special meaning does the lotus hold for the Vietnamese? What can be more beautiful than the lotus in the pond? Green leaves, white flowers, yellow stamen. Yellow stamen, white…

SDGs Cultural Performances

On December 12, Charlotte and I attended a Cultural Performance event on the Sustainable Development Goals. I was interested to see how they would adapt traditional performance art to this subject matter. Churning of the Ocean of Milk The first cultural performance told the Hindu myth of Samudra Manthan. In this myth, Devas and Asuras are…

Picture Frame Shop

I visited the Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville, Pennsylvania before we left North America to find special gifts that speak to the Anabaptist identity. As globalization and consumerism have spread, it’s become harder to bring gifts from North America* that can’t be found here and harking back to older traditions is a way to ensure…

First Visit to Royal Palace

I visited the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh this afternoon as part of my orientation to Cambodia. I wanted to share some photos for the girls.