Adjustments

I've been here just over 90 days now. Sometimes it seems like I left the States days ago & sometimes it feels like forever ago. In reviewing the past few months, I'm taken by the adjustments I've made with & without effort & the things I can't seem to adjust to even with the greatest efforts & most fervent prayer. I'm also surprised at what I miss about living in the US. I miss complete silence & complete darkness. I'd really like to have either one for just 5 minutes. I miss the feel of carpeting under my feet sometimes. And, of all things, I miss cheese. Whoda' guessed?

Yes, yes, of course my husband & loved ones most of all, but that really should go without saying. Besides, if I say too much about it I get teary.

I've become so accustomed to tropical weather that I now refer to anything under 75*F as "jacket weather." When I'm hungry, I usually crave lumpy rice. It takes conscious effort to speak in complete english sentences & I've learned enough Khmer, the language of Cambodia, that I think it. Squatty potties don't phase me. In fact, I'm surprised to see a regular toilet outside the house & feel a little funny peeing so far off the ground. I'm so totally adjusted to cool tap water that the one time I had hot water, I had to turn it down to shower comfortably. I'm so used to being called "b'KEY" that the last time someone pronounced my name correctly, she had to call to me about 5 times before I realized I was being addressed. I don't smell the rotting trash anymore & the food smells that used to gag me stir my appetite. I feel weird when I'm with more than two people & no one's touching me ... & I instinctively touch of one of them. Hahahahaha! 45mph is frighteningly fast, but moving vehicles brushing my feet (dangling sidesaddle on a motorcyle) don't even provoke the slightest twitch. I don't have to consciously convert reil, Cambodian currency, to dollars & can count reil change from US dollars as fast as the shopkeepers (caught 'em ripping me off a few times too!). Believe it or not, I've realized Cambodians are right- barang (foreigners) do indeed smell bad. Hahahahahaha! Why, I even truly enjoy the Cambodian coffee I couldn't stomach when I got here & know the best places to get it.

On the other hand, I still don't like the drink most places try to pass off as western coffee. I still get teary eyed over beggars eventho' I see one about every 5 minutes when I'm outside the house. The storm I'm enjoying now is as fabulously thrilling as the first one I experienced (Man, I hate to see rain season end). I'm still a little put off by people picking their noses while they speak to me. And, I'm still taken aback every time the electricity, or internet, or phone service goes out. I'm still surprised when I call out "Juck sow, sohm!" (open the gate, please) at the sibs' houses & a crowd of people run at me squealing with the joy.

I seriously doubt I'll ever get over the fact that God brought a middle-aged housewife who wouldn't go more than 25 minutes away from home alone to the other side of the world to demonstrate a bit of His incomprehensible love.

10/8/10
Praise God for...
~laughter. It's a sanity saver sometimes.
~those big honkin' storms. They're still AWESOME!
~love that lives beyond emotion & intellect.
~those who will share the little they have with those who have less than little.
~the new squatty potty that convinced villagers God is a good & loving God!!

Petition God for...
~the salvation of those precious thieves. They are worth praying for till Jesus comes!
~His favor upon the newbie, a rejected 1month-old Ruth named Adam.
~mercy & the grace of salvation upon Adam's mommy.
~me to be granted the courage to keep loving wholeheartedly. It hurts sometimes...real bad like.
Special request! Please pray with us during the wicked holiday of appeasing damned souls & evil spirits. We can feel the weight of evil increasing & are seeing the influence in people. The holiday lasts two weeks with the biggest ceremonies being held this weekend, 8-10 October.

Personal Notes:
~Isaac Roe, I love you more now than ever before.
~Lisa Turner, the pain is about experiencing love from Michael's side of the story now (ref the book you gave me).
~Nancy Rodenbeck, FK. :o)
~Everyone, internet, phone & electricity is skitchy again. Sorry for the delay in communications!