Rain, rain, go away....

It may sound contrary to the title of this entry... I really do like the rain here and it helps cool thing off. There are a few time it is just inconvenient. I wish that you could smell the smells here in one of the smaller markets after it rains so you could get the full experience. It's makes me want to say "rain, rain, go away make it stink another day."

Normal.... For us.

It seems like we have been super busy lately. We have had lots of end of school year functions, a few guys had graduation, banquet for the high school guys, visits by the head of the AH board, meeting tons of people, official meetings, paperwork, physicals for the guys that are going to collage and two holidays . That is all in one week. Did I mention parenting 13 new boys?
We have arrived at an especially busy time of the year. It has been tiring but it also gives us confidence that we are going to be just fine. Through all of this we have made progress on the other things that we needed to do to settle in a little more.
The one thing that has bummed us out is that good batteries are hard to get and so our camera is not usable during one of the most active times of the year.

That's just DUCKY!!!

We have made a habit of taking our camera everywhere. It is things like this that make it worth it.



Just in case you are wondering the ducks were all alive and they just looked at you as if to say "this is how I roll!" They were so quiet and seemed so mellow that at first glance they were dead.

Wild Things and Hunters

In the shot time we have been here we have seen some fun critters. Logan ,I and even some times Rene has enjoyed seening them. Logans first goal when we got here was to get close to one of the geckos. They tend to be 4-6 inches long. Smaller than I would expect but they sure do know how to evaded capture. We did get one but when we did he figured that dropping his tail was a good idea. Yes, it was a boy. How do I know you ask? Because Logan named him Gieko, so it has to be a boy!
Early in our stay here, David (one of the twins) found a Rat in the kitchen and killed it with a broomstick. From what we have heard the twins are the resident hunters. It was decent sized rat. This was the one critter Rene didn't care to see.
Hock Lee Brought home a praying mantis and it stayed around a few days. Most likely because someone a had pulled off its wings.
We have seen tons of snails. They have shells the size of golf balls and are around 5" long. From what the boys say, if you get the slime on you it can make your skin numb.

The animals I think are the coolest and Logan seems to think are especially cute are the little bats. There are fruit bats here. The wingspan is typically 8-10 inches. We seem to have one a week get into the house. It can be tricky getting them out of the house without hurting them. Partly because they fly and partly because the ceilings are so tall. The first temptation is to chase them out with a broom, but that is really not effective. I have had to knock them out of the air sweep them up with a dustpan and toss them into the air outside. They are surprisingly durable. I was also surprised they don't just take off the ground like a bird. They have to crawl (slowly and awkwardly) to a chair or table and crawl up the leg and when they reach an appropriate height the drop and try to fly. I haven't seen one succeed yet from such a short drop. It is real very sad to watch so I just get the dust pan and throw them out into the air and they fly off just fine.

Three Week here

The last three weeks we have been getting settled in over here . We are very glad to be here but there are lot of things that we have to get used to. One of the largest parts has been learning all the schedules for all the boys in the house. Some other things have been setting up our office/bedroom, boys room, meeting teachers at school, school functions, learning the budget, getting paper work together (this seems to never end), going through the stuff to know what is in the house (spring cleaning), fixing computers, fixing broken stuff in the house, getting to know the city (every street looks the same) and just living and spending time with everyone. We are settling in more every day.
We have been blessed by so many people that have been helpful here and back in the states. The Khmer helper that has been working at the boys home for years continues to be a huge help. Our friend Tom may have sold the forklift. Good bye forklift :( .
We went to swim at the school pool today. Can you believe it... it was overcast, the coolest day yet and it started to rain. We decided to leave because Logan was shivering incessantly. I never thought that would have been a possibility. Rene, Caleb and I thought it was quite comfortable. I wounder if this is Logan acclimating or if he is just that small and lean that it makes a difference.

Transition.... Ya gota love it!?!

Our trip went better than we expected. For the 14.5 hour flightwe were given 8 seats. It was nice to be able to stretch out and sleep. When we arrived in Phnom Penh we had a hard time with visas because the guy who has to approve our specific kind of long term visa had been (and was still) on vacation. After about 45 minutes it got all worked out. The heat and humidity was a bit much for the first few days but gotten used to it more every day.

We have been in Cambodia for about 9 days now. We have seen and done so many things it seems like 3 weeks. We have been going nonstop. We are adjusted to the time difference by now (mostly). The driving is not a stress like I expected it to be. That doesn't mean that it is... Normal. We are trying to get to know the city of Phnom Penh while the boys are in school. In the evening we are going to soccer games and helping with homework, spending time with our boys, and spending time with the boys at the home. Mixed into it all are the one time things like going through our bins, unpacking, getting shelves and the like, fixing wash machine, testing old/broken power converters, going through old storage stuff, rearranging the office, replacing the internet router, and a bunch of paper work/document related errands and projects.

The boys had Thursday off so the whole house went to a historic palace/temple outside the city. It was placed on a hilltop with great views on all sides. To reach it there were 541 steps. Caleb and Logan did great. They walked the whole way up. They even had more than enough energy to wander around and do more stairs on their own. It was really fun (and hot).
The guys here are pretty good kids. About half of them have consistently made an effort to make the Caleb and Logan very feel welcome. The boys are already warming up to our life here. We has a conversation with Logan a day of two ago that went something like this;

Rene: What are differences between living here and living in the US?

Logan: You can't drink the water out of the faucets.

Rene: What else?

Logan: That's it.

Rene: There isn't anything else that is different??

Logan: No.

Rene: That's it?

Logan: ...Umm...Yeh.

Go figure. Rene and I feel that the differences are beyond listing. Even with that said We have both noticed that making this home is not a large stretch. We also have found that we feel more and more comfortable here every day.