Jess and Andy Come for Turkey and Tots

OK...we have a lull in visitors, both official and personal, and we are using this time to get caught up with our friends in Phnom Penh and get caught up with life at home...including getting some more photos to all of you. So, going way back to November, here are some highlights from Aunt Jess and Uncle Andy's trip to see us in Cambodia.

Jess and Andy were here for about 10 days or so, and stopped off in Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat before they came. During their time here, they spent lots of time just hanging out with the kids and enjoying aunt- and unclehood.

Storyteller Uncle Andy reads to a captivated audience

Aunt Jess helped with one of our favorite activities--naked painting--but decided she wasn't ready to strip down just yet.

Jess helps the kids decorate for Thanksgiving with window clings

Then we had the big event--Thanksgiving. We managed to get most traditional Thanksgiving foods, including a turkey, though we had to used canned cranberries and skipped the sweet potatoes. Senin's pumpkin pie was terrific and Andy showed us that making gravy from scratch isn't as hard as we thought.

The Thanksgiving gang.
(Don't adjust your computer screen...Ben is blurry in the original. That little guy does not like to hold still!)

The weekend after Thanksgiving Aunt Liz joined us for a lovely day trip to the Takmao Animal Rescue Center, a USAID-funded project that rehabilitates animals that have been illegally captured and releases most into the wild and houses the ones that can't be released. It's the closest thing we have to a zoo here, and it's pretty neat. Unlike most zoos in Asia, because this one is run by an environmental group, the animals have big cages and are well cared for.

Whenever you go to a touristy area, you are swarmed with kids wanting to be your tour guide (and expecting some riel in exchange at the end of your visit). While we had several kids tagging around with us at the beginning, this little fellow was by far the best guide eventhough he was mute. The other kids new a few words of English, but this kid could communicate far more through hand motions and expressions and had a great personality to boot.

Siamese fireback

Ellie and Aunt Liz

One of the highlights of a trip to the zoo is buying coconuts to feed to the sunbears. Little kids sell the coconuts for about 50 cents each, and then toss them into the zoo enclosure. Remarkably, the bears tear through the very thick and tough coconut shells with just their paws and teeth.

Ben and Uncle Andy