Pilgram's Progress or The Wizard of Oz

I am Dorothy.

June 10th 2009
Lately I’ve been unsatisfied. I want a life more exciting more adventurous than what this Kansas farm can offer me. I want to push the limits that my uncles have placed on my life. I want to test the boundaries and see how far I can roam before I become lost to those on the farm. I’m ready for something better. I’m tired of waiting around here for my dreams to come true.


June 15th 2009
These munchkins are strange. I’m not sure I should listen to them. I’ve suddenly landed in Munchkinland apart from my own volition. Because of some strange force that propelled me here, there is a dead lady under my house. That’s not my fault. Things are happening without my approval, and that makes me very nervous. I’m going to take these Ruby Red Shoes because they are available, but I’m not going to use them. I don’t trust anything from here because it’s all too strange.

A strange winged creature just told me to follow the yellow brick road. Even though I see her and there is viable evidence that she exists, I’m still doubting that this is a real. It could all be a hoax.

June 17th 2009
I’ve made a few friends along the way. A scarecrow, a tin man, and a lion: strange travelling companions for a girl like me; but you take what you can get. They are kind, patient people. Maybe not the “fun crowd”, but they are helping me out as I make my way down this road.

June 18th 2009
This evil witch is no joke. She’s much more intense than I imagined. People always say “it’s probably not as bad as they make it seem.” Nope. She’s bad news. I’ve decided to stay away from her and the road that leads to her place. I’m going to need some help to avoid her.

June 19th 2009
I just passed through the poppy field and took a nap. It was probably a bad idea. I’m really regretting that decision now. But there is grace, and I’ll keep moving towards the goal. No need to look back at the spots in life where the evil witch tricked us into believing her lies. She makes her ideas seem so fun, but now I realize she was trying to deter us from reaching OZ.

June 20th 2009
The gates of OZ are intimidating. I’m pretty sure I’m not good enough to be allowed in. There is no way that Wizard could accept me the way I am. Too bad there isn’t a motel or at least a shower out here. I’d clean myself up a bit before I met him. But there is nothing I can do. I can’t clean myself up. He’ll just have to take me as I am.

June 21st 2009
I can’t believe I had these stupid Ruby Red Shoes with me the whole time. All I needed to make it home has been with me all the way. I overlooked their power because I thought they were just an old pair of shoes. My friends back in Kansas used to say, “That’s so out of date. It’s not relevant for today.” I was given everything I needed for the journey at the beginning of the trip, but I didn’t even attempt to use them because my lack of faith. I’m a weak traveler.

Engagements

My sister is engaged. Of course she is 2 1/2 years younger than me...
But I am so happy that she found a Godly man who adores her. I love Kevin, and I'm very excited to have him officially be part of our family.
I don't know when they are getting married yet.
But I do know that her ring is GORGEOUS!

Also my cousin April is engaged too!! Congrats to Ape and Jake. April is one of my bestest buds in the whole entire world!

To My Mother

Dear Mommy,
I was never called to live a life of safety.
C.S. Lewis put it best:

"Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of the Beasts? Aslan is a lion - the Lion, the Great Lion."
"Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver; "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

HOME!

I'm going home in 8 days!
This is such a big deal. It has been 1 year since I've been in America. I can't believe I've lasted this long. About 8 months ago, I was ready to flee Cambodia.
I'm going Home!
(The Daughtry song is playing in my head)

Tiger Adventures

This lady is feeding the tigers.



So Kristi went into the Tiger Den, and tried to get the tiger's attention by banging a bottle on the plastic cage. Yes. This worked. Soon they were all clawing at the bottle. You can kind of see Kristi cowering away from the tiger's claw that reached inside! It was so crazy!


I fell in love...

Safari World

SAFARI WORLD is the coolest place in Bangkok.






I got picked to go on stage and be kissed by the dolphin! He was slimy!

We had a great time playing with all the animals!
Thailand is so great. They let us do whatever we want!

News

Check out this article from CNN.
Poverty and Malnutrition are such a huge part of society here, that this doesn't even strike me as odd. Its just a routine here.
http://www.groundreport.com/World/Cambodia-One-Dead-and-Six-Ill-after-Eating-Poisono

Life Goals.

Last week I wrote a list of 26 things I want to do before I die.
On the list are things like see the pyramids and live among a tribal group for more than a week.
One of the things I've wanted to do for so long, was ride an elephant. I finally got to do it! I was so happy that I sang most of the ride. :)

Traveling

In Laos for a few minutes

In Chiang Mai with Kristi



In Singapore with my friend from Liberty, Zach.



As I was boarding the airplane for Singapore, I hit me so hard how blessed I was to have the opportunity to travel. Of course, I was coming straight out of the jungle from time spent amongst a tribal group. Even still, we are so lucky to be blessed with enough prosperity that we can travel internationally. I went to three countries this month. I spent a week in Singapore; A week in Chiang Mai, Thailand; and an hour in Laos in a market on the border.

life

Life is like Minesweeper. The fist few hits are random. You could hit a bomb at any point.

Motos

This is only 5. I've seen 6 people on a bike.

On the moto...

Driving a moto

When driving my moto down the roads of Phnom Penh, its daily that a bug hits me. It’s common that a bug goes up my nose. Not everyday, but often.
Today as I was driving…
The old man driving in front of me spit. Now he was probably 2 feet in front of me, and I knew what he was doing when he bent of the side of his moto. Kindly he aimed down. Now spitting is common among Cambodians. They hock up a luggey no matter where they are (i.e. the supermarket or on the bus).
The spit did not proceed to the ground as this old man intended. No, because of physics, the saliva (and probably snot!) hit poor, innocent me in the FACE!
Yumm….

Phnom Penh Water Park! YAY!

Cleaning the moat...

Phnom Penh WaterPark!
YAY! A waterpark, how modern….
Ha!
It looks like it was built in the ‘60s and left for 40 years, which is actually very likely in a country that was war-torn in the ‘70s.
It is so dirty! The slides are rusted. It looks like they may fall down at any second. Dirt and bugs litter the sidewalks and seep into the pools. Mold from years of desolation has overtaken parts. The bathrooms could have been part of a horror movie!
Best of all… no rules! It’s Cambodia. Who’s going to make safety standards? Channak, a friend, decided to do a flip of the slide and cracked his head open.
We went with 3 families and about 8 singles from the school. The Cambodians loved seeing us experience it.
It was so awesome! There was even a hang-glide into a pool of 2ft water! :)
I loved it! It was definitely an adventure! But we’ll be back!
Awesome videos to follow.

Crazy Days!

Spirit Days!
Being a teacher rocks! Who else gets to dress up like Princess Jasmine for work? I love the fact that immaturity is an asset for my job!
It’s so great to see the students being what they want. On dress up days, they don’t have to be the smartest or the prettiest, they can be the silliest or the strangest; and it’s cool.
I love my kids. I can’t imagine having children. I love these kids so much that I can’t imagine this emotion could be more intense.

Sihanoukville- the tourist beach

Relaxing at the beach with friends.


Me and my friends decided to get away from the city for a few days. We took a mini-trip to the beach to relax. It was great.
The girl in the pink shirt is a friend we made on the beach. If you notice her shirt says "Marry Christmas". I love it!

Tonle Sap- The LARGEST fresh water body in SE Asia

On the Tonle Sap (a huge lake- the largest in SE Asia), there is a floating village. This is when the houses and shops and everything float like a raft. They tie the houses to the edge of the water, and as the water or fish move out they move with it. Can you imagine paddling your house out into the lake?
The first picture is of a boy going out on the lake, probably to fish.
The second picture is of me driving our boat! :)
And the third picture is of the recreational center. It's a basketball court that has been donated to the village.

Real Christianity

I'm reading this book....
The Irresistible Revolution
It's about living the Christian life like God did. The author Shane Claiborne is a young guy who decided to start living what he read in the Word. So he started hanging out with homeless and giving all he had to the poor. I am so challenged by him. Because he's right! God did say to give up everything I own. God did say to make my self last in order to be first. God did say to love the poor and the sick. And if love is really what 1 Corinthians says it is, then I'm not doing it. I can't even love my enemies. I complain because I can't afford ice cream, but what about those that are truly poor.
Shane lived with the homeless of Philadelphia. He worked in Calcutta with the same mission as Mother Teresa. People call him a radical, but he's only doing what God told all of us to do. Maybe we don't all have to work in leper colonies. But we can't even love those who hurt us. We can't even give more than 10% to help out those who need it more than us.
He challenged my thinking on one specific philosophy I hold. I always believed the statement "Give a man a fish and he's hungry tomorrow. Show him how to fish will never be hungry again." So I don't give to beggars. I want to discourage them from expecting people to provide for them! What a selfish non-Christ-like thought.
Shane talks about how Jesus worked. He raised Lazarus from the dead, but he died a few years later. He healed the lepers, but they died eventually anyway. He gave fish and bread to the hungry, but the next day they were hungry again.
If I want to live like Christ, then I need to stop reasoning in my head. God said to love.... somehow I think that means using my heart. They remember the love. I wasn't commanded to save the world. I wasn't commanded to find excuses not to give. I was commanded to love. And even if it doesn't make since to you. I'll do it. I'll love them. I'll give all of myself to them.
I'm going to be someone who only studies Christianity.
I'm going to live it.
Come on, read the gospels. You try to reason away why "giving it all up" doesn't apply to you. You "love" people... ha.
Think about what love really is supposed to look like.
What did it look like when Jesus did it?

Eating Bugs :( AGH!

On the way up to Angkor Wat and Siem Reap, Zach decided to try Crickets and Tarantulas. They were fried in soy sauce.
It was so gross!!
The Cricket made him gag.
He claims the Tarantula taste like chicken skin.
Everyone was staring at him.
I think they wanted to gag too!


I have video's of the events. They will come later!


Then there were LIVE tarantulas!
The little girls selling fruit play with them!!!!!!!!
They thought it was funny to let Zach hold one.
Then for "kicks and giggles" they put 2 more of them on his shirt and told him that they wouldn't take them off until he bought something from them.
The last picture here is of them taking one off of his shirt. The second tarantula had crawled into his bag! lol. It was freaky!
It was less funny when they tried to put one on me!




CRAZY BUGS!!! It was not a pretty sight!

Ankor Wat - Ancient Cambodia

One of the Seven man-made Wonders of the World.



Above is my picture. Below is Wikipedia's picture. (There are no copyright laws in Cambodia :)

IKEA stickers

Stephanie bought me these IKEA stickers for the wall! Aren't they great. They are sticky enough to say in place, but you can peal them off without hurting the paint. I think they are so pretty!

The other day my bike broke down! It was awful! I had never occurred to me that I don't know what to do if my bike breaks. So there I am stranded in the street on a very hot day!
It all started because my friend Erin was riding with me (Erin I don't blame the accident on you!) She accidentally hit the kick-start while I was pushing the automatic start button. For some reason, this locked the kick-start up, and it would not move or start.
The first thing that always happens when something goes wrong on a bike, is that random men swarm to help out. The guard from the place across the street and a man from the shop we had been in, came out to help us. They tried several things, but they couldn't get it to work. Then a group of tuk-tuk drivers from down the road tried there hand at the bike. The annoying think is, that they will tear at it and move important looking parts, but they have no idea what they are doing! They don't care that they actually could be making things worse!
So after 30 of random men fiddling with my bike. Erin and I begin to walk the bike down the street in search of a mechanic. It was so hot! I was sweating profusely from pushing and the heat.
After a while we found a "mechanic" (aka. a man with a tent on the side of the road). He was extremely nice, but he begin ripping into my bike.
I knew the problem was the kick-start, so I kept pointing to it. Despite that, he tore everything off the bike. He took my seat out (as seen in the picture. It's sitting on the ground). He tore the gas tank out! It was crazy. In the end, it turned out the kick-start only needed grease. But we sat there and waited in the heat for 2 hours! ah!
The whole time we were waiting. Two guards from a near by building were trying to flirt. It was humorously annoying. Erin teaches at a Cambodian Univerisity, so she asked one of the guards if he was studying at university. And he said "I do not study... but I do study love. I study love everyday. Especially with foreign girl." I started making puking sounds. I know it's immature, but really! Who honestly thinks a line like that will work? I what universe would that make me want to date him? None! that's the answer!
Apparently the mechanic thought I was cute. When I walked across the street to get a phone card, he told Erin that I was beautiful. :) That's more like it. Not that he had a chance either.
ah... Living in Cambodia is an adventure.

Christmas on the Mekong River

For the HOPE school staff party, we rented a boat cruise. Don't let the word "cruise" fool you. It's a wooden boat with three folded tables placed in the middle. But it was a fun time. The Mekong is disgusting brown river that stretches forever and ever across several countries. The Cambodian staff wanted to go swimming! Luckily we ran out of time; so they couldn't!
We, the expat staff, brought food and drinks for the party. It was cute. There were probably 75 people on the boat. Food was a bit short because the staff brought their families. Those kids sure can put down some food! Something I ate really didn't like my stomach, but hey, I've survived several spells of food poisoning already. It won't kill me this time.
This party was also a chance to say goodbye to the staff that won't be returning. There are 5 staff members going home this semester. It was a sad thing to sit around and say goodbye. It's way too sappy for me. We prayed for them and gave everyone a chance to say something. If I had my way, I'd slap them on the back and say "good luck!" I hate emotional goodbyes. But I guess some people need to have that closure.
At the end of the party we exchanged gifts. We had Secret Santa presents to give. I had a cute Cambodian cleaner from school, and she had me too. She gave me a cute pink shirt, which I wore the next day to show her that I liked it! It was really fun! Scott, my American friend, got the best present of all!!!!!! a figurine of 2 girls swinging! :)