Too Busy to Blog

Well, we haven't posted anything for nearly a month, but it's not because we don't have anything to say. In fact, it's quite the opposite...we've been really busy and have lots of stories to tell and pictures to share, but no time to do it!

We really enjoyed going to Hanoi. It was sort of like Phnom Penh on steroids...our one block of nice boutiques became an entire quarter of great silk, lacquer, art, and souvenir stories, Phnom Penh's 2 museums were bested by about 12 in Hanoi, there were several nice parks, and we enjoyed lots more restaurant choices...including Tex-Mex which Nathan really pines for in Phnom Penh! However, Hanoi traffic was bigger and faster than Phnom Penh, too, and we don't mind leaving that behind.

A week after we got back from Hanoi, Jess and Andy came to visit us for about 10 days. We had a great time with them, and took them to see the Tamao Zoo, had a picnic on a lake, and went to the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng. They loved being aunt and uncle, and went to Ellie's swimming lesson, Jess came to Ben and Ellie's preschool, and we all had a nice Thanksgiving meal together.

But, about 12 hours before they even left, I was off...this time to DC to pick up my labor award, see my parents, and catch up with friends. This blog is coming to you live from Incheon airport in Seoul...and my flight is about to board.

Look for more later from either Nathan or me.

Water Festival

This weekend is the middle of one of Cambodia's most important holidays--Water Festival, which marks the annual reversal of the Tonle Sap river. Phnom Penh more than doubles in size, as 1.5 million Cambodians from the provinces stream in to the city, camping in public parks and along the river bank. More than 14,000 of them are expected to participate in this year's boat races, where long, canoe-shaped boats filled with paddlers wearing identical uniforms race up and down the riverfront.

The boats race each day during the three-day festival, and each night there are fireworks and floating lights displays that travel up and down the river. There are tons of vendors, probably slightly fewer pickpockets, lots of booze, and lots of confused rural Cambodians trying to figure out how to get on the elevator at the Sorya shopping center.

Boats practicing for today's races

While a beautiful festival, it also makes for a loud, crowded, smelly city with serious sanitation problems. Part one of our master plan for Water Festival is to take in the sights while avoiding the crowds. So we went out this morning for breakfast with a new embassy family at a restaurant overlooking the river. Since the boat races don't start until 11, 8:30 is the perfect time to take in the practicing boats and get a feel for the festival before things become incredibly hot and crowded.

Ben, Ellie, and Elmos taking in the sights from our riverside restaurant

Ben and Ellie loved seeing the boats, but they especially loved the helicopters that were buzzing the river. This one is labelled RCAF (Royal Cambodian Armed Forces) 0027. Does the Cambodian military really have at least 26 other aircraft?

Which brings to the second part of our master plan: leaving town. With Phnom Penh one big traffic jam and the embassy closed for three days next week, why stay? Tomorrow we're off to Vietnam for a week in Hanoi and a 2 day cruise on Halong Bay. Pictures when we return...

Too Cute

You look mahvelous!

The other day in the car Ellie and I were talking about people who do naughty things and I told her that even grown ups do naughty things sometimes. Ellie was fascinated by the notion that adults make mistakes. Then I told her that when grown ups do really bad things, they have to go to jail. Ellie piped up and said, "But they don't have to go to jail in Cambodia." Quite an astute observation about Cambodia's highly corrupt judicial system for a three year old!

(Of course, when I asked her why people in Cambodia didn't have to go to jail, she said "Because people here don't do bad things." Ah...if only...)

Ellie, our little clothes horse, loves to match other people's clothes. Here she's in seventh heaven with her and Ben both in red striped shirts.

Ben has taken to telling us entire stories, one or two words at a time. Sometimes he hops off the sofa and says "Take tuk-tuk". Nathan asks him where he's going, and he often says "buy fruit". We find out specifically what fruit he's going to buy, and then he throws us off with something like "mommy". "Are you buying a new mommy or picking up mommy from work?" Nathan will ask. So far he seems content with the mommy he currently has.

Halloween

Last week was another tropical Halloween with two dinosaurs in tow. We had done the tuk-tuk trick or treating around town the weekend before (scheduled 10 days before Halloween to avoid the slew of holidays and long school vacations in late October and early November). Ben stayed home to give out candy while Ellie, Liz, and I went trick or treating. Unfortunately, Ellie is not a fan of the "trick" part of the process, and was very frightened by some of the scary costumes. We came home after about 45 minutes, and Ellie hid from the trick or treaters who came to our house.

Hey, kids, leave that for the trick or treaters!

Coolasaurus and fishing-o-saurus

New this year was trick or treating at our fabulous new embassy. We had a lot of fun going from office to office, though again, anything scary met with Ellie's disapproval. Everyone guessed Ellie was a chicken. I guess people just don't expect yellow dinosaurs. C'est la vie--that's what happens when you let kids choose the colors on their costumes.

Embassy kids ready for trick or treating

I'm protecting the kids from those scary spidermen behind us.

Ben in the pumpkin patch
(Those pumpkins are really our diplomatic pouch bags! That's how your mail gets to us...though usually sans faces)

Smile-o-saurus

Even the Ambassador gets involved.

Jim and Christina Come to Visit

Our friends Jim (a former colleague at Bread for the World) and Christina (his wife and another former Breadster, but before my time) came to visit us recently. Christina works for Catholic Relief Services in Islamabad, Jim is doing some photography and contract work there.

While they were just here for two nights, it was great to see them again. They had amazing stories about living in Pakistan. Nathan and I both had the strange feeling of reverse culture shock listening to them. Somehow, living in a friendly and relatively egalitarian Buddhist culture seemed pretty familiar and easy when compared to the constant fear of terrorism or other violence, fervent anti-Americanism, and repression of women.