beach retreat

we spent last weekend at the beach on the annual MCC staff retreat. it was a good weekend of fun & sun & eating the tasty things people were selling along the shore- BBQ squid & shrimp & donut-ish things (no tim horton's, but not bad at all!).

[i love the smiles on these women's faces...could they, by chance, be laughing at the crazy white guy with the funny hat?]

cambodian picture of the day

prayer

please join us in praying for our newest little friend, drew.

he is pretty much the sweetest baby we have ever seen & he has trouble breathing on his own.

in general, pray for a healing miracle.

in specific, find more at his blog Every Breath a Gift.

Human Rights Day

In December I got to spend my birthday at a Women Peacemakers Human Rights Day rally in Kompong Cham province. I even had the chance to give a small speech on MCC's behalf, which was nerve-wracking & fun. It was a great birthday trip involving a typically confusing route & the requisite wall of speakers blaring random music (i wanna make love, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah) & a ride in a Toyoto Corolla with five people + Daniel & I + nearly 100 helium filled balloons with the windows shut (for air conditioning!) + the driver's face probably 6 inches from the windshield due to all the balloons. We concluded it was probably one of our safer car rides, given all the balloons cushioning us in every direction!

We felt really privileged to be part of such a great event, among such energetic people gathering to celebrate human rights & to promote peace.

teaching pt. 2

here is another excerpt from student work that makes me smile...

"Although we try to study and work hard to contribute to the development of the countries, we have to have a holiday to free the brain and release the tension with fresh air, sightseeing, and natural sounds. By that time, we may think that we were flying in the nature with many birds and seeing lovely puppy animals around ourselves. Then we must love the environment and all everything around us and we can contribute our environment and atmosphere for making a very nice trip in the life."

who wouldn't want to have a holidy to be flying in the nature & seeing lovely puppy animals around ourselves?!

teaching

working at the Royal University of Agriculture for nearly the past year & a half has carried with it all the challenges of working with a government institution in a country prone to corruption, but also a lot of laughter & learning (probably on our end even more than on the student's part!)

here is a sentence from a thesis paper i helped edit recently that always makes me smile....

"Moreover, people living in remote areas do not have enough construction such as road, market, irrigation and they also don't have enough finances to support their fields. However, they have enough rain."

peace + biking = peacebiking

Our good friend Levi was lucky enough to be visiting Cambodia on the International Day of Peace. So we joined the "peacebiking" event that Women Peacemakers (the local NGO I work with) helped organize in Phnom Penh. Together with nearly 300 people we cycled through the city & joined a Buddhist, Muslim, & Christian prayer celebration for peace.

Since we were among the very few foreigners attending the event, several people put video cameras right in our faces while we trying to sit & watch the prayer celebration. It was difficult not to laugh, but we tried to remain calm & smile our gentlest, most peaceful smiles.

[levi got to be on tv!]

[last two photos :AP/Heng Sinith]

call + response

we went to see a screening of this film this week in phnom penh. a lot of the footage is from cambodia, so it really hit home for us. if you have a chance, you should definitely attend a screening, put it on your netflixs list, or at least check out their website www.callandresponse.com.

it will break your heart (& it should) but in a way that leaves room for hope to rise.