My first official blog entry

Okay. So this is my first "official" blog entry. I haven't blogged anything yet, but have found the determination to find the time. For some reason, today, I realized it was important that people were able to keep themselves updated on what was going on here. 

I arrived in Siem Reap yesterday after a 6 hour bus ride. I have been spending all my time in the capital, Phnom Penh. I have been teaching English and bonding with the Cambodian youth (I feel that we bonded anyway) there. Phnom Penh is such a busy and bustling city. It's not like your average large city. To add on to ridiculous crowded streets there were so many new and chaotic things happening all round me. Horns blasted, Cambodians hustled around to many different places, and the tuk tuk (taxi) drivers never ceased to ask me if I needed a ride. My place of rest was... quaint. I had air conditioning, on the day we had electricity. I had no hot water; my day always started and ended with a cold shower. My washing machine... well there wasn't one. If I didn't want to spend 12 dollars to have a weeks worth of clothes washed then I had to wash my clothes by hand. The pastor offered to bring my clothes to his home and have them washed and without hesitation I took him up on that offer. My kitchen... now there was a hypochondriacs nightmare. We had geckos freely climbing around the walls (much like the rest of the house). Ants swarmed the counters and somewhere nesting in a hole in the washroom was my grandmother's arch nemesis. The cockroach. These hideous little vermin never ceased to arrive in the afternoons and late nights. I finally declared war on these tiny terrors and bought the roach nuke (aka Raid). I left the Raid in the kitchen and told the other tenants to spray at will. The next day I came home and the washroom floor was covered with little dead roaches. Apparently, the Cambodians had been killing the roaches fine, now the problem was there were dead bugs all over the area where the clothes and dishes were washed. Although many would complain about these living conditions, the Cambodians were grateful that they had a place to sleep and food to eat. After seeing how many of the poor in Cambodia lived, I also knew, I had nothing to complain about.

So, here I am now. I am here in Siem Reap. The city is so nice and I quickly took advantage of my chance to get a hot shower. Yesterday Chloe and I just went to a restaurant called The Red Piano. It was great to catch up with her and enjoy the company of someone who naturally spoke my native tongue. It made me feel like I have been gone from home so long even though I have only been gone a relatively short time. We talked for a while before heading to the night market. At the night market we notice a small group of people all huddled up. Naturally Chloe and I go to see what is going on. People were paying to stick their feet in this water and have minnow sized fish come and eat the dead skin off their feet. I knew then, I had to try this. Chloe and I dipped our feet in the chilly water and tiny fish swarmed our feet. Chloe let out a scream (apparently her feet are very ticklish). It did tickle. This was definitely a sensation unlike anything I had ever felt. This scene seemed to attract crowds so many foreigner came and tried it out. Chloe and I sat and had conversations with the many ethnically diverse people around us. After 20 minutes we took our feet out of the water and headed back to the Claremont (where we are staying). Chloe and I stayed up a bit longer talking about Cambodia before we finally decided to call it a night.

Today Laura (Lee intern), Chloe and I went to the Tonle Sap Lake. (If you don't know what that is, Google it.) This is where a lot of the poor of the poor live. This lake is their plumbing. Anything you need water for... well that's why the lake is there. The lake has all the answers! Need a drink? Go to the lake! Gotta go to the bathroom? Go to the lake! Need to wash your hair? Go to the lake? Want to go for a swim? Go to the lake! Okay... I think you get my point. Anyway, we went out to the lake to help Laura teach a class for the lake children. Honestly Chloe and I didn't really do anything. Aside from me telling a Bible story and Chloe leading them through a song, we mostly sat back and observed. Laura handled the children beautifully. She kept their attention and had them constantly working on something. Trying to handle kids that are 4 or 5 is hard, but imagine doing the same thing except the kids don't understand a word you are saying. One word: Notgonnahappen! Laura did such an awesome job though. I was very impressed. Later that day Chloe and I decided to get pedicures. I know it's not the manliest thing, but my feet were seriously beat up. I had been neglecting them, so I thought they deserved the care of a woman. Chloe suggested that I get green nail polish and I gave her the big N-O. But sometime during that pedicure my thoughts went back to my dad and how I let Paul Shull and Marty Benson take advantage of my poor cripple father only a couple months ago. I remembered how I sat back and watched as they painted my dad's toes bright red while he was unable to do anything to stop them. Funny? You betcha, but I couldn't let my father endure that kind of suffering if I wasn't willing to endure it myself. So, in honor of my father I allowed my pedicurist to paint my toe nails green. While I was getting my toe nails painted, the manager of the spa felt obligated to explain to me the difference between gay, lady-boy, and he-she. Why did he feel obligated? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I'm male and my toe nails just became cross dressers.

The europeans arrived late this afternoon. They are all really friendly. Tomorrow we go back to the Tonle Sap and we will hike up to this temple on top of a mountain. I'm glad. I can't wait to see how God affects the hearts of these europeans. We'll see how tomorrow goes!