then what happened...: Where The Lotus Flowers And The Water Buffalo Roam

7:30am and it's already a balmy 85 degrees outside. I'm wearing a dress, long black gloves up past my elbows, and Shakira is playing loudly on the radio. So begins my morning commute: zipping through crowds of cows, and motorcycles, and heavily-loaded vegetable carts. Another motorbike cuts in front of me, just inches from my wheel. So I dart up on the sidewalk and take a little detour around a lady with a floppy orange hat who is selling sausages. I smile to myself. It's funny but for me the chaos brings with it a strange sort of comfort. Today I will be busy doing things that I sincerely believe make a positive difference in the lives of others. It feels good to be back. / 7:30 de la manaña y ya son casi 30 grados afuera. Tengo puesto un vestido, guantes negros hasta los codos, y se escucha a Shakira por el radio. Asi comiensa mi día. Volando por en medio de vacas, motos, y carretas sobrecargadas con legumbres. Una moto pasa en frente de mi, solo centimitros de mi llanta, y casi me choco. Entonces, subo a la vereda y hago un pequeño desvío detras de una señora con sombreo naranjada, quien esta vendiendo salchicas. Me sonrio por adentro. Para mi, el chaos trae un sentido conocido y confortable. Hoy me mantendré ocupada haciendo cosas que realmente creo hagan una diferencia positiva en las vidas ajenas. Me siento alegre haber regresado.

My trip to Asia was pretty uneventful. Although I will say that the Cambodian border town of Poipet is not a place for the faint-hearted. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. Because it took so long to pass immigration, I decided to "save time" by taking a taxi back to Phnom Pehn rather than wait for a bus. / Mi viaje a Asia fue más o menos normal. Pero si digo que el pueblo Poipet, que queda en la frontera, no es un lugar para camarones. Yo me queria salir corriendo. Pasando aduanas tomo una eternidad, entones pensé tomarme un taxi para "ahorrar tiempo", en vez de esperar el bus.

I'm not sure how well this photo tells the story, but there are 8 people in this car (including me) The driver is the second person from the left. That's right- the one who is talking on the phone. Also the rear-view mirror isn't really a mirror at all. It's a little DVD screen playing Cambodian karaoke videos at decibels that should shatter glass. But I guess that was okay, because the entire back window was stuffed to the roof with bags and luggage, so a rear-view mirror really wouldn't have been much use anyway. AND- this is the most shocking part- NO ONE was wearing a seatbelt! How long did I spend in this completely safe and culturally-rich environment? Five hours. / No se que tan bien este foto cuenta la historia, pero hay 8 personas en este carro (yo incluido). Quien maneja es la seguna persona a la izquierda. Si! La que esta hablando por teléfono. Tambíen, el espejo retrovisor, no es un espejo! Es una pantalla pequeña DVD con karaoke camboyano a todo volumen. Pero, supongo que estaba bien, porque el vídro de atras estaba completamente bloqueado con fundas y bolsas... así que un retrovisor no le hubiera sido de mucho valor de todos modos. Y- la parte más espantoso - NADIE habia puesto su cinturon de segiridad! ¿Cuanto tiempo tuve que pasar en este ambiente demasiado seguro y edificante? Cinco horas.

My congregation had split since I was away and the new hall assigned some territory that had never been worked before. Some of it is within the city, and some is rural. Not long after you leave the borders of Phnom Pehn things start turning green again. Okay, so I think lotus flowers technically cannot "roam", but I would definitely say that they sprawl. There are these beautiful open fields of water lilies in every color and light pink lotus blossoms that smell like honey; wooden farmhouses and coconut palms. Cows and buffalo just sort of meandering around aimlessly.... I like it. / Mi congregaion se habia dividido durante el tiempo que estuve en los estados y a la nueva congregacio le asignaron una porcion de territorio nuevo, que nunca antes ha sido predicado. No mucho tiempo despues de salir de los limites de la ciudad, las cosas se vuelvan verdes. Hay campos grandes, llenos de flores de agua que huelan a miel. Hay casitas de madera y cocos, vacas y bufalo vagando por allá.... me gusta.

We meet for service at 8am, 6 days a week. (Every day except Monday) / Nos reunimos para la predi a las 8am, todos los días, menos Lunes.

This is the typical kind of street you might see in this area. / Este es una calle typica de este sector.

From time to time we stumble across something unexpected... like a pink wedding reception. / De vez en cuando encontramos algo no esperado... como una fiesta de bodas rosado.

The preaching work here is good and it seems like we're having excellent calls every day. Sometimes when we're out, I'll try to discretely take photos of interesting things we see along the way. The other day while my partner was starting a new study with some girls, I noticed another girl in the next room trying to sneak some pictures of us with her camera phone. Apparently having people come to their house to talk about the bible is as much a novelty for them as it is for us. / La predicacion aqui es muy bueno y parece que todos los días estamos entablando conversaciones excelentes con la gente. A veces cuando salimos yo trato de descretamente tomar fotos de cosas interesantes. El otro día, mientras mi compañera empesaba un estudio nuevo con unas chicas, me di cuenta que otra muchacha nos tomaba fotos de nosotras con su telefono. Supongo que ver gente venir a su casa para hablar de la biblia es tan intersante para ellos que para nosotros.

Even though Buddhism has been the Cambodian state religion since the 13th century, for the first thousand years of their history Cambodia was ruled by a series of Hindu kings. In fact, the famous Angkor Wat temples here were originally Hindu. I read that it's actually the largest Hindu temple in the world (although today many parts of it are filled with shrines to Buddha). Almost no one here would think of themselves as followers of Hinduism, but some of the traditions do still remain alive, such as this: / El Budismo ha sido la religion del estado desde el siglo 13. Pero durante los primeros mil años de la historia Camboyano, ellos fuero gobernados por uno reyes Híndues. De hecho, el templo famoso aqui Angkor Wat, originalmente fue templo Híndu. Leí que esto es el Templo Híndu más grande del mundo, aunque hoy día muchas partes estan llenos con altares a Buda. Ahora, la gente no se consideran Híndues, pero unas practicas todavia existen, como esto:

They worship termite mounds. It's hard to see in this picture, but there's a shallow spot on the side of the mound where sticks of incense and offerings of rice have been left. As far as I can tell, this is related to worship of the Hindu god Khandoba; who (according to some sources) is also connected with worship of the sun. / Adoran a los nidos de los termitas. Es un poco dificil de ver en este foto, pero hay un lugar en medio del nido donde han puesto pallitos de incencio y ofrendas de arroz. Segun lo que he podio investigar, estas practicas estan contectadas con el dios Hindu Khandoba, quien (segun algunos fuentes de informacio) esta relacionado con la adoracion del sol.

Day-to-day survival here is all about being resourceful. To me it seems like the local people have it almost perfected into an art form. Like, what do you do if it starts pouring rain and you don't have a raincoat? (There are cheap plastic ponchos for sale about every 100 ft. on the side of the road for about $.25. But why stop?) It's obviously easier to simply speed down the highway with your friend holding an umbrella, right? / Para la superviviencia diaria en Camboya, hay que ser creativa. Me parece que la gente aquí la han perfecionado. Por ejemplo, que haces si empieza a llover en no tienes chompa? ( Bueno, se vende ponchos barratos al lado de la caretera cada 30m. ¿Pero, por que parar? ) Obviamente, tu amiga puede sostener su paraguas mientras vuelas por la caretera, ¿verdad?

I'm pretty much all moved-in to my new little apartment and I like it a lot. Since I had to get almost everything to set-up, there have been lots of interesting trips home with things on the motorbike. Things like: a coatrack, stove, closet, table, a fishbowl (with fish not splashed out), a three-foot palm tree, etc.... here it's no problem to drive through the middle of downtown with an enormous pile of housewares heaped on top of a motorbike. No one even gives it a second glance. / Estoy más o menos asentada en mi nuevo departamento y me gusta mucho. Tenía que consiguir casi todo para la casi, asi que han habido muchos viajes interesantes en la moto. he traido cosas como un closet, una cosina, una mesa, una pecera (sin perder los peces!), y una palmera.... Aqui no hay problema pasar por en medio de toda la ciudad con una monton de cosas en cima de la moto. A nadie le parece extraño.

Here are some pictures I took today. The walls aren't actually quite as yellow as they seem to look online. For some reason the colors went a little funky... but you get the idea anyway./ Aqui hay unas fotos que tomé hoy. En realidad las paredes no son tan amarillas como se parecen en el internet. Por alguna razon los colores se cambiaron un poco... pero, bueno, te da la idea.

I read something recently that said "Life is not the way it's supposed to be... it is the way it is. The way we cope with it, that's what makes the difference". And I think it's very true... our perspective plays such a huge role in our happiness and success. / Hace poco leí algo que dijo "La vida no es como debe ser... es como es. Y es la forma en que nosotros nos reacionamos que hace la diferencia". Y creo que es muy verdad... nuestra perspectiva toca un papel grande en nuestra felizidad y éxito.

This picture reminded me of that quote. Perhaps for some people, it's an ominous looking drainage ditch on the side of the road... / Para algunas personas esto sería una alcantarilla medio sospechoso...