It doesn’t feel like it but Christmas 2020 is just next week! Since Thanksgiving, the girls have enjoyed decorating the house, making holiday crafts, and baking cookies. And, of course, lots and lots of dress up! In November and early December there were two new outbreaks of COVID-19 in Cambodia. So things have been locked…
Author: Charles
Thanksgiving 2020
We celebrated Thanksgiving on the Saturday after Black Friday this year. It was a small gathering of MCC Cambodia expatriates. This included our services workers – Rory, Marcia, and Clivia – as well as our SALTers – Isabelle and Andy. We also invited Max Ediger a long time MCC alumni now living in Phnom Penh…
New Cat
The cat that we inherited, Sumo, is a great hunter and was quite bored at our new house. He kept on disappearing for weeks at a time until we’d find him again at a local kuy teav restaurant. Meanwhile, the MCC Cambodia office was having a terrible rodent problem. In short, Sumo got a promotion…
The flood car
In October we helped pull a car out of the flood zone. We were worried that the car wouldn’t run again but, two weeks later, we got to see it in action! It was worse for wear but able to be driven! The waters had not entirely receded by this point so it was rewarding…
Catherine Singing on the Balcony
Catherine singing a song of her own creation up on the top balcony. She’s wearing her Bluffton University shirt so you know it’s a good song.
Prey Veng Female Disabled Federation
Last week I had my first meeting with a local NGO in rural Prey Veng province, the Female Disabled Federation. We are hoping that this will be a new partner for MCC Cambodia working with people with disabilities in the countryside. Our Connecting Peoples Coordinator, Clivia, and Rural Education Coordinator, Maly, were the first to…
Playdough Artist
Per COVID-19 protocols, after our recent bout of illness, Charlotte had to stay home from School until she was completely symptom free and cleared by a Doctor. That ended up being about two weeks. In that time she fully made some progress on Playdough mastery (well, she at least impressed her dad!).
Phnom Penh Flooding
Seasonal floods are a blessing in rural Cambodia. The rich silt, fish, and water they provide have sustained life here for millennium. There’s a rhythm, a consistency, to these life nurturing flood waters. This week Cambodia, especially the capital of Phnom Penh, experienced a different kind of flooding that is becoming more and more common…
Sick, again, over Pchum Ben
Pchum Benh is a long series of ceremonies honoring the dead. The week long holiday is actually the conclusion of these ceremonies when most Cambodians travel back to their ancestral homelands and perform ceremonies to honor their ancestors. I’ll write a more detailed post on this another time but in Phnom Penh it is the…
Rory and Marcia
Last night our new Peace Coordinators arrived at the Phnom Penh airport after a harrowing journey from the other side of the world. Their first flight had ‘technical difficulties’… Which is the tactful way to say that it collided with another plane while taxing at the Philadelphia airport. This delayed their departure from Philadelphia causing…