it is time

Ok, quick recap of the past month:

Christmas was great!

New Years was even better!! =D

On December 31st, we (the staff and friends of SLM) went to some water falls and spent the afternoon playing and fellowshipping. It was beyond beautiful!

The same day, Brianna was greatly blessed by God: I met monks and even had my picture taken with them!!

December 1st 2008, myself and a few of the guys went to see some monkey’s. We bought bananas and fed the monkey’s.

Many trips to the ocean. Either for swimming, for hanging out/playing or just to watch the sunset. My favourite are when we go to the beach at sunset to swim and we end up going to hang out or just drive around afterwards. =)

I DROVE A MOTTO!! Yeah! Not just around the yard, but Seyha let me drive his motto on the road. I stayed in fairly low traffic areas, but it was still great!

I went fishing!

We had a team from America this past month. The main reason why I was so busy and had little contact with anyone for so long. We went to many villages and did alot of medical work. The American's were fun, they were white, and they gave me coffee!!!

New classes, new and old students. My class is big, almost 40 kids (evening class). My kids this year a more unruly than last year so I’m a much tougher teacher. I never thought I could be mean in the classroom, but apparently I can…

I am now in charge of Sunday School, but I think/hope/pray that will change soon. It’s not an overly good thing that I’m in charge.

I’m making some female friends!! It’s wonderful! But their all bent on finding me a Cambodian husband, eek!

I have been taking guitar lessons for a few weeks now. My fingers are delightfully callused up and I’m learning quickly!

Just after Christmas I began going to Phally’s cousins home to learn Khmer. I teach her English in return. Her name is Lyhouy and she’s 20 years old. Believe it or not I’m actually learning! I can speak a little Khmer! I know the basics, I can introduce my self and talk about me. I know many random words and animals, I can count. It gets me by. When I try and use my Khmer with motto drivers and at the market they love me and discount the prices! =D

Tomorrow I am going to Phnom Penh to see Dean and Samantha Stamler!!! Canadian’s!! I am so excited!! I’ve also invited my friend Tida to come along with us. He is the Cambodian who lived in Winnipeg for a year. I rarely see him, but I sure like talking with him!

As it happens, I found out that Kong is actually turning 20 this year. People in Cambodia don’t find birthday’s to be special occasions. Some people celebrate, but many don’t. I know many Cambodian’s that aren’t sure which day or even year they were born. Their mothers don’t remember! They pick random days (or years) and say that's their birthday. So Kong has 3 different birth certificates. But the one recorded in his family tree and that’s in the official Cambodian census says he was born in 1988. Who knew?

Anyways, that’s all I have to say for now. This upcoming week is the Chinese New Year. So most schools have the entire week off. We, however, only get Wednesday-Friday off. And Rachha and Vothanak are going to a different province for most of the week. On Thursday I am going with my friend Cham Reuon on his fathers boat and a bunch of us are going to some islands! We’ll go fishing, swimming and just have lots of fun! Yay!

=D