Been a long time...

October 6
Saturday
B-Day

On my birthday we didn’t do too much, but what do you expect here in Cambodia. No, really it was a good birthday. First off we went to church and after church Fay, Tim, Sharon and Tim provided lunch for me. It was really good. After lunch Fay and Tim took us to these ruins of old kings. We had to climb all theses stairs. Kind of fun! Buddhists believe if you give the beggars money, which the beggars are up and down the stairs to the top, you get good luck. So everyone was asking for money. Little kids were following us up to the top. They were fanning us. The kids just hope you have a heart and give them money for fanning you. I didn’t give money because I didn’t have any. That night we just watched movies at Rithy’s house. Other than that my b-day was good. I enjoyed myself.

October 7
Sunday

Today we were suppose to go to the river, but to many people are sick. So instead I just stayed home and worked on my grades and such, nothing much here. I did get to talk to my family this morning so that was good. Next week we get off Wednesday through Sunday. I’m pretty excited. Oh! Yeah Phil is coming this week. He is our friends from WWU. He is an SM in Thailand. I love Phil he’s so funny. I can’t wait to see what the Khmers think of him because he’s so talk. That reminds me…my brother might be coming to visit me. I will obviously pay for him plane ticket, but I just don’t know when I would want him to come. It would have to be when I have long vacation. This way I could take him to Ankor Wat. I want to go myself sometime. Angelina adopted from there; just a random fact. Heather went to Ankor Wat when we first got here with her pastor from Union College. Hey! Maybe Katrina, Phil and I will go this week.
I have been really worried about Choronei all week. I just keep wondering if he is going to come back. I hope so! I love that kid. I should talk to his brother, he cleans my room in the afternoon. Did I ever tell you? I have helpers now. At school we have this program called Meet me in Heaven. It’s just a work program for the kids to earn money for school. I am supposed to have one helper, but end up having 2 or 3. The girls here don’t do anything by themselves. If one friend has to help they get one of their friends to help out. I don’t mind it because this mean less grading I have to do. Besides I have lots of book grading to be done. I love my helpers. Their so cute, they were in my 7th grade math class. No worries because they were the good ones.

October 8, 9
Monday and Tuesday

I didn’t want to write about Monday and Tuesday so I just will combine the two days.
This week will be very fast. I love that! I’m hoping I will find something to do over this break. Let me inform you about this holiday. This holiday is set aside for the Buddhists to worship the death. The Buddhist believers during this week will go to the ruins to pay respect to the dead. The family has to buy food and sprinkle rice or whatever around the tomb. This way the dead will rise up and go look for food, but if the food is not their ghost will curse the family name and bring bad fortune. It’s kind of weird. This holiday is one of the most important ones, its right up there with New Years. I don’t understand why New Years is so important, but whatever I get the days off. Ok, I really have to use the bathroom again. I’m sure you all really wanted to know that. Love ya!





October 10-14
Wednesday – Sunday

This week was so relaxing. I caught up on my sleep and played really hard. I was so excited to know that in this country volleyball is mostly played. So Wednesday and Thursday night we played Volleyball at the school. It was so much fun. The boys get so competitive. I don’t know what to think about that. I just like to play for fun and its about winning to them. Ben and Rithy were making me mad while playing. Rithy kept singling me out. He just could not get it through his head that there are front and back rows. I played the front row most of the time and Rithy just wouldn’t drop the fact that he could not pass the ball to me. I don’t like to be singled out when there are 5 other players. I kind of mostly played the front row precisely to annoy Rithy. I wanted to let him know that I’m not the only player on the team. Although he is a good server, he served the ball right to me a couple of times. Oh, and Ben was a just a little to intense. He is kind of like my old Couch V. from high school, but instead of yelling where to stand Ben yelled how to play. Meaning every time the ball came to me he would yell easy easy easy now. Kind of annoying, I know how to play the game and I don’t like it when people are yelling. I didn’t mind Couch V. yelling because he helped me stay focused in the game and would remind me where to stand and tell me what I need to do next time. Ben just was annoying to intense for a game of volleyball game. He made it seem like a tournament; we where just playing a friendly game. Ben was winning a championship.
We also went swimming a lot this break. Yeema and I just went one day. We rode our bikes to the pool and Yeema crashed two times once going and once going back. It was kind of funny, but not at the same time. I was just riding normal and Yeema could not keep up. So I stopped to wait for her. When I looked back she was on the ground. I just started to laugh; I knew she was ok. I asked here what happened she said, “I just fall.” You see she had to go up this little curb and it was slanted, but she was not going fast enough so gravity took her down. On the way home she tried to pass me and got to close to me and swerve to the left then to the right. She was going to hit me so I just stopped and watched her loose control and fall. Yeema was alright. At home I made her food - spaghetti and chicken. We watched a movie also. It was chill. Later on that night we played volleyball again. Good times here in Cambodia.
Other than that my week was pretty un-eventful. Oh, Katrina and Phil went to Ankor Wat. I didn’t go because I didn’t have enough money to go to the beach and Ankor Wat this month (we have another week long break in two weeks). Katrina, Heather and I wanted to go to Vietnam, but we still don’t have our passports. So were going to the beach. It should be fun. Another reason why I don’t go to Ankor Wat, Jake is coming and I want to bring him along with Ben and Kim. I can’t wait for him to come. I was looking at the calendar and February would be a good time. We have Campmeeting here and we don’t have to go because its all in Khmer. So Jake could come one week before Campmeeting to help me out in my class room and the following week we will travel. I can’t wait to see him. It will be good to see some family.