Baatrang April Break

The one week school break for Khmer New year has turned into a little more than 4 weeks due to how HOT it is in Cambodia right now! April is the hottest month of the year in Cambodia, and when your school doesn't have any electricity, and therefore no fans to keep the air moving around the classroom - its just hard to focus on learning!

So, for this month we are making weekly trips out to Baatrang so that we can keep the garden going, as well as the rice field...which was planted just the last week of May! Here are some pics from our first visit!

Holly and Chris weeded the rice field (something you have to do when using the SRI method), and Julee and the boys watered the garden.

We were able to chat with a few of the students and their families as we drove through the village on our way to the school. They were all excited to meet Aiden and Kailen, but none of them were excited enough to come and help us work in the garden!! Oh well, maybe next week!!

pics....

It seems I am getting very good at just posting a bunch of pictures! Here is the latest bunch!

We've got about one week to go and we are headed out on a jetplane bound for Colorado Springs....I can't believe its coming so fast....and NOPE, we're not packed yet!

This is Kailen's warm outfit...and YES he did need it on that day! It was rainy, windy and downright chilly in Cambodia this week (most likely due to a Typhoon passing over us). Regardless of that....isn't that the sweetest smile ever!

This is Aiden's "warm" outfit. It is almost impossible to get this kid to wear clothes. He's gonna be in for a HUGE shock when we get to the states and it is really COLD!

Aiden was sick in this picture....had a temp of 102 and all he wanted to do was play with daddy's ipod. He eventually fell asleep in this position, surrounded by all his stuffed animals. Poor little guy!

Since Daddy recently had Dengue Fever it has been mommy's job to keep Aiden entertained...and that includes rides on the bicycle.

"Don't shoot Sheriff, I'll marry the girl!"

This is Boo Kosal. Boo is one of the words for uncle in Khmer, referring to a man that is older than I am, but younger than my father - you always use titles when talking to/about people. Boo Kosal is a taxi driver and he is always the one who drives us to Phnom Penh for vaccinations or whatever. Aiden absolutely adores the man, and Kosal thinks Aiden is pretty darn adorable too! This last trip down I needed to get some shopping done and since it was just Kailen and I, Kosal helped me out by watching Kailen while I went into the market (its WAY too hot inside the market to take Kailen in!) I came out to find Kailen fast asleep in Kosal's arms - and Kosal very proudly reported that Kailen had been a very good baby while I was away - sleeping the whole time!

During our trip to Phnom Penh Kailen and I spent the night with our Khmer family. This is Kailen and Aiden's Khmer granny. She dotes on them both and of course thinks they are the smartest kids on the block!

Baatrang Middle School...Week One

Thanks so much for your prayers for the beginning of the school year for us at Baatrang Middle School! Holly, Chris and Dhara feel that the first two days of teaching went well. Their schedule changed a bit from what we originally thought so on Tuesdays they go in the morning and teach a class from 9 to 10, and then another from 10 to 11. They then have a break until 3pm when they teach again from 3 to 4, and from 4 to 5. Although that break is long it is good in that it gives them some time to actually go out and work in the garden. On Wednesdays they teach only in the afternoon - four classes back to back from 1pm to 5pm!

For the first class they gave an evaluation to find out exactly where all of the students are at in their experience and knowledge of agriculture. Some of the students' families have gardens at home and some of the families grow rice through the year. Not many students knew what compost is or what it is used for, and many of the families grown only a few kinds of vegetables which they then sell at the market. All of this is helpful for us to know. Agriculture is not a new thing here in Cambodia as you can probably imagine, but it is our hope that what we have to bring to the table in new ways of doing things (composting, living fences, SRI rice farming, etc.) will enrich the lives of the families in Baatrang village.

A few weeks back Chris and Holly went to the school for a work day. They were told where they could put the vegetable garden and given another area to plant flowers. Fortunately we have a soil testing kit, so they took samples of the soil so that we could see what the quality of the soil is. Unfortunatley, like much of the land around here the soil is of very poor quality. Some of our lessons will be on how to go about improving the quality of the soil - they will be making compost, as well as planting beans and other nitrogen fixing plants to help improve the soil.

They were also able to begin building a fence around the plot of land where the garden will be. With the help of the students this fence will be finished in a few weeks time....its gonna take alot of work to get all of the holes dug for the posts!

Pray for Chris and Holly as they continue to prepare the lessons for the rest of the school year. Continue to pray for great relationships with students and teachers to form. Pray also for good relationships for development between us and the community outside of the school. It is our hope that what is taught at school will be taken home and will improve the lives of entire families!

And pray especially as they teach about God! We have been given the 'go ahead' to teach about God and His involvement in and love for His creation.

We continue to be excited at the opportunities that God is giving us at this school and in this community. Keep us in your prayers!

Om Tuk

So this weekend is Om Tuuk here in Battambang City. Every provincial capital here in Cambodia will have one of these festivals this month, and then there will be a HUGE one in Phnom Penh at the beginning of November.

The biggest part of this festival are the boat races. The winners of the races (grouped by size of boat as well as gender of the rowers) will go to Phnom Penh for a final race. During the Battambang race people from all over the province come to town...at this very moment there are literally HUNDREDS of people on the streets outside our house. And for the Phnom Penh race it is so packed that most foreigners either leave town or just don't leave their houses!

We did venture out yesterday evening and made our way through the crowds and blaring music. It makes it even hard that we are white as everyone stops and stares and wants to come and talk to the boys. We decided by the end of our walk that we should've charged 5000riel per time someone touched Kailen and Aiden (we could've made a couple hundred dollars easy!)

The other fun thing is that our language tutors from Phnom Penh came to visit us this weekend as well. We are so blessed to have relationships with these two young women (we're not sure how many teachers have ever travelled to the province to visit their former students!). It was fun to have them in our home and enjoy a little of Om Tuk madness with them.

Socheata (Julee's teacher - on left) and Chenda (Chris' teacher - next to Kailen). We actually made them walk a really long ways...not on purpose, but it ended up being really long! We are pretty sure they think we're crazy for walking so much that evening!

in the middle of the craziness!

Aiden really enjoyed the boats. You can see two of the teams in river below. Some of the boats are short and some are quite long with 30-40 people rowing. We always say we want to be the one standing in the middle yelling "row, row, row..."

all things become new again...

When you arrive in another culture you are overwhelmed by all the things that are different than where you come from....architecture, foods, smells, fashion, etc. etc. etc., but eventually, if you live in your new host culture long enough those things become "normal" and you don't notice them much anymore. Things surprise you now and then, but from the most part when you walk past a full pig head in the market you don't think much about it....you just know someone's gonna make soup!

You don't really realize that these things have become normal to you until you are with someone else who is new in the culture/place where you are. You watch their faces become pale as your taxi/bus driver goes at crazy speeds down the roads, dodging cows and water buffalo or when they attempt to pass a huge truck (on a small two lane highway) while there is another large truck coming straight at you. OR you see them take a double or triple take when the moto carrying 150 chickens tied upside down on the back passes you by. Then you suddenly realize....oh yes, this ISN'T normal is it!

We are currently helping to host a short-term team from North Carolina, and it has been a joy to see them experience all things Cambodia! They have been processing their experiences and it has reminded me of SO many things that not too long ago were not "normal" for me. It reminds me that I need to always be looking for new things in this place, to not get lazy about learning about Cambodia and her people.

I have also been reminded of the importance of interacting in very intentional ways with the Khmer, especially those who are not yet believers. They watch us, they wonder why we live the way we live, why we do the things we do, why we buy the things we buy... PRAY for us that God would give us relationships with people here in Battambang, and PRAY for open doors to share our faith and love of Jesus. PRAY for times of refreshing as we are tired (newborns tend to do that to you, don't they!!!) and PRAY that God's Spirit would move in mighty ways in our hearts and well as those of the Khmer.

PRAY also for this short term team, that their time here would reflect the love of Christ to the Khmer so that their lives may hopefully one day be made NEW in Jesus.

more than a month...

Its hard to believe that we have now been in Thailand for more than a month! We left Battambang (after living there for only two weeks) on May 10 and have been living at the Alliance Guest Home since.

We came here to await the arrival of our second son....Kailen Christopher Bellar, and here he is

He arrived two weeks early on May 29th at 12:23am. He weighed 8lbs 14oz and was 20.5 inches long. He is now two weeks old and doing really well.

Big brother is loving having his little brother to kiss on. We haven't seemed to hit a jealous phase yet, but I'm sure that will come at some point. Both boys are doing well and we are just waiting for Kailen's passport to get finished so that we can apply for his visa to get into Cambodia. Once that is complete we will be making our way back home to Cambodia.

Thanks for your prayers for all of us as we prepare to adjust to life in the province with two little guys. Pray for their health and safety, as well as ours.

More pictures and details of Kailen's arrival will be posted on our other blog: ajbellar.blogspot.com

On the Move...

Well...moving day is almost here.  We are hoping that by this time tomorrow morning most of our things will be loaded safely onto our moving truck and covered with tarps to keep the rain off.  After we send the truck off we'll have a few errands to run and then we'll head off to Battambang in our truck.

Pray for Chris as he manages the moving company tomorrow morning and pray that the truck makes it safely to Battambang without any problems.

Pray for us as we have a farwell dinner with our church leaders tonight and then try and get a good night sleep so that we aren't totally exhausted for the drive tomorrow.  AND pray for our truck to make it safely there as well.  This will be the first LONG road trip we've taken it on...and as it is an older vehicle you never know what to expect along the road.

We'll be staying in a hotel for a couple of days while we get things organized in the house and then we'll be moved in.  

Here's a pic of the front of our new house.  It is one of the older cement houses that was built after the end of the Pol Pot regime.  It is bigger than we thought we would get, but the back of the house will be used for the CAMA office.   We'll have two bedrooms, a living room, office and kitchen...and the large area out front for Aiden to run around in (he's gonna love it!)

As you look at this picture please pray over our house.  Our landlord is Buddhist and he does have a spirit house in the front out near the gate.  Those renting before us were not Christian either so just pray for the Holy Spirit to be present in and around our entire house and for no evil thing to be allowed in.

SO...our next post will be from Battambang!  YEAH!!!