Accomplishments!

We got back to rock climbing this week. The kids didn't start themselves off easy, but rather set themselves all sorts of challenging goals. We are most proud of Aiden who persevered through multiple fails to accomplish some tough climbs.  He was so sore the next day!

The moment of victory!

A video of one of Jasmin's attempts to show the true level of victory it was to accomplish this climb! 

And, apart from the rock wall victories, Jasmin also reached this accomplishment this week: her final project for one of her art courses, a beautiful embroidered bag. Another project that took a fair amount of perseverance - without the post-finish tiredness and soreness!

 

September Just about Gone

 A few new things for the girls:

Grace was in her first (here) choir concert last Sunday. It was hosted in a very fancy hotel ballroom!  She enjoyed herself, of course, and got good reviews from those around her.  This despite having joined late and missing a number of rehearsals being away in August. There is one more concert only of this choir as the director is retiring, at Christmas.  Mom and Jasmin attended, and although they forgot to dress up, they were let in and enjoyed sitting up close to the orchestra, and picking our Grace/s voice where possible.

Jasmin's new experience was a visit to the local SPCA to exercise and socialize the dogs and cats up for adoption.  She thoroughly enjoyed it, though with using public transport and going with other volunteers made it take a whopping 5 hours for maybe 1.5 hours of dog/cat time! So, we are looking for how we can cut down on travel time in order for her to be able to add this longed for volunteer position into her schedule.

 Mom's new happening was a bit of a bike accident... nothing involving other vehicles. Just a tangle with a sidewalk fence while trying to squeeze between traffic and the edge of the road.  Thankfully, lovely (?) colored knees, a sore hand, and a bit of a limp were the only negative outcomes.

It didn't even stop the morning runs, although throbbing knees did slow her down!  But the lovely morning sunrises she gets to watch and the satisfaction of goals met kept mom getting up to run as her bruises healed.

And now we're home

 In the 2 weeks since we've been home...

Jasmin has rescued her plants from bugs - again!

We've all been sick (Mom brought back something like laryngitis)

Not yet been back to church because of Sunday morning rain and said sickness

Grace started a songwriting class at Dalat

We started and have nearly finished a new read aloud book

Jasmin and Aiden have started school

Grace is preparing for a choir concert on Sunday

Grace started her second online university course

Mom has almost finished her second vacation crochet project

Aiden has reconnected with friends within and without our condo complex

Dad has almost caught up on the work left idle while we were away

Chinese classes and music lessons have resumed

... in other words, we're almost all sorted and back into normal life rhythms after our most wonderful time away. Because of that wonderful time away, we have energy and enthusiasm for diving back into life (at least, now that we are all recovered from post-holiday sickness!)

Things we're going to have to think about in earnest soon...

Fixing the fridge - the freezer doesn't work and anything in the door of the fridge freezes

Jasmin starting a pet sitting job that has been in the works for over a month

Sports opportunities that keep popping up for Aiden

University applications, portfolios, and auditions

A bucket list for our last 6 months here - yes, already!

How to best prepare for a return to Canada

Christmas plans

and lots more, no doubt.

Time in another favorite place (part 2)

Mondolkiri

 About a 7hr (if you go fast) drive northeast of Phnom Penh, Mondolkiri was our final destination for our time in Cambodia. It is up in the hills, beautifully cool and breezy. The girls took lots of landscape pictures - inspiration for their book worlds.

We stayed in this lovely house with one of our translator friends.  He showed us around Sen Monorom - totally unrecognizable from what we saw on our last visit!- and introduced us to some of the Bunong translation team.

  One place he showed us was this house tucked away in the forest that holds a video recording studio! Dad was unexpectedly able to help them fix the aircon so the small padded space wouldn't get so stifling during recording. 

We got to visit a Bunong village and meet the leader of the church there with our friend doing sometimes double interpretation duty from Bunong and Khmer.

  We stopped to visit with this grandma weaving a traditional skirt. The more intricate the pattern, the more sticks required - the process looked quite complicated!  We were offered one for sale, but we didn't have enough money on us, nor the luggage space to mom's disappointment.

This is the new church building being built in the village as they can put together the funds and have
the time to work on it.  it has an interesting design as part way through they worried the roof might be too heavy and needed extra support columns inside...

 

Of course, throughout the day there was plenty of hanging around time while mom and dad talked....

There was still time for some green and blue therapy in the afternoon too: a visit to one of the many waterfalls...

walking across the top of the waterfall

 

And some other fun: the kids were introduced to pool at one of the restaurants! This one was extra fun as the resident cat insisted on joining the game...

A final few from our long journey there and back again:

Quality Krud is what this sign proclaims! 

A bird in a cage on a car roof Jasmin saw along the way

 Our journey back to Malaysia was rather ragged as we had a few short hours of sleep in KL airport. This photo is after we woke the kids up to catch the 5am bus only to be told it was at 5:30... Aiden continued to sleep wherever he could until we got home: bus, train station, train, ferry terminal, ferry, taxi!

too early for being awake

Despite the hiccups, long layovers, missing meals and sleep, everyone did really well with all our adventurous travels.  We're sure glad to be home though - on our way down from Mondolkiri mom started to feel sick and by the time we got home she barely had a voice. And the next day Jasmin came down with it too... Glad it didn't spoil any of our time away.

Time in another favorite place (part 1)

From Thailand, we went to Cambodia for another 10 days. We have lots more pictures because we were with others who took them or suggested that we did😄

We had a very full planned schedule, as our intention was to show the kids a number of different ministries a bit more hands on as well as try to catch up with old friends. We think it was a grand success on both counts, but we do wish we'd had more time with friends as there is always more you wish to say and do than there is time with old friends!

tuktuk transport - with e-hailing!

We got to reminisce about our time living there, sharing then now with kids old enough to remember! Grace doesn't remember anything (she was 2 when we left) but somehow the taste of the food was familiar to her. 

Cambodian version of halo-halo (Philippines) or cendol (Malaysia).
Shaved ice with mixed toppings and condensed milk.

Inside a market stall looking at scarves and shawls

We were humbled, honored, and encouraged to see what God has done with the little time, effort, and love we were able to give during our short time here 15 years ago. Dad was asked to share with a youth Bible study. We were welcomed with a large bouquet of flowers that made our hotel room smell lovely and feel more homey our whole stay!

Grace particularly enjoyed this night, even being asked on the spot to sing a song of hers and play the piano leading singing.

 As usual, we ate together afterwards, a wonderful feast! And there was lovely impromptu worship and an easy comradery among the youth that opened their arms for Grace and mom to join in. Unfortunately, Mom's Khmer wasn't up to coming up with songs on the spot, nor fully following and translating the flowing banter for Grace.

On Sunday, at our old church, all the kids did something new on the spot! Jasmin taught her first every violin lesson (we worked out she's been learning for 10 years now, so...)

Grace preached her first sermon - with about 5 minutes of preparation!

And Aiden... kicked his sandal onto the roof...

.. but it was an easy rescue by some willing church members!

 ...And managed to stack 4 water bottles!                                                              He got good at entertaining himself while the rest of us listened to presentations or caught up with old friends. 😉 And there was lots of time for this as we met with, toured, learned about 10 different ministries during our week in Phnom Penh!

Being remembered so well after 15 years was a welcome surprise. Hearing stories of God at work since we lived there and seeing the fruit of it in the lives of old friends was so encouraging. Being asked by nearly everyone when/if we were coming back to live was rather a surprise too... we'll see what God does. 

It was a fantastic week and felt too short! But, next on our list was a quick trip (3 days: travel up, spend a day, travel back) to Monolkiri to visit a translation project....

Time in our favorite place

We spent 10 days at Juniper Tree Dolphin Bay in Thailand in August. True to form, we took hardly any photos. May we say we were too busy enjoying each other and the quiet safe down time that the place affords us?

Travel there was a small adventure as we had to try public van from home into Thailand, and then after a long wait, the overnight train to our destination town. Add on a taxi at the beginning and end... it felt like a seriously long travel time. If we ever get to again, hopefully the trains connect at the border again for a smoother trip. Still, Mom didn't mix up the ticket dates or anything like that like last time!

For the first few days, there were two-three other families with children for Aiden to play with, then the rest of the time we had the whole place to ourselves! Aiden did more reading than usual, but also got in plenty of swimming, foosball, and ping pong with the rest of us. 

And the rest of us?

Dad read a lot too - he brought 10 books to read and leave behind, and managed it! And as we traveled, he enjoyed the automated cleaners.

Jasmin and Mom kept looking for new birds, and did manage to identify new ones. Unfortunately, none were cooperative enough for good photos.  We know we saw blue throated bee eaters (the picture), red wattled lapwings, a fairy bird, zebra doves (which sort of sound like zebras too!), magpie-robins, and others.

Mom took a 2 hour walk on the beach for some God time, saw a huge jelly fish, 

didn't beat the storm back so got totally soaked - and loved it.

We all went kayaking one morning. It was good fun! a good thing we didn't have to navigate by any obstacles though as none of us were able to keep the boat on a single trajectory for very long. We took an unplanned dip in the water at one point but just turned it into a swim time. Thankfully the kayaks were the ones easy to recover after a flipping.

One night of rare treat we watched another Lord of the Rings movie.

Grace and Jasmin worked on their novels, world building, playing with language and characters, and writing a few chapters.

Dad and Mom managed a few morning runs. The flatness of where we were made the running so much easier! They tried a few different loops in order to make it more interesting.

The two Sundays we were there, we attended a local Thai church, where attendance on a good week is 6! Interestingly enough, they have a lovely little building, an English pre-service Bible study, and sermon notes printed in English ready and waiting for international guests.  The first Sunday was Mother's Day (in Thailand Mother's Day is the queen's birthday) so Mom received a box of homemade cookies! Dad enjoyed getting to know the pastor's fascinating story, and we invited him over so Aiden could play with his son for the afternoon. In return, he drove us to the train station when we were leaving.

And then, it was time to leave... to the 2nd part of our trip: Cambodia.