A young man pulls a cart with 4 of us riding in it over to the passport area.\u00a0 Us non-Thais are whisked right thru – cool.\u00a0 But that thot turns out to be a bit premature.\u00a0 Now over to the Cambodian passport control side.\u00a0 I need a visa.\u00a0 Yes, they make it for you right there – $20 for a 30day tourist visa.\u00a0 The catch for me is, i don’t have an empty page, and these stupid visas from all countries take up a whole page.\u00a0 They hem and haw a bit, and finally say they will paste it over some page i specify……for $30.\u00a0 If they had said 50, i would have gone back to Bangkok and gotten some more pages entered at the US embassy there, but $10?\u00a0 So long 2004 Malaysia chop marks on page 16.\u00a0 I already have my Vietnam visa, so the only chops i expect before returning to Thailand are the little entry and exit ones, for which they can find space to stamp them.<\/p>\n
I heard that packed taxis are around $12-15 to Phnom Penh.\u00a0 Calling my pastor friend, i hear his voice coming from inside a bus.\u00a0 He couldn’t wait any longer, and took the 8:00 bus for $6.\u00a0 A young tout with good English tells me about a deal where i can ride in the front seat for “only” 1,000thb (25usd).\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 He comes down to 900, and says no less.\u00a0 It is coming on 11o’clock, and i’m starting to get concerned about reaching Phnom Penh at all today, so agree, and then pay the tout 100thb as a tip.\u00a0 No doubt that is a decent day’s wage.\u00a0 The contrast between the Thai side and the Cambodian side are striking.\u00a0 One has cars and buses and large buildings and paved roads.\u00a0 The other has people pulling carts, dusty, few cars, and few buildings.\u00a0 The greatest difference tho, is that there are almost no stores worthy of the name on the Cambodian side.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The driver searches for the other passengers for a while, and we finally leave with a trunk stuffed full, and what appears to be 2 Chinese-Cambodians with a little kid in the back seat with a large box.\u00a0 The road is paved for 200m, then gravel for 100m.\u00a0 The dust plumes look like some documentary out of Africa.\u00a0 There goes a UN vehicle whizzing by.\u00a0 The road slowly gets better, and the ride more enjoyable.\u00a0 The western part of Cambodia down to Phnom Penh is mostly flat, and uninteresting.\u00a0 Every little hill or big boulder seems to have some kind of Buddhist altar built on it.\u00a0 I think about why God chose the Europeans mostly to spread his word.\u00a0 Not that we’ve done the best job, but obviously better than the other options God had to work with.\u00a0 Also i consider how to get the 3 Angels’ Messages to these people, many who cannot even read or write.<\/p>\n
After a lunch costing $1 (most everything here for foreigners is $1), we speed on towards Phnom Penh.\u00a0 The main interesting thing is seeing the groups of high school students leaving school enmasse on their “no one bothered to pick up after leaving at the train station for many days” Japanese used bicycles.\u00a0 Many of them still have the baskets in front, and some even the writing on the bike with the name and phone number available for anyone to call.\u00a0 Hey, Matsumoto Ai san in Sho Zawa City.\u00a0 If you want your bicycle back, i can help you find it
\n(O v O)<\/p>\n
We get into PP at 6:20.\u00a0 If you see a sign with something like “011, 012, 016” written on it, you have found a public phone.\u00a0 Go up to the counter, and someone will hand you a cell phone.\u00a0 If you look like an incompetent foreigner, they will probably even dial the number for you.\u00a0 The usual cost is 300riel\/min (8cents).\u00a0 My pastor friend waited for me around 3 hours, but just left 10 minutes ago.\u00a0 He graciously returns, and here in this dark-for-the-middle-of-a-big-city, i see a familiar face.\u00a0 We get on, 3 to the motorbike, all without a helmet, and weave in and out of traffic to the pastor’s house which is around 15km away from the downtown area, and another 5km to the mission headquarters.\u00a0 The narrow dirt road with the leaves of the trees hitting your face at times gives a strong “you’re in jungle-land now” type of experience.\u00a0 His son lays a big mattress on a bed in the living room, and after supper, worship, and a shower, i crawl under the mosquito net while most of the family members climb the 70degree angle stairs to the 2nd floor where i can see their feet between the cracks in the boards.<\/p>\n
Not being used to mosquito nets yet, i don’t realize the first nite that you have to keep all the corners folded in.\u00a0 My feet stick out, and let in lots of the blood-seeking missles – ouch!\u00a0 Quite many things remind me of the house i stayed at in India – the maid, the brownouts, the mosquitos (did i mention they have LOTS of mosquitos?), the sloshy-floor bathroom, the rice and vegetables etc.\u00a0 Unlike India, these people are friendly, a bit cleaner, and the food is not spicy.<\/p>\n
The guardman at the mission, who conveniently lives across the road, talks with me this morning and tells me a bit about Cambodia.\u00a0 Seems that corruption is rampant, and that the avg salary is around $20\/month for govt. workers, $50\/ for working in the private sector, and $80\/ for working for NGOs.\u00a0 Most everyone seems to have a motorbike, even tho they cost around $400 new.\u00a0 This man said he had $30 withdrawn from his salary until he could pay for his.\u00a0 There is no public transportation to speak of, altho you can find a seat, or stand up, on a sheet of plywood placed on two wheels pulled behind a motorbike.\u00a0 Most people just use a motorbike as a taxi, with the price being around 2,000riel (50cents) for around 5km.\u00a0 of course for a foreigner – one dollar – ha!<\/p>\n
I start work on the Khmer Great Controversy cover artwork.\u00a0 The pastor has kindly put the words to use on my usb drive, so after adding a Khmer font from his computer, i spend around 4 hours making it.\u00a0 It looks quite good to me!\u00a0 Later i find out that 2 dots above the “W” in White are missing, so i have to manually draw them in.\u00a0 Then the pastor says two of the 10commandments could be reworded, so i need to remake the whole thing.\u00a0 That’s OK.\u00a0 This has not been time wasted.<\/p>\n
On Friday i ride on the back of the pastor’s bike to the Mission Headquarters.\u00a0 The president, GA-san, is supportive of the plan of spreading this original GC book, as long as it doesn’t involve the Mission paying out for it.\u00a0 Roger on that sir.\u00a0 I would never have thot of having the Mission cough up some of the meager funds it has (60% of the budget is donated from abroad) for this book.\u00a0 Just glad to know that people are supportive of the idea of getting this book into the Khmer language.\u00a0 Sounds like there are only 6,000 SDAs here, so my original idea of 5,000 books may need to be scaled down to 3,000.\u00a0 Also, the govt. is supposed to approve any religious literature if sold to the general public.\u00a0 So with 3,000 copies, we can focus on getting the book to our SDA Brothers and Sisters.<\/p>\n
In the afternoon i go to the big BS Department Store downtown.\u00a0 It seems more like a cemetary than a dept. store.\u00a0 Looking at the tags on the shirts i see why – $22 for a shirt.\u00a0 Hmmm, and the avg. salary is around $50\/month?\u00a0 And you can get a shirt for around 50cents at the market?\u00a0 No wonder.\u00a0 The supermarket on the 5th floor is stocked immaculately.\u00a0 Not a can or box or bag out of place.\u00a0 Almost like no one has touched anything here for months.\u00a0 But i find some p-butter, almonds, back of seaweed-cheese curls, electric liquid mosquito repellent (that is a bit weak it seems, or just that Cambodian mosquitos are stronger than those back home in Osaka), and spf30 sunblock.\u00a0 This sets me back $10.50, and they give me change in dollars for the bills, and riels for the coin-type change (50cents=2,000riels).\u00a0 I dropped my watch on the bathroom floor last nite, and the battery came flying out, but here, conveniently, is a watch repairman with a little push-cart on the sidewalk.\u00a0 He tries to screw it in tight, but failing, gets out the trusty glue where he locks the battery in for good.\u00a0 Probably when this battery goes, i will have to buy a new watch.\u00a0 This watch was given me by my English students in 1997, just before i left Japan for the first time, and has lots of memories attached to it.\u00a0 Thank you M&R!<\/p>\n
Walking over to the big market that i remember from 9 years ago (no change here), a young man wishing to practice English asks if he can follow me.\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 He is pleasant enough, even tho he seems to be very unsure of himself.\u00a0 He says he is a Christian, so i pray with him and give him an apply before leaving to find an internet cafe.\u00a0 After that i head to the meeting place with the pastor – in front of BS dept. store (which the pastor seems to have some trouble recalling, but maybe just my communication failure) at 5pm.\u00a0 Arriving 5 minutes early, i look around at the traffic etc.\u00a0 Getting bored around 5:20, i start to write my diary.\u00a0 This interests one lounging man, and he walks over and asks where i’m from.\u00a0 After saying “Japan”, a young man waiting at the signal to cross the road walks up to me and starts talking in Japanese – Great!\u00a0 A name i can remember on first try \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 He is here on some project with Gifu University checking out the water quality of hotels in Phnom Penh.\u00a0 He asks if he can come with me after i say i’m waiting for a pastor to pick me up.\u00a0 Pastor arrives at 6:00, looking a bit perturbed at me.\u00a0 He says he came early and has been going round and round the BS department store for a long time.\u00a0 Hmmmm.\u00a0 Maybe an angel blinded our eyes so this Japanese man could hear the truth?<\/p>\n
We go to a little home church hard behind the Japanese embassy.\u00a0 Around 15 people sit on the tile floor of a dimly lit room, and sing some hymns.\u00a0 I give the talk, focusing on the reason God raised up the Seventh-day Adventist church, and telling in simple terms what the Three Angels’ Messages mean.\u00a0 I’m sure this was the first time my Japanese friend had heard any of this, but he hung in there.\u00a0 Not knowing English real well, i’m not sure how much he got, but i lent him my Jap-Eng New Testament, so hope he at least got the basics enough to want to follow Jesus in the future.\u00a0 God, please watch over this precious child – K-san!<\/p>\n
My feelings riding back tonite on the motorbike along the narrow dusty road along the river, thru the leaf tunnels is quite different from my first nite here \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
On Sabbath i’m taken to the motorbike stand where pastor tells the driver to take me to the Japanese embassy.\u00a0 Fortunately i quickly remember the place of our meeting the nite before, and have worship, giving the SS lesson talk about 3 things that make us different from the sunday-keeping churches, and then the main sermon on “Truth”.\u00a0 The whole service is over at 10am, and after that i put some stuff on my computer onto a CD for the pastor, and some stuff on my usb drive onto another pastor’s computer.\u00a0 The pastor tells me about how he found God in the refugee camp, decided to follow God no matter what, worked as a volunteer church planter for 6 years, sometimes going hungry for 2 or 3 days when no one brought him rice etc., and how he is now employed by the Mission, overseeing 10 home churches.\u00a0 What an inspiring story!\u00a0 Here is someone who has experience in giving his all to Jesus \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
In the afternoon we go to a different home church where around 40 people are gathered.\u00a0 Most of these people look like they are from the “destitute class”.\u00a0 One lady is holding a baby that looks like one i’ve seen somewhere on a poster before.\u00a0 He will probably die within a couple of weeks.\u00a0 I give a talk on Matt. 25 – the sheep on the left, and the goats on the right, and also about how giving a glass of water to the thirsty is like giving it to Jesus, so we should help each other.\u00a0 Even this seems a bit deep for them.\u00a0 Sure hope and pray they can become strong in the faith!<\/p>\n
While there, the pastor gets a call saying that one home church has been attacked by a group with knives etc., and the members fled upstairs.\u00a0 Praise God it is not so desperate as all that, just that one girl didn’t get some gift that she wanted when she went to church, so went home crying to her mother about the church people hitting her, so the mother got some rocks and broke out some windows etc. in the home church.\u00a0 Hey, reason doesn’t really have much to do with life here for most people it seems.\u00a0 Just glad it wasn’t too bad.<\/p>\n
I wait at the meeting place for the pastor, calling him 5 times between 3:50 and 5:45.\u00a0 Finally, seeing it is getting dark, i hire a motorbike to take me where i think home is.\u00a0 We go out one road for around 3km when i tell him to turn around.\u00a0 Then going around 1km, i see something that looks familiar, so tell him to turn around again.\u00a0 We go way out in the country, even driving thru a herd of white cows until i come to my senses and tell him i think it is a different road we should take.\u00a0 We go back to the roundabout with the giant seated statue, and go out a different road.\u00a0 Within one minute i see things i recognize, and soon arrive at pastor’s home where i give the driver $3 i’m so happy.\u00a0 Later i kick myself, realizing that even with the extra riding around, $2 would have been readily accepted.\u00a0 Oh well.<\/p>\n
Sunday the 29th is the day 3 proofreaders are supposed to come and start proofreading the Khmer GC.\u00a0 Pastor’s daughter has gone out on bike, trying to make paper copies of the book the pastor has printed out on his computer.\u00a0 Being Chinese New Years, she has difficulty finding an open shop, while we have some difficulty hearing thru all the firecrackers.\u00a0 Pastor breaks open a coconut, using a completely different method than what i saw in Borneo.\u00a0 These have lots of water, and are quite tasty with the white meat being thicker than the smooth-hulled small ones in Borneo.\u00a0 yum-yum.\u00a0 The copying was done for 50riel\/page (1.4cents), and the four of them are on a rice mat put on top of a wooden bed outside in the shade.\u00a0 Outside has the advantages of being cooler, and having less mosquitos.\u00a0 They get over 1\/3 of the book translated, while i remake the Khmer GC cover, and read an inspiring biography of David Gates, mission pilot to the AmeriIndians in South America.\u00a0 Now there is someone who is living it all for God.\u00a0 Wish the author did a bit more in the way of manipulating the English language, or maybe they intended it to read as some kind of retro “Dick and Jane” primer??!<\/p>\n
Finally i’m getting into the rhythm here, going to bed before 9:30, and getting up around 6.\u00a0 I sleep really well, except for the time awoken around 2:30 with someone deciding to burn their trash then ?!?!\u00a0 The hard beat of the music maybe 500m away keeps one awake awhile too.\u00a0 Then there are dogs…Oh yes, did i mention mosquitos?\u00a0 I do wonder tho if my staying here is putting these people into some kind of extra trouble.\u00a0 The wife has figured out what i like to eat, and i get just what everybody else does now, except that she puts out a little bowl of salt, as i do not enjoy tasteless food.\u00a0 Sure wish Asians would get into the habit of putting a bit of salt into the rice cooker so they wouldn’t require so much soy sauce to make it palatable.<\/p>\n
Monday i wake up early, and ride to Mission Headquarters on the back of a motorbike.\u00a0 Pastor S, the home church leader i was with on Sabbath, is there, and says he is getting ready to take the first airplane ride in his life – to Bangkok.\u00a0 This is remarkable, because i was thinking of a way to get a used notebook to him, and don’t have plans to come back here anytime soon.\u00a0 Striking while the iron is hot, i hand him 3 Ben Franklins, and tell him to purchase a used note at Pantip Plaza in Bangkok.\u00a0 He is very thankful, but says he doesn’t know where it is etc., so returns my money.\u00a0 OK.\u00a0 I go up to worship where they are reading paragraphs in the Khmer Desire of Ages by turn.\u00a0 Soon some lady rushes over to me with a phone saying someone wishes to talk to me.\u00a0 Whaaaaaa?\u00a0 It’s her husband.\u00a0 He says a T.M.-san will also be going to Bangkok, and said he can lead him to Pantip Plaza to buy a notebook, so if possible, give the money to his wife who will rush it to him before he gets on the plane.\u00a0 No problem, just glad that God worked this out somehow to the benefit of all concerned.<\/p>\n
A printer comes around 10, and gives me a quote of 0.45\/each for A6-280p, and 0.57\/each for A5-170p.\u00a0 I saw some of the work he has done before, and it is nice quality.\u00a0 Sure hope we can get this book down into this size.\u00a0 Khmer letters have a “head” and a “foot”.\u00a0 Not all letters have them, but you have to have space above the line body for some, and space below the line body for some.\u00a0 This makes any book, of necessity, quite thick.\u00a0 Pastor wants 22point, but i see a Khmer Bible here at 16pt.\u00a0 Sorry pastor, the kids win out.\u00a0 Find your glasses if you wish to read this book \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 For lunch i have egg and rice again, then sit outside and type a bit getting passing stares, but fortunately no standing-over-the-shoulder onlookers.\u00a0 Not sure what this dust is doing to my computer tho.\u00a0 After internetting, i get back on the bike for the 40 min. ride home.\u00a0 It is awesome to see half the female population (hyperbole) of Cambodia pouring out of the knitwear factories along our way.\u00a0 I teach English from a TOEFL study book to the guardman’s son.\u00a0 Hope his thinking processes are a bit quicker tomorrow!\u00a0 After that we read chapter 32, The Shaking with his father.\u00a0 That is really a powerful chapter.\u00a0 A brownout provides a romantic supper, and just when we are ready to make an early out to bed, the lights come back on.<\/p>\n
NOTE: This post was written January 31, 2006<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A young man pulls a cart with 4 of us riding in it over to the passport area.\u00a0 Us non-Thais are whisked right thru – cool.\u00a0 But that thot turns out to be a bit premature.\u00a0 Now over to the Cambodian passport control side.\u00a0 I need a visa.\u00a0 Yes, they make it for you right …<\/p>\n