Adrienne, from Plains Mennonite Church, and her husband Adam recently started a MCC term of service in Burundi. I’ve been enjoying following her blog and I was inspired by her recent post on botanicals in which she shared her appreciation for the Plumeria. In Southeast Asia, Plumeria are commonly referred to as Frangipani in English….
Category: Daily life in Cambodia
Being a cross-cultural Mom
Being a cross-cultural mom here in Cambodia has been a learning experience. Things that had priority for parenting in the US have shifted and changed, influenced both by the expat community and the Cambodian culture. The most challenging part of parenting in the US was trying to figure out how to do it right. I…
Noisy Neighbors
Last month some noisy neighbors moved next door. They are cats and kittens!!!!! They live on the roof. They drive our dog crazy!! The mom cat teases our dog! Our dog whines and barks at night. So loud!! When my Dad checks the momma cat is sitting on the wall looking down at our dog!…
Catherine in Study Group
Catherine has been attending school online for most of this year but today she was able to meet with her class in a study group at another student’s house. You might remember that study groups were phase 2 of the Ministry of Education’s plan to reopen schools last August. It’s taken seven months to get…
A Simian Visitor
One morning this week Charlotte and Catherine were downstairs on the second floor playing when an unexpected visitor appeared on our balcony. It was a rather large monkey which knocked over our mango picker and then fled the scene of the crime. While monkeys are certainly common in Cambodia it’s rare to see them wandering…
Cellar Door and Morality
During a 1955 lecture noted linguist J. R. R. Tolkien, better known today as the author of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, claimed that ‘cellar door’ was more beautiful sounding than ‘sky’ or ‘beautiful’. In this he joined a long tradition of colleagues who held that ‘cellar door’ is among the most beautiful…
មៀន | Longan
មាន is the Khmer word for ‘have’. The Khmer phrase for rich person is អ្នកមាន, literally អ្នក ‘person’ មាន ‘have’. This is along the lines of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ in English. Longan fruit is មៀន, literally ‘fruit have’. This is the source of endless wordplay in Khmer. For instance តើអ្នកមានមានមៀនទេ, which is something like…
នំពំ | Coconut Waffles
One of the girls’ favorite street foods are Khmer coconut waffles or ‘Noum Pom’. These sweet waffles are moist and dense, not airy and light. They do have that delightful waffle crunch on the surface but shredded coconut lurks beneath the surface. They are typically eaten plain, traditionally served in a banana leaf and more…
Fishbones and the heart of the Mekong
I developed a dairy allergy in my teenage years. Since then, I’ve often been asked “how do you get your calcium without milk?” Well, calcium is available in many foods with dark leafy greens being of special note. One of my favorite sources of calcium is blackstrap molasses which is a fantastic sugar substitute for…
Best Mosquito Spray Brand Name
Between Dengue and Chikungunya, we’ve developed a healthy interest in keeping mosquitos away. There are few things more satisfying than frying the little bloodsuckers with a mosquito racket but we also use mosquito spray quite a lot. Since COVID-19 disrupted international trade, the brands of mosquito spray available here have been in constant flux and…