Nate and Christiana

We were recently privileged  to take part in Shalom Church’s annual youth camp in a small coastal town in the Koh Kong Province (4-hour bus ride). The theme of the camp was Why Love?, focusing on God’s love for us, and our love for others. We left Phnom Penh on Tuesday morning, and returned on Friday night (Aug 24th-27th). There were approximately 75 youth,  a number of them Non-Christian. Nate taught four sessions (in Khmer) while Ava and I participated by attending the meetings, but mostly…by making friends! She was definitely the star of the show, especially as some of the locals had probably never seen a white baby before. While it was stretching for us (the interesting food, Ava’s schedule being thrown off, language limitations [for me], etc.), we had a wonderful time with everyone, and we’re so glad that we could go! Achoon chraun, Shalom Church, for this opportunity. Thank you to those abroad who prayed for the Lord’s blessing during this time–please keep these young people before the Throne. Thank you also for your continued support, making such ministry possible. We are so very grateful!

Here are some visual images from the trip:

Click the pictures to enlarge.

Driving in Cambodia. How to describe this unique experience to the western world? When I visited two years ago, I was TERRIFIED at the prospect of having to drive here. It seemed like random chaos to my untrained eye. While there are technically laws on the books, driving around Phnom Penh would suggest they are more like optional recommendations. For instance, you know those movie chase sequences when the hero is forced to drive AGAINST traffic–dodging oncoming cars, narrowly escaping death every few seconds? Hah! Child’s play! We do that every day! Ok, so perhaps not at the same crazy speed, but there seems to always be someone coming at you, going the “wrong” way, on the “wrong” side of the street. One amusing aspect of driving is that, not only will folks often drive on the “wrong” side of the street, but there are several cars on the road that have left-side steering wheels (most have right-side steering). Why is this humorous? I’m sure that one day I’ll get used to it, but there are still so many brief moments of “Aaagh! No one’s driving that car?”

Cambodian driving is like being in the middle of your own personal video game. Objects, people, cars, goats, are coming at you, and you have to dodge everything in your path to keep from losing points…or your life. It can be exhilarating in one moment, and completely frustrating, the next. One nice aspect is that the speeds are comparatively slow. I’d say the average speed is around 25-30 mph. There are definitely the exceptions, however. For instance, driving down a road, you’ll find yourself stuck behind some guy going 10 mph…literally (you’d think it would be faster to walk and you seriously wonder why they spent the money on a car in the first place). You, naturally, cannot continue behind the 10 mph car without going insane, so you check to see if you can safely pass. Just as you think the coast is clear, you look in the rear-view mirror and see a huge Lexus SUV barreling towards you at 50 mph, intending on passing both you and “10 mph Guy”. You wait for “Mr. Run Everyone Over” guy to pass, and then you safely proceed to pass “10 mph Guy” before the cement mixer coming towards you (also going 50 mph) runs you over. Yes, it can be quite exciting.

When I was first learning to drive, Nate described the experience as “flowing water”. You don’t really make a lot of stops and starts (except at traffic lights), and you never do anything too abruptly, unless it’s to avoid hitting someone. To drive safely, you drive SLOWLY. For example, if you want to make a right hand turn, you don’t really stop and look both ways…Mind you, you do check to see the potential hazards, but as you’re analyzing the risk, you’re also gradually making the turn. Most people don’t even look as they’re doing this, because they assume that if they’re going slowly enough, everyone else will move to avoid hitting them. Hey, what can I say? The system works pretty well. It will definitely be interesting when we visit the U.S. on furlough, though. Honestly, the thought of accelerating to 65 mph to enter a freeway, horrifies me.

Another unique aspect of driving in Cambodia is that it’s a mind game. Decisions are often made based on what you assume the other person is thinking. For instance, expensive, large cars get priority over smaller, less expensive ones. Case in point…You’re driving down the street toward an intersection (that lacks a stop sign/traffic light) when you see a big luxury car heading towards the same intersection, perpendicular to your own vehicle. As crashing is not the typical method of choice, who stops for whom? Well, it depends on how nice/big your car is! For instance, if you’re driving a small less expensive sedan, than you’d better yield to the Lexus. Even if you have a large SUV, but it’s old (like ours), you have to yield to the nicer, but smaller cars. The problem, of course, arises when two people have different opinions on what’s deemed “nice”.  The funny thing about yielding, is that it can be life-threatening to be a considerate driver. NO ONE is expecting you to yield to the other person. If YOU have the right, and decide to be generous, and stop for them, it can easily cause an accident.

Honking. When Nate and I were first dating, I noticed that he honked more than the average driver. Not necessarily a deal-breaker, but it did annoy me a bit. Now I understand the wisdom in excessive honking! You honk when someone’s going to hit you. You honk when you’re about to hit someone. You honk to let someone know that you’re passing them. You honk when someone is dangerously passing you (and you have your baby in the back seat). You honk to say, “Go ahead!” and you honk to say, “Don’t you dare!” Yes, we are happy honkers, and proud of it. People should really honk more in the States—so many accidents could be avoided!

There is so much more to say about driving in Cambodia, but you’ll have to come experience it for yourself! :)

We celebrated July 4th at the American Embassy. It’s a funny thing to celebrate Independence Day abroad, especially when you realize that your host country really doesn’t care about this particular holiday. My first time was in 2001, three months before September 11th. Ironically enough, I was in London, England. They don’t celebrate July 4th in England. My second time was in 2007, during a short-term missions trip to Zambia. We had a mini celebration with food and “would be illegal in CA” fireworks.

So, this was my third time to celebrate in a foreign land. It was surreal to leave the now “familiarity” of Cambodia, and walk through the embassy’s heavy security into a mini America. There were decorations galore and American music (My first thought upon seeing the oodles of decorations was, “Wow, how did they ship those here?!” and imagining that some poor guy had the task of bringing them on a plane…shipping isn’t reliable here). There was a plethora of “American food” stands, including Mexican and hot dogs! It’s hard to explain the strange feeling of seeing hundreds and hundreds of white people in one place. It was kind of creepy, actually.

But, despite the oddity of it all, we had a fun time…pie-eating contest, a REAL John Deere tractor, face-painting… The best part was running into friends and eating ice cream together (Thanks, Kit, Avery, and Lucas!). We concluded our July 4th festivities at the home of our friends and neighbors, the hospitable Ohlins.  We enjoyed food and fellowship with many friends (including the Asian Hope youth) and also celebrated several birthdays (David, Jonathan and Abby!).

Ava’s first face painting experience. It was a little difficult to keep her from shifting her head to see what the guy was doing.

Our little third culture kid…not really American, and not really Cambodian…Amodian? Camerican?

There’s the smile…

We’ve never been so excited to see a John Deere tractor.

Enjoying our time at the Ohlins.

Some of the kids enjoying their m’hoabp.