WEEK ONE DONE

What a week!

It started bright and early Monday morning with a trip to Baek Chan, the village that is home of Rescue. We stopped for an ice cold sweet Khmer coffee on the way and arrived to the unexpected world of teaching. Turns out that teaching at a place like Rescue is a little different than teaching in a school in Canada. For starters, the schedules are completely erratic and subject to change at a moment's notice.

For example: Classes were cancelled on Monday afternoon to attend a funeral service at a neighboring orphanage, which was 2.5 hours long, totally in Khmer. Classes were also cancelled on Tuesday, due to New Years Day, though we went to Rescue anyway. By evening we were ready to have a rest. Instead, we hosted 31 kids who took over the house for a Khmer Bible study...which, thankfully, was not as overwhelming as we thought it might be. The kids are extremely well-behaved (they even did the dishes), and they were out of there by 7:30 leaving just enough time for us to kick back for a bit and get ready for our first full day at the office.

Did I mention that the power is off at Rescue from 9pm onwards? All of the power there comes from a generator which runs from 6pm-9pm for sure, and at sporadic times during the day. This isn't really an issue though, because it is always sunny and everywhere we are has big windows. All the cooking is done over a gas stove, and because meat and vegetables are bought fresh every day from the market, a block of ice suffices to keep things cold. No fridge necessary, and at night, if the tv works- great. If not, card games and books take over pretty fast (we do have a battery powered light at our disposal).

The simple life in the village has worked well so far. On Wednesday we had 2 Rescue staff up to our place to teach us a bit of Khmer and eat some bananas. It was a good learning experience, and will most likely continue every Wed. night. Therefore, with kids up for Bible study Mon. and Tues. , and Khmer lessons on Wed., our days are full and our evenings are packed. There is never time for a dull moment, though when they come, dull moments are welcomed.

We came back to Phnom Penh on Thursday evening and spent the weekend drinking smoothies, hanging out with Tom (our buddy from Minnesota), and this morning we went to church. We also switched up our card-playing habits a bit from cribbage a bit to 2-man euchre, which is good for a change, but will not unseat crib as a favorite. That crib board has provided us with hours of entertainment all around the world, that's for sure.

Alrighty, time to continue the day. Still on the docket for the afternoon: a visit to the gym, a trip to the market, and a date with Chomper (our landlord's ridiculously well behaved black lab)

Tonight= lesson planning and packing for the week.

Good day, eh.