Thursday morning

mike lewis and i came in early again this morning. may not have much time as we have breakfast with the area director. hope to ask him about the bibles issue. last night when we came back from the internet cafe, our guard was reading his bible - i stopped to talk to him and noticed that it was in English. It's my understanding that you can buy English/Khmer bibles where you have both. I hope we can find these as it would serve to benefit in two ways, both spiritually and socio-economically for them (helping learn english).

and now for a few non-linear type of thoughts . . . .

the traffic here is truly amazing. on the streets at night by the internet cafe, countless motos (small motorcyles - main method of travel here), people, cars, tuk-tuk's (a moto pulling a carriage) and people on foot go by. the streets are narrow and you have to walk in the street as there are no sidewalks. people go around each other, cars drive with 2 wheels on the curb, people constantly honk politely for to warn you that they're behind you. it truly is something to see.

in our dorm , the girls live on the second story and they have a nice balcony which picks up the evening breeze (yay!). When we go up to the "main room" on their floor for breakfast, there is a woman next door with 10 month old baby and a 9 year old daughter. the baby is absolutely adorable! She grabs its hand and has the baby wave to us. it has tight curly black hair. her daughter is a cute girl. both she and her mother are a little plump - i don't mean this as an insult, but i have only seen 3 people here who are not slim and they are two of them. i've taken some pictures, but it's one of the high points of breakfast to hope that you'll see her and the baby when you go up.

The two sisters next door

last night we met at 8:00 for worship, prayer and sharing. One of the interns loaned me a travel guitar (a Martin Backpacker) so we could sing. i had brought music and lyric sheets for the kids. as we were singing "God of Wonders" in harmony (the kids really sang beautifully), I wondered what the lady and her family next door thought of our music, since all windows are open and there is no privacy to speak of.

there were some pretty emotional moments during sharing (both from adults and students). a few astute observations by the kids. one student commented at how vigorously the Khmai worship, when they seemingly have nothing or little to be thankful for, and how many of us barely move our lips while we live in luxury. how true. i'm also hoping that this trip inspires the kids to give more to organizations like compassion international, world vision or kiva. hopefully this will breed a lifetime of concern and involvement for the poor.

gotta go.