Some Pictures of the Flooding

The tree marks where the road washed away

The Overflowing River
Main road into town
While staying with Ben and Jon I learned the finer points of playing Bionicles
Games at VBS


Signs That You Have Adjusted To Your Environment

1. You laugh when you go to a restaurant and they have the same silverware that comes free in the toilet paper.
2. The thought of wading through knee deep water to get into town when you can not see what you are stepping into or on, doesn’t bother you at all.
3. You see a picture of the ocean and think "OH YEAH there is water that is blue/green and pretty" (here water is all a brown/red clay color)
4. When you go out to eat you look for a table that is by a fan but not a light cuz bugs are drawn to the light.
5. When you look in your water cup and find a dead mosquito and think "mooha-ha-ha one down millions to go."
6. Look in your tea cup and find entertainment watching a water bug get high on the caffeine. This was a very funny thing to watch, the longer it swam around, the more jittery it got and the faster it swam(we sat right under a light. Ooops).
7. When you walk by the river and see 3 boys skinny dipping in broad day light your first thought is "I wonder where are the other 6 today?"


I am going to try and tell you all that has happened this past week, it has been very busy and eventful.
First off, VBS was much better. This week we played with a rainbow parachute tossing balls into the air and the kids had a blast. Katja (Ka-tee-ya) and Erik drove the boys and I to church, we were going to go out to eat afterwards but someone got a little sick on the way so they took us home. The boys were very disappointed when we got into the house. Ben felt it was his job to explain to me what is supposed to happen after church ” Hey Alyssa if my parents were here we would probably go out to eat now”. So then I explained that I couldn’t drive them especially in the dark and the rain. We decided to order delivery pizza, a simple task one might think. Let me just say it was the most fun I have ever had ordering over the phone. The guy who took our order and I repeated ourselves about 15 times each so the other could understand. As if that wasn’t bad enough then I had to give him directions to the house and here there really aren’t road names and the ones that do have names are not the ones with houses on them. So I tell them that it is by the Borann Guest house and he knew how get there. Then I gave him directions from the guest house. It's real simple, come out of parking lot and turn left, go straight till you see the big PINK house with all the lights on and the gate open. Then about a half hour later I get a call saying he can't find the house so could I please come pick it up from the guest house. I did my best to explain that I had no way of getting there and I wasn’t about to walk there in the dark and that is the whole reason I ordered delivery. I give him the directions again. After 20 mins of standing on the porch I got a call from someone else saying the driver sees no one standing on the porch so then I gave him the directions and he called the driver and told him. About another 20 mins and he did find it. My guess is that he wasn’t really at the guest house cuz it is only a 5 min walk from the house and there are't any roads to turn the wrong way on. I laughed so hard after every phone call and was getting ready to let the boys know we were going to have quesadillas for dinner, when he finally showed up. The pizza was very good and had little hot dogs rolled into the crust.

Monday
After I got the boys off to school, two of Lara’s friends came to get me and we went to breakfast. We walked to a very small hotel that has a pretty nice restaurant. We had Pho (FA) soup. It is a kinda beef broth with noodles, onions and small pieces of beef and then you add lime, basil leafs(at least that is what I told myself the plant that they were feeding us was), bean sprouts and some yummy super spicy red sauce. It was very good and I was able to work on my mad chopstick skills (the noodles were very hard to eat with two little sticks). After that Katja came and got me and we went out to a little village about a half hour out of town on a moto bike. This I must say was very fun. We even came to a stick bridge where I got off and walked across, praying it would hold the weight of the bike. I told her which sticks were wobbly. The road was wet and bumpy the whole way there because of all the rain the day before. On the way back she taught me how to drive which I found to be very fun. Katja is very brave. After we almost fell from sliding in the mud she said “Let me start it and then you try again OK” so she did and hopped back on the back. The reason we went was to visit a member of one of the home churches that they (Erik and Katja) oversee. The lady we went to see is around 6 months pregnant and had a doctor tell her that the baby’s head was not growing and had no brain. Katja is a Doctor and came to look at the sonogram pictures and had sent her to get more taken. This Mother is now going down south to get a better sonogram done in Phnom Penh. Please be praying that the doc would stop pressuring her to abort the baby and that if the baby really has no brain that the family would find comfort in their faith. Also if the baby is not growing then they will induce labor so pray that would be as painless as possible if that is how it goes. This is the family’s first child and they are very scared. She would be due around Nov or early Dec. The mother also said she doesn’t sleep well because the baby moves so much at night, which is a very good sign but we still need to get a better picture of what is going on.

Tuesday
I started Laundry and that was a lot of fun cuz it was still raining a lot. The washer is on the roof under a metal cover and when the washer is on you can't touch the sides cuz you get shocked. Well I started the clothes about 8 and went up around 9 and the they had not drained and rinsed. I think it is cuz the power had gone out for a minute, so I got to push buttons and try and figure out which one made it drain(the buttons are in Chinese). I was successful and got it all drained and then I set to hanging it on the line to dry. It took like a day and a half to dry because it rained so much. I helped Katja cut up veggies for lunch and visited till the boys came home for lunch. Then the boys and I went to our house for lunch and after I got them off to afternoon session of school, Lara’s friend Neang came and she took me out for a 2 hour moto driving lesson. It was a lot of fun. We went out to the lake and saw some floating villages.

Wednesday
was a very cool morning. Neang and Elly(I have no clue what kind of churchy type of things these ladies have been exposed to) took me to breakfast again and they had a lot of questions about what kinda of church I go to. I gladly answered all their questions and by the end I had shared what I went through before I knew Christ, and what ended up bringing me to the realization of how deeply God loves us and wants a daily, personal relationship with us. Elly was very interested and at the end said she liked the idea of the kind of church that I go to. Neang was a little uncomfortable but still had questions she wanted answers to. The fact that she liked what I was saying bothered her. Please be praying for them and pray that I would give a true picture of what it is like to live a life surrendered to the Lord, just resting in His loving arms.
That night Jon had Taikwando. Near the end of class it started to rain really hard so the kids played in the rain and the mud and had a grand time. After waiting 45 mins for the rain to stop or at least slow we gave up and started to run home. It is only a 3 min walk but in that time we were all completely soaked, which worked cuz then it rinsed some of the mud out of the boys hair. It was lots of fun!!!!!

Thursday
I did some more laundry had coffee with Katja. It was very nice to get to know her a little more, and then we went to the YWAM base here because someone was sick. Katja tells sick people which clinic in town they should go to for their medical problems. Then we went out to another church plant that they oversee and I got to see the church and meet some of the ladies that attend there. The kids played and then we went to go get David and Lara at the airport around 7:30. The boys were very happy to see their parents but said that it was fast and seemed like just a day or two(so I guess I passed the fun test).

Friday
We just kinda hung out and did more laundry and went to Breakfast with the girls again. We went down to the Old Market and picked up some things that Neang was having sewn which ended up being a sheer shawl thing that Neang had seen in a magazine from Paris. There was one for me and one for Elly. I had picked out the fabric for mine cuz Neang said it was for someone else my age and wanted my opinion on what to get. Everyone spoils me here!!!
Saturday was the Skype party and I loved seeing everyone and yes I did go through knee deep water to get to the Internet cafe and it was worth every minute.

Thank you for all your prayers this past week. I had fun taking care of the Narita boys(Ben and Jon) while their parents were gone.
I am back at the Truex’s house. Please be praying for wisdom on my part.
Also Grace, Patience and Guidance.
I love it when I get your emails, keep them coming. I reply when I have access to the internet. I can't post pics right now cuz they wont load put I will try another day.