Ukraine and Colonialization

This week, I’ve been thinking back to a conversation I had during our MCC orientation in 2019. This occurred during a session on colonialism. The facilitator split the participants into two groups based on their skintone – people of color were to discuss the legacy of being colonized and white people were to discuss the…

War, Peace, and YAMEN.

A joint initiative of Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite World Conference, the Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network (YAMEN) is a year-long Christian service opportunity for young adults from outside the U.S. and Canada. This cross cultural exchange sends young adults between developing countries, where they live with a local host family, attend a local church,…

Gratitude

The flavors and textures of gratitude are many. There’s the quick and sharp relief gratitude that the red ant which got in my hair while sweeping the courtyard didn’t bite me. There’s the bone deep, breath-stopping gratitude of seeing pictures from my 16 year old niece’s car accident and knowing she miraculously got out with…

COVID-19 finally got us Two Years and a Month Later

The first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in Cambodia on January 27th, 2020. It’s been a long two years of caution, disruption, and uncertainty. As leaders here, we’ve tried to walk the line between modeling appropriate precautions and being calm and reassuring. This month, for the first time in a over a year, we started…

Dog fights and culture fatigue.

I will admit that while there have been plenty of times of missing people, places, foods and the ways of doing things back home, I had yet to grow tired of Cambodia. Perhaps because of Covid my culture shock curve is doing strange things, but I continue to wake up every day amazed that I’m…

Chhin Ya’s Garden and Fishpond

In rural Mesang district, Prey Veng province Mennonite Central Committee partner Organization to Develop Our Villages (ODOV) supports rural Agricultural Cooperatives across 90 villages in adapting sustainable agriculture practices, healthy food preparation, conflict resolution, gender and domestic violence prevention, and organizational capacity. In a recent interview, one farmer told ODOV about how life has changed in her…

Action Alert: Stand up against violence in Myanmar (Burma)

I wanted to share this action alert from the MCC advocacy office in Washington, DC. This line of advocacy is the one supported by our partners in Myanmar and, while the results are uncertain given Russian/Chinese support for the military coup, the fruit of witnessing for peace and justice often appears in unexpected ways. Please…

The Soul Nourishment Show

Tune in to Family FM 99.5 at 1PM Monday through Friday to listen to the Soul Nourishment Show featuring Neema Atieno. Family FM 99.5 is a ministry of MCC partner Voice of Love Cambodia. Neema is a participant in MCC’s YAMEN exchange program from Kenya and is currently serving with Voice of Love Cambodia as…

Several Vaccinations this week

This week Crystal and I received our first COVID-19 booster shot. We could have gotten it back in August but decided to wait until it had been six months since our initial dose. It ended up taking longer than that because we were vaccinated by the Military, not the Ministry of Health, and had some…

Mosquitos

Here in Cambodia, the mosquito we watch out for is the Asian Tiger mosquito. It’s identifiable due to black and white stripes on the body. The tiger mosquito is usually a little larger than other mosquitos and can potentially carry dengue and chikungunya, which we are all too well acquainted with, as well as zika…