Friday, October 13, 2017

A Year Later...

A year later and...

I can say a total of 5 Khmer phrases. It's quite pathetic really.

 Hello
 How are you?
 (I am fine is the same as how are you - so really, I could count that as two)
 Sore throat
 Thank you
 Like a good Canadian - Sorry

Greg, on the other hand, is deep into his language training. He is amazing. After an early morning exercise, he leaves the house by 7:30am and does not return until 7:30pm. He puts in a full day of work and then heads off to language school every week night, only to practice/study after dinner. His commitment to learning the language is exemplary. He even still manages to wash the dinner dishes every night. My heart.

Driving is no big deal anymore. I will never forget how afraid both Greg and I were to drive the first time in Phnom Penh traffic. We are ol' pros now, dodging motor bikes, people, goats and cows all vying for the non existent lane. I did manage to get stopped twice in one morning by the police last week, paying the on the spot bribe fine.The GREEN light I drove through became YELLOW while I was going through the intersection, so I was stopped whilst others behind me driving through the RED were not stopped. The officer saw me rummaging through my wallet where I was looking for a $5 bill and he saw a $10 and loudly barked, "10 okay, 10 okay". So frustrating. I wasn't the most godly in my initial response but I am grateful for passenger friends who calmed me down. My other violation was turning right on a yellow light. The real violation is being a foreigner (barang) and driving downtown.(Hey, that's another Khmer word I know, so I'm up to 6!)

We have figured out how to parent from abroad, made easier by children who are committed to regular communication with us. Thanks to technology, this life is doable in terms of family. It helps that I was able be with them this summer and that they are coming at Christmas. The time difference makes it easy to connect every day with beginning of day and end of day communication times. We continue to edit papers, resumes, emails and advise on love lives. (my favourite part of parenting!) Greg's input is that missing the children has been a combination of becoming empty nesters and living so far away.

I am quite frustrated with our living arrangement in that our area has been experiencing long power outages. Living without power is not fun in mid 30 temperatures, not being able to even run a fan. The other issue is losing groceries that are not properly refrigerated during the outages. I am frustrated enough that I went apartment hunting as buildings have generators. Greg needs a little convincing. There are pros and cons to moving but now is the time to decide as our yearly contract is up.

We are settled into a routine of living and are quite happy. In many ways, we live with much less stress in terms of daily living. The only house responsibilities we have are grocery shopping, cooking and gardening. (Greg is enjoying caring for the plants and I enjoy the cooking and grocery shopping)There isn't much stress associated with either of our work places, so hopefully we are looking younger with all this lack of daily stress.

Greg's health seems to be improving even though he's been eating sugar again. His PSA numbers, which we monitor every 3 months since his prostate cancer diagnosis, have gone down from 6 to 2! Thank you Lord!

Greg has found an intelligent geek crowd for him to enjoy Ham radio with. In fact, there is a weekend world wide competition coming up that we are planning our holiday time around.(CQ worldwide DX contest) He's also back into his origami with copious amount of varied, well priced paper at the Japan $1.90 stores.

We have made life long friends in just a year. My favourite part of living in a developing country is that people have time for one another. I feel so lucky to have young, single girl friends not that much older than my daughter, and friends that are also living miles apart from their adult children. There are plenty of children to love and babysit. Greg calls me the neighbourhood Grandma, which I don't appreciate. :) People make this life doable.

We continue to feel called to serving the disadvantaged in Cambodia through the NGO work of Ratanak and by teaching the children of people who do amazing things for this country. When hard days come, like Thanksgiving weekend or 2 days power outages, we remember how God lead us here. We recount all the events that brought us to this place and we draw strength from His leading. Ratanak provides member care for us that included a 2 hour Skype session with a psychologist in Toronto last week.It was helpful to have someone ask the right questions and listen to our stories and experiences because he can't tune out since it's his job! :) We are thankful our NGO takes care of us in this manner.

We know all the hot spots to visit so now is the time to visit! Actually, elections are approaching this July so you should probably wait until they are finished. I cannot write or post about such issues further but you can google the politics in Cambodia if you are interested. You could pray for our safety during these times too, if you think of it!

A year later and it's hard to believe that 12 months have passed.