Compressed file

My goodness. Nineteen months? One year and seven months since I've posted and so much has happened, too! Shortly after my 'trip of a lifetime' to SE Asia, I was invited to go to Israel. Wait. I'm jumping ahead. While blogging about the three days of delirium from jet-lag wouldn't be very interesting (although might have produced some fodder for a home video show if recorded), it was truly epic. I had no idea that jet-lag could be so disabling. The first day was totally unaccounted for. My day consisted of wandering from room to room checking to see if my kids were ok, then plopping down where ever they happened to be and losing consciousness. Rinse and repeat for the next two days. So pathetic!! (A dear friend of mine travels to that part of the world with great frequency. He had just returned at a time when I was visiting and I was so disappointed he wouldn't tell a bunch of fun stories of his adventures. Ha! Now I see what sacrifice it was that he was upright and not drooling!)
After the jet-lag subsided and I was back into my regular routine, I often reflected on the sweet gift that trip had been. I was pretty sure it wouldn't happen again and had a list of reasons why it wouldn't. Six months later, a letter in the mail arrived. It included an invitation for another trip, led by the same group...to Israel. Oh, mercy! How do you NOT go to Israel? I prayed. Then started packing.
The trip was filled with interesting information, sweet friendships and heartbreaking revelations. There's your compressed file of my Israel trip. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

home again

Seven days after the plane touched down, I am still experiencing the leftovers of jet lag. My body, mind and emotions have been in turmoil for this past week. The high energy of the trip, preceeded by months of eager anticipation left me thoroughly exhausted. I was unprepared for the physical toll that the dark spiritual atmosphere would exact. Interestingly, it occurred to me to do a "Daniel" fast for 40 days prior to the trip in an effort to get spiritually prepared. Unfortunately, after a couple of weeks, I faltered on that. Hindsight? It was not only a great idea, but will be something I commit to fully on my next trip. Seriously. Going out as an ambassador for Christ is a good way to be targeted and fasting is an awesome way to sharpen spiritual senses.

I arrived home Tuesday evening, hugged kids, gave presents and showed pictures. It was such a relief to wrap my arms around my family again. Two weeks is a long time to miss them! My mom was as relieved to see me as I was to see my children. I guess you never quit being a mama.

Bedtime was welcome and I thought I'd just wake up the next day and have a nice day with the children (having made a school holiday for them). Well...I was practically comatose the entire day! Walking was iffy, much less dressing, driving or any other activity. The kids were disappointed that it was more of a 'movie day' than a 'mommy day', but honestly I was done in!

Thursday was better and Friday I felt almost normal...except for waking at 4am. Saturday, I began the emotional readjustment. Fodder for another post.

Bangkok

The reason this city gets a blog entry is a two hour layover.  Or one hour. Time and I don’t understand one another very well. OK, it isn’t that bad. The flight was delayed by an hour which actually happened so I wouldn’t totally stress out. I had booked the flights with 2 hours to spare in the change over but didn’t realize that I’d need to go through immigration, baggage claim, customs, check-in and security before getting to the gate. Yikes!! That was a question I didn’t even know to ask.
I landed right on time in Bangkok at 5:30-ish then went to immigration and baggage claim. Lauren and I had the same flight, so that was fun. We collected our bags and said our goodbyes. She was off to Perth, Australia and I to Hat Yai, Thailand. With trolley in tow, I began looking for the check in counters. Unfortunately I walked past the ‘travelator’ (a moving sidewalk that is at a pretty steep incline) twice but some kind folks pointed me in the right direction. Naturally, my airline check-in counter was at the back end of beyond!
At check-in, I saw that my flight was delayed an hour and boy, was I grateful. It’s just one of many details that God takes care of for me. He knows when I’ll arrive and depart. He knows which planes are running late and on time. He knows the weather conditions and everything. Even though I know He’s got it all under control, I still pretty much talk to Him constantly. Just to keep the lines open.
So here I sit in my gate and have 30 minutes before boarding. Isn’t He great?

Of motorbikes and bugs

Today I had the extraordinary pleasure of meeting with Sue Lloyd, of Inner Change. She is the coworker of a son of a friend of mine…lol. Her work focuses on marginalized peoples and poverty alleviation through one on one relationships. While not ignoring outcomes, Inner Change strives to achieve the goal of bringing people to Christ by integrating with a host culture through the vehicle of human relationships. This model for this culturally sensitive humanitarian approach is actually the life of Christ. He was able to affect a tremendous amount of change one life at a time.
Sue has been in Cambodia for about 10 years and feels quite Khmer herself. She picked me up at my hotel and we began a grand adventure through the city in a ‘tuk tuk’, a motorized bike with a trailer type carriage attached to the back. Let me tell you that riding through town is a faith adventure right there! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. We hadn’t really talked about how much time she had or what we would do. I came to find out that that is the Cambodian way. Schedules, lists and counting is my American culture. Who knew?
We went to a popular market on the south end of town and shopped a little. She was very patient as I chose several things and discussed a more reasonable price with the shopkeepers. She insisted that she was very happy to see me having fun in ‘her’ country. I confessed that I’m not much of a shopper and was pretty overloaded already so she suggested we get a drink. There were several food stalls in the market. Now, before coming on this trip, I had been instructed to pretty much eat and drink whatever my hosts feed me and that’s it. No eating on the street, in the market, basically, no eating anywhere ‘strange.’ Hello! Why are we in a foreign country?? Anyway, she took me to a place she goes to a lot and we had fresh juice. She had orange juice which was squeezed right in front of us. I had carrot/ginger juice, also made right in front of me. It was so yummy. The she ordered some common dish of Cambodia but I can’t think of the name of it. I’ll look it up later. It looked like worms with vegetables, but she assured me worms are only for snacks, not for meals. The wormy looking stuff was noodles. I was game for a try so she ordered us up some lunch and we had a great chat.
Lunch was so wonderful. I admit that sweating it out in the market, eating weird food and drinking fresh carrot juice in a developing country is the kind of thing that just makes me very happy. After a bit, she took me to a spa for a massage. There are a million massage places there and they are veeeery inexpensive: $10-20 for one hour. You can find it for less, but they aren’t as clean and nice. The spa had a very soothing feel to it and smelled wonderful. I’ll tell you that when you aren’t smelling the aroma of a developing country in Cambodia, the fragrances are beautiful: jasmine, lemon grass, ginger and so much more. Of course, out on the street there’s mud, urine, animals, sweat, rotting trash and also so much more! I love all of it.
Feeling very relaxed, we got back in the tuk-tuk she had hired for the day and went to explore the riverfront. She patiently answered all my questions about her work and the country of Cambodia. I learned so much. It was much better than reading it in a book or watching a lecture. We dropped into a coffee shop for iced milk coffee, which was basically sweetened condensed milk in espresso with ice. Oh, yum! Then she showed me a stand where a vendor was selling various insects. (see previous post!) It was fun to try the tarantula, then pass the other items on to our driver. Actually, it tasted pretty good although obviously the fact that I was putting a scary spider into my MOUTH was pretty intense.
By the time Sue took me back to the hotel, I felt thoroughly Cambodian-ized. Ahhhhh!

not the usual fare...

I was picking out a little snack to try when this English fellow came up to see what it was about. He asked if I was really going to eat the spider and after I said yes, he wanted to try it too. We did the "1...2...3...go!" method and you can see from the picture, he wanted to make sure I was all in! It was pretty funny. Can't say I'd make a daily habit of eating bugs, but if you're hungry, they're a pretty cheap and available source of protein.

Can you really put a day like today into words?

Early this morning, we met with several members of the therapy and education community for a panel discussion regarding services for speech pathology in Cambodia. Dr. Smith was the engineer behind the event, having invited a representative of social services who works in cooperation with the minister of health, a founder of a nationally operated NGO, volunteer speech and language therapists from the UK, a speech pathologist from Australia and the director of special education at a local school for children with intellectual delay.
The premise for coming to Vietnam and Cambodia was to extend a hand and establish a relationship with countries for which the field of speech pathology is young. In preparation for our arrival to both countries, our team realized that no national speech pathologists existed. Naturally, that changed our perspective on what to expect in the dialogue that we were to have with the healthcare professionals. Each of us, as American speech pathologists, are intimately familiar with the need to educate doctors, nurses, teachers and the community regarding the role of the speech pathologist: our scope of practice and the impact we can have for people with communication and swallowing disorders. We were met with quite a surprise in Vietnam when we heard the progress that the programs in place had made. It was astounding! However, Vietnam is in a completely different situation than Cambodia and I admit that I had a different (lesser) expectation for the program in Cambodia.
Happily, a sturdy groundwork is being laid in this country by a few tireless workers who have thrown their lives into the service of others. The level of professionalism, expertise and determination is inspiring. Our ‘panel discussion’ was actually a series of presentations by the invited guests, including one the delegates from our team. Catherine Moore presented an excellent summary of the field of speech pathology in the United States. Our delegate leader, Dr. Alex Johnson made a short introduction to our team and People to People, including our common goal of increasing the relationship between providers in the countries of Cambodia and the States. Hun Touch is the special education director at a school serving children with intellectual disabilities. His application of visual aids, sensory integration, inclusion and integration in the classroom was similar to what we work toward school settings in the states. Further, he has seen the need for a holistic approach to the education of these kids, acknowledging their need for support not only in the classroom, but socially and vocationally. He’s developed a project, The Rabbit Café, where older teens and adults with disabilities can create and sell food, coffee and souveniers with the end goal of being independent in their community. Kong Vichetra is the director of Komar Pikar, a foundation which seeks to coordinate services and advocate for children with special needs. As Touch described, Vichetra works at governmental and legislative level, while Touch works at the grassroots level. What an incredible partnership by these two Khmer men.
Volunteers in the field of communication disorders to Cambodia are frequent. Currently, there is a group of recent graduates from London who are participating in a special project evaluating service delivery issues in Cambodia. There is also an Australian speech pathologist who has committed to living in country for one year and is treating individual children as well as training the teachers who work with them and developing a daily living skills curriculum for adolescents and adults with disabilities. In additition to Dr. Smith, an audiologist is here in the country and has pioneered the effort in his field, within a project called All Ears Cambodia. He sees thousands of people annually, evaluating and providing teaching regarding hearing, ear health, as well as dispensing hearing aids.

Royal Palace

The Royal Palace is a collection of opulent buildings located on the riverfront. The ornate gold structures and grounds are a stark contrast to the surrounding poverty. The palace was built by the French in 1866 and is the home of the royal family, who happened to be home today (although he didn’t come out for a chat—boo).
The surrounding gardens are beautiful with sculpted topiaries, flowering trees and various statues of Hindu gods throughout. Cambodian belief is based in Theravada Buddism, which is infused with Hinduism. It is impossible to walk two steps without being surrounded by Hindu gods. The landscape is filled with temples and statues or images of them. Incense burns at the base of these icons and many people bring gifts of food and flowers. The hopelessness of worshipping these false deities is dense and overshadows the beauty of the surroundings. It’s hard for me to see the beauty of carvings and statues that represent the desperate attempt of man to appease a spirit and somehow gain acceptance.
Within the Royal Palace grounds is the Silver Pagoda, so named for its floor of 5000 silver tiles. Unfortunately, the tiles were almost entirely covered with carpeting and the visible tiles were in a pathetic state of disrepair. The crowded pagoda was filled with images of Budda, including one of solid gold weighing over 200 pounds and encrusted with over 2000 diamonds.
You can tell from this writing that visiting temples depresses me. I’m trying to keep it in the perspective of learning the culture of these beautiful people. But all I see is the hopelessness of a people who don’t know the reality of the grace of Jesus.