Cambodia Firsts
This past weekend we had Friday off from school so I took the opportunity to get out of the country, going to Phenom Penh, Cambodia. Although it was my second trip to Cambodia, the weekend was full of "firsts," the first of which was the fact that I went there alone. The whole point of the trip originally was to meet up with my cousin Christina and her friend who are traveling around SE Asia this month and to "see the sights" with them. However, a few days before I left, she emailed to say that some of her travel plans had been necessarily changed and because it was so tricky to even get in touch with each other, the "meeting up" part fell through. By that time I had already purchased a plane ticket and gotten my visa, so I decided to go on by myself. I don't think I've ever traveled around a foreign country completely by myself, with the exception of maybe the journey I took from Bejing to Hong Kong while I was in China (and I guess going to Hong Kong in the first place). It was a neat adventure, even if it was a little strange. It ended up, however, that I spent very little time alone in the three days I was there. A few weeks prior to going, I had emailed the new MTW missionaries in Phenom Penh, Lloyd and Eda Kim, and introduced myself, asking them what kinds of things they had going on ministry-wise on the weekends. When Lloyd wrote back, he volunteered to pick me up from the airport and take me to my hotel, which was a great blessing. On Friday morning we met in person at the airport and when he found out that I was alone for the weekend and had no concrete plans except for maybe exploring the city on my own, he decided to help me plan out my time in Phenom Penh. (He was probably afraid I'd get myself lost or something!) He loaned me a cell phone to use while I was there and assigned the MTW intern, Richard, to come and pick me up and show me around the city. Richard was super great and, having been in PP for 4 months, knew how to get around better than I would have (he was quite the bargainer when it came to tuk-tuk fares!). He took me to the Imperial Palace, Wat Phenom (a park/temple), market-shopping and to a few very cute and classy cafes in the Riverside area of town. A really neat guy, I enjoyed hearing his perspective on what God is doing in Cambodia and what he's learned from his time there. It was also a blessing to have a male escort in the evenings as Phenom Penh is apparently more dangerous than I had thought (Richard said that most of his students have gotten mugged at some point after dark).
On Saturday afternoon I went to the ministry center where the MTW team and other missionary couple that they are partnering with teach English classes and have Bible studies. On Saturdays they have a music practice for the Sunday worship service, then train the students (Christians, mostly between the ages of 16-22) to go out to the villages on Sunday afternoons to lead children's Sunday school and other outreaches. The non-MTW missionary couple, David and Lalit Clarke (from Australia and the Philippines), has been in Phenom Penh for 8 years now and it was so awesome to get to know them and see the fruit of their long(er)-term ministry! There were about 25-30 students who came to worship on Sunday morning and around 10 who were at the training time on Saturday afternoon and later went out to the villages. What a beautiful thing to see these newer believers going out and sharing the gospel with others! I also enjoyed worshipping with them. They let me play piano/keyboard for some of the worship and I attempted to help one of the girls who was learning to play piano and usually helped lead (I actually think I messed her up more than helped though!).
Later on Saturday evening, Lloyd and Eda invited me over for dinner with their family and then the Clarkes encouraged me to stay at their place (the second floor of the ministry center) that night. I am continually amazed at the hospitality of those in the body of Christ! They were so kind to invite me in and put so much effort into serving me, someone they didn't even know! And I was so enriched by
getting to know them, hearing about their work, what God is doing in that country and gaining from their experience and wisdom. It was a great blessing just being around these amazing people!
Oh - my other two "firsts" of the weekend: on Saturday night I rode 3 to a "moto" (motorcycle). Though I've ridden on motorcycle taxis many times in Bangkok, it's typically just been me and the driver. With three of us on the seat, my feet were practically dragging on the ground when we turned corners and I'm surprised I didn't fall off the back! I thought it was particularly fitting that this first experience should occur in Cambodia where anywhere from 3-5 men, women and even children on a motorcycle is commonplace.
And the other: Sunday afternoon Lalit took me out to the Cambodian countryside to see their village ministry. I could not ride in the van with the others because I had a plane to catch, but she saw that I really wanted to go (I fell in love with rural Cambodia on the bus ride I took last year from Phenom Penh to Siam Reap) so she asked her driver to take us out to one village in her car so that I could see it for a bit. One of the first things she said when we got in the car was that it was on her and her husband’s "to do" list to get a new car this month because this one was getting so old. Rather prophetic of her to say so. : ) About 30-45 minutes down the country road, we heard a ticking sound and had to pull over. For the next 1 and 1/2 hours or so, we sat by the side of the highway, the driver looking under the hood and Lalit calling people on her phone in turn. I just laughed and stood there taking pictures of all the interesting vehicles, people and cows that passed us. I must be cursed when it comes to cars - I feel like I've been stranded by so many roadsides in my lifetime that this experience didn't even phase me. If anything, it was just more interesting and adventurous-feeling because it was in a foreign country in the middle of nowhere. But it was one of those "Where am I and how did I get
here?!" moments in my life that seem to be occurring more and more frequently these days. The real adventure began when we started talking about how to get me back to the Phenom Penh airport in time for my flight (we sadly had to give up on going to the village altogether). The car eventually made it to an extremely rough-looking garage to get new sparkplugs put in, but that was supposedly going to take too long for me to wait on. So Lalit said, "Let's hitch-hike!" Most of the vans that passed us by were full and spilling over with people (and in Cambodia, they literally "spill" over - people piled on top and hanging on for dear life!!). We ended up flagging down a tuk-tuk with 3 women and a little baby in it, hopped aboard and before long were bumping along the highway back to the airport. It probably took 20 minutes longer in a tuk-tuk than in a car - even motorcycles were passing us! – and it had to have been the bumpiest and most dusty ride of my life, but Lalit and I just laughed the whole way. I got my fill of Cambodian countryside that afternoon and made it back to the airport in plenty of time. : )
String Update
For those who have been praying for me: God has clearly been providing for my huge 5th Grade string class. All the instruments arrived last Tuesday and the parents who came to pick them up throughout the afternoon trickled in nicely so that I was able to talk to them and get them everything they needed in a calm manner. It was actually pretty fun to talk to the students and their parents one on one (or two on one, as the case may be) and as these new players picked up their brand new violins and cellos, I found myself getting as excited as they were! It took a ton of work to get them all ready to play and, after working until 8:00 p.m. on both Tuesday and Wednesday, I found myself having let go of my over-ambitious hopes of having everything set and ready to go for the semester by last Thursday. Thursday was a little rough as it was the first day with the new instruments, but even then God provided in sending a helper! The wife of one of the new teachers at the school is a violinist and has volunteered to come in and help me with these classes. She is so fun and I can already tell will be great with the students (she used to teach herself before her daughter was born). Thursday she came in and just started tuning. In one class period, she had one row of students tuned up and after today, I think she had made the rounds of the whole class. She is a huge answer to prayer, as that is one major thing I don't have to worry about while teaching and I have hopes of even spliting the class in the future for sectionals with her. Oh, and I have no fallen bridges or broken strings to report (other than the ones my students broke themselves at home), so that's made
me a little less uptight. Praise God!
Overwhelmed
This evening I left work at 7:00 for the second Monday in a row. A long work day, considering that I arrived at school at 7:00 this morning. I guess it's nothing new to being a teacher - and so many other teachers (my mom!) work so much harder than I do - but I've been feeling rather overwhelmed recently, regarding one class in particular. After 4 weeks or so of meeting with all four sections of 5th Grade classes at our school together with me and the band director trying to figure out who would be in band and who would be in strings, we finally decided and separated into two classes. This year instrumental music is required in 5th Grade (that may change next year because of all that's happened!), so dividing about 75 students between two teachers didn't leave much hope for me to begin with, but the more classes that went by, the more students I found wanted to be in strings and now I have a class of
33 beginning string players all to myself! (To clarify, that's 33 10-11 year olds who have never held a string instrument before.) At first I was just glad to know who was in my class and finally get started, but the more I think about it, the more that number grows in my mind in terms of responsibility and planning and classroom management and grading and so on. I've been so spoiled with small classes! Last year's 15 in beginning strings seemed like the largest number I could comfortably handle. Now I have twice that many! Yikes.
The biggest stress of the last week concerning all this, however, is not the kids. I'm really grateful because I know almost all of them from last year. They're all (mostly!) super great, respectful, enthusiastic and eager to get started, which excites me. It's getting them instruments and thinking about tuning those instruments twice a week (I'm thinking it'll have to be less this year) that feels like a huge weight right now. I put in a large order of instruments and supplies last Friday and they are all arriving tomorrow. Some already had instruments, so tomorrow I'll "only" have 15 violins and 4 cellos to get set up (bridges up, fingering tape on, etc.) and tuned in one afternoon - a huge project when today it took me 30-45 minutes to tune and/or change strings on about 4 or 5 instruments. Nothing makes me more uptight than hearing bridges "pop" when they fall down or strings breaking - something that has been and will continue to be common occurance for me, it seems.
But I'll stop complaining. God has granted me this learning experience and I know I'll grow tremendously through it. On the plus side, I am very excited about having so many string players added to our fledging program. 27 new violinists and
6 cellists! Naturally, I'm especially excited about the 6 cellists and so is Sam (our lone 6th grade cellist at ICS). If I can manage to teach them something in the two short class periods a week I have with them, it will be a really great thing in a few years. And they
are great students, so I'm sentimentally glad I don't have to give them up to the band director. : )
Another beautiful thing God has been showing me in the last few weeks is the growth and learning I've already gone through this past year with regards to teaching strings. I'm no longer a first-year strings teacher! (I feel just about as excited as when I passed the first-year teacher mark.) I feel a lot more secure in what I'm doing and have a list of things that I should "never do again" that are helping to guide me in this new year. I'm so glad God gave me a smaller and
incredibly sweet class last year to begin to figure all this out.
All that to say - please pray for me, especially on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 7:15 as I take on this large responsibility! And pray for the times in between when I'm planning for it and trying not to dream about it at night (already had that teaching nightmare a few nights ago! Sigh...). I truly covet your prayers as I see that God always hears and answers them.
This is Thailand
Today the power cut off for almost 2 hours during the school day. (Turns out it was not just at our school but the whole neighborhood, including my apartment complex.) No lights, no computer and most importantly, no AC! My 7th Grade string class came into my room after PE already hot and sweaty. During the whole class time they kept asking to open the windows (which we did, but it actually seemed to make it worse!) and if they could "try" out the lights, "just in case" the power had come back on. After about 45 minutes of rehearsing in a hot room and hearing my students complain, I saw sweat dripping from one of my Thai student's faces down onto his violin and decided to call it quits. I told them to pack up (20 minutes early) and we went to the cafeteria where I bought them all ice cream! : )
When I got back to my classroom at the end of the period, I noticed that several teachers in the Elementary building had opened all their windows and doors in hopes of catching a breeze. Hot as it was, it was kind of fun as the whole campus seemed to be more connected. I could hear teachers' and students' voices in the background and it made me wonder if this was (is?) how a lot of Thai schools were not too long ago. When the power came back on, I could hear cheers from all over the campus! : )
My friend Jaime and I look at days or events like this and say to each other "This is Thailand!" It's just one of many things that happens fairly regularly here that didn't seem to at home.
I don't know if I've written this on my blog before, but the Thai word for hot is "rang" - pronounced "wrong." I agree, it's just wrong!
Beautiful Sounds...
...that I've been enjoying recently. : )
*the tinkling of the windchimes hanging from my balcony as I go to sleep and my neighbor's windchimes that I pass on the walk to school each morning.
*giggles from my younger students when they hear the end of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Grieg (listening selection of the week). It's so fun that they enjoy this music and catch the humor in it!
*cello etudes coming from the second floor apartment in another building in my complex that I pass by. The apartment belongs to Sam, our token ICS cellist, and I often hear him practicing by an open screen door as I walk home in the evenings.
*my Middle School string classes when they play in tune and all together (which they are doing more often these days!). Reminds me of when "Jack" (Joshua Daniel) observed in class a few years ago that "it sounds really good when we all play
together". That was one of my "YES!" moments as a teacher! : )
*2nd Grade singing out on "Standing on the Promises" and 1st Grade as they sing all those 4- and 5-syllable words in "Indescribable" so well! The looks on their faces are just precious when they raise their hands to the words "You are amazing, God!"
Parkland pool
One of the many gifts God has given me here!
The building in the background of this picture contains a convenience store, coffee shop, 3 restaurants (one of which is becoming a favorite: the "Som Tum" restaurant!), post office, pharmacy, gym, massage parlor and a few other things. It's really nice to have everything so close, within walking distance! During the week, I rarely need to leave this area.
Parkland
My apartment complex - what I walk through everyday on my way to school (or anywhere!)
My view
The best part about where I live...
My new apartment
Dad's been after me to post pictures of my new apartment. I wanted to wait until my furniture (table/counter and bench) was delivered before I posted them. Here's the little, quirky studio apartment that's becoming home for me... : )
My "bedroom"
My "living room" (note the bright red bench that Rhianna convinced me to buy! I figured the furniture selection in my apartment couldn't get any crazier than it already was and maybe a little red would balance out the rest of the blue furniture and "lovely" blue, palm-tree dotted curtains!)
My "kitchen" - thanks to my new table, I no longer have to cook on the floor! : )
My bright blue refridgerator:
