very worst

Bong Andy showed me a blog a couple of weeks ago; Jamie The Very Worst Missionary. I gotta admit, Jamie is hilarious. The reason the blog makes me smile is that I can see some very worst close to home.

Don't get me wrong... some days I'm awesome. Like a couple of days ago... I was gunning through the 'slum' on my moto in order to teach English and share the message of Jesus in comfortable fluency of the students' own native tongue. The road was sketchy as... I'm talking true 'training for a career in motor cross when I'm done with being a missionary' rated. I dodged small, nimble, semi-naked children. I navigated craters I swear were caused by meteorites colliding with the earth seconds before I hit the path. In all this legendary, pioneering service I even managed to remember to wear a sports bra.... So yeah, some days I'm pretty awesome.

But even in my awesomeness, I am prone to say and do inappropriate things. Like a couple of nights ago when I said to the new missionary guy in town, "omg- you're such a girl!" (which I really didn't mean because he's totally hetro and very manly... except when it comes to his passion for shopping...). Then there's the time I accidentally called one of our male staff "baby". Oops. There may have been times when I've been on holidays and returned to the guesthouse riding the borrowed bicycle with a little less dexterity and a little more laughter than when I set out... or nights when I maybe shouldn't have replied to that Cambodian boys' 2:30am text.

I had a moment this morning. There was a six-year-old boy at the gate about to go through the rubbish. This is normal. But he arrived about twenty seconds after I'd just put back the garbage that the other young boys had strewn over the front of my house while looking for stuff to recycle. I admit there wasn't compassion, mercy, generosity welling up within me. I called out, "Oi! You can open the garbage bag but don't chuck the rubbish everywhere so it's messy.. got it?" The kid just stared at me with big, dark, helpless eyes....making me feel so bad I literally ran inside to see if we had anything to recycle still left in the kitchen. I found one Coke can. I jogged back to the boy while he was scrounging through the banana peels and chicken bones and put the can directly in his scrap-collecting bag. He stared again. I felt like the biggest seven o'clock in the morning biatch ever.

So, yeah... pray for the missionaries. The best and the worst ones.

first distribution

Photos of Maivi, Harley & Johnny receiving the teaching supplies donated by Michel & Siyoeun last week.

blessed are the meek

I like this definition of meekness (from Aristotle):

The one who is truly meek is the one who becomes angry on the right grounds against the right person in the right manner at the right moment and for the right length of time.

Yay Banteay Meanchey!

Photo: The Phnom Penh Post

It's official: in our Province there are some emerging, rock star soccer players! In Yesterday's Phnom Penh Post "...unbeaten Banteay Meanchey proved far too strong for Siem Reap as they clinched the 2010 National Women's Football Championship with a 4-1 victory in the final." I wouldn't be surprised if one or two of the Banteay Meanchey team members came from the Poipet High School team that played in our local league in January. (Wow!)

Good Kind

Children in Poipet are hungry for education but lack basic materials.

At Preh Jesu Baptist, for example, up to fifty children attend a weekly Sunday School program that teaches literacy, songs and bible verses. Sunday School is free but the children are encouraged to bring a notebook so that they can record their lessons. The problem is that most of the students don't have a notebook. Instead, they borrow one from an older brother or sister, even though each page has already been filled! They want to please their teachers and they're keen to learn. They just need an exercise book.

Johnny recently opened a teaching centre at his home, just a few hundred metres from a local high school. He charges the equivalent of US$1.25 per month for daily one-hour English classes. However, some students can't afford the additional US$1.25 for a textbook. They either share with a friend or just listen in the class.

A few months ago some French-Cambodian friends in Siem Reap expressed an interest in helping.

Siyoen grew up in Cambodia but fled to France in the early 1970's. She married Michel and together they raised a family and opened several businesses. Now approaching their retirement years, Siyoen and Michel own and run the Good Kind Guesthouse in Siem Reap. In Khmer it's called the Good Heart guesthouse. Good Heart is a fitting name because Michel and Siyoen have a passion to help Cambodians continue their education.

Last weekend they gave cash to buy school supplies for Poipet. For the children at Preh Jesu Baptist we bought notebooks, crayons, pencils and scissors... fifty at a time. For Johnny's students we bought English textbooks, teacher's resource books and other equipment such as dictionaries, a thesaurus and white board markers.

Siyoen and Michel have been in Cambodia for less than one year and they've never visited Poipet but they're finding practical ways to invest in the country that is now their home.

English Intensives

It's Day 3 of 4 today! I'll post a full report later. For now, some pics:

chili Plunge

The phone call came at 6pm last night. I was cooking food enough for a dozen people, trying find the balance between enough chili to make the dish interesting without so much spice that these Aussies would be cursing me though tears. I answered the phone and heard one of the Plunge team say, "Hello. Pip?"

Pip: Oh hey...
Plunge Pair: We have a problem. We accidentally left Cambodia and now the guards at the border won't let us back. What should we do?
Pip: That's alright. [Huh?! You did what?!] Here's what you should do [explaining step-by-step as though this tiny error of judgement happens often...] Continue across the border into Thailand, cross the road and come back.. [Hilarious! So so so funny! These guys are going to have such a great story once they get over the shock of this one!]
Plunge Pair: OK, then. See you later...[sounding calmer already. yay!]

The Plunge Pair just wanted a fruit shake but they ended up crossing an international border. Their visa was cancelled. They had to renew it and pay another processing fee. Oops. They were worried they'd be late for dinner. They thought I might get mad at them. All of could think of is that these guys are awesome!!!

Yesterday I'd been considering of all the things these guys CAN'T do. (You know, just a little vent in the journal so that I'm reminded next time a short-term team comes and don't get surprised in another two months.) For example? They can't buy food at the market. They can't order out. They don't know what time of the day to get up and when to rest. They get lost. They can't necessarily get unlost. They don't understand Khmer. They have no hope of stringing a simple sentence together. They can't ride a moto. They can't be a good passenger. (They wiggle and giggle and take photos and I do my best to explain calmly that I'm trying so freakn hard to keep this moto upright on a muddy, slippery road so they gotta give me a hand and sit without moving about.)

But in all these things, this Plunge crew are curious and willing to try anything. They're wide-eyed and questioning. That's what makes them so awesome. That's why I'm happy they're with us. And sometimes they surprise me. The Plunge Pair did go to extraordinary lengths for a guava shake but they kept their head and they found their way home. Nice work!

Plunge is here!

Plunged arrived yesterday. (19 students aged 18-23 and 2 unweary leaders....) I sat in one of their mini vans on the way back from the airport and had a great time waving at Real Live Cambodians on motos : )

For the first day of their visit we/ I organised a full day in-country briefing at our Phnom Penh office. I enjoyed facilitating the meeting and hearing short presentations from our team members on different topics such as, 'The history of missionary work in Cambodia,' 'My journey in mission,' and, 'Why learning Khmer is worth the effort.' By 4pm it was time to get outside...

so we went to the river and relaxed with a one-hour boat cruise on the Tonle Sap.

It's great to play tourist in Cambodia sometimes.