Biblical Integration

As many of you know, I teach at a Christian school here in Cambodia.  We have a block of time set aside every day to teach Bible, and the kids love this time. But more than that, we try to weave Godly principles into everything we do throughout the day.  This may be helping them with the little troubles that come up between friends at snack time.  It could be talking about Creation while they learn about the solar system...

I thought I would share some humorous thoughts with you along this theme of Biblical integration.  

I came across this verse some time ago, and it really made me laugh out loud when I took it out of context and applied it to our daily lives here in Cambodia.

1 Corinthians 10:25 says, "Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience' sake."

Why is this so funny you ask?  Well, if you live in Cambodia (or another country like it), the meat markets are very different here from what you might experience in your Western stores.  There is no refrigeration, no cellophane wrapped packages, no dates, no barriers of any kind against the natural elements, except the occasional wave of a hand to keep the flies away.  Slabs of animal flesh are laid out on wooden platforms.  The seller has a little butcher's block that usually looks like part of a tree stump.  Depending on the market, there could be puddles of diluted blood to step around. 

I would love to put that verse up in our kitchen here. It would be a great conversation piece when guests come over for dinner parties.

Here are a few other sellers in our local market, named Psaar de Huy (meaning dusty market).

There's a nice auntie selling steamed buns.

This is our veggie lady.  She's a great gal; friendly, speaks English and will direct you to another stall if she doesn't have what you need.  Once you form a relationship with a seller, you don't have to negotiate the price any more, she'll just give you the going price and you pay it.

You may be surprised, but our local market even has a lingerie department.  You can buy bras, panties and pajama sets.  I thought this might be a little risqué for the blog, so no pictures included here.

There are folks selling these sun-roasted cockles everywhere here.  I've never tried them.  I don't imagine they're easy on the digestive tract.

There are some things that I will miss as I leave Cambodia this year; the uncle who sells me sugarcane juice and the young lady at the veggie market.  I don't think I'll miss the meat stalls, but they sure add character to an already interesting place.

Khmer New Year and other things

So we are on holiday this week from school.  It's Khmer New Year here in Cambodia.  Lots of folks have traveled out, but I stayed home this time.  I've been all over Southeast Asia during my three years here in Cambodia.  My housemate Hilly is also here for the holiday, and it's always fun boppin' around town with her.

There are some great things about staying around town for the holidays.  The city gets quiet.  More specifically, the roads get quiet.  It's a dream to drive to the store in 5 minutes or get downtown in 10 or 15.  Cambodia is a small country and distances here are short.  But with the amount of cars, tuk tuks and motos on the road, and the general flow of traffic, it takes a long time to get places here and there's a false sense that things are far away.  As I said, it's nice being around town when most people clear out to the provinces.  But with every blessing, there's usually something negative that rides along with it. Just to remind us of the fallen nature of the world we live in I guess and strengthen our longing for our eternal homes in heaven.  Maybe that's it.

Hill and I went downtown to our favorite burger place in town.  I was enjoying the open roads.  You'd think the roads would be safer with fewer vehicles around.  Oh no.   Other people enjoy the freedom of open roads as well.  So much so, that they feel safe flying through intersections without heeding the traffic light or even looking for cross traffic.  As we puttered down Norodom Blvd. on my middle-aged moto, we saw a red hot Ferrari stopped at a light.  Kudos to him for stopping at the light.  But as soon as the light changed he tore down that boulevard in his fiery red car like a meteor entering the atmosphere from outer space.  When else would he get a chance to drive that kind of car that fast in Cambodia?   I don't blame him.  We just stayed to the side and watched until he was out of sight.

Back to the burger joint.  I especially love My Burger Lab, not only because they have juicy, funky burgers, but because they have a soda fountain with endless refills.  How American!  I love it!  Well their soda fountain was broken and they gave me a can of soda instead.  I almost cried at the counter.  You know it's hot season, right?  You know there are limited places in town where you can walk up to the soda fountain and refill to your heart's content, right?  I went through the stages of grief all within a 20 second time span; denial, anger, depression and finally, acceptance.  But I have to say, my burger was fantastic.  I got the kick in the face.  It's called that because it has jalapenos and a horseradish sauce. Mmm, tasty.

Blessings and curses combined on the road and at burger joints.

Being home for the holiday is also a great opportunity to host some dinner parties.  We had some school friends over the other day.  Hilly planned a nice dinner.  I walked into the dining room in the afternoon and flipped on the light. The bulb exploded in its socket raining down shattered glass over our heads. Oh, and it also blew out the electricity in our ENTIRE house.  Guests were due to arrive in a few hours.  Blessings and curses again.  Time to get to work.  We swept up and checked the breaker boxes around the house.  Nothing was flipped.  We reset every breaker, nothing.  So strange.  We've blown breakers before, but it never cut electricity to the entire house, just the one section that it's wired to.  This was bad news.  Khmer New Year was the next day meaning there wouldn't be anyone available for the next three days to fix it.  Next step: pray.  Three days with no electricity, no AC, no fans and a spoiled refrigerator would be a very bad thing.  Next step:  call the neighbors from Texas.  They can do anything.  Chris comes over with a broom (not to help us sweep, but to reach those high up breaker switches with his broom handle).  He checks the outside breakers on the electrical pole.  Nothing, they're all up.  As we chatted about it, all the electricity in the house came back on.  So strange.  You don't have to wonder why they call Cambodia the Kingdom of Wonder.  This place keeps you wondering why things happen the way they do, blessings and curses and all.

Happy Khmer New Year everyone!

40 for 40

Another birthday has arrived, as they tend to do every so often.  I came down early for my coffee this morning and there was a treasure waiting for me.  A real treasure of encouragement.  It brought a tear to my eye...

A draft of this post has been sitting around for over year just waiting for its entrance into the world. I wrote it around last year's birthday, but the idea came even before that.  Anyway, I hope you like the concept.  May it inspire you in one way or another, or just make you laugh at the things you find ridiculous. Either way, I hope you enjoy the journey from last year til this, and may it keep you looking forward to the year ahead...




Last year's birthday was a nice one. Classy through and through. On a Saturday night we went to a chic, classy little Italian place called Apertivo. Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra were playing in the background. The only things missing were my pearls, pumps and a big strong handsome man to dance with. The prosecco and panna cotta were fabulous. Rebecca and Susan were a joy as usual.

Sunday afternoon we hit the town for high tea at the Sofitel, a five star hotel.  It was a beautiful affair.

It's part of my nature to delight in beauty.  So this birthday tea was perfect.

Since we're on the subject of birthdays, let's get to the purpose of this post. Last year I celebrated my 39th birthday.

This year is the ONE. The one that shall not be named.  What to do about it...? It's going to come no matter what, that's inevitable.  Some people have parties for the big 4-0 and everyone wears black, as if they are in mourning.  THAT is NOT going to happen. But what to do?  

Maybe I could have a really BIG party, but no black, AT ALL.  I'm thinking all bright colors, everywhere. No black shoes, belts, nothing.  And if you've got black hair you've got to wear a turban or cap or something to cover it up.  So a huge, bright party. That sounds like fun.

But I also had another idea.  How about making a list of 40 goals to accomplish before my 40th year is finished?  This is going to be a celebration of life and not a mourning of youth lost.  I LOVE IT!!!

Ideas were popping into my head of all sorts of things I could put on my list.  I realized though that these can't all be huge monumental things.  That's unrealistic.  And the items on the list could fall into any number of categories: spiritual growth, travel, books, fitness, etc.  When it came down to writing my list, it was actually very hard to come up with 40 things, so I enlisted the help of a few friends.

So here it is: 40 for 40.  The list of 40 goals to accomplish before my 40th year is out. In no particular order:

1. Learn to surf.

2. Be debt free.  I've got a lingering student loan from my bachelor's degree, that just won't go away. I want to be free.

3. Do 50 push-ups, the real kind. No knees on the ground.  As of now I can do at least 10 and probably a few more.

4. See an opera or Broadway show.

5. Use an advent calendar for the Christmas season. This may seem like an old time-y tradition, but I've never done it before and I really like the idea of it.

6. Visit a Dark Sky park and go stargazing. I have a great story about star gazing.  I'll save that for the update on this post.

7. Memorize Romans 12 in the Bible.  It's an excellent chapter for godly living.

8. Get highlights for my hair.  A bucket list item you ask? Well since I've never dyed my hair (except for the time my high school field hockey team made it to the CIF championships and our school colors were red, so you can imagine what happened, but that doesn't count for this list), I think it's worthy of the list.

9. Go hunting with my dad again. I've got some funny hunting stories from my childhood (and adulthood), so why not add another to it?

10. Travel to one place on the travel bucket list: Greece, Morocco, UK or Maldives.

11. Start a garden at our house here in Cambodia.

12. Go four wheeling.  We did it as kids.  I went bundu bashing in Botswana. It's been way too long.

13. Do the splits. 

14. Read a biography.

15. Have a reunion with a friend from the past.

16. Do a couple of touristy things around Phnom Penh.

17. Go ballroom dancing. (or learn how to dance first, I guess)

18. Start or join a book club.

19. Start a food blog.  I love to cook and hostess, and my friends have been encouraging me to follow my dreams.

20. Body surf in some fabulous ocean.

21. Start a new Christmas tradition.

22. Visit one of the 7 wonders of the (modern) world (Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, Machu Picchu, Christ the Redeemer, Petra or the Colosseum).

23. Re-learn to knit.

24. Cook and hostess a coconut themed meal: a drink, main and dessert. (Or some other theme will do just fine, but I have a thing for coconut)

25. High tea at the fanciest hotel in town.

26. Read a classic.

27. Make my bed every day for a month.

28. Read Shakespeare (something I haven't read before).

29. Read a contemporary book about social justice.

30. Run a 10k.

31. Floss my teeth every night for one whole month straight.

32. Go mountain biking again.  I used to love this before I moved to Cambodia.

33. Begin a Master's degree.

34. Stay-cation or pool day at classy hotel downtown.

35. Take a cooking class.

36. Make a cross-country drive across the U.S. There are so many things I haven't seen in my own country.

37. Get a Moroccan tea set and serve mint tea and a some msemen dripping with honey to friends.

38. Make a Christmas card list and begin to send cards out every year.

39. Make a puzzle with the family.  There's something so down-home and comforting about this. 

40. A BIG, HUGE, ENORMOUS, BRIGHT, COLORFUL PARTY with people that I love. Or something small, quiet, cozy and intimate, which is more my style anyway.


I'm excited about this year and my 40 for 40 project. If nothing else, it will spur on some good times and healthy habits.  You'll have to check in a year from now for a final update. 

Until then,