Living in Cambodia

Most of this post will be lessons I learned ... and food related ;-)

1. Don't be so cheap!
Golden Farm Peanut Butter $3.60 Highway Peanut Butter $3.30 ... definitely spend the extra 30 cents! The cheaper one was not very good! The same lesson goes with bread! I will no longer buy the cheap "bread," but will pay a little more for soft, bread that actually tastes like bread! What was I thinking? ... However, I have found some less expensive milk that is still good! $3.80 for 2liters. ... And I thought milk in Oklahoma was expensive!


2. A "medium" pizza will not feed two people! Now I know to order a large!

3. Cucumber does not equal Wintermelon! Cucumbers here are a lot smaller than ones in the states, but wintermelons are about the same size as cucumbers in the states. Needless to say, I bought wintermelon to go with our salad :-( Luckily, Crystal thought to cook it like squash and it was a lot better!

4. Sometimes the laundry room has to double as an office ... like when you're looking up a recipe for chocolate chip cookie dough!


5. Some things are pretty inexpensive! I got 1 medium onion, 4 roma tomatoes, 10 limes, and cilantro for $1.75! Some things are more expensive. Post Honey Bunches of Oats is $4.60. Some things are about the same price. Post Selects are also $4.60. The off brand (Magic Time)is only $2.20. This particular box tastes simlar to stale Apple Jacks, but it's not too bad!


6. Some things you can't get in Cambodia :'-(


I love cereal (if you haven't noticed)! I've eaten it every morning for breakfast for many many years! Sometimes it makes a great dessert or snack between meals.

* 3 weeks in Cambodia = nice farmer's tan! ... I must start using sunblock!


* Movin' on up! I rode a bicycle for 2 weeks, now I am driving a moto! We thought it would be fun to take pictures on our bicycles! :-) Pictured below is my first time driving the moto! Having a motorcycle definitely made learning to drive a moto a lot easier, but it's a lot differnt ... mainly shifting. The moto is semi-automatic. Who knew I would actually miss the clutch? It's also wierd driving with flip flops ... people who do that in the states are crazy, but here it's completely normal!


* Getting a flat tire fixed ... $1.25 ... and a learning experience. I'll be glad when I know the language! I drove up with a flat rear tire and the guy was talking, but I didn't recognize a single word. Eventually he said, "by poan" which is 75 cents. I repeated it and said "jchaa," which means yes! Then he took the tire off, showed me a hole and said "moy dolla" which means one dollar. I repeated several times "moy dolla?" (wonderig if he was adding "moy dolla" to the "by poan", or if it was "moy dolla" total. Oh well, that's what I get for not speaking Khmer).He then fixed it, aired it up and found a tiny hole. As he patched it I wondered what my final total would be. He got done and it was $1.25! Not too bad! These were the best pictures I could discretely take with my phone!


* Whatever you buy, you have to figure out how to carry it home on your moto. Crystal and I bought some wood frames and drove with them on our shoulders!Another learning experience!(the big one was only $2 and the small ones in my basket were only 25cents each) Oh and I should've mentioned, I got the flat tire on my way home, carrying all of this! :-)


* This is how most Cambodians wash their laundry. We are so blessed to have a washer!

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year was being celebrated most of this week. Most schools and many businesses were closed Monday through Wednesday for the holiday. A lot of the students go to their hometown to celebrate with their families. Most Cambodians burn incense and fake money and prepare food to offer their deceased ancestors. There were also dances performed in lion costumes.

Our believing students dread this time, because their family wants them to help prepare food and give offerings. Because of their faith in Christ, they do not participate in the celebrations and often receive persecution from their family.

Many places are closed. The picture on the left was taken in the Russian Market. The one on the right was just a random street. It was so weird. Normally the city is packed with people. If you can imagine Norman during the summer, it was similar to this city during Chinese New Year.


Burning incense and fake money.


Lion dancers.




These are a couple passages that I turned to in this time.

1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him. Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. 8But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

Romans 14:1-23 Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only.The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, everyknee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shallgive praise to God." So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this-not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.

Let me show you around my apartment ...

This is our apartment, with my roommate Crystal standing in front of the gate. We live on the second floor. You can also see our "dryer!" ;-) The Cambodian flag is not normally there. I took these pictures on the weekend of the king's funeral.



This is where we (the people who live on the third floor, Crystal, and I) park our motos and / or bicycles. It is normally packed with motos, but the people up stairs went to their hometown that weekend. I've been borrowing this bicycle from one of the wives on my team!



The view of the front door from the kitchen, and the view of the kitchen from the front door! :-)



The kitchen and the view (at an angle) from our kitchen window.



Our "laundry" room / our washer! You've already seen our dryer! :-)



Our bathroom and my roommate! Haha!



When you walk in the front door, the kitchen is straight ahead, the hall is to the left, and there is a wall on the right. My bedroom is the first door on the right. Crystal's is the second door. The living room is at the end of the hall.



My bedroom and the view from my bedroom window as seen in June 2012. Can you find Waldo ... I mean Crystal?!? :-D

Above: The current view from my bedroom window.

On the right: The building next to our apartment.(It has come a little ways over the past seven months! Every morning last summer, Marie and I woke up to guys working on this building. Then, only the painted part was built, but not yet painted or plastered! It is easier to see the differnce in the view from the kitchen!


Crystal's room!



Our living room! The big doors go out to the balcony which is where the dryer is!


The picture on the right is the view outside our front door to the buildings behind our apartment.
OOPS! That is not actually my bedroom window (picture on the left) ... it's the 3rd floor! We live on the second floor! :-)