Intros and such

I will begin with introductions so for now on you know who I am talking about.

I mentioned Sherry picked us up at the airport. She and her husband Larry are the co-Country Representatives. Their house is several blocks away from the MCC office and it houses a cat, a dog, a goat, a monkey, 2 turkeys, and 2 guinea hens along with their two teenage children, Tyler and Nicole. Nicole is somewhat quiet, yet the more I see her, the friendlier she is. Tyler is on a trip to Egypt with his school and will return next week.

Ben is the MCCer who met us at the airport. He is shorter than I expected but the most helpful person I have talked to so far. He helped set up my host family in Prey Veng (whom I meet tomorrow on our first trip to Prey Veng) and since he had a difficult home stay, I trust his judgement. However, his term is over in February.

Elijah is fluent in Khmer and is probably one of the most outgoing of the MCCers. Everyone in Akron told me he picked up Khmer quickly, and they were right. He is not learning Chinese as he plans to go to China after his term is over in later next year. He also has a dislike for feline creatures.

Amy is the SALTer who works at a local university teaching English. She is friendly and I had several intersting converstations with her over the weekend. She has been here for 2 1/2 months and is on vacation with Andrea this week to the NW corner of the country where waterfalls and hiking trails flourish.

Andrea came as a SALTer, but continued on with a three year term. I haven't had much interaction with her, though Bud and Sheri said we would get along very well.

The Sanderval family consists of Julie, Robert and their three children, Bobby (late teens), Tatina, and Selah (both under 10, I think). Julie is working with 10 Thousand Villages to get Cambodian handicrafts into the stores in NA. She showed me some leafshaped earrings with the word peace in Khmer written on it; I would buy them.

Seina spent the past year as an IVEPer in Ohio. Now she is in the process of creating her own library. She is extremely friendly and her laughter is contagious.

The Graber-Neufeld family is also here. My former prof, Doug, is teaching at a local university. However, I have not seen them yet since they are currently on vacation in Vietnam.

Oh, and there's Charles. He is the rural agriculture advisor and will be in Prey Veng with me. He is very easy to spot in a crowd of Cambodians because he stands about a foot above them. So far, we have gotten along very well in that we are both in this transition stage. He has also been to Vietnam.

There are also some other Cambodian staff members I have not met yet. This past weekend was the annual water festival. One of the two largest festivals, it celebrates the end of the rainy season and the arrival of the cooler winds. Saturday Elijah, Ben, Amy, and Emily (Elijah's friend from college who is currently teaching in Manila) took Charles and I to the festival. On the Tonle Sap River, boats race once per day until the winner is annouced. Because of the holiday the MCC offices are closed and it's been rather quiet around here.

Sunday we went to Sihanoukville where we visited a ship, M.V. Doulos. This boat goes around and docks at ports all over the country selling mainly discounted Christian books, CDs, and tapes. It also had cookbooks, nature books, and medical reference books. However, I just came from American and have no need of any of these things. Before visiting the ship we went to the beach where I read the latest Newsweek and the local Phnom Penh paper in English. There were two interesting articles in the latter paper, one on fake drugs and the other on unsafe DYI abortions preformed in rural areas.

Yesterday Charles and I started language study. Our tutor (his name slips my mind at this point) is a short, older man full of forgiveness. The first phrase I learned was 'Good Day Sir.'' I would try to type it in the Khmer alphabet (this keyboard has both English and Khmer characters on it) but I do not know how to switch between them. I now know the numbers up to 1000 and common greetings as well as how to get from point A to point B. But after the second class I am still a little shaky on the pronounciation. Our classes focus mainly on the spoken word. Reading comes later after the alphabet is learned.

Last night the Groffs took Charles and I out to a Thai/Khmer resturant that was probably the best food I've had since I was here. We had stir fried pork and pineapple, chicken with cashew nuts, green curry, dandilion weeds, and of course rice. It was better than the curry soup I got on Saturday that had a hunk of congealed blood in it. (I didn't eat the blood). Charles keeps telling me the food is better in Vietnam (Dan Wessner would be proud), but I think it's good. But if any of you get the courage (and money) to come visit, you could decide for yourself.