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.

 

Remember When... We Got Stuck In an Elevator?

 We were moving boxes. Stuff that had been stored with us by a friend of a friend of a friend going on furlough. We needed the space back as we are losing our office apartment at the end of the month. As they were away on holiday, we did the moving for them - thankfully within our condo complex, but still, a full afternoon of shuttling back an forth with trolleys piled high with boxes and garbage bags full of another family's treasures.

On one of the back and forths, Mom and Dad noticed the kids were taking an unusually long time to show up for the next load. Dad took over another load. Still no kids. Thinking through the routes between the apartments and possibilities, mom suddenly wondered if they were stuck in an elevator. Perhaps not quite as random as it sounds, since we have had multiple "under maintenance" incidences with elevators in all the buildings here recently. Mom called Dad to suggest the possibility. He got a hold of a guard and persuaded him to check. Sure enough, a yell up the shaft produced a return yell from our three!  It was a brilliantly underwhelming, casual rescue, with no one particularly fazed, surprised, or upset. All the same, it was Mom and Dad who did the rest of the elevator rides with the stuff that day😊

The kids came back to our apartment rather flushed and excited - and thirsty as (as far as we could tell) they had been stuck for about 40 min in a powerless elevator car! Through a tangled tumble of words, we worked out what had happened.

A power cut to the complex happened just after they entered the elevator to come home. The emergency generators kicked in, but not with power enough for all three elevators in that tower... and they were not in the one that kept power. The lights went out on them, the elevator car fell a little, and then stuck between floors.  When nothing more happened, they used the emergency call button (that simply rings a fire alarm like bell) but got no response. They repeated this until finally they heard a call coming up the shaft. Shortly after that the doors were forced open and there was enough overlap with a floor for them to climb out. An adventure to remember - and not repeat!

July Moments

Summer School

    Everyone mostly finished school, but they each have one or more courses to finish off to finish the year or even up the grade spread of courses for next year. Aiden is doing an Language Arts course, Jasmin is finishing up math and Creative arts, and Grace just as a theology course to finish.

Project Rock

    We finally got to use our family birthday gift! Mom took the kids to the new Project Rock in the mall. We invited another homeschooler to join us. Mom ended up doing a fair bit of shopping and other errands in the mall so there are no pictures this time. The kids had the place to themselves most of the morning, but when we came back from lunch, it was much busier. We look forward to going back as there is a lot of bouldering routes and challenges along with the top rope routes.

Sales

    We learned early on in July that the landlord of our office apartment wanted it back at the end of the month. So Mom has been busy with organizing and selling off the contents (left over from the friends who couldn't return after Covid). Her strong conclusion is that online yard sales are much harder to manage than the one morning of driveway chaos of onsite yard sales. Mainly because you have to keep straight multiple inquiries via text and phone calls and not sell the same item more than once! Still, much progress has been made and the stress is reducing.

Holiday Planning

    As Covid travel restrictions in this area of the world are finally lifting, we are planning a trip to our favorite place in Thailand and a visit into Cambodia! The planning has been much more involved and stressful than ever before as the train and bus systems are not fully recovered and it is difficult to find truly up to date information. But we have now pieced together an itinerary and have booked most of it. By the time we get back home we will have travelled by taxis, minivans, trains, sky train, airplanes, city buses, and ferries! And there is potential for a few other types of transport as well...
    One difficulty we encountered was in trying to book Thai train tickets online as the site wouldn't take any of our cards. After mom spending hours seeking solutions, Grace, watching, causally pointed out the card number needed spaces... and that worked! Grr for all the wasted time and angst, but thank you God for Grace's observation skills!

Physiotherapy

    DNS physio has done wonders for Mom, and then Dad when his neck was seizing for days of pain. They continue to go, dealing with the root issues that are now showing up. Grace and Jasmin got curious and we decided to go for a check up with their on again-off again joint issues. In doing so, we discovered some slight scoliosis, unnatural stiffness, and other foundational issues. So now it is a near whole family affair to stop to phone alarms and do physio exercises during the day!