While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Our big ass car finally arrived last night.
Sau phea's dad's cambodian office has very kindly and generously loaned us the car for our use until we're done with it.
So we were all prepared this morning to bring it out for a test drive.
"Do you have the keys to the big gate?" Sau Phea asked me.
"er...no?" i replied.
"You DON'T HAVE THE KEYS?"
"nope. i only have keys to the small gate. the rest are with Sok Klang. who is out and his room is locked."
"who has the spare keys to his room?"
"Sok son."
"where are his keys?"
"he brought it back to singapore."
--------------------------------------------
we've finally figured out how to stop blacking out the whole village.
Only one person can bathe at one time, and the earlier the better.
We figured that 7pm is probably the time pple in the village turn on the lights, which is why the light flickers when we shower. there's not enough electricity to go round everyone's use.
the safest time to bathe is either when there's still light or when everyone in the village has slept, which is abt 10 plus.
it hasn't blacked out for quite a while since we did the one time one pax bathe thing.
Still, sometimes the rain short circuits the generator and it blacks out yet again.
We had a mother blackout of 16 hours the other night.
the half hour blackouts are chicken feed now.
in fact, our prayers nowadays are no longer abt NO blackouts, but please Lord may this blackout be only half hour long.
It isn't just lights that we miss when it blacks out,
we have to do without fans too.
and in this heat, and with the mosquitos waiting in perenial ambush,
it can get tough esp when it's time to sleep.
blanket -> blardy hot. no blanket -> mosquito attack.
and it's not just the fans.
our water pump runs by electricity.
so no electricity = no water.
no water to bathe, wash face, brush teeth.
no water to flush toilet also.
thank God we still have drinking water.
Bottled drinking water is cheap here, so that's what we drink.
Especially since we sent our well water source for testing and found that while it's arsenic and poison free (thank God!), it's coliform bacteria count is "too many to be counted".
With Sok son's filter system which he brought over from SG, we managed to reduce the "too many to be counted" to "55".
A quick check online shows that the bacteria is mostly harmless, causing diarrhoea at most, and the bacteria mainly comes from human or animal faeces.
So yes, our water is full of shit.
All of us got some form of diarrhoea, mostly not serious, for abt a week or so.
except possibly Sok son, who had a serious bout of diarrhoea probably because he drank a cup of unboiled water from his filter to demonstrate that his filter is good enough.
Back to blackouts.
the 16 hr ordeal with no light, no fan, no water is interesting.
like i said, we no longer find 30 min blackouts inconvenient.
We were on our laptops waiting for the electricity to come back,
and one by one we ran out of battery,
and we went to sleep.
We tried to sleep by fanning ourselves with handheld fans,
and then you fall asleep and obviously the hand stops fanning,
and then you have to wake up because it's too hot and you start fanning yourself to sleep again,
and the cycle goes on.
When we woke up in the morning the electricity was still out.
And sau phea and I were lying on our beds just fanning ourselves and understanding now why we sometimes see aunties outside just lying down and fanning themselves.
The other night there was yet another thunderstorm and we were on our way back from the other village (where the village school we are working on is at).
On the way back we saw that there were no street lights and every house was having candlelight dinner.
So we headed to the town cetnre for dinner and even the town centre has no lights!
Major blackout!
We ate at a place with backup generator and on our way back the town light came back to life.
we were praising the Lord then sekali when we got home our village still no light.
nevertheless, we continued with our meeting and yes the lights did come back on again.
Pok mentioned yesterday that she'd rather be without internet but with electricity rather than the other way round.
Last night our internet connection died.
Be careful what you pray for.
------------------------------------------------------
That night was also the night we waded through mud in the village school village.
the paths are dirt roads, not proper roads, so when it rans your foot basically sinks in like walking on snow.
the tuk tuk got stuck along the way and we all got down to push it out of the mud.
it's all very interesting.
they don't carry umbrellas here,
most pple do ponchos.
i love it.
walking in the heavy rain without getting very wet.
the children here obviously love it.
they were playing and bathing in the rain,
probably wondering why we are so scared of rain and dirt.
------------------------------------------------------------
It really isn't very difficult to adjust to life here.
Everything above has been incredibly fun and interesting.
but sometimes we get into big boo-boos like leaving the gas on for the whole night.
in the morning we found the gas tank empty and the stove on.
we didn't smell anything,
but yes it could have been fatal.
I can only really thank God for his protection over us.
Not just over the gas, but there are so many insects around here with crazy big spiders that it must be God's protection that we haven't gotten into any serious stuff.
Pok pok found a big and poisonsous (according to them) spider in the bathroom after the blackout and it was a good thing the spider didn't appear during the blackout while Sau Phea was bathing.
-------------------------------------------------------------
it's not all that rosy.
it can get quite tiring at times when you're never alone.
every single minute of the day is spent being with the same group of pple.
it can get quite stifling.
especially when things seem so impromptu here.
suddenly things will crop up or pple will come and time is always so tight.
and that's where my guitar gently weeps...
i was never really quite interested in the guitar,
despite my bro's feeble efforts to teach me heavy metal rock guitaring.
before we came it was decided that I will backup sau phea in the guitar.
I still wasn't particularly interested,
but i thought the guitar will be a good companion for some chicken soup for the soul.
With God's grace i really do love the guitar now.
Back at SG, i was still quite sian strumming useless notes under my bro's feeble (again!) guidance and his guitar book,
but after Henry spent 2 hours with me to get me started,
the guitar suddenly became quite alive.
And it has remained alive.
Whenever i need some chicken soup now I just pick up the guitar and play.
Simple tunes but moments when i can tune out and just be with me and my guitar.
----------------------------------------------------
Had a rare alone moment the other day when the rest were busy cooking and i offered to go out and buy some stuff for them.
Just me in the tuk tuk.
(or like i told Pok before i left, I'm going on a date with the tuk tuk driver!)
It was then i realised i have forgotten how beautiful Cambodia really is.
Riding in the tuk tuk down a dirt road with wind in face and watching the fields and skyline,
it is a beautiful scenery and the sense of peace you cannot buy.
As we continued down,
i saw all these pple.
we've always been looking out for shops and things to buy that I've never seen as in honestly "see" these pple along the roads.
They all look like they have so much stories to tell.
And yet i feel so handicapped because we haven't completely picked up the language.
we've always known it in our heads that we can't connect to them due to language,
but that was a moment i felt it.
------------------------------------------------------
"These are your war stories," Richard said, "and no one can take them away from you."
Richard is from our church who's been to many countries on holiday to visit and bless our missionaries.
He is on his way to becoming a missionary himself, with his wife and two kids in tow.
It was a great dinner we had with them.
for one thing we ate at their hotel restaurant (which they generously treated us) and
even though our individual noodle dishes only cost about $7 each,
it was astronomical by Cambodian standards,
and we all got mild diarrhoea after that.
we have truly grown accustomed to cheap food.
I've grown used to being with so few pple in the village that even PP seemed a little crowded and rowdy to me,
which means i'll be dead once i step into SG.
---------------------------------------------------
Work in the village school is beginning.
there is land to fill, fresh coats of paint to paint, broken doors to fix, electricity to install.
much work to be done.
while we wade in the mud and rain and push tuk tuks out of the mud.
men ai tey. (no problem).
All in day's work.
Prang Lang (Jia you!)
Our big ass car finally arrived last night.
Sau phea's dad's cambodian office has very kindly and generously loaned us the car for our use until we're done with it.
So we were all prepared this morning to bring it out for a test drive.
"Do you have the keys to the big gate?" Sau Phea asked me.
"er...no?" i replied.
"You DON'T HAVE THE KEYS?"
"nope. i only have keys to the small gate. the rest are with Sok Klang. who is out and his room is locked."
"who has the spare keys to his room?"
"Sok son."
"where are his keys?"
"he brought it back to singapore."
--------------------------------------------
we've finally figured out how to stop blacking out the whole village.
Only one person can bathe at one time, and the earlier the better.
We figured that 7pm is probably the time pple in the village turn on the lights, which is why the light flickers when we shower. there's not enough electricity to go round everyone's use.
the safest time to bathe is either when there's still light or when everyone in the village has slept, which is abt 10 plus.
it hasn't blacked out for quite a while since we did the one time one pax bathe thing.
Still, sometimes the rain short circuits the generator and it blacks out yet again.
We had a mother blackout of 16 hours the other night.
the half hour blackouts are chicken feed now.
in fact, our prayers nowadays are no longer abt NO blackouts, but please Lord may this blackout be only half hour long.
It isn't just lights that we miss when it blacks out,
we have to do without fans too.
and in this heat, and with the mosquitos waiting in perenial ambush,
it can get tough esp when it's time to sleep.
blanket -> blardy hot. no blanket -> mosquito attack.
and it's not just the fans.
our water pump runs by electricity.
so no electricity = no water.
no water to bathe, wash face, brush teeth.
no water to flush toilet also.
thank God we still have drinking water.
Bottled drinking water is cheap here, so that's what we drink.
Especially since we sent our well water source for testing and found that while it's arsenic and poison free (thank God!), it's coliform bacteria count is "too many to be counted".
With Sok son's filter system which he brought over from SG, we managed to reduce the "too many to be counted" to "55".
A quick check online shows that the bacteria is mostly harmless, causing diarrhoea at most, and the bacteria mainly comes from human or animal faeces.
So yes, our water is full of shit.
All of us got some form of diarrhoea, mostly not serious, for abt a week or so.
except possibly Sok son, who had a serious bout of diarrhoea probably because he drank a cup of unboiled water from his filter to demonstrate that his filter is good enough.
Back to blackouts.
the 16 hr ordeal with no light, no fan, no water is interesting.
like i said, we no longer find 30 min blackouts inconvenient.
We were on our laptops waiting for the electricity to come back,
and one by one we ran out of battery,
and we went to sleep.
We tried to sleep by fanning ourselves with handheld fans,
and then you fall asleep and obviously the hand stops fanning,
and then you have to wake up because it's too hot and you start fanning yourself to sleep again,
and the cycle goes on.
When we woke up in the morning the electricity was still out.
And sau phea and I were lying on our beds just fanning ourselves and understanding now why we sometimes see aunties outside just lying down and fanning themselves.
The other night there was yet another thunderstorm and we were on our way back from the other village (where the village school we are working on is at).
On the way back we saw that there were no street lights and every house was having candlelight dinner.
So we headed to the town cetnre for dinner and even the town centre has no lights!
Major blackout!
We ate at a place with backup generator and on our way back the town light came back to life.
we were praising the Lord then sekali when we got home our village still no light.
nevertheless, we continued with our meeting and yes the lights did come back on again.
Pok mentioned yesterday that she'd rather be without internet but with electricity rather than the other way round.
Last night our internet connection died.
Be careful what you pray for.
------------------------------------------------------
That night was also the night we waded through mud in the village school village.
the paths are dirt roads, not proper roads, so when it rans your foot basically sinks in like walking on snow.
the tuk tuk got stuck along the way and we all got down to push it out of the mud.
it's all very interesting.
they don't carry umbrellas here,
most pple do ponchos.
i love it.
walking in the heavy rain without getting very wet.
the children here obviously love it.
they were playing and bathing in the rain,
probably wondering why we are so scared of rain and dirt.
------------------------------------------------------------
It really isn't very difficult to adjust to life here.
Everything above has been incredibly fun and interesting.
but sometimes we get into big boo-boos like leaving the gas on for the whole night.
in the morning we found the gas tank empty and the stove on.
we didn't smell anything,
but yes it could have been fatal.
I can only really thank God for his protection over us.
Not just over the gas, but there are so many insects around here with crazy big spiders that it must be God's protection that we haven't gotten into any serious stuff.
Pok pok found a big and poisonsous (according to them) spider in the bathroom after the blackout and it was a good thing the spider didn't appear during the blackout while Sau Phea was bathing.
-------------------------------------------------------------
it's not all that rosy.
it can get quite tiring at times when you're never alone.
every single minute of the day is spent being with the same group of pple.
it can get quite stifling.
especially when things seem so impromptu here.
suddenly things will crop up or pple will come and time is always so tight.
and that's where my guitar gently weeps...
i was never really quite interested in the guitar,
despite my bro's feeble efforts to teach me heavy metal rock guitaring.
before we came it was decided that I will backup sau phea in the guitar.
I still wasn't particularly interested,
but i thought the guitar will be a good companion for some chicken soup for the soul.
With God's grace i really do love the guitar now.
Back at SG, i was still quite sian strumming useless notes under my bro's feeble (again!) guidance and his guitar book,
but after Henry spent 2 hours with me to get me started,
the guitar suddenly became quite alive.
And it has remained alive.
Whenever i need some chicken soup now I just pick up the guitar and play.
Simple tunes but moments when i can tune out and just be with me and my guitar.
----------------------------------------------------
Had a rare alone moment the other day when the rest were busy cooking and i offered to go out and buy some stuff for them.
Just me in the tuk tuk.
(or like i told Pok before i left, I'm going on a date with the tuk tuk driver!)
It was then i realised i have forgotten how beautiful Cambodia really is.
Riding in the tuk tuk down a dirt road with wind in face and watching the fields and skyline,
it is a beautiful scenery and the sense of peace you cannot buy.
As we continued down,
i saw all these pple.
we've always been looking out for shops and things to buy that I've never seen as in honestly "see" these pple along the roads.
They all look like they have so much stories to tell.
And yet i feel so handicapped because we haven't completely picked up the language.
we've always known it in our heads that we can't connect to them due to language,
but that was a moment i felt it.
------------------------------------------------------
"These are your war stories," Richard said, "and no one can take them away from you."
Richard is from our church who's been to many countries on holiday to visit and bless our missionaries.
He is on his way to becoming a missionary himself, with his wife and two kids in tow.
It was a great dinner we had with them.
for one thing we ate at their hotel restaurant (which they generously treated us) and
even though our individual noodle dishes only cost about $7 each,
it was astronomical by Cambodian standards,
and we all got mild diarrhoea after that.
we have truly grown accustomed to cheap food.
I've grown used to being with so few pple in the village that even PP seemed a little crowded and rowdy to me,
which means i'll be dead once i step into SG.
---------------------------------------------------
Work in the village school is beginning.
there is land to fill, fresh coats of paint to paint, broken doors to fix, electricity to install.
much work to be done.
while we wade in the mud and rain and push tuk tuks out of the mud.
men ai tey. (no problem).
All in day's work.
Prang Lang (Jia you!)
1 Comments:
At 8:20 PM,
Beautiful Hair said…
How on earth do I communicate with you now???
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