Master Kitchen

One of the peculiarities of our house is that it has two kitchens.  Many people here prefer to cook outdoors so that cooking doesn't raise the inside temp.  I have a cooking porch/kitchen on the side of my house.  It does come in handy when baking.  It has a counter and a sink along with a gas cooktop and oven.  But, I think some large gecko's and spiders live out there, and I'm a chicken, so I do most of my cooking in my other kitchen.  My second kitchen is inside, and is more or less like you would expect a kitchen to be.  It has a sink, counters, shelves, refrigerator, coffee pot... all the necessities.  This is what my inside kitchen looks like.

You can see my not-so-automatic dishwasher hard at work.  =)  You can also see my bed/office.  Yes, my kitchen doubles as my master bedroom and sometimes as my office.  It's weird, but it works.  It's even starting to feel normal.  My bedroom has always been a private space.  The kids were not allowed to come in without an invitation, and the door was always closed when we had visitors.  I can't do that anymore.  My room is now very public. 


When we had friends over for dinner, people came in the bedroom/kitchen to cook and help get dinner ready.  And it was not a big deal.  This morning I was thinking about how many families here in Cambodia share a home that is smaller than my kitchen/bedroom.  And if our family had to do that, it would work.  We are blessed to have the space and number of rooms that we have.  We are blessed to have air conditioning, electricity, and running water. 

Our goal here in Cambodia is to bring Jesus to people. The type of house, decor, and living arrangement is not a priority.  It doesn't need to be.  We have more than we need.  Our home is comfortable and spacious. And we can reach the fridge from the foot of the bed.  Midnight snack anyone? 

¹⁹ And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. ²⁰ To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Two weeks

We have been in Cambodia for two whole weeks at this point.  The first day was very long as we drove straight to Battambang from the airport after a quick lunch.  We were blessed to be joined not only by Lily who is working as an intern here for one year, but also by three short term interns.  We all found each other in the check in line at LAX and got along very well together.  Having the interns with us helped a lot since they helped us entertain the kids, and then helped us manage the luggage here in Cambodia. 

The first three nights here we spent in the hotel, but spent most of our daytime hours shopping and getting our house clean and ready to live in. It has a few oddities (like having our master bedroom in the inside kitchen) but it is mostly working out very well.  The house came with lots of furniture, so we only needed to get a few more beds... we have a lot of people in this family!  I did a lot of shopping for smaller things that every home needs.  Towels, sheets, dishes, laundry supplies, etc. 

We were also able to buy a larger fridge and washing machine.  The ones that were here were old and very small.  They were both inadequate for our size family.  So having the new ones is a huge help.  Dryers are not an option around here, so we have a clothesline near the back of the house on a patio area.  It is covered, so even when it rains our clothes don't get soaked... unless they are too close to the outside wall.  I'm still learning to run and get the clothes if it starts raining.  One other benefit of where our laundry hangs is that only one set of neighbors can see it. 

Since we moved into the house I have been venturing out into the city via tuk-tuk to shop for groceries.  There is no grocery store in town, so my explanation of the shopping routine will have to be it's own post.  It certainly has been an adventure! 

Many things here are more difficult or at least take longer to get done than in the US, but overall living here is not a struggle only different.  Everyday we are here we get more accustomed to the way things are and we get closer to being settled enough to jump in and start the work we came here to do.