The Mission

Hi everybody. Sorry for another long update, but it's really been awhile. So feel free to skip some session, I know you will anyways =)

The Schedule:

First of all, I want to say thank you for all your encouragements and comforting words since the last post. After more reflections and time spent with God, I finally feel at peace within my soul. However, I know that a lesson on Grace is not an hour long course or an all night cram... I know that God will continue to send more situation to reinforce that knowledge... And its scary and exciting thinking about it. It's almost like I'm a walking time bomb, not knowing when is the next time I explode at God. Then again, I think He can handle it (He's so much bigger than my 2petty words) and I feel so safe, knowing that my faith does not have to be shrouded by a fake celebrative attitude all the time...

Well, I guess this week update, I decided to let you guys take a peek into my world. You are all probably wondering what the heck is DuCkY doing in Cambodia anyways? Welcome to my World.

From Monday to Thursday, I am teaching two courses of English (Starter and Pre-Intermediate). The Starter course starts everyday at 11:30AM-12:30PM and the Pre-Intermediate starts everyday at 5:30PM-6:30PM. All these courses take place at the dorm where the girls are living. Here's a picture of the place where I taught English. Originally, these courses were offer at the New Jerusalem church. However, dued to the low interest level (only dorm students showed up), the whole program (which actually consist of 4 different levels and 5 teachers) were cancelled. Instead, I got the opportunity to salvage the program. Luckily for me, the whole program are carefully planned already and there's even a teaching instructional manual and student guide book so I don't have to plan all the material (or else I'll be dead). Instead, I get to plan fun games to accompany the lesson! HURRAY! (Singing the alphabet backward for chocolate anybody?) That's the New Jerusalem Church when it was flooded.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I have to teach a Discipleship Training Session (which primarily focus on training leaders). It goes from 9:00AM-10:30AM on Tuesday and from 5:30PM-6:30PM on Wednesday. It's actually pretty challenging since most of the material are theologically indepth. Since I don't speak Khmer very well and my translator, who is my roomate, can't really understand English (especially when I try to explain theological concepts), it was quite challenging. I mostly rely on my charade and pictionary skill, which is pretty fun and put everybody at ease. I feel really humbled and always had to rely on the Spirit to give understanding. So far, it's been pretty good though. We have lots of fun learning and laughter (especially at my ugly drawings).

On Tuesday and Thursday, I have to attend a TEEac program. It is a Pastoral Training Program that explore the Gospel of Matthew indepth (and I mean VERY indepth). My mentor Bill Labbezoo teaches these classes, so I'm thankful that I don't really have to prepare any lesson for it. It starts at 4:30PM-5:30PM on both Tuesday and Thursday. To the right is a picture of where all the TEEac and Discipleship Program takes place.

And I have to attend a class on Friday that study the book of Hebrew verse by verse. The class starts at 4:00PM-5:00PM every Friday at the dorm.

Then there's Saturday Night Fellowship with the guys (very similar to floor meeting at RES) and church on Sunday. Then there's mentorship meeting on Wednesday morning at 10:00AM-11:00AM.

That's pretty much my schedule and as you can see, it's pretty packed. And I do get stressed and tired but that's what afternoon naps are for. Its so nice to be able to nap in the afternoon here. It really does rejuvenate you. I'm carrying this tradition back to Canada for sure! Unless I get fire on the job... LOL

That's pretty much my world for the next 8 months. However, it's not as bad as you may think because Cambodia is the one country that has the most holidays out of all the Asian country LOL. Maybe in the world. Apparently, there's like about 100 non-working days in a year LOL. I just started this schedule for like two weeks (after the week long holiday of pagodas visiting) and now I got another 2 weeks break because this week is the King's Birthday and the week after is the Water Festival. The interesting thing about holidays here in Cambodia is that everybody treat a holiday as extensive holidays. The King's birthday was suppose to be one day but people take like 3 days off... Then the majority of the people decided, "what the heck, might as well take a week off." So its very chill here. I also get no stress because of it. =)

The Free Time:

Well, you must also be wondering what the heck do I do for fun? Surprisingly, I do have lots of free time. And here's what I do in my free time.

I still manage to practice drum everyday. I brought my drum pad and double kick pedal to the dorm. What I usually do is I practice my drum rudiments while watching movies! They are dirt cheap here... I actually go to the market and buy a movie for like $1.50, which is pretty sweet. So I watch like about a movie a day LOL while practicing drum of course. So who say watching movie isn't a productive activity?

And on top of that, I still go to the gym 4-5 times a week. It is such an awesome gym because it have a ring and a dance floor too. And you get to work out shirtless and with sandals! I manage to make a couple of friends there and we worked out together. I will be posting up pictures of all my new friends in the next update. In addition, I breakdance and starting to learn hip hop with them and its been really fun. Since I came to the gym, I had been steadily becoming more healthy. I manage to shave off some pounds too which is a nice bonus.

And when I wakes up every morning (at like 7:00AM), I have plenty of time to do devotions before my day starts. And on top of that, I manage to squeeze in jogging every morning to wake me up and energize me for the day.

And of course, I study Khmer everyday for like an hour with my roommate. We don't have a set time to study Khmer but it usually happens at night. And in the day time, I get to practice what I learn the night before with the locals when I go to the market. It was so funny because some of them understands me but it takes me like 1 whole minute to produce a sentence. And you can kinda see their impatience starting to build up. LOL

Interesting Things This Week:

One of my friend at dorm got mugged. Two guys approached him with a knife and asked him for money. Since nobody in the dorm use any form of banking, he had his entire life saving on him. Thank God that his wallet was in his back pocket and after checking his knapsack for money, all they found where pens and books. They end up saying sorry to him and send him off to school instead of checking his back pockets. I'm always amaze at God's grace and protection over his children...

The road in our back alley is getting an overhaul by the government and now they are demanding each house to pay $1000USD. My landlord is very poor and she doesn't know how she can come up with this money. I would really appreciated if you guys (whoever reading this) will pray for her. It seems so unfair because I know for sure that fixing the road does not cost around $30000 USD (there's like 30 house on our block). Pray that corruption and extortion will cease to happen here... that people can live in peace and safety. And pray for good leaderships to be in high political position...

Spiritual Lesson of the Week:

I had two news this week that really shocked me (to the extreme) and made me reflect very deeply. God, you never seems to stop teaching...

Anyways, the first news I received is that I will be getting a free new laptop! My sister wanted to support me in Cambodia so she gave me $1000. Praised God! Because my old old laptop is well, OLD! I manage to sell it for $300USD, which is nice and asked my brother to get me a new laptop. I was expect a financial crunch due to this decision but my sister out of the blue offered to help. It was really a fresh windfall and the grace of God never seems to amazed me.

But the good news only highlighted the bad news that I had received... One of my cousin/niece died a couple of days ago... She was found in her bedroom dead. The authority wasn't sure it was foul play or suicide and the case is still under investigation. However, I do believe that she was not a Christian. We are not that close, in fact, I haven't seen her for years. However, upon hearing the news, I remember all the fun times we had when we were little, and play video games together... And I was very sad... One of the thing that touched me most is what my brother Hung said after he told me the news... "Life is very fleeting isn't it?"

Have you ever wonder why God is so good to you? That's the thought that went through my head... Why has God being so good to me? Who am I and what is my family that God has blessed me so much? Why am I so blessed? And here is my cousin, who do not know God and yet pass away at the tender age of 20... It made me reflect on my life and all the things that God has done in it... It made me sick... in fact so sick that I almost wanted to puke.. I'm so disgusted at how ungrateful I have been... And I'm definitely sick at the fact that it was so underserving... Its hard to describe the feeling but I feel so underserving that it is beyond my comprehension why God would care about an insignificant little speck like me who are here today and gone tomorrow. Even after all these blessings, my heart is still harden, my soul is still not fully devoted, and my spirit still in occasional rebellion... That makes me sick.. I detest myself... I just wish that there is something, anything, that I can offer back to Him... And yet, I find nothing... even the faith I have and the obedience that occasionally comes are from His Spirit inside of me...

And what's more sickening is that even these thoughts of realization only comes because of blessings and the contrast of lack of blessings... I wonder if God has not hedged me in and sheltered me from sufferings, would I be quick to recognize His grace still? I would not dare to say that I would... and that makes me all the more sick about the state of my fallenness... I love God because of what He's done... for me... sounds like self-love to me...

It is a very humbling reflection... My prayer request is for you guys to pray for the grieving family and hope that they will come to a saving knowledge of God's grace... That they will not perish without knowing their Redeemer...

Life is fleeting... Our only hope is in You Jesus. For where else can we go? And who else can we turn to? For You, and You alone, have the Word of Life...

A Hard Lesson on Grace

Hiya all. This blog update is a very personal update that I originally had decided not to share because I did not want to seem unspiritual, or even vulnerable. I was only going to share it with all the Onsiters through e-mails but I decided to put it on my blog because it is a testimony about God's greatness despite of my downfall. A month into Onsite and God has already been jumping on the bandwagon to teach me stuff. Some of the stuff God's teaching me is hard to swallow though because it is tough teachings...

Anyways, here is what prompted me to share this lesson on grace. When I arrived here in Phnom Penh, the first thing that I wanted to do was to get out there and really get to know people. As I go about the street, markets, and places, I noticed that I really really stand out as a foreigner. First of, I do not speak Khmer and secondly, I think my appearance may be very different. Wearing Versace glasses, spike hair, small eyes, wearing shorts and sleeveless is probably not the best thing if I tried to fit in. As I was going about doing my thing, I noticed that people really try to make money of me. Everything was very "expensive" and it made me really mad. It seems so unfair that I have to pay so much more when the guy next to me bought the same thing for half the price... So that's the drop of water that started to fill my bucket of rage...

Secondly, a few times I have been approached by many girls who wanted to drag me into their house to give me "massages". At first, I was really dissappointed with my fellow Vietnamese sisters. Then I got angry, wondering how could they sell their body for an amount that I would used to pay for my breakfast. I wanted to tell them that they are priceless, that they have great value, more than any amount of money could buy. But words evaded my lips. And it continues to drip drip drip, ever filling up the bucket inside of me.

Thirdly, I decided to do some research on the history of Cambodia in my free time. So I went out and bought a couple of documentaries since I could not find any history book in English here. As I was watching, I saw all the horrific atrocities that Pol Pot and his regime concocted that ended in the demise of 1/3 of the population. On one of the video that I watched, it features ex-Khmer Rouge who now works in the very prison that they used to tortured their victims as a tour guide. Because of their experiences, they were able to show what they did to their victims by re-nacting those horrific memories. As I was watching... it continues to drip drip drip. Until the very end of the documentary, the bucket finally overflowed...

I was so overwhelmed by the things that I had experienced and seen that I fell into prayers as I try to make sense of it all. The following is a transcript of my conversation with God:

Duc: God, why do evil exists? Why are people continually bend on doing evil to one another. It isn't fair at all in this country. From small injustice to great, it all exists here. It's just not fair.

God: What's not fair? What injustice are you talking about?

Duc: Well, for starter, it's not fair that I get ripped off by people here because they decided that it is profitable to ripped somebody off. That's not fair to show partiality. Just because I'm a foreigner does not give them the right to charge me an arm and leg for things. That's injustice.

God: Have you forgotten what it is like to be in need when you live in Vietnam since your youth? Or have all the luxuries that I lavished on you dulled your senses? These people needs are greater than you can imagine. And what's this about fairness? Did you not have a choice to say no? You did not need to buy but you decided to so don't complain when you have rightly exercise your freedom of choice as they have exercise their freedom to charge.

Duc: How about the injustice of the exploitation of the poor? How bout my fellow Vietnamese sisters who are out there? What has been done to help them? Why are people so evil, using each other for gains? Is there no mercy, no justice? Why are there foreigners who came here to exploit those who are in needs instead of helping them?

God: Why are you here Duc? Why is your mentor here? Many are called, few have answered. I continue to call, everyday I continue to call. Yet, as powerful as I am, I will not overrule people free will. I long for many to come yet far removed from the sight and plight of sufferings, few have answer those call. The important question is not why but what... What are you going to do about it? Will you be faithful to my calling and find a way to reach out or will you sit there, moped and complain and demand me for an answer? Beside, you already know the answer... As long as the kingdom has not arrive in all its fullness, there will always be evil. In fact, I have already told you that the days are evil, that in the last days, many hearts will grow cold. Just make sure yours won't...

Duc: Okay God, how about this... this seems like its beyond my comprehension. Look at all the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. Just look it! It is horrible. What have been done to these men? What just sentence has been given to them? They slaughters millions of their countrymen. Yet, here they are, walking freely... Some are still soldiers, some are tour guide (re-nacting for tourists what they did in disgusting prisons), some are rich from previous gains by killing the poor, some are high ranked government officials... Is this justice? Has not David in his Psalms cries out for justice? Has not he declared that Your face will not look upon evil? Or is it that Solomon's proverbs are lies when he said the wicked will not go unpunished? Yet here, to the second and third generation, these people prospered. And still some continue to be rich and powerful... enough to be corrupted and continue to exploit the poor for selfish gains... What has been done to them? How can they be so corrupt, so evil, so cruel....? WHY!?

God: Yes, it is true that my face will not look on evil and I despite wrongdoings. My soul hates violence and yes, my servant David spoke correctly of me when he said that I will dashed those who are evil to pieces. But behold Duc and I will show you a better way. If it's justice you seek, shall I also bring my justice to you? Shall I judge you in the same way that you want me to judge them? Do you think your petty sins of swearing, or stealing, or lusting, or idolizing, or self-loving are not as great as murdering, torturing, harassing, and blood-lust? True that I do detest certain sins more so than others but don't be thinking for a second that you are guiltless. Do you truely think that these people are evil? What make you think they're so evil and you're so less? Is it because of your intellect that you value human rights? Or maybe your conscience tells you that peace is the best way to go? Maybe you are well versed in justice and righteousness because of a democratic country that you were raised in? I tell you the truth, you are just as evil... and everybody is just as evil. Do you not think that if given the same conditions, you would not do the very things that you had detested? What separate you from the Khmer Rouge? The environment that you were in and the way you were raised... And guessed who put you there? Chance? Is it not my grace that you have been spared? Has not my mighty hands deliver you from the plight of sufferings? Let me put it straight... The only thing that separated you and them is my grace. It is by grace that you have come to know me. It is only by grace that you have been spared to witness such evils or to participate in such evils. The only difference between you and them is that they do not know me Duc and you do. You were given the chance to know me, to have a relationship with me, to have my Spirit in you to cleanse you and built you into the likeness of my Son. Shall I judge them base on the circumstances that they were in? If so, I will pour out my judgment on you as well because I know well how you would turn out if given the same circumstances. Duc, my dear Duc, I will show you a greater way than justice... You, yourself, know full well that I am right. You know your past... My dear Duc, I will say again, the only different is that you know me. I hope that you will answer the same call as I have called my servant Abraham... I have blessed you with the opportunity to know me, to love me, to be conform into the likeness of my Son so that the nations will also be blessed through you. Instead of asking for justice, I hope that you will ask me to show Myself to them. I hope that you will pray to me to send my Spirit among them. I hope that you will be my hands and feet that they may know my tender touch. Be my voice that they may know My Name.

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By the time that this conversation was over, there was such a huge sense of guilt that swept over me. How could I be so foolish...? I really am a spoiled child that only look out for number one: me... What petty view on justice did I have? And the lesson was learnt... or so I thought...

God is truly a God whose words "will not return empty, but will accomplish what I [He] desire and achieve the purpose for which I [He] sent it." (Isaiah 55:11).

When I am writing this blog, I must confess that God has effectively reveal the depth of evil in my heart. Even after a moving conversation with Him where He show me such wisdom and love, I cannot come to be someone who is sympathic and understanding. God had decided to reveal my heart in an event that took place today...

As I was walking home from working out (aound 7:30PM), a man approached me. I did not want eye contact so I looked down instead, thinking that I'm showing proper respect. Before I knew it, he reached out, grabbed my necklace and tore it from me. In a quick reaction, I manage to use my left hand to hold onto it but he ripped out my cross that I was wearing. I still have the necklace but the cross was stolen from me. In a burst of rage and distraught, I decided that I wanted to run after him and really pound his face in. If it wasn't for his friends in the dark alley with him, I would have taken him out stone cold. He was a strawny guy after all...

I was so mad and once again finding myself questioning God. If it had been any other necklace, it would have been fine with me. But this was the one that my mother gave it to me for my birthday and I had wore it for like years. I have never taken it off and it felt like its a part of me. It was special because its the only religious gift my mommy has given me... almost like an approval of my relationship with Christ on her part.

Yet it was taken from me by force. And again, I question why people behave the way they do. And this is the honest confession...

Duc: God, did you just see that? I really wish you would do something... Like let me beat the crap out of him. Give me a chance, I know I can do it. I want my necklace back.

God: Have you so quickly forgotten the lesson that I have taught you? I'm dissappointed...

Duc: But God, that is not just a necklace. It's special. It has sentimental value, which cannot be replace...

God: Duc, that person is very valuable to me, he cannot be replace.

Duc: Its not like I'll kill him, geez, I just wanted my necklace back. Why are people so stupid? Geez, don't they know better?

God: Very amusing Duc... Very ironic. Say you did went after him and I deliver him into your hands... Yes, you will hurt him... And he will return your necklace... And he will extend his hands to you... he will open up his hand with a bruised face and fear in his eyes... only to give you back a silver cross that you have so treasured because it was a religious gift that your mommy has given you to symbolize sacrificial love? Think about it Duc...

Duc: You know what God, why do you always have to make things so complicated? Why must you always be right, it is so annoying!!!!! You know what!? I know I'm a sinful person... Okay, so what if given the circumstances, I would do the same thing as him. But I didn't do it yet! Geez!! Gosh! why is it so hard to learn something so simple!? Why must you always test me!? I know that it was You who had allow this to happen to test the heart to see if I had truely learn. Why must life be full of learning? Why must your teachings be so hard to swallow? Shall then I pray for him? shall I be a good little Christians boy and deny my feelings and offer up a prayer of forgiveness to him? Is that what you want God? Because in my heart, that's not how I feel. God!!!! Why am I so evil!? Is there no depth to the vileness of the human heart!?!?!? My spirit wants to follow you, to forgive, to pray for him to know you so that he will be given the same opportunity as me... But why does my heart say otherwise? Why does my emotions say get even, why does my emotions cry out for justice!? (in the selfish sense of the word) I detest myself... I detest my situations... I detest all the fire that you put me through just to test the heart and refine the soul... ARGHHHH!!!!!

The New Life

Well, it's been about a week since I live here in Phnom Penh. I've pretty much got used to the new life here in Cambodia and pretty much settled down. I came to realize that this is now my new home: it has become a reality in my mentality that I'm not gonna go home for at least another 8 months. Whenever I try to think about home (about all the comfort, families, and friends), I get a little bit sad. But I think that its gonna be okay because I've made some new friends here in Phnom Penh already and I got a good family that I stayed with. With the Asian culture, it does really feels like a family because I have to address them as such (i.e, calling the older ones brothers and sisters and calling the host family auntie and uncle, etc).

The new life is actually pretty exciting when I'm not thinking about home. I'm living in a pretty spacest room compared to dorm at Ambrose. The place where I am staying at is called CAMA dorm. It is a dorm that host Khmer university students as they study at the university. Currently, it has a guy dorm and a girl dorm (which are basements rented from the local and house 7 guys and 8 girls). It has a big yard, big enough for me to exercise every morning and do things like basketball and volleyball (which the guys and I will be doing starting as of now really). Here is a picture of the front and what it looks like.

Inside the guy basement, there is a BIG living room, a kitchen, and two bedrooms. Each of the bedrooms has its own toilet and shower, which is nice since I share a bedroom with only one guy. The other bedroom is shared between two other guys and the living room is shared between three guys. Each of the bedroom has a bunk bed and the living room has two bunk beds. Here's the living room.

And here's my bedroom and toilet. I got my own closet, computer tables, and bed, which is very nice. I actually just recently bought mattress with bed sheets, coverings, pillow, and a sausage pillow (all for only $100). It felt so comfortable, just like home. But I do feel guilty because the other guys have like mattresses that's half the size of mine… And there is no AC in our house, which is kinda disappointing because it gets really really hot. However, we use fans and each one of us have one. It was kinda funny but my roommate actually gets cold so he lets me use his at night. So at night I got two fans blowing at me while I sleep, which is as good as AC =) I know I know, I'm spoiled. But it is necessary for me to ease into the process of climatization. =)

And here's what the kitchen looks like. It's pretty plain but it's also spacest as well. We don't have a stove or anything like that. It's pretty much a gigantic barbecue that is hooked up into another ginormous gas tank. We use these pots and pans that was quite old to cook and so food sticks to them like mad. In order to correct the problem, the guys used twice/three times as much oil to get the food off: so I will be gaining quite a bit of weight (pooyah!). But its always fun to experience new things and find creative ways to work around problems. And beside, the guys are really nice. We have a system for every meal. Whoever cooks doesn't have to clean, which is very nice. Currently, I'm cooking with use my roommate because the rest of the guys complain that we eat too luxuriously (meaning we spent about $0.50 per person per meal).

And here's an interesting bit of information. Our dorm does not have a fridge. I was so disappointed when I first but as time goes on, I'm getting use to that fact. What end up happening is that my roommate and I go to the market everyday to buy fresh vegetables and meat (not so much the meat) for every meal. The markets are just little shacks put together. It was okay to buy vegetables there but the meat were below standards… There were flies and pest always flying around the meat… But I guess my stomach will have to adjust to that LOL.

And of course to get to the market, I rode on a moped. It was so much fun because my roommate had a moped and he taught me to ride it. Traffic was crazy but it seems like I got used to it pretty fast. I even kept up and pass some of the local during traffic, which is pretty fun and exilerating. Here's a picture of me and my dorky helmet on the moped.

And finally, the place where I'm staying at also have like 4 dogs! This is such a big bonus for me because I love dogs. When I first came, they all rush at me and my roommate was like, "Don't pet them, they'll bite off your hands." Dogs here are quite vicious until they get to know you. So I was so scared at first but after they got used to my smell, and rubbed my legs a few time (arrgghhh!), they are fine with me. And to sped up the process, I bought some bread and stuff and started to feed them. And now, they're like my good friends and we have fun hanging out. I'm even trying to teach them new tricks using psychological methods like learning through association and conditioning using positive rewards (food). I taught all of them to stand on two legs, which is pretty cool =) Here are their cute faces.

Anyways, life here is pretty fun and exciting if I just focus on where I am and not necessary where I'm not. I really do miss family, I really do miss friends, and I really do miss going to school. But God is so faithful and there's nowhere else I rather be than here where He called me to be.

The Arrival

Hi there y'all! I've finally arrive to Cambodia after that fun and wonderful vacation to Vietnam. I actually arrived here on September 25th at the city of Phnom Penh. The air and humidity in Cambodia resembles that of Vietnam so I'm thankful that I actually got a week to get climatized in Vietnam. I came to Cambodia during its rainy season, which will last until November. It was surprising to see that much of the countryside was flooded. It was so flooded that to get around you actually need a boat. Here's a picture that I took on the plane to the right hand side.

Also, when I came to Cambodia, it was during a national holiday called Pchombend Day (which last about a week). All of Phnom Penh was pretty much deserted because most of the Khmai people went home to the countryside to visit their families and visit Pagodas (which are Buddhist temples). During this time, it is believed that the spirits of their ancestors journeyed back to earth from the spirit realm. The Khmer people need to visit at least 7 temples to offer sacrifices to their ancestors in form of food and fruits. If they failed to make these sacrifices to their ancestors, it is believed that their ancestors will stick around for the rest of the year and give them troubles or bad luck. Here's some of the pagodas that was around Phnom Penh.

It was quite an interesting experience because when I arrived at Phnom Penh, my first impression is that it was quite a small city… Since Pchombend Day has just finished, the city changed over night. What was once a small and deserted city is now flooded with people. It is so crowded that I thought that I was in Saigon again. Here's a picture of the typical traffic that you would find in Phnom Penh.

When I arrived, I stayed at CAMA guest house (which was the official Alliance guest house in Phnom Penh). I had to stay there for a week until the holiday was over so that I can move into the guy dorm (which is where I'll be staying for the next 8-12 months). It was quite nice to be in the guest house while I get climatized because it had Air Condition and such. It was very comfortable and it was a good time for me to get used to the city. Here's a picture of the guest house that I stayed at.

While I was there, I really didn't do much. It was like another vacation (woohoo!). Bill and Ilana took my mom and I out quite a bit to show us around the city and of course, to eat. I visited some saw some interesting place (like a former Khmer Rouge prison) and a lot of pagodas. We also got to visit some of the malls (shopping for my stay here in Cambodia) and markets. It was quite surprising to see that malls in Cambodia are quite nice. There's two malls in Phnom Penh that was very nice and very Western. They're call Savana and Sorya and they have the BEST ICECREAM! And we also visited markets, which are really like many little shacks put together and quite, well undeveloped. It was awesome though because it was totally what I wanted to experience. It was super cheap to shop at those place and the food is SUPER GOOD. I always joke around back in Canada that if you want good Asian food, you need to go to a dirty restaurant. Now I can confirm it all with you. =) Here's a place that we ate at in the market.

What's really interesting is that Khmer have two currency that they officially use. The preferred currency (in the Phnom Penh at least) here is actually USD (which is the US dollar). The second official currency is the Khmer Reil (which is about 4000 Reil to 1 USD). Just a bit of information that I thought was really interesting.

And after all that, my mommy left and now I'm here by myself. I guess fun times over and it's time to get SEWIOUS. Anyways, move update later. That's it for now. Thanks for tuning in you noisy people. =)

Good Times in Vietnam!

So sorry that it took so long to update my blog but for all you who are interested in me and my journey half way across the world, this is the first updated blog (one of many more to come, hopefully). Anyways, first I would like to say thank you (you know who you are) for supporting me through prayers and finance to make this trip possible. But you guys are probably wondering what in the world am I doing with all that prayers and money. So that's the purpose of this blog is to let you in my world (well, as best as I know how) and hopefully we can journey together in all of this craziness.

Well, for starters, for all those who thought that I left on the 10th of September, you are sadly mistaken. I actually left on the 18th (there was a week delay due to my trip to Calgary and lack of preparation). My mom and I went to Vietnam for a week to visit my grandparents before we head to Cambodia.

Something weird happened at the Vancouver airport... I ran into Dan Lam (who's an Onsiter too). What are the chance of that happening huh? Weird... but it was awesome too because it's cool to see that I'm not heading out alone and it's a reminder that I have friends who are on the same journey as I.

Anyways, I got to Vietnam safely and spent a week there. During the entire week, I did nothing but eat, sleep, play video games, and of course going to the gym so that I can eat some more without getting

flabby.

There was a couple of things that surprise me when I was in Vietnam. First of all, the air and heat is so bad that I never got quite used to it. I had to take like 4 showers a day on top of the suffocating air. The picture to the right tells the story. That line that you saw is the smog dome that was created over Saigon. Imagine living in that dome for like a week...

The second thing that surprised me is the amount of traffic that Saigon has. It was unbelievably busy. I hear constant beeping of horn honking from 6:00AM - 12:00AM. And it's not an exaggeration. Its definitely a different environment than Canada. But after a night there, it was actually fun to be in such a busy city, always seeing somebody new (I guess I'm a city boy). To the left is a sample of the night life in Saigon city and how busy traffic can get.

The third thing that surprised me is how good food taste in Vietnam. I had like the best food in my life! And it was so cheap too! In the whole week while I was there, I spent like only $70 dollars on food and it was like pretty much all you can eat all the time everytime. Needless to say, to burn of all the excess food that I was munching down, I actually had to exercise quite a bit. A typical day in Vietnam for me consist of getting up and having a BIG breakfast followed by desert. Afterward, I would get on the stairmaster that my grandpa have at his house for an hour (while playing my DS lite of course). Then off I went into devotion and spending time with God with a big lunch accompanying it and of course more desert. Then its the afternoon nap until 2:00PM. Then I get my butt to the gym (to work out) for about an hour. Afterward, I would wander the street (literally) to look for some more good food, which doesn't take very long for me to find. Then its homeward bound with breakdancing and drum practice for about 2-3 hours. Then my aunt and uncle would be free at night to take me out to cruise the city and of course, dinner with deserts. So that's pretty much what I did in Vietnam. =)

O and here's my family in Vietnam. That's pretty much all that happened in Vietnam. Then it's off to Cambodia after my week stay, which I will blog later. Cya all and God bless for now.