Sua s'dey! (Hello!)

Phnom Penh is currently recovering from some minor flooding that took place this weekend. A couple of weeks ago, I was thinking that the rainy season was coming to an end soon, but riding my bicycle underwater the other night proved me wrong.

(flooding at our university)






As I look back on these last 6 or 7 weeks, I marvel at how Father has provided and protected us in our transition. From falling off of my bicycle numerous times in the middle of traffic, to having night "visitors" come to our home while we are sleeping, to setting up a home from scratch, to beginning to learn a language and an entirely different way of doing even the simplest things, He has helped us every step of the way.

(entrance to our neighborhood market where we usually buy our fruits and veggies)


Right now, strangely enough, we haven't begun teaching our classes yet! While we were in Vietnam for training, we learned that this would probably be the case due to the fact that the school system in Cambodia is still very "broken" as they are trying to rebuild an education system that was completely wiped out only 35 years ago. Also, Cambodia has so many holidays, that when one is ending, it seems another one is beginning. These holidays can typically last for 2-3 days (or more) and often require people to go home to their province in order to fulfill some type of religious duty. The most recent holiday, called Pchum Benh, took place last week. Phnom Penh was almost deserted for 2 days because everyone went home in order to offer rice and other food to their dead ancestors. The belief is that during this time, the gates of Hell are opened for 15 days, where ghosts can roam the earth looking for food in order to ease their suffering. The more food a family gives to the pagodas, the better chances their ancestors have of finding food. Offerings can also be given to atone for past sins. All over the city wats (temples) there were lotus flowers being sold to offer along with the food. Every time I see a lotus flower, I think how sad it is that this gorgeous flower can not be used for anything but to give to a god who cannot see or smell its beauty.

So, if we haven't been teaching, what have we been doing all this time? After we got set up in our apartment (a long story in itself), we were each assigned a language tutor to come to our apartment a few times a week. My language tutor is very sweet and I've enjoyed developing a friendship with her over the weeks. But it was difficult in the beginning because Khmer is not like any other language I have studied before. And she had never tutored anyone in Khmer before, so she was a bit nervous to be my tutor. But I believe Father put us together for a reason, and I felt called to stay with her as my tutor, despite the rough start. She'll be teaching full time soon, around the time I start teaching. So we won't be able to study together as much, but I'm thankful for this time to learn from her and get to know her better.

(meeting some of Mindy's friends at a birthday party)

In addition to language study (and taking time to learn the culture through shopping at local markets, learning traffic patterns as we ride around the city, getting to know our neighbors, etc.) we have spent quite a bit of time on our campus. During registration week, we set up a table advertising a new program that Mindy will be teaching as part of a new major our school is offering (through an International Relations degree).

(Yes, those are our faces on a giant poster made by Vandenn!)

Thankfully, there seemed to be a lot interest from students. They are excited because the entire degree will be taught solely in English (Mindy will teach 2 semesters of an Intensive English Program to prepare them for this). This weekend we will test the students who have signed up so we can see what levels we're dealing with. We're hopeful that this program will grow over the years and become another way that we can serve our campus. Mindy is busy right now developing the curriculum she will use with these students! The rest of us will teach the 1st year students of Law and Economics, who will most likely begin classes the first week of November.


Another project we have taken on is renovating the English Library (which is also our office). It's turning out to be a lot of work, but we're loving the challenge. The ELI teachers have had the blessing of this library/office for about 10 years, and we think that perhaps it hasn't really been cleaned in 10 years either! Well, maybe it has, but since we decided to repaint and redecorate, we've realized how dirty it really is. The challenge has also been trying to figure out how and where to buy supplies. There is no "Home Depot" that you can just walk into and say, "I would like this color paint, please". After much troubleshooting and God's grace, we found a shop where a very nice lady sold us primer and the tools we needed. But for the actual paint, we had to order from a place that delivers from Siem Reap (where the famous Angkor Wat ruins are located). They delivered the paint to the school yesterday on a moto, despite the fact that the school was flooded! Its definitely been an adventure and has taken about 4 times longer than it would have taken in the States. But we feel it is worth it to go through all this effort. The purpose of the library is ultimately to bring glory to His name. We want to create a place where students can come and not only practice their English, but can be part of visions that we have of different outreaches. Or simply just a place to have conversation and friendship. Since there are no dorms on campus, its difficult to find ways to spend time with students. We are praying this will be a natural place to build relationships and share our lives.

(The finished product with 2 of our library workers and their first day on the job)

I've also been trying to keep up my guitar practicing. (Olivia, my roommate says I'm improving!) I'm thankful that I decided to bring it in the end. Perhaps I can get good enough to bring it to class sometime or play when we have class parties this semester.

Thank you for all your prayers and love. Please continue to pray for us as we get ready to finally start teaching that we could make the most of the short time we have with our students this semester. Also, we really desire to become proficient in the language so that we can one day share the truth in Khmer. This will take a long time, we know. But we keep at it in faith, step by step. Pray that we would have endurance in the learning and preparation season.

Akun (thank you),
Bekah