Yesterday evening we were invited to a dinner-dance show at the Indonesian embassy. The hostess of our Ladies' Bible Study group was one of the dancers so she got us all tickets. it was a lot of fun: Grace loved watching the dancers and tried to copy their movements :o) We also enjoyed the show, although the main play was in Indonesian so we couldn't do more than admire the acting :o)
There was traditional Khmer and Indonesian dances, but also a short performance of a kind of belly dancing. This was the most popular dance :op
Notice Michael trying to keep Grace from joining the dancer on the stage! She got a little bit too into things perhaps :oD There was always a line of kids pressed up against the stage for the whole evening - often joined by adults with cameras. None of this stay-in-your-seats out of people's way here!
We learned near the end that the whole evening had been organized by an Indonesian ICC member! This was discovered when we kept running into ICC friends and asking how they7 got tickets. All in all a delightful evening. One of the very few fun nights out we've had in... too long.

Last post I showed you Grace learning about bikes. Jasmin decided she wanted to learn about a different form of transport...

She got upset when the stick was taken off her to change gears!

Random snapshots of the week

Last Saturday, as the beginning of our goodbyes, we ate at an Intalian restaurant that had a pool! Truly the extremes of wealth and poverty can be found here. We discovered that Jasmin LOVES swimming, and is not afraid of being horizontal or having her face in the water. She wanted to stay in the water so long mommy got a small sunburn :o}
Grace likes the water, too, but is a bit more cautious (wow! As usually she is without fear in everything!) - and hates to get her face wet.


The scene about 5 minutes after we got home...
They had a really great time. So did we.

Even though it is mango season, we are not eating that many. Two reasons: the Khmer believe that it is a "hot" fruit and therefore liable to give you a cough or a cold or a certain type of heat rash... Since Grace has a bad cold/cough, Michael has a stubborn irritant cough, and both the girls have heat rash, our helper is reluctant to buy mangoes for us to ea! The other reason is that Jasmin sadly can't eat them without having tummy trouble. dragon fruit is one of the few fruits that don't give Jasmin trouble. She really likes it too!This is her third slice!

The Bequettes, who are taking our house when we leave, have been moving their things from their house in the provinces into our house over this week. Grace has enjoyed having a big sister for a few hours throughout the week. Two Graces: Charis and Grace bike riding like true Khmer children:
The Fridge box has gotten much wear and ear this week. Having discovered it's possibilities, Grace wants us to share it with her:

Jasmin is intrigued by the window we cut in the side:

Shoe Shopping for Canada

Grace and I went shoe shopping this morning. We all needed closed shoes for arriving in a cold Canadian springtime. Although, from what we've heard, we might need snow boots! At least sneakers are better than flipflops, which is all we wear here.

Here's what we came home with - all for under $30!

Leather slip-on, almost-dress sneakers for Michael. They fit well even though he wasn't there to try them on. We have more or less the same size feet so I can guess pretty acurately :o)

Disney Princess sneakers (that light up with movement) and bright orange socks for Grace. Not the best match, but she insisted - and there wasn't much choice either. I was hoping for plain girly sneakers or shoes, but not to be found - until AFTER I'd reluctantly bought these ones, prefering the princesses to the power rangers etc. on everything else. And here you can rarely return things :o( But Grace is very happy with the lights.

Squeaker shoes for Jasmin. Beautiful canvassy-cloth, lightwieght, simple shoes! And the squeakers are removeable once she gets to the walking stage. Hopefully she doesn't grow out of them too quickly.

What else has happened this week? I've finished the teacher training! It was to be only 2 hours every evening... but in reality I dreamed, thought, worked on it all the time. Our last night the power went out and we had to make do with all the candle stubs in the house gathered into a dish on the table. Not the best way to teach, but I guess it made for a memorable ending :O) Grace and Jasmin are very glad to have mommy back - it was beginning to be too much for them. I still have documentation to do, but hopefully it won't consume me quite as much the training itself did!

I managed to pack 2 of our storage boxes! Quite the feat as Grace is all too often protesting the putting away of anything, and of course Jasmin is just curious enough to empty any open container.

Michael taught at the Youth Group again last night and was pleased that they remembered his talk from last month. Also, as everyone told him that his Khmer was much better than last month, it was a big encouragement to him.

Michael had a crazily busy week what with language learning, teaching, helping with a major project in the IT department, and babysitting for me while I taught in the evenings. Somedays he didn't get to eat lunch until 3 and supper until 7 or 8! Thankfully this next two weeks will not be nearly as busy for him.

17 days till we leave.... I'm SO glad we have friends taking over our house here. This way I don't have to figure out where and how to store or sell our funiture and other things. What a blessing this is!

Snippets of life...

Grace has been quiet for too long.... where is she? Uh oh, she can open the front door now. There she is! Outside in the courtyard by the water tap. Filling her stacking cardboard boxes with water! A scolding, an explanation, and a search for a place to ,lay them out safely for drying ensues. Grace doesn't want them out of sight, let alone out of reach, so in the end I have to lock us in the house to keep her away from them!

Jasmin is mobile now... what is she after now? The powerbar with all the fun lights and wires? The bug lamp?, Grace's books? The shoes to chew on? Where is she? Oh, there, listen to Grace's indignant "No! No!" and Jasmin's cry of protest at being pushed away.

Time to begin packing has come! In order to keep packed what I've already sorted and packed...

I have to pack my two unpackers!

One of the things that got unpacked:

I think it was worth the repacking frustration as Grace really liked the house I built her to keep her harmlessly occupied. An added bonus: now she will play "house" with the fridge box we've been using as a catchall surface in our livingroom. Not sure who was more tickled, Grace for discovering something new, or mommy for finally being able to use the box for what she kept it for :o)

An oasis in the whirlwind of these days: a weekly meeting with an old friend from OMF. This week we met at a cafe called Le Jardin. A fantastic place! Not only can you enjoy the quiet and green of a slice of forest while resting comfortably under fans, but your children can enjoy the big sand box and coloring house. Grace loved it - 2 hours she played by herself while we talked and prayed!

Jasmin is growing up: no longer content with what the house holds, she wants to see the world... so she now gets her turn at going out with mommy. Grace isn't too happy with sharing the privilege - time for a double stroller perhaps?

Mango Season! Yeah!

Grace at 11 months after eating a mango

Jasmin at 8 months after eating mango pieces... hmmm... a lot cleaner! (okay, she's not super smart - just she was given pieces rather than the seed!)

Caught in the act!

A Snapshot from Grace's Days

Mommy needed to get some planning done, so Daddy took Grace shopping for a few household items. In the store, she was allowed out of the stroller to wander (it is small and enclosed!). When Daddy turned his attention back to Grace, there she was with a toy plane whose cockpit was full of candy. She had managed to unscrew the top and was shaking out the candy piece by piece and eating it! So Daddy had to buy the plane. Both she and Jasmin enjoyed playing with the plane as it is a pull-back-and-let-go toy. The next morning for snack Grace got corn on the cob. (It is a easily available snack here, and boiled to a pale yellow, sweet and easy to eat.) She spent a long time playing quietly by herself with the plane and the corn. Mommy discovered that she had been picking off bits of corn, putting them into the cockpit of the plane, and then eating them from there! Quite the process as she methodically screwed on the top each time she deemed the cockpit full, shook it up, and tipped out the corn kernels one by one, screwing the lid on in between!