Good Evening all,
Wow! What a day we had. I hope I can stay awake long enough to make this post. We began our hygiene seminar today. We had a liesurely morning. We all went a block down and around the corner to an internet cafe to make overseas calls to home. Yes, I got to call my parents to check on my 4 legged babies (It was good to talk to them too.) We made 4 calls. The longest was about 25min. The total bill came to 5300 reil. That's about $1.50! Try calling long distance in the states for that!
Matt came to pick us up at 11:30am to go to the church. We were supposed to have lunch with all the students before starting the seminar at 2:00pm. Some of the participants had to travel quite a distance to come into Phnom Penh for the seminar. Several were delayed, so we didn't go to the church until 12:30. We had time to waste. It was hotter today than it has been, so Matt took us to a local cafe for ice coffee and tea. After ordering, we asked Matt how he new of this place and that they used purified water and clean ice. He looked at us and said "In retrospect it may not have been a good idea to come." The ice was not the safe kind and I don't even want to know what water they may have used. Matt said "Just drink it fast before the ice melts." Thanks Matt! So we are trusting in God's protection and mercies to not get sick. Please make that a prayer request for us.
After having lunch later than planned the seminar started on time. Guess who got to go first and break the ice with the first lesson. Yep! That'd be me. Even with all my butterflies and a little confusion over the handouts we had made, it went really well. The students were hesitant at first but some small group discussion time relaxed them. There was great interaction for the rest of the lesson.
After the seminar ended we stayed and joined a weekly prayer service with the church pastor, elders, and all that were at the seminar joined in too. Pastor Sokah gave a brief message, some singing followed by prayer. Even though it was all in a different language, we still felt a part of it. God's language is universal.
Some young ladies in the church were busy all afternoon preparing a dinner for us. Everyone gathered after the prayer meeting to share the meal. We had cabbage and chicken soup, some fresh greens, tomatos and cucumbers. Then Jillian had to face her worst fear for the trip. They treated us to a special fried fish dish. A whole fish, head to tail, that everyone shared and picked off of. Jillian doesn't like fish but she was a trooper. It wasn't bad and they had several different sauces to try with it. Again we run the risk of picking something up from the food but we are sure it was as carefully prepared as possible. I'll let you know in future posts how my stomach is doing.
There is so much I could tell you but it is already 9:30 and we have to be ready to go to the church at 7:00am tomorrow. I start off the day with a lesson on personal hygiene that completes all my teaching duties for the seminar. Mark teaches tomorrow afternoon. Tyla and Jillian finish up the seminar on Friday. I know we are a
day ahead of you in California, so you probably won't read this until after Mark and I are done, but please continue to pray for all of us as we teach and for the students as they receive the information, process it, and decide how to apply it in their lives and communities.
I'll post again as soon as I can.
