Olympic Market

The Olympic Market was one of the three markets that I visited the most often during my term in Cambodia from ’06 to ’09. This was entirely because this was where buses heading to and arriving from Prey Veng could be found in Phnom Penh. The buses rarely left on time so that there were…

Cooperation Committee for Cambodia

On Monday, I attended my first Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC) meeting. The CCC is a group that coordinates and supports NGO activity in Cambodia among it’s nearly 170 members. What is an NGO? In the United States this is what we would call a nonprofit. But in international contexts the common term is Non-Governmental…

What are YAMEN and SALT?

I’ve mentioned Mennonite Central Committee’s YAMEN and SALT programs in a few posts. These are one year cultural exchange programs that send participants to countries around the world. The two programs are very similar with one core distinction – the sending countries. SALT (Serving And Learning Together) sends Christian North American young adults (ages 19-30)…

Oh Ticks!

Over the weekend Crystal noticed that Leena had a tick between the toes of her paw. She tried to remove it but wasn’t successful. I don’t remember ticks in Prey Veng last term but, then, Prey Veng had roving bands of chickens. We looked up the name of Leena’s veterinarian and made plans to take…

Local Grocery Store

There isn’t a market in our immediate neighborhood of Phnom Penh so we need to travel some distance to a market, shop at a smaller grocery store, or visit a western style supermarket (there’s one about 15 minutes by foot from our house but…expensive!). I wanted to share some photos of the smaller grocery store…

Phnom Penh Mennonite

This morning I attended Phnom Penh Mennonite while Crystal took the girls to New Life Fellowship. Arthur and Phyllis, the Area Directors/our supervisors, came with me to Phnom Penh Mennonite and we met the five new YAMEN/SALT participants there along with one of the Exchange Coordinators, Phillip. The service format was greetings/introductions, three songs, three…

The Cat Came Back

The big disappointment we had when we arrived two weeks ago was that Sumo the cat had disappeared 1-2 weeks before we arrived. By the time we had been here almost 2 weeks I thought there was no way that Sumo would be back but… Needless to say the girls are very happy.

Three Churches in Cambodia

I thought you might be interested in seeing some some photos of the three Churches in Cambodia that I’ve visited (only one on Sunday) since arriving last week. Prey Veng Christian Centre This is one of the two churches that I usually attended when I lived in Prey Veng ten years ago (the other was…

First Low Point

We’ve been working on setting up a kids room at the house so the girls have their own space. We also thought it would be great for hosting families and might occasionally double as a therapy room for Crystal. We picked what had been the computer room – it’s in the hall between the kitchen…

First Monday Devotion

Crystal led team devotion this morning for MCC Cambodia. She had us build a house with Duplos without using our thumbs. Then, halfway through, she let us start using our thumbs but told us we couldn’t bend our elbows! Crystal asked us if it was harder to complete a task without using a part of…