escape to bangkok

last month daniel's ultimate frisbee team joined a tournament in thailand, so we spent a really fun weekend enjoying the sights & sounds of bangkok (& a few fun comforts from home, like starbucks & a movie in a real theater & mcdonald's cheeseburgers!)

[transport]

[tea]

[strawberries]

[an incredibly spicy & delicious thai meal at the market]

[avatar in 3D!]

[a polite asian mcdonald's greeting]

MCC BC stories booklet

[here is an excerpt about our work from the MCC BC Workers Prayer Booklet, click on the picture to download the stories booklet]

I do not at all understand the mystery of God’s grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

-Anne Lammott, Traveling Mercies

Daniel & Amanda Talstra, MCC Cambodia

Our MCC assignment involves spending the majority of our time working at the Royal University of Agriculture in Phnom Penh. In addition, Daniel works with the Returnee Integration Support Center. This organization assists Cambodians who were admitted into the United States as refugees and then later deported back to Cambodia. Amanda works with Women Peacemakers, an organization that provides training in rural provinces about women's rights, domestic violence, and conflict mediation.

We see God working in the people we meet who are working for the poor and marginalized in their own country. Cambodia is trying to recover from the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, while at the same time speeding into the globalized world. It is also a country that is leaving behind millions of poor farmers in rural provinces and disrespecting the human rights of many. The Cambodians we meet who are choosing to sacrifice of themselves and to stand up for the rights of their brothers and sisters remind us that God is at work in this country in a million small, but powerful ways.

Prayer requests:

• that Cambodian leaders will be wise and honest in their work.
• that God would provide for all those who are hungry, especially children who have high rates of malnourishment.
• for the Cambodian church to work in unity and serve as a powerful witness to Christ
• for us, that we would be diligent in the work we have been called to do and loving to all those around us.

jungle temples [beautiful & broken]

at ta prohm temple we observed the epic struggle of the jungle reclaiming its territory (in slow motion).

uprooting the massive temple in a strangely twisting, bulbous & yet enchanting embrace.

it seems a fitting metaphor for cambodia itself.

beautiful.

&.

broken.

neum buuy howie? [rice]

rice is the main staple of the cambodian diet & a very important part of the culture. in fact, in the cambodian language the word meaning "to eat", literally means "to eat rice". a common greeting translates literally as "have you eaten rice yet today?" the khmer language has over 100 words for rice! (at different stages in the harvesting process).

cambodian people generally eat rice three times a day, at most every meal, & in quantities that seem unbelievable, especially given how small cambodian people are! for cambodians, it is simply not a meal if there is no rice. our language teacher told us once that at his son's birthday party they all ate pizza, but since pizza is only "snack" food, not real food, they all ate big bowls of plain rice to complete the meal.

on a recent trip to prey veng province (where the other half of our mcc team lives & works) we were out for a bicycle ride & met some local villagers who kindly showed us how to harvest rice.

[fun for a short while, but we won't be giving up our day jobs anytime soon!]

* pictures by marcelo & daniel

Suk Sabaay Bon Noel [a Christmas update from the Talstras]

Dear Loved Ones,

In this little note that has traveled far, we are sending warm wishes for a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

We happily celebrated another tropical holiday season in Phnom Penh, a city that has indeed become a “home away from home” for us. As we reflect back on this year, the word rich comes to mind. It has been a year rich in new experiences, laughter, community, travel, & also in the struggles that come with living in a developing country.

We continue to keep very busy with our work here with the Mennonite Central Committee. We both spend most of our time working at the Royal University of Agriculture. Daniel is coordinating the undergraduate Language Centre (organizing classes & curriculum for nearly 1,200 students!) and teaching English classes. Amanda is working with the graduate students, assisting them with their thesis papers & teaching some undergraduate classes as well.

In addition, Amanda works with a local NGO called Women Peacemakers, that leads trainings in the rural provinces on women’s rights, domestic violence, and conflict mediation. We’ve really enjoyed getting to know the Cambodian staff of this organization & have attended a few of their events in some rural villages, which are always adventures!

We are very excited that Daniel has recently begun working with a local NGO called the Returnee Integration Support Centre (RISC). RISC provides support to Cambodian refugees from the US who are deported back to Cambodia. Many of these returnees fled Cambodia as very small children, or were born in refugee camps in Thailand & face many challenges when they return. (You can read about some the returnees here & here)

Amanda has also been keeping busy studying for her master’s in International Development. She got to spend nearly a month in South Africa in July & will be heading to Uganda next summer. It’s a challenge balancing work & school, but its great to be studying development while engaged in this work & to learn from her classmates scattered all around the world.

Against the backdrop all of the richness of this year, we are aware that we live in a land marred by injustice, poverty, & human brokenness at its worst (these are some of the realities of Cambodia today).

And so this Christmas, as we reflect, we take hope in the fact that Christmas is so much more than the cozy traditions & snowy festivities that we will be homesick for this December. It is about God choosing to be born into a place much like Cambodia, a dirty stable surrounded by livestock, welcomed by poor & rural pastoralists, in an empire corrupted by greed & violence. It is about God dwelling among us, in the middle of all our messiness. This is our source of hope here in this place & we pray that it will be a hope to you in the coming year.

“O Come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel”

With much love,

Daniel & Amanda

bon noelle [belated cambodian christmas]

our second cambodian christmas carried on many of the happy traditions of our first & also included some new fun...

we attended a christmas eve carol service & then returned to our house with many friends for a feast of cookies & appetizers & a white elephant gift exchange. then we all dragged out of mattresses & pillows, strung mosquito nets & slept outside under the stars on our porch. 

all was calm & bright (except for the lovely smell of the sewage canal & the non-stop barking of the neighborhood dogs).

in the morning we celebrated christmas morning together with a delicious breakfast, coffee & bailey's. we rounded out the day with a traditional christmas dinner of indian food at a nearby restaurant. 

 as cambodians would say, happy merry christmas, indeed!

Epic [Angkor Wat]

[ode to the kingdom of wonder]

its hard to believe, but we managed to live in cambodia for more than a year without visiting the famous Angkor Wat temples. since it is the biggest sight seeing destination in the kingdom, we decided we should wait for visitors. thankfully levi & ellie arrived so we are finally able to explore these mysterious temples!

angkor wat is a sprawling, complex network of hindu temples built in the 12th century. grandeur & splendor is the pride of cambodia. (one of the first things our language teacher taught us is how to ask "have you been to angkor wat yet?")

[this picture confused our camera, but i like it]

[traditional angkorian tourists]

[a giant buddha hiding inside the hindu temples]

[don't even think about sitting on the snake railing...er, i mean, balustrade]

[the entrance to bayon temple, known for its multitude of massive & serene faces]

[massive, serene face of levi]

[nose to nose]

[traditional angkorian tourists drinking traditional coca-cola beverages & feeding thirsty traditional apsara bas-reliefs]

[re-structuring]

[temple explorers]

[ancient ruins]

the temples in the process of being re-claimed by the jungle were so amazing, i think they deserve their own post!