Of sweatshirts, markets, elephants, and the Milky Way

Sorry to have been so long since the last update. The food we ate was not a problem. We've been busy, and when we've had time to update the blog, either the internet was not working, or even more drastic, the power was off in the city. After dinner out with Joyce Johns, we're at her house using her computer, so we have hopes of actually being able to update the blog now.

Sweatshirts ... who'd have expected that you could get chilled in Cambodia? But here in the mountains, we've had cool evenings and mornings, and for Monday and Tuesday evenings when there was a breeze, we were wishing for sweatshirts. Go figure.

We've been tagging along with Joyce as she goes about her ministry here. There are Bunong villages all over the mountains, and Joyce is connected to many of them. One of her roles here is in healthcare. When people from the various churches, or other people in those villages need medical help, she is there, or can get them to the hospital. She also visits the hospital regularly to see who is there and is able to help them medically and spiritually, and in this way is able to develop new contacts in the various villages. We had a tour of the hospital on Monday. It's not exactly the Mayo Clinic but it is helpful.

Markets ... Every city has a market, and on Monday afternoon we found the market in Sen Monorom (Joyce's city). We've seen several Cambodian markets, and this is like all of them. We got caught in a rainstorm that turned out to be a gully-washer for quite a while. We took shelter where we could, and eventually one of the shop-owners invited us into her house to take shelter there. The house is behind the store-front. We were surprised to find a very nice hardwood floor in the middle of all the chaos that is the market. While we waited out the storm, Marti had a great time playing with the little boy who was there, after he'd taken his shower outdoors in the storm. The woman turned on the TV and tuned it to something in English for our benefit (Animal Planet). We weren't able to communicate much, but smiles and greetings and "Aw-koon" (thank you) went a long ways.

Elephants ... We took Tuesday to play, and this was an all day elephant trek through the jungle. We've been on an elephant ride before in Thailand, but this was the real deal. Nothing commercial about this. We started in a Bunong village, got on the elephants, rode up through the mountains, and down through the jungle to a rapids in a river. We had lunch there, visited a farm nearby, and watched the drivers wash the elephants in the river before heading back. All of this was on Bunong land, where they live and grow their food. It was an incredible trip, no doubt the best $20 that any of us had ever spent in our lives.

Milky Way ... Both yesterday and today were dry. No rain. Very few clouds. This is very strange for the rainy season, but we were grateful for weather like that. Last night we had dinner at Joyce's house, and tonight we visited her house after dinner at a restaurant. Both evenings we've seen an incredible amount of stars, and the Milky Way is visible and stunning. There aren't a lot of lights around here, and we're up at a higher elevation than we're used to, so this is an amazing sight.

Today we visited the Bunong village of Pulong. This is a village where Joyce wants to see a church get started. We did a "prayer drive" around and through the village. Joyce would drive to certain areas and point out significant/strategic locations, and we would pray regarding those areas. Some pertain to particular families, some to government/village leaders, some to schools, some to healthcare centers. As we started our way home, a woman from the village who was quite sick met us at the road. She had recognized Joyce and was looking for some help. She is 7 months pregnant and has a bad respitory ailment, perhaps pheumonia or TB. It didn't take Joyce very long to realize that she needed to get to the hospital. And so we became the ambulance. Some of us hopped into the back of the pickup so the patient could ride on a seat. So while on the one hand, Joyce's days usually end up different than what she anticipates, we also wonder and pray about whether this woman is part of the answers to today's prayers; perhaps she is the connection Joyce needs to make to get the church established there.