So… It’s getting hotter. And because of this fact I think I have discovered the most unpleasant feeling on earth. It happens when you mix sunburn with temperatures in the upper 90s and add to that extremely high humidity. Not only is your skin on fire from the sunburn, you don’t get any relief from the temperature outside. It’s just not fun at all. The worst part is that it will continue to heat up through April… Definitely not looking forward to that… But to be honest, there are so many things happening here that make the climate worth enduring. There are so many things that have happened, and so much going on that I would like to tell you about, but I don’t want to bore you with all the things that I find interesting… So I’ll just write about a few. (aka Ciara says keep it short. I can try but I’m not making any promises. Lol)
One of those things I’m going to write about is the children’s home that Ciara spoke at last night. She was a little nervous, but she did a fantastic job. She spoke on how we don’t have to live with the guilt, shame, hurt etc from our past. We need to let God act like a water filter (this made it very relevant for them) and purify our lives so that what we pour into others is good, pure water. Not poisonous water tainted by being mean and hurtful to others. It was a very good lesson and I think the children got a lot out of it. At least I hope they did, because I know one person who got something out of it. Me. J
She had a translator Phiset, who did a great job translating for her into Khmer. He is one of the older ones at the children’s home and he is a very special young man. He acts as the MC for many events and interacts with the younger children in such an amazing way. This is a huge credit to the PCL staff. The work that they put into molding the lives of these children pays off in a wonderful way. Thanks to all the staff at the home that make this kind of thing possible. It is truly a blessing to see these children mature into godly men and women.
Catie , Stephen and I are all working very hard on revamping the English curriculum here and would like to thank the Lee University TESOL Department and Dr. Blake for the great help they have already provided. We are so thankful for their partnership and look forward to working with them in the future. I would also thank to thank Dr. Fitzgerald for his help in providing a new diagnostic test for the school. We are all truly so grateful to have such wonderful people working with us from the other side of the world.
When I am not helping with the curriculum or teaching classes I am helping do research for the integrated farm in Takam. Right now we are looking to sell some of the pigs and get the sows on a cycle of being bred twice a year. This will allow us to sell between 8 and 12 pigs each month year round. We are also trying to implement a way of reducing our food costs by gathering leftover food scraps from some of the restaurants in town and feeding that to the pigs. I am so excited about all the possibilities for the future of this farm. There is such great potential here for interested teams from the US to impact the lives of villagers by helping complete projects and support the integrated farm. Let us know if you’re interested! J
Ciara and I are also going to be involved with teaching Sunday school out in a nearby village called Kanak. We have been going for almost a month now on Sundays to help one of the Khmer staff Naroth, and yesterday we went and played games with the children. There were probably 50 or 60 kids there that we got to play with. It was an awesome time of crossing language barriers just by having fun and spending time with them.
One last thing before I end this blog. Last night I went to the market and bought a small watermelon, 3 mangos, 2 pineapples, and a half kilo of miniature mangos and it only cost me $4. I was feeling pretty happy about it until I came back to the apt and talked with the Khmer lady that works in the art gallery under our apt. She said she could probably have gotten it all for cheaper…. So from now on we’re giving her our fruits and vegetables grocery list and she’ll get it for us. Seriously. She’s amazing. We’ll post pictures of her and her awesome baby girl Lega soon. That’s all for now. I hope I kept it short enough that you didn’t get bored reading it. J
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. We really couldn’t do any of these things without all of our wonderful family and friends. We love you all.
Ryan
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