Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA | Thursday, 20 December 2007 | Views [480] | Comments [4]
Jimripshure, hello from Cambodia. We are in Phnom Penh at the moment. We have had a wonderful three days introduction to the country. We stayed the first two nights in a guest house and last night and tonight staying with some of amys friends, Brent and Di Wilsmore and their five kids. Start at the start. We arrived here on the Monday night, bryan Hughes (works with SERVANTS to Asias Urban Poor who we know through TEAR in Adelaide) picked us up from the bus station after much negotiation with the bus driver, because amy and I had the lonely planet map, which is crap and had no idea where to go. The roads here don’t have names and are just numbers! So first nights we stayed on 278 st. and the house numbers aren’t in any logical order. So bryan came to save us. We took a tuk-tuk to the guest house and then went out to dinner Khmer (Cambodian) style. The food here is so good. Can get a beautiful meal at a nice restaurant for $4. we sat around low tables on cushions. Lisa his wife coulnd’t join us because she was sick (stomach upset from food). Then the next day, bryan picked us up again and we went on a tour of the TASK (one of the organizations SERVANTS works with) Womens health clinic. They do amazing things and I saw a school that is there. It is run out of one classroom and has two teachers, a morning class and a afternoon class. Then we went to the Toul Tom Pong markets and did some shopping while bryan had his language class. After that we joined the whole SERVANTS team at their team centre for lunch. It was nice meeting them, they are all pretty amazing people, as you can imagine, living and working in a place like this. After lunch I can’t remembver, that night we went ot visit bryan and lisa’s house in the slums. They have to move because their neighbours kitchen blows smoke into their one room home three times a day. So we helped pack a few boxes then went out to dinner with them and had frogs legs. they were good but really boney, so kinda hard to eat alot. Yesterday we went to visit brent and di wilsmore for lunch and have ended up stayuing two nights!! Brent is a principal at HOPE international Christian school. He took us to go visit, its really nice actually, I was expecting … well not so nice, but it is really nice for how big is it. They have 180ish students all from around the world. Some khmer, aussies, US, UK, Koren, etc, etc. the kids were on holidays though, so only got to see the grounds. I may come back and work here one day, see what God has planned. And last night we went to a carols by candlelight. I usually hate these things, but it was really nice to be singing “merry Christmas” and silent night, etc. it was put on by a few NGO (non gov. orgn.). so it was mostly westerners and a few khmer people. It was at a local bar which is about the only place ive seen so far that has green grass. So we sat there with our candles and I felt at home!! And I ate a minced pie, mum would know that I hate minced pies, but I really enjoyed this one. So there you go, this Christmas is such a different one for me!!
Today we are meeting up with a girl who is doing an internship with SERVANTS and she is taking us to her home and meeting her host family. Tomorrow we catch a bus to Siem Reap and going to spend a few days there. Prob only one day at Ankor Wat temples and then just relax and fly out to Bangkok on the 24th.
Thanks everyone for your emails. Its nice to still feel connected in some way.
HAVE A STINKING HOT CHRISTMAS (except for mum and dad in Kabul, hope you guys have a white Christmas!!like back in the 80s)
Love coby
Tags: Culture
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