Kep and Christmas

The past week has held several exciting and eventful experiences. Last week when I returned to Prey Veng, I decided to start a garden. Sounds crazy right? Planting a garden in December? The rainy season is over and November is the beginning of the regular planting season, so I am slightly behind. Buntha, my host father, said I could have a plot of land between the mango trees in the backyard, so Monday afternoon I started digging. I asked my host mother for some cow manure, and after trying to explain what that was, the nephew came back with a sackful. However, once he saw what I had started, he said the ground was too hard for me to dig myself and proceded to rehoe what I had accomplished. So my garden has turned into a community project. The main reason I wanted to grow vegetables is to have something else to do and contribute to my family in some productive manner. Tomorrow I will plant corn, green beans, cabbage, lettuce, and califlower. Larry told me those tend to grow the best here.

Thursday Charles and I returned to Phnom Penh. I worked on my finacial report all day. Friday the single MCCers went to Kep on a singles retreat. Kep was a popular resort town on the coast from the colonials days until Pol Pot (1920s-1960/70s). While the old cement mansions and beach houses are still present, the houses are more ruins than habitable structures. But the ghost town feeling is not everywhere; the crab market is flourishing, there are boat rides to several islands in the bay, and several pepper farms and caves to visit. We stayed at a lovely resort where we stayed in private bungalows and had a fantastic view of the beach from the resturant. Overall, the weekend was very relaxing and fun with a healthy dose of pranks thrown in. And I can say I spent Christmas Eve at the beach, which in my opinion is much better than the VA or PA cold.

Christmas was nice, thought it felt more like a summer picnic with turkey. The MCCers, along with the Saudermans (China MCCers) and the Graber-Millers met at the Groff's house for the typical Christmas dinner-turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, etc. Andrea and I made pies for dessert- apple, pumpkin and coconut cream. After the meal, I got a chance to talk to Keith Graber-Miller who is head of the Goshen SST group coming next month. I put in a good word for them to send a student to Prey Veng for the six weeks the students will be working in the proviences. :) After a couple hours of talking, a volleyball game was started, though it was interesting to dodge the Cambodians who came over to jump on the Groff's trampoline. Later we played Oggle.

The most memorable part of the weekend was when I decided to call my family Sunday evening which would have been Sunday morning in Pennsylvania. Amy told me I could ride her bike since it was later in the evening and she would not need it. While I was talking to my mom and grandparents, the bike was stolen. The power went off twice, so the lady was busying rebooting the computers and was not at her desk at the front of the shop. When I left the cubical and started rambling in Khmer "Where is my bike?!?" she was as confused as I was. So I walked back to MCC. Usually motos are stolen, but bikes aren't exempt from that either. Today Amy will get a new bike...and helment, and it's nothing to worry about.

Happy New Year everyone!