How Not To Eat Spiders

Since I've moved, I'm surprised to hear how many people are curious about helping-out in Cambodia! So I thought I'd use this blog to show you around town and tell a little bit about the work here... / Desde que me mudé, estoy sorprendida saber cuantas quieren saber más sobre ayudando en Camboya. Entonces, pensé llevarles a un tour de la ciudad y contarles un poco sobre el trabajo.

Phnom Penh is a lot like any other average city in the world; there's noisy traffic, square blocks of cement buildings , and snarls of electrical wires flung all over the place like a mad woman's breakfast... / Phnom Penh se parece a qualquier otra cuidad típico del mundo. Tiene la bulla del trafico, kilometros de cemento cuadrado, y cables electricos, gindados por todos lados como si hubiera explotado una fábrica de espagueti...

But we do have most of the necessary things... like a Starbucks! / Pero, si tenemos la mayoría de las cosas necesarias... como café de Starbucks!

And IKEA too / y un "IKEA" almacen de muebles tambien

(well, sort of) / (Bueno, casi)

The majority of the 14 million people who live here are Budhist, and go to worship at a Wat like this one. / La mayoría de los 14 milliones de personas que vivan aquí son Budístas y van a un Wat como éste para adorar.

There are some Christian churches here too, although slightly less popular. / Hay unas iglésias Cristianas aquí tambien, aunque son un poco menos popular.

This building is being rented for the Bethel Home and Translation Offices. / Éste édeficio se adquila para Betél y Las Oficínas de Traducción

And our congregation is currently renting the upstairs of this house to use as our Kingdom Hall. / Nuestra congregación se está adquilando el segundo piso de ésta casa para usar como Salón Del Reino.

It's usually standing-room only on Sundays. We have a little over 50 publishers, but last week there were more than 140 people at the meeting- and it keeps growing! / Normalmente el salón esta lleno los días Domingo. Tenémos un poco más de 50 publicadores, pero la semana pasada había más de 140 personas en la reúnion- y sigue creciendo!

The people we meet in the territory are very diverse. Some neighborhoods are really wealthy, with huge new houses like these... / Encontrámos una grán variedad de personas en el território. En algunos sectores hay muchas casas nuevas y enormes como estas...

Some are middle-class neighborhoods... / Dondé vive la gente de cláse médio...

...and then there are the truly poor areas. This is where one of my bible students lives with her 2 year old daughter. The house is only one room, with no plumbing, and the roof is not high enough to stand'up inside. / ...y los lugares donde realmente hay pobreza. Uno de mís estudiantes vive en esta casa con su hija de 2 años. Tiene un solo cuarto, sin llave de agua, y el techo es tan bajo que no puede pararse adentro.

In the rainy season, flooding gets to be a problem in many parts of town. / En la época del invierno, muchas partes del pueblo quedan inundados.

(watch your step!) / (¡Que sígan con cuídado!)

There're also thousands of people here who move from the countryside looking for work. Many of them get factory jobs and wind-up living in rows of tiny one-room houses like these. Often their schedules are 12 hours or more (from 7am to 7 or 8pm), so to be able to reach them, we've been starting service at 6am on Wednesdays. It's amazing how many people are willing to talk with us at this hour. They'll invite us in, and even have regular weekly studies before their shifts start. It seems there's never enough time to make return visits on all the people who show interest. / Además, hay miles de personas del campo que vienen a buscar trabajo. Muchos consiguen empleo en una fábrica y se no les queda más de vivir en filas de cuartos chiquitos como estos. Muchas veces, sus jornadas son de 12 horas o más ( de 7am a 7 o 8pm) entonces, para poder predicarles, hemos empezado a predicar a las 6am los días Miercoles. Es incréible cuantas personas estan dispuestas hablar a esta hora de la mañana. Nos invitan a sentar y algunos tienen sus estudios biblicos antes de ir al trabajo. Parece que nunca hay tiempo suficiente para hacer todos los revisitas aquí.

I really enjoy the people here. Pretty much everyone I meet is fun, friendly, and easy to talk with. This is a Japanese sister in our deaf group with one of her return visits. They LOVE taking pictures! :) / A mi me gusta la gente aquí. La mayoría de las personas son amables y les gusta conversar. Ella es una hermana de Japón con uno de sus revisitas. Les encantan tomar fotos! :)

So Much To Say, So Much To Do...

We had our District Convention on Dec. 17-19. On Sunday there were over 830, which is a new peak attendance for us (over 100 more than last year) and more than double the number of publishers in the country. / Tuvímos la Asamblea de Districto el 17 de 19 de Dic. El día Domingo hubo 830 personas (más de 100 personas más del año pasado) y más del doble la cantidad de publicadores en el´país.

It was a lot of work for us to interpret the entire program into sign language! There're only 3 interpreters here who can speak Khmer well, and two of them are brothers who had many other responsibilities to care for during the program. So I was asked to help out by doing all of the District Overseer's talks for the 3 days. Can you imagine.... I'm new in town, hardly know anything yet, and I'm asked to sit in front of the stage and use Cambodian Sign Language to try and explain evolution, molecular science, and the refined understanding of a "generation" to a group of deaf Budists! (Holy Cow!) Well, thanks to Jehovah all the students seemed to enjoy the convention and went home encouraged despite the, shall we say "difficulties"? / Fue mucho trabajo para nosotros traducir todo el programa en señas. Solo hay 3 personas aquí que hablan bien el idioma, y dos de ellos son hermanos que tenían muchas otras reponsibilidades durante la asamblea. Entonces me pidieron que ayude traducir los discursos del superintendente del districto durante los tres días. Pudedes imaginar... soy nueva aquí, casi no se nada todavía, y piden que yo me pongo de frente de todos y ultiliza señas camboyanas para explicar la evolucíon, ciéncia molécular, y el nuevo entendimiento de la "generacion" a un grupo de budistas! (¡dios mío!) Pero gracias a Jéhova, parece que todos sentían animados y disfutaron del programa a pesar de las dificultades.

We don't have an official sign language group yet in Cambodia, so some people were surprised to see 21 deaf attend the convention on Sunday, and we attracted a lot of attention. Here's a photo of some of our studies who came. (everyone in this picture is deaf) It was really touching to see that some even came dressed with skirts, ties, and lapel badges. / No tenémos un grupo de señas todavía en Camboya y algunas personas quedaron sorprendidas ver 21 sordos asistir el día Domingo. Este es un foto de unos de nuestros estudientes (todos en la foto son sordos) Fúe bonito ver que algunos llegaron vestido con faldas, corbatas, y sus solápas.

As far as the language goes.... it's been about 2 months and I know enough to get by, but everything feels like it takes me forever to get done (say about 10 hours to study my Watchtower!) Just preparing the meetings in Khmer is a full-time job! I study the language with a local sister 3 days a week and almost every other day I'm in service. Besides that, the new school year begins soon, so I'll begin a teaching job.

Also, I've been asked to help translate some of our new songs into Cambodian Sign (CSL) -two new songs a week. To do that I begin with the ASL DVD and try to convert it into CSL as best I can. Then during the week I'll meet with some of the deaf students who attend meetings and ask them to make revisions and improvements. I try to take video of them signing to keep records and practice later.

After that, whatever free time is left has been spent with all the visitors we've had! -friends from Vietnam, Philippines, Australia, America, Singapore, and more... right now Ida is here from Finland for a few weeks, and we just got back from a mini speed-vacation to the beach. It's been fun, but I can't ever remember having been so busy!

Hungry? / Tienes hambre?

I've loved getting to try lots of new and unusual foods here. Most of it is amazing; some is a little weird. Things like papaya & fish pickles, lotus flower seeds (supposedly keep you young and healthy?), or these salted eggs. / Ha sido divertido probar las comidas nuevas y diferentes aquí. La mayoria de las cosas son increíbles; algunas son raras. Cosas como ají de papaya con pescado fermentado, semillas de Lotus (supestamente ayuda mantener salud y juventud) o estos huevos salados.

They're made by being soaked in very salty water for a week or two and then coated with dirt and charcoal until they're ready to be eaten. Then they're washed and boiled with rice. They have a kinda salty, pickled taste... hard to explain... maybe I'll make them for you next time you're in town? / Para hacerlos, dejan los huevos remojando en agua salada por uno o dos semanas, y despúes les cubren con tiérra y carbón. Cuando esta listo a comerlos, se los llavan y hiervan con arróz. Tienen un sabor salado... difícil de explicar... tal vez te los puedo hacer la proxima vez que te visito?

I'm not quite sure what these are (river eels??), but I don't think they bite and apparently they really do taste like chicken? / No se exactamente que son estas cosas (angilas del rio??) pero, creo que no muerden y aparentamente, de verdad sabe de gallina.

And then there are the bugs.... / Y tambien hay los bichos...

There's not a lot of skill involved in eating bugs. You do what you've got to do, swallow, and try hard not to think about what just went down. It's pretty straight-forward really... / No requiere mucho talento comer bichos. Solo haces lo que tienes que hacer, tragues, y trates de no pensar mucho en lo que acaba de pasar. La cosa no es complicada...

The true skill, I believe, lies in NOT eating bugs; in finding creative ways to avoid getting yourself into the situation in the first place. For example: Good idea #1.) make friends with someone who will eat your bugs for you!! / El verdadero arte, creo, queda en NO comer bichos; en inventar maneras para evitar la situacion por completo. Por ejemplo: Buena idea #1.) Hazte amigo de alguien que puede comer la porcion tuya!!

(For example, you could say: "Ooh, WoW!! That fried tarantula looks amazingly delicious! But do you mind if I take it home to Kevin? Those are his absolute favorite!") / (por ejemplo, podrias decir: "Wow! Esta tarantula frita parece riquiiisima! Pero, piensas que yo podria llevarla a la casa para Kevin? Las tarantulas fritas son su favorito!")

this is Kevin / este es Kevin

It's good to have friends! / Es bueno tener amigos!

At the end of every year, I try to look back and think about the things I've learned over the past 12 months. Today I counted that it's been 4,380 days (12 years) since I first moved away from the country where I was born, and began this bizarre kind of life. What I have come to appreciate more is the immeasurable value of friendships, and of truly being understood. Those deep conversations that touch the core of our souls; or laughter without inhibitions until our sides hurt... Where ever we happen to be, I think those are the things that give life it's flavor.

A few weeks ago, I was near the beach with friends and wanted to spend sunset at the ocean, but the girl I was with was getting impatient to leave because of the mosquitoes. "What's the big deal about a sunset?" she said. "It happens every day. You can see one anytime you want." And I thought to myself, 'that's exactly the big deal with a sunset. They happen every day, but they're never the same twice... it's painted just for a moment and then gone forever; a few seconds of something uniquely beautiful that Jehovah created just for that day. If you miss one- even if you live forever- you'll never get the chance to see it again. I love the gallery of sunsets that live in my memory...' But I didn't say any of that to her, because she wouldn't have appreciated what I meant.

In that way, our good, true friendships are like those sunsets... rare, inspiring, and not to be taken for granted- even for a day.

"...and you well know with all your hearts... that not one word out of all the good words that Jehovah your God has spoken to you has failed. They have all come true for you." -Jer. 23:14- "...y ustedes bien saben con todo su corazón... que ni una sola palabra de todas las buenas palabras que Jehová su Dios les ha hablado ha fallado. Todos se han realizado para ustedes. "