The Palace of Thailand
note: you must cover your calf muscles and your shoulders.

Dogs…. Dogs in Cambodia are pests: the national annoyance and virus carriers. These dogs are so disgusting! They are loosing their hair. Their ribs stick out from starvation. They’re owners starve them so that they are mean and because they don’t have enough money to feed the dogs. So the dogs eat the trash that litters the streets. Last week Kate saw our puppy eating a poop-filled diaper. Sick! We try not to pet him now. The dogs are used as security. They keep the dog inside the gate, so they know if someone tries to break in. Poor dogs, they are the mangiest is creatures on earth. And I’m a dog lover.

Ants….
I have never cared so little about ants before. Who cares that they are eating the crumbs off the counter? Who cares that there are 2 million of them in a line in the bathroom? Who cares that they mysteriously are on my laptop when I open it up? Who cares? At least they are not the giant cockroaches! Ugh!





Cambodians business dealings are nothing like Western business practices. The idea of quickly resolving a problem never entered their mind. It could take weeks to get a problem fixed. And returning a broken product… ha! Dream on! Nothing works longer than a week. It would be foolishness to hope for better. In fact, when I was talking to the Internet company about how we wanted a refund for a faulty product, she told us that we had already paid. The idea is that once they have your money, too bad! They’re keeping it!

Cambodia is so different than I expected. I was expecting a world similar to Japan. Or maybe even a mix of Japan’s Asian aspect and Romania’s third-world aspect. What I got was a surprise. A big surprise. This country is so poor and dirty. There are starving children on street corners. There is trash in the street. There are mean, dirty dogs waiting to attack your ankles. There are insane numbers of moto bikes. These crazy motocycle type things. They zip around you at insane speeds of 20 mph! lol. It does seem very scary at the moment!

New Life Fellowship is the church where Kate and I have been going for the last few weeks. God is doing a phenomenal work among these people. The worship is really great too. Here's a snippet of what it's like.

We were sitting in a coffee shop inside the mall, when I decided to embarrass my friends by videoing them. Unfortunately, this video is pretty embarrassing to me too! lol.

Rainy Night

One night Kate and I stupidly tried to go out to eat during a rain storm! Wow. When it rains, it pours.

I took these photos from the internet, and I made into a slideshow. This took me at least 4 hours. So tell me that it's amazing! :)

Moving

Today I started reading about the first Southern Baptist Missionary to live in Cambodia. The struggles and the hardships that he and his family faced scare me. Strangely, it scares me more to see people's pictures of their Cambodian friends. What if the people don't like me? What happens when I'm lonely and want to come home? Reading the book about the missionaries, actually calmed my fears of being lonely. People have done this before me, and God sustained them. I will be fine. Not to say that I won't be lonely, but I will survive the loneliness. When I understand that fact, I am finally able to be excited again. I'm going to serve God in Cambodia. That's exciting!