Went to the beach last weekend. The Sampsons and 2 other families went to Sihanouk Ville for a wedding and I tagged along. Sihanouk Ville is quite a popular destination for the Khmers for holiday. The beach! We had to stop the van on the way there because one of the tires gave way! A huge chunk of the rubber came off and we were all alarmed by the "thud" sound. Good thing the spare tire was in place...

It was a nice break from the heat... For the most it was pretty good, since we had air-conditioned rooms! It was so hot and the sun looked like it could fry many eggs that I decided not to swim... Not to mention that I have yet to buy my own sunblock. I weighed the options between fun and sunburn... I chose to stay under the shades... But it was pretty nice to walk along the beach in the early morning with Date and Madelyn. Originally we intended to catch the sunrise but woke up a little too late... because we played Big 2 until past midnight... So we only caught the mosquitoes instead... Hahaha.... That was the only other thing I didn't quite appreciate... As I was listening to my ipod nano and enjoying the lovely views of the sea, there were the annoying mozzies following us.... Kinda spoiled the fun....

I was kind of shocked when I discovered that I started peeling on the way back on Sunday. On my ears! I was like... what the? I didn't go under the sun very much and I didn't even go swimming! Could the sun be so powerful that my ears got burned even when I was in the shades?? Then I realised maybe it was because I was burned by the iron bar thingy a few times when Date was trying to do my hair for the wedding dinner.




Speaking of the dinner, it was one of most bizarre wedding dinner I've ever attended. They painted the bananas silver and gold!?! Lots of weird people at the dinner.. It was the wedding of the DM (dive masters) that the family had for diving trips. Mind you, they weren't Khmers. Dutch and British. Real interesting people at the dinner. Divers, (most of whom I know) drink beer like water and smoke like a chimney. We had to tell the waiters and waitresses a few times that "No, thank you, we don't need beer here". I was quite glad when they said, "ok, let's go. Eli needs to sleep. He's tired". Eli (Elijah) is this cute boy of Marc and Ann, also volunteer staff of RDI. He's really cute and good looking but rather shy. I'm trying to get him to warm up to me so I can play with him. Not doing a very good job, though..

As I was saying... I played some local games and had some fun during the Khmer New Year. On Sunday night, I played a game called "Hit the pot" when translated literally. Basically they buy these cheap clay pots which are shaped like vase. Inside they'll fill with goodies like candies, biscuits and what not, and sometimes they'll fill with powder or water. They'll then hang it up with strings supported by poles. The pots are hung via a stick, basically, and the stick is tied to strings. So, whoever wants to play the game will be blindfolded and turned around a few times and he/she will have to head towards the pots and try to hit it. Of course, people will try to help and give direction so he/she doesn't go off course and hit someone! I thought it'd be quite difficult to hit it but I did the jackpot! Hee hee.. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. It was too dark anyway.

After dinner on New Year's day, the powder attack began... Much like the Thai New Year, they put powder on your face or neck as a tradition. But here, people are more aggressive. I was attacked many times, mostly by kids, and I tried to get some of them too. Everyone was covered in baby powder by the end of the day.. Some kids even sprayed ice cold water on people!



The other fun thing I did was this home made slip and slide, like a water slide, except that it's horizontal. Basically you just keep spraying water to keep the surface wet and slippery and try to slide on it. I think I had too much fun and sprained my neck muscle a little and I had some trouble turning my neck.. But it's a lot better now ...



Oh, and I discovered there're three puppies at the house next door. So cute! I wonder if I can have a dog when I move to my new place...

Next week I'm going to try to start a TOEFL class with the lab staff, hoping that this would help them in passing their TOEFL score. There are scholarships available for them to study abroad but they first have to pass the TOEFL score. Do pray for wisdom in building up friendship with the people slowly and the opportunities to share with the staff. I hope I don't mislead them in their TOEFL preparation! Knowing that my English isn't all that great. The last time I did my TOEFL test was like, 14 years ago!!?? I can't even spell properly these days without spell check. Heck, I can't even write properly. Getting so used to typing on the computer that I have trouble getting make my already messy handwriting legible...

What a day it's been... They said this is the hottest month when I first came last week, I was thinking, "this ain't too bad, I can do this..." But the past few days, and especially today just proved me wrong....

It was Khmer New Year on Saturday, and it'll be holiday till... at least today (Monday). Some will be back to work tomorrow, Tuesday but most should be back on Wednesday. Since it was holiday and no one was working, I decided to help out Ben, a pHD student from Stanford University on his project on Arsenic, together with Caleb and Jenny. We went to take some water samples from the well nests Ben made in the field at a village nearby. Each well nest has like 3-4 well tubes ranging from 2 - 15m deep, and we were to take samples from each well.



Caleb, Ben, Jenny (Left to right)



Ben's project will help people to understand why Arsenic is behaving the way it is here, hopefully. I saw he made a profile map of Arsenic concentration and it's pretty interesting! And I just discovered Google Earth..

Anyway, after working under the sun for like 5 hours on Saturday, I thought that wasn't too bad until today when we went to the field again. It was so hot that even though we only worked for like less than 3 hours in the field, it felt like a whole day, and I was soaked..in sweat. It was 35C. I was quite glad that I remembered my sunglasses.



Basically no one, really, was working in the field. After learning our lesson on Saturday, we made sure we brought lots of water with us so we don't get dehydrated. Poor Jenny, she felt sick on Saturday which I think was probably due to the heat and dehydration.

Today was the worst I've experienced, in terms of heat. It was REALLY hot. I must've lost more water in a day than I've ever had today. Even though I keep drinking water, I still feel kind of dehydrated. It doesn't help that I've been having diarrhoea...

Shall write more about the games I played during Khmer New Year next time.

Sometimes I'm amazed at how slow time pasts but sometimes it goes very fast.. Now, if I tell you what I've been doing you'll probably fall asleep reading it. It can be pretty boring.. I suppose I should write something interesting so that SOMEONE will leave SOME comments on my blog... Come to think of it, I don't read other people's blog too often too.

So, I'm sure some of you are DYING to know what I've been doing. Well, you'll be glad that I haven't been doing nothing. It's been better than I thought. At first I thought I'd be doing nothing much in the first week. Getting settled down and all that.. Not that I've done a lot. Just.... stuff.

I've been staying at the country director, Mickey's house. Although I'm supposed to move to my new place, I can't do that until the current tenant, who's also another volunteer, moves to his new place... It's a little complicated. Something to do with putting a roof on the other house. The reason why they're putting me up at this place is because it's nearer to RDI's office so it's safer and more convenient, which is very nice of them. God is good!

Anyway, so, I've started working. Kind of. Started working on these test filters with some media in it and checked for flowrate and the removal efficiency of Arsenic. There're 2 Khmers that I work with now. One's still an Engineering student, Vorleak and the other is RDI staff, Kong Khea. The spelling is all weird so I never know the exact spelling. Only the pronounciation. Khmers are pretty friendly bunch of people.

My typical day would start with waking up at 6:55a.m. and breakfast at the coffee shop around 7:30a. The coffee shop is like the place where everyone hangs out in the morning. All the volunteer groups and all.

Work starts at 8:30 and lunch break's from 12p-1:30, and usually ends at about 4:30p. It's pretty flexible here, so it's up to your own discipline to get your work done. My favourite time of the day is to go watch soccer after work at about 5 plus. A bunch of kids (and some adults) play soccer without fail everyday, I think, at the field nearby. Some of the volunteers go there and play too, like Jenny and Caleb, who are both Americans. If I'm not wrong, Jenny's from Michigan and Caleb's from Kentucky. Jenny's been here for about 3 months, I think, but will be leaving next Friday; something which she said she's not prepared to do. Caleb's been here for 8 months and is on a 2-year term. They usually play till about 6 plus or when the sun sets. Yesterday the score was like, 14-9! Although I don't know much about soccer, I think they're pretty good. Sometimes I think I know what's going on but sometimes it's a bit confusing.. Someone said that it's jungle rules out there. Anything goes..



Maybe one of these days I'll try playing soccer with them too.

Last night I went to observe the English class conducted by Jenny. She's been teaching a few teenagers English with bible stories. Quite a relaxed and informal setting with about 12-15 of them who showed up. By teaching the bible stories, she taught some vocabs and some grammar rules and of course with the aim of building up friendships with the kids. Towards the end of the class, the wind started blowing and I and Jenny looked at each other and was like, uh oh..... It's going to rain! And looked like a heavy one too. So we quickly ended the class and rushed out to get on the bikes and headed back. It already started raining but started pouring heavily halfway. I missed a turn and almost lost my way. It's usually pitch dark at night here, so one must carry a torch light at night. Good thing I carried a super bright LED flash light from Mickey's. Even before I got home, I was soaking wet through and through. I was like, "oh no, I just put on my clean shirt!". When I got home I realised that my t-shirts and pants were covered with spots of mud. I guess a 3-5 min bike ride home can get you pretty muddy on a rainy night.

Something that you're never short of here is endless dust, as all who've been to Cambodia would know. When it rains, they turn into mud. After some time, you can care less if you're "dirty". There's no way to avoid it, so just get used to it. It's quite a norm to go around with clothes stained with dirt. But I don't mind. Finally I can be messy for a good reason. Although the girls here are pretty neat, which put me to shame...

I've reached safely in Cambodia yesterday evening. It was a bit of a scare when I didn't see the person in charge when I reached but thank God that He had everything under control! I'm now staying with the director's family temporarily. I just went and saw what'll soon be my own place and should be moving in the coming week. God is good, He has provided a place for me that is near the office of RDI.

Thank you all for your prayers, which I think I'd need a lot the next little while as I try to settle down and learn to fit in. For those who came to send me off at the airport, thank you so much. Really appreciate you taking the time out to send me off. It meant a lot to me to see you there.

For those who called/dropped by/sms your well wishes and those who gave your wonderful gifts, thank you so much! It's been a really great encouragement to me. I'm sorry I didn't get to reply or spend much time with you. It was quite a mad rush getting ready for the trip.

Would really appreciate your continual prayer support. It was harder to leave my comfort zone emotionally, than I thought. Pray for courage as God prepares me along the way.