O happy day

Today was a great day. I got pulled up for going through a red light. Now in my defense the light was green as kiwi grass (as opposed to Australian grass which can be many colours but seldom green). But, there was only five seconds left on the traffic-light counter-downer and by the time I got to the cops 30 metres the other side of the intersection the lights were, in all probability, as red as an Aussie desert.

Anyway, I digress. This was a great day. This would be the very first time in 18 months of living here that I have seen the police attempt to inforce a farely well known rule: if the light is red, then please stop. I was pulled over together with a couple of young ladies on their bike, who appeared to be stunned beyond words, and a Khmer bloke who most definitley ran the red. He paid the 5000 riel ($2 NZ) and was away.

The girls remained flapping mullets, stunned. I was initially peeved but then became so happy. On this day, at one set of lights in this city of 1.5 million, one group of local constabluary are pulling over red-light runners and white boys who are close enough to call it 2 bucks. Great! I eventually offered the 3200 riel or so that was in my top pocket (which seemed a better scheme than admitting that I had a wallet in my pants pocket) and continued with a happy heart :-)

Sunday big day

This last Sunday was an eventful wee time at the Healing Home.

Loading up tuk-tuk Vannat's chariot - complete with wheel chair. The rest of our people were carted off on the back of motorbikes.

The day started with an evacuation at 6.45am. Every one of our six patients and three family members wanted to head out to the first service at New Life Fellowship (7am start; second service is at 10.15am). I kept the cat company until everyone returned - then headed out to the second service, followed by expat cellgroup lunch and meeting at Mark and Jo's.

3pm and we had a friendly invasion from four great American girls, who came to spoil our people. They made up blankets, did the hand lotion massage thing and generally loved on and prayed for the patients.

Thanks girls - you were great!

Meanwhile, we were getting inundated with young people. A couple of cellgroups from New Life were having an end-of-year break up party (please tell me that this is not the end of 2008 ...) and we were the favoured venue. We hosted 30+ great young people.

Their specialty dish of choice - 'baby duck'. In the Philippines I knew this as 'balout' - boiled duck egg with a fully formed, feathered little ducking inside. Knock off the top of the egg and there is the little guy, bill up and cooked to perfection. Not today, thanks ...

My party lowlight - kebab sticks galore. They were great - and I have been doing loo runs ever since ....

Where there is food, there are teenagers ...

Big-hearted Hartley's

We have been spoiled again this week. Our very good friends, Kerry and Angela Hartley, flew in for three days as part of a missions trip that also takes them to Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. There is a lot of happy history between us. Kerry and Angie have been married 26 years - and I was there with the wedding rings in my pocket on the day.

I went hunting for Angie - and found her in the kitchen, quietly teaching little Douch our cook English. She did a bit of a language exchange too, and came out of the hour or so with a good little Khmer vocab!

It was a good week to have them here. After closing for the Water Festival week, the Healing Home has filled again rapidly. Tuesday was actually chaos day with neighbours in the yard, a very sick lady turning up un-announced and generally working through lots of stuff. Currently we have six patients in the home plus three family members, so all beds are taken. We'll introduce the new people later. There are some pretty huge needs.

Back to Kerry and Angie - they arrived Wednesday and departed today. Kerry took a great devotion teaching Thursday morning and followed that up with our first staff training session on Friday morning. They got to have time with friends mark and Jo over dinner at our place Friday night. Last night it was out for dinner with Donnie and Sophea - a belated 'thank you' to them for overseeing the Healing Home in our absence last month. Coffee with Colleen (Asian Outreach - from Tauranga) this morning was another relationship connection too.

Kerry is my legendry 'can-do Kiwi' example. Here he is fixing our water pump in the front yard - and yes, the water flows again! He also healed our overflowing water tank at home. I was as helpful as Dennis DeVito in 'The Castle' - passing tools and making happy noises.

Fruit of the land

Jackfruit coming on stream. This is delicious - and each fruit can weigh 5kg or more.

We are watching our fruit trees with anticipation. So are our neighbours - in fact they watch our mango tree near the front gate with long poles in their hands when they think we are not watching! I put that down to sowing and reaping from my childhood ....

A nice little bunch of mangos - these are a little safer from our neighbours as they're in the tree outside the kitchen.

These fellas we still have to be introduced to. The tree looks like a pawpaw but I think that they are a bit different.

Intrepid Kiwis

Annette from Manakau and Marion Beamish from New Plymouth, at the Healing Home. We know Marion from before Sue and I were married ... and that was in 1977!

We had a lovely visit today from a couple of kiwi girls who have come to Cambodia through a combo travel deal. World Vision link with Intrepid Tours to give these lucky ladies a cycle tour of Cambodia combined with a visit to their sponsored children and an additional day viewing World Vision development projects.

There has been such a response to this that World Vision put two tours, one week apart. The cycling takes them from Siem Reap in the north to Sihanoukville in the south - in nice, easy 80km per day stages ....

Road rivers

Sue and I had such a delightful evening over dinner with Peter and Bev van on Saturday evening, together with their friend and fellow-worker, Katherine. Peter stole the show with his hilarious rendition of his 60th birthday pressie from the kids - a parachute jump over Queenstown. He was so funny with his detailed account of how he missed all the sure signs that this was not going to be fun - like the glazed, dazed looks on the faces of those who had just completed their jumps, or the question 'have you ever suffered heart complaints'?

Peter and Bev; Susie and I. Sure the temperature has dropped a bit here now - a very nice 28 degrees by day - but Bev is wrapped up because of the air-con.

It was a fun night together and an excellent, relaxed catch-up. The fun did not end with the dinner, either. We were aware that there had been 'some rain' during our meal time - but a little surprised to find no visible road when we were looking to head home. Our dinner together was far from our home, right up in the north of the city, so we had a cross-city journey to accomplish.

The view from the footpath - pretty useless pic I know; one really has to be here to experience the vibe

So, we started the journey home by hitting the side streets in a totally unknown part of the city, navigating first past the lucky couple and their guests who had chosen this night for their wedding reception in one of those 'set up the tent in the middle of the road' affairs. All good; dry ground so far.

A k or so on and there appeared to be a bit of a shimmer ahead. A bunch of boys who u-turned gave a hint of what lay ahead, but real men don't u-turn. Besides, Susie is home now so I have a praying wife right behind me. Between her fervent prayers and her helpful advice on where I should be positioned in river road, we got thru' just fine and had a pretty clear run the rest of the way home. Phnom Penh is like that - rain all over but particular localised areas that just get inundated.

The Vans are back in town

We have Peter and Bev van der Westhuyzen in town for five days. Peter was here about four months ago, making initial contacts for translation work for 'Generation Ministries'. Peter and Bev are amazing folk, pioneering a ministry that trains childrens church teachers throughout Asia. Over the last 15 years they have developed and sourced extensive teaching curriculum and resources and travelled constantly, training workers across Asia. Much of their work is in very sensitive nations. Now they are wanting to have this hugely valuable material translated into Khmer.

How amazing - this is a couple whom we have loved and believed in for one-and-a-half decades and whom our home church have supported since they began Generation Ministries - and here they are, preparing to be a blessing into Cambodia. Life has so many unforseen connections. Another connection for you long-toothed CityLifer's in New Plymouth - Peter and Bev co-lead a church small-group with Peter and Rhonda Mountford in Pakuranga.

Bev made contact a couple of months ago and said that she was keen to run a mini ladies camp over a Friday and Saturday. With Sue away, Colleen has been chief organiser. With so many people away for this holiday week she has done well. We were hopeful of having our staff girls attend but they are in holiday mode in the provinces this weekend.

Anyway, we've filled the Healing Home with a ladies camp - and brought in a bloke to do the cooking and all bottle washing. Hopefully we'll get a dinner with Bev and Peter tonight or at least a coffee together tomorrow - as Peter has got meetings stacked up for almost all his time here.

The girls at breakfast this morning (above) ... note the vegemite (thanks, Annie!) and the gourmet omelette - and Bev with Colleen's girls (below)

Susie is home - and straight to the Koffee Korner

Sue is back, safe and well. She is navigating Asia with good skills now, fully informing the taxi driver that he was lost in Bangkok (for when she had to stop over the night). I am like totally and utterly lost permanently in Bangkok - it is a hideously-sized city. Anyway, the long missing wife is back in Phnom Penh just fine.

My trip to the airport to get her was marked with hilarity. An intersection on the way used to be so much fun, but has since been ruined with the introduction of traffic lights. This night, the lights were out and people were flooding into the city for the boat racing during Water Festival. The chaos was utterly glorious - gridlock to the max.

I used the time to observe new records - 12 adults and a little child in one tuk tuk; five teenage boys on one motorbike. It took perhaps 15 minutes to get thru' the intersection. Two hapless police with glo sticks and whistles were barely visible in the midst of everything. They may as well have been twiddly-winks players - the louder they blew their whistles, the more completely they were ignored.

The resident kiwis were well aware that Susie was back. Coffee on Thursday morning was the go with Colleen, Grahame and Sue Taylor and Sue Hanna - all NZ'ers and all living in our area. Susie supplied the choccy goodies.

The legendry, humble Pineapple Lump - world famous beyond NZ

Floaties

I was reading an article about Phnom Penh's water supply a while back. A bunch of work has been done to pipe clean water thoughout the city. This article claimed that Phnom Penh had been recognised as now having the cleanest water in the world. I want to see that claim emblazoned upon a Tui billboard ...

Algae floaties straight our of the tap

At home, we buy our drinking water in 20 litre plastic containers for $1. All good. At the Healing Home I was doing that but have shifted to two water filters - a simple but effective system that filters water through a big clay pot. I also use heaven's own supply, capturing water from a roof run-off and into 20 litre bottles. As long as I allow the first 15 minutes or so of a downpour to wash the dust and atmospheric grime away, the 'from above' water is great.

Rat trap came back

I've been clearing out an overgrown piece of garden - and lo and behold. We have reclaimed the walkabout rat trap, a full five metres away from where it was set. I've already met the rat that most likely did the walkie with said trap sconed on it's head. He's the size of a full-grown dog (as in chihuahua) and comes visiting from out of a drain 6pm-ish in the evenings.

Another year another Water Festival

Water Festival is almost upon us. This is second time around now for us - the beauty of living for more than one year out here. Big waka canoes take to the Mekong for the boat races, and Phnom Penh swells by an influx of some one million people. The vibe is already happening. I took a trip to riverside to pay the power bill and meeting with a local pastor. It is bedlam already out there; you can feel the weight of people already arriving into the city.

There is a wee problem this year, tho'. The wet season is meant to be over. Blue skies should be overhead. But ... neighbouring Vietnam has turned into a giant swimming pool and the rain continues to pour down here too.

Meanwhile, the Healing Home exodus is all over. Three patients and their families headed back home on Sunday and the remaining two patients, Sak and Ngeit, left today. All of a sudden we have gone from overflowing to empty. We're keeping busy tho' - always stuff to clean and do before the holiday week kicks in next Monday.

Chantol riding my steed, taking Ngeit and little Dtouch back home. They live in a village an hour out of town - "a very little house", Chantol reported, "with six children at home - and they all have colds". Ngeit is due back after the festival.