Finally...Some Pictures!

OK, one thing we've learned about having a blog is that while most of our readers will at least skim over whatever text we put up, lots of people are mainly interested in photos. And given my travel to the US and Bangkok and Nathan's recent medevac, it's been a good six weeks since we posted any photos. So, for those photo-hungry immingpool fans, here are highlights of my time in the US...

Dan, Erica, and Anna in Houston
My first stop was to Houston, where I caught up with Dan, Erica, and Anna, who are expecting baby Chaikin #2 to come along anytime now. Erica has remarkable energy for any human, much less a 7 month pregnant stay at home mom chasing after a toddler. And, per usual Erica, despite having moved to a new house less than a year ago, she already has Anna and the new baby's bedrooms decked out in delightful hand-stenciled artwork. If only some of those art instincts had rubbed off on me during our visit...


Jon, Stephanie, Edith, and Natalie in Austin
From Houston I drove to Austin, where I saw Jon, Stephanie, Edith and Natalie. The last time I saw the girls was a few weeks after they had been born 16 weeks prematurely and their future was very uncertain. Back then, they looked like this:


So when I walked in to their new house in Austin and saw these two adorable, healthy, and happy toddlers, I cried.


We had a great visit. Jon is job-hunting (anyone in Austin looking to hire a mental health counselor?) and Stephanie has the summer off from her PhD program, so they are really enjoying a few months where they can put their parenting responsibilities first and enjoy summer with the girls.

Washington Friends
After a few days in Texas, I headed to my conference in Washington, where I caught up with dear friends in the evening. First was a great night with some friends from Dumbarton, who gave me the latest gossip about what's going on at church and updates on their lives.

Then I got to spend two nights (one very sleepy and focused on doing laundry, the second a bit more social and with some great food from Southside 815) with Scott and Michelle. Scott gets to go to lots of cool conferences and visit neat museum for his job as a museum consultant. Michelle impressed me with new stories of the ridiculous things that students, and especially parents, will do in their attempts to curry her favor or make lame excuses for poor performance in the English classes she teaches at George Washington U. More than anything, though, I was delighted to hear that Scott and Michelle consider DC home and would very much like to stay there after Michelle gets her DC home. Yeah to good friends who will likely be in DC when we return someday!

The dead speak

Well, ok, so I'm not dead, but there were times in the last two weeks when I wasn't so sure. As Jen's last post indicates, though, I have turned the corner and am well on the way to being my normal self. The current symptoms are just an incredibly frustrating exhaustion that is always with me. Playing with the kids can just wipe me out, even if it amounts to just sitting and coloring or reading. I've read that this will go away in a week or so more, but it is already starting to drive me nuts.

Now a few words for those of you who are reconsidering trips to Cambodia, or are particularly worried about the kids getting this nasty little bug. All I can give you is an anecdotal assessment of how common dengue is in Phnom Penh, but that's better than nothing. Don Coleman, who is the main economics officer in the pol/econ section, has been in Cambodia for 4 years or so now. In that time he has seen three other cases of dengue in the Embassy community. I made number four. That means that roughly one person in the Embassy can be expected to get dengue in an average year, and none of those cases have been the really nasty kind. So I think our chances of getting out of here with no more serious dengue problems are pretty good. Likewise, I don't know of any people who have visited and gotten dengue. Just bring some bug repellent and you should be fine.

In other news, I have no news. I've got some projects I'm working on for the Embassy, but no news on the job front. The kids are doing well, and Ellie started school again today. Ben will probably start next Monday, since he's had so little time to get used to being back here, and we don't want to dump another major transition on him this week. He and I are also going into the clinic on Friday to get shots and such, which isn't likely to make him a happy camper.

Ok, I think that's about all the energy I have at the moment. I'll keep you all posted, particularly on Friday afternoon or Saturday, when I should have the numbers from my Friday morning blood test back. I don't expect anything dramatic, but with luck my liver numbers should be back in the normal ranges, which will mean I'm normal again, at least from a blood perspective.

Nathan Getting Better...Finally Back Home

Wanted to share the good news with you that Nathan is getting better and we're all back at home in Phnom Penh! He was discharged from the hospital Friday night after his platelet and white blood cell count numbers improved. We had been hoping to head back to Cambodia on Friday, but the doctor didn't think it was safe for him to be so far from the hospital yet. So we spent a quiet weekend in Bangkok, Nathan went in to the hospital for some more bloodwork on Saturday and had yet more bloodwork done at the embassy health unit this morning (Monday morning), where he got the final OK to go home.

We are so happy to be back here in Phnom Penh and to have Nathan well on the road to recovery. (The doctor here in Cambodia had predicted we'd be in Bangkok for 3-5 days, but it ended up being 7 days in the hospital plus another 3 in a hotel.) He is still weak and tires easily but it is obvious that in a few weeks he'll be back to his old self.

Thank you all for your prayers, emails, and phone calls! This was a very scary experience that we don't hope to repeat, and your support made a real difference.

Nathan Hospitalized in Bangkok

Nathan has a bad case of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne tropical virus, and has been medevac'ed from Cambodia to Bangkok. (The kids and I are here in Bangkok, too, along with Vanessa Hughes, a wonderful embassy friend who is helping out with the kids so I can spend some time with Nathan at the hospital.)

Dengue is usually very unpleasant but not particularly dangerous with good medical care. In Nathan's case, they're worried because he got sick very quickly and his platelet and white blood cell counts dropped very steeply and very early on in the illness. The low white blood cell numbers mean that he has essentially no ability to fight off other infections or illnesses, and the low platelet count could indicate that he is headed towards dengue hemorrhagic fever, a very scary and serious condition where you start bleeding from your gums, nose, eyes, and other soft tissues.

At this point, the doctor thinks that it is most likely that Nathan will plateau for a few days, or get slightly worse and then plateau, and then is likely to get better. However, there is a possibility that his condition could either progressively deteriorate or have a sudden drop, either of which would mean he'd need to be sent to the ICU. He's getting good medical care at Bumrungrad Hospital--probably the best hospital in Southeast Asia--and we would appreciate it if you could keep Nathan in your prayers.

Two bedtimes down...

... and twelve to go. Jen left yesterday for her two week trip to the U.S. and Bangkok for a couple of conferences, so I'm on my own with the kids. So far we've managed to do pretty well, although tonight Ellie had a meltdown, and when I asked her what was wrong she finally managed to say she was sad because she missed mommy. Ben doesn't really get it yet, but I'm sure he'll catch on soon. I'm just hoping that the troubles confine themselves to nighttime.

On the other hand, I'm sorting out the details of yet another job possibility. I'm not going to go into any details yet, but it is looking pretty good so far, and it would be working with a friend here, so I have at least got better feelings about the communication with him.

I'm failing to come up with any other interesting news, but I'll try to post updates periodically. I'll also warn you all that there will be no pictures for the next few weeks, either, since Jen has the camera with her. When she returns, though, I'm sure there will be lots of pictures of other people's cute kids!

I guess that's all for now. Wish me luck!

Ben's Expanding Vocabulary

Ben seems to add new words to his vocabulary every few days. Here's what he can currently be found chattering about:

• ball
• done
• bowl
• mo' (more)
• dis (this)--leading to one of his favorite phrases: Mo dis!
• sistah (sister)
• mama
• dada
• yes
• nana (banana)
• diaper
• rice
• melmo (elmo, but he uses this for any cartoon character)
• Bob (Ellie's stuffed dog)
• Boo (Ellie's stuffed ghost)
• dai (khmer for hands or arms)
• suh (khmer for hair)
• bye

A Trip to Senin's House

Nathan's back has been giving him some significant problems for the past few weeks. He had been complaining about it for a while, but I knew it was serious when he came to breakfast one morning bent over, and never lifted his head more than a few inches from his plate.

He tried rest, ibuprofen, and a heating pad, which all worked some, but didn't completely fix things. I encouraged him to call the French physiotherapist, who is the closest we come to a chiropractor in Phnom Penh. Apparently the physio was out of town, and then Nathan didn't really want to call, so they never connected.

Meanwhile, his back was still bothering him. Senin kept telling Nathan about this miracle worker from Sihanoukville who made her nearly lame elderly aunt walk again and helped open up all of Senin's blood vessels and made her feel terrific. Saturday morning (10 days ago that is, we're still getting caught up) and Nathan's back was hurting him and Senin invited him to come to her house to get fixed by her famous masseuse. Much to my surprise, Nathan seriously considered the idea, and then said yes. I learned later he did it largely because Senin had been talking about this guy for days, and he wanted to get her off his back (pun intended).

So, that's how we came to take an impromptu trip to Senin's house, located about 15 minutes outside of Phnom Penh. We had both been curious about Senin's house for a while and were happy to have an invitation to go.

We spent most of our time on the second floor porch of Senin's aunt's house, a very large and nice traditional Khmer style house. (The car is ours.)

Here's Nathan getting fixed by the miracle man.

Here's Senin with our kids plus her daughter, Srey Leya, who is just a few weeks younger than Ellie.

Ben liked relaxing in a hammock.

And lots of Senin's relatives, including this uncle, loved watching the kids.

Senin's aunt had about 7 machine-operated looms going weaving krama, the traditional red and white checked scarf. They made a racket, but they worked unattended, and it seemed like a very easy way to make a comfortable living.

After two or three hours of treatment, Nathan said his back felt somewhat better and we all went over to Senin's house (which is tough to see here behind her wall) for lunch.

Ellie and Srey Leya had a great time riding on a bike together.

A Mid-June Posting

The top of this entry may be dated July 3, but this is really our mid-June posting. Why? Well, I started writing this entry in mid-June, got as far as choosing some photos, saving them as smaller versions, and giving them all the base name "Mid-June 2006", but then something happened. I don't remember any more what it was exactly, but likely the kids woke up from their naps, or dinner was ready, or Nathan wasn't able to handle two at once anymore.

Anyhow, let's see what we were up to in mid June:

Ben and our helper Somany were playing in the foyer. The kids think helium balloons are the world's coolest objects.

Ellie found the coloring book and watercolors that we had originally bought for the plane trip back to the US but never used. She loved them, managed not to paint herself, and used up all of the paint on just two sheets.

Ellie, our cat burglar in training, can now crawl into Ben's crib without assistance. Unfortunately for her, she has not yet figured out how to get out on her own. (And since you're no doubt wondering, the dome isn't mosquito netting, we zip it up so Ben can't crawl out or throw his toys out and then demand having them back.)

She and Ben think that playing together in his crib is just about the funnest thing around. Here Ben is doing his best Bono impression. (And yes, we know that 16 month olds shouldn't be playing with pencils, but this was a birthday party favor that took us until bed time to "lose".)

They also love to play together in the tub.

Ellie threw a fit over some dictatorial parenting decision I made--I think it was when I took away a toy that she and Ben were fighting over. However, she thought that photographing herself while upset was a great idea, and it led to an interesting mood of "I was angry but now I'm fascinated by this idea but I want to still be angry so I can see how I look when angry"

...and here she is sulking a few moments later...

...and here's a self-portrait from about 20 minutes later when she was in a better mood.

The Exodus Begins

Both kids quietly listening to a story on Mommy's lap?? That almost never happens these days!

Chef Ben has become very fond of the potato masher and the whisk

This was the last week of school, which means that the expat exodus out of Phnom Penh is about to begin. Stay-at-home spouses and kids tend to go back home for the whole summer, with working parents joining them for as long as vacation balances will allow. Families seem to be trying to squeeze summer birthday parties in to these last few days--Ellie has been invited to 5 in 2 weeks!

We'll be here all summer, and will hang out with the few other kids who will be around Phnom Penh. Ellie has two weeks off of school, and then a month-long summer program, and then Ben and Ellie will start up again in late August.

Made in the USA...Sort Of

The State Department released it's annual Trafficking in Persons report on Monday, ranking how various countries around the world prevent the modern-day slavery of selling men, women, and children for forced labor and commercial sex work. Cambodia was lifted from Tier 3--the bottom ranking, and one that meant that some types of US aid to Cambodia were suspended--to Tier 2 Watchlist, leading to a collective sigh of relief. At the release, Secretary Rice said, "Human traffickers prey on the most vulnerable and turn a commercial profit at the expense of innocent lives. The State Department's efforts to end this evil trade exemplify transformational diplomacy. We work with international partners to secure the freedom of those who are exploited and call on governments to be effective and accountable in prosecuting those who exploit."

But while we're patting our backs for our good work overseas, we've turned a blind eye to sex trafficking and forced labor in our own backyard--the Northern Mariana Islands. This US territory isn't protected by US labor or immigration laws, and is notorious for trafficked sex workers and for factory workers who work for less than minimum wage or in forced labor to produce garments that are then labelled "Made in the USA" and enter the mainland US tax- and tariff-free. For years, Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff blocked attempts to pass laws to extend US immigration and labor laws to the territory. Let's hope that a recent effort by Democratic leaders to bring this territory's practices in line with US standards can help end our hypocritical approach to the "evil trade".

International Day

As you might imagine, Ellie goes to a pretty diverse preschool. They celebrate this every year, and Friday was this year's event. The kids all grouped up by country and came out to say the name of their country. Ellie was one of the only ones who not only said the name, but also said it clearly enough to be understood. Here's the action shot.

After all the countries were introduced, the kids got together in their class groups and sang songs. This is Ellie's "Little Gecko" class singing "If You're Happy and You Know It", or at least doing the actions while the parents and teachers sing. See if you can spot Finland, Estonia, the UK, Sri Lanka, South Africa, China, Canada, and of course Cambodia in the photo.

Ellie Takes the Throne

After a few different efforts to introduce potty training over the past six months, we've made a big push over the past 10 days or so. We had days and days of no success, but a few days ago Ellie seemed to turn a corner and now she's really getting the hang of it. I think she'll be ready to switch from diapers to training pants this week. And hopefully she'll be ready for those Elmo panties she's so excited about in the next few weeks.

Ellie's Swim Day

Ellie's swimming classes had a big exhibition about a week ago, and I was able to take a little time off work to come support Ellie and see her progress. Nathan, who goes to swim lessons with her every week, has been giving me upbeat reports, but I was more impressed to see it with my own eyes.

Ellie hated water as a baby and I had to get in the tub to give her a bath until she was about 18 months old. And when she started swimming lessons, she was very afraid of the water and would cling to mommy or daddy whenever we went swimming. Now look at her! I predict she'll be starting to swim by Christmas.

Ellie takes a deep breath in preparation for blowing bubbles underwater while her teacher holds her up

Ellie eyes the deep end...

And then pulls herself across the width of the deep end on two ropes. This teaches her to become familiar with not being able to touch the bottom of the pool and, as the rope sags in the middle of the pool and she has to work a bit to keep her head above water, gets her comfortable putting her face in the water and kicking her legs

Trip to Phnom Chisor

Well, three day weekends are often a good opportunity to load up the family, grab some friends, and head out to do a little exploring. I think our Memorial Day weekend trip to Phnom Chisor, an 11th century temple about 1 1/2 hours from Phnom Penh, was our best one yet. The ruins themselves were more impressive than Oudong or Tonle Bati, and after 412 steps up to the top, you really felt like you accomplished something by the time you reached them!

The family after a hot and sweaty walk to the top

Ben checks out a Naga (many-headed snake) sculpture

Ellie and Lucca enjoy climbing on the ruins

Beautiful carvings that have endured ten centuries

Our tour guide, one of many children who accompany tourists to the site while their parents sell food and drinks

Ellie's favorite part of the trip--the goats that we found grazing on the way back down!

Blue Baby

Well, Ben's first fingerpainting session actually happened a couple of weeks ago, but we haven't had a chance to post the photos until now. Thanks to Aunt Liz who gave us a great bottle of non-toxic, washable blue fingerpaint way back when we were still in DC!

Paint fun

And the clean up

Colors, Floods, New Teeth, and Surprise Guests

Well, it's been a busy few weeks, and I can see that the kid photo devotees of our blog have not been getting their fix lately. More pictures coming in the next installment! It took us a while to get our act together after our big trip back to the US, and then we proceeded to spend one long weekend painting the walls of our house. Bye, bye boring white...hello tan, brown, spring green, cerulean, boardwalk (ie gray), spicy curry (ie red), whispers of summer (ie blue) and even...gasp....purple! The purple I'm not completely sold on, a whispers of summer turned out to be more of a shriek than a whisper, but overall I think our house of many colors is a success.

We've also had a lot of trouble staying connected recently because the rainy season has begun, and our internet often goes out after big storms. Actually, it often goes out even after small storms. At a good time, it will take a day to fix. On the weekend, it's more like 2-3 days. And I think this is the first weekend in three weeks that we've had internet all weekend (well, fingers crossed, it's not over yet...) Last week, not only did we first lose internet, but then our phone line got cut, so we were completely cut off. Anyway, such is life in a developing country.

So, what's new with us? Well, along with the first rains came the first flooding, and the discovery that the area around our new embassy floods really, really bad. On Tuesday I just happened to park in the very worst spot, and when I waded through flooded streets and a flooded median, I found my car in 23 inches of water (seriously, I measured the high point later at home). And this wasn't even an unusually bad storm, just the worst storm drainage system and a low point in the city. I managed to open the door, and saw a lego and a stuffed animal floating in about five inches of water inside the car. Fortunately for us, the car did start and I was able to drive home, albeit in a traffic-jammed and water-logged route, with my feet and the gas and break pedals submerged, and with a big wave from the back seat rushing around my ankles everytime I stopped. Ed and Somany worked to bail out the car, and we took it to the best mechanic in town the next day. As it turns out, we got off lucky--the car made it through more or less OK after they dried out all the wet mechanisms and replaced some fluids, and mechanics in Cambodia are pretty cheap so the whole thing just cost us $78, when we were expecting several hundred.

Ben is working on two new teeth this week, which means he's not terribly happy. And we're not always so happy because he's been waking us up at 4:45 or 5:30am when his ibuprofen wears off. But now he has six teeth in his grin and hopefully the worst of it should be over soon.

Ed and I have started a new tradition of going out to a coffee shop and reading every Saturday afternoon while the kids sleep. (Somany is here while we're away.) We both find that kids take all our "spare" time and energy, so it's nice to block that time off for ourselves.

Yesterday Nathan stayed home from church with Ben while Ellie and I went. It was relatively peaceful...I could concentrate on most of the sermon...I even left feeling happy and recharged. Completely different than our typical church experience where Ben runs around trying to stick his fingers in sockets and we chase after him, and then he wants all the toys that Ellie has. Trying to get all four of us to church is just too stressful to do everyweek. I'm hoping that we can leave Ben with Somany most of the time and the three of us can go to church, and then we can bring Ben once a month or so. When we all go, none of us get anything out of it and we leave angry and frazzled and wondering why we bother. And we know that Ben will grow out of this phase in a few months.

We also have some unexpected guests this weekend. Our adopted Marine, Mark, just got back from 3 weeks of travelling around Asia with his friend Jackie. He made a late-breaking request to let two of his friends stay with us for the weekend, and we said yes. They're nice young people, a young woman who just graduated from NYU and is travelling before she starts working at IBM, and her brother who is studying at PennState. After all the friends-of-friends I've stayed with overseas, I think it's good for our karma to host them.

At last...

Some photos from our recent visit to the US!

Ellie loves helmets, and somehow managed to convince Grandma Phyllis to take the big one, while reserving the more modest bike helmet for herself.


Ben enjoyed browsing in the market.

While in Albert Lea, we went to vist great-grandpa Earl every day. He and Ellie got along extremely well, as you can see here.

We also made ice cream and


blew bubbles.

Finally, we all enjoyed the ability to go for a walk without melting. Here's my favorite walking shot to close off the post.

Not so smug anymore

Cambodia has a big problem with corruption. Not a few corrupt officials here and there, but a whole society based on the rich and powerful getting away with things that they really shouldn't. Cambodia debuted on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index this year at an appalling 130 out of 159 countries. So as an expat, it's easy to feel rather cynical about Cambodian society and rather smug about the relative fairness and transparency in the good ol' USA.

Or, at least, it was. What's been happening to corruption in the US lately? From halfway around the world, it seems like there's been an explosion of bribery, paybacks, and fraud lately. First there was Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay, then the conviction of former Illinois governor George Ryan seemed to indict not just the governor, but the entire state's style of politics. After getting used to the easy availability of fake IDs and other papers in Mexico and Cambodia, I caught a disturbing story on NPR about how easy it is to get fakes in Los Angeles. And this morning I read that current Kentucky governor Ernie Fletcher has been indicted as well.

What is going on here? Seems like the land of the free and the home of the brave has been turned in to the land of the free to line your own pockets and the home of the bravely offering bribes and accepting paybacks.

A pretty good day

I know that you are all hoping for photos, but those will have to wait for tomorrow, I'm afraid. I just needed to write about my day today. First of all, I got a job this morning. Some high-end consulting with Yejj, the company I wrote about months ago. The owner/founder contacted me a week or two ago with a slightly new proposal, and today we met and talked details. I need to get official approval from the embassy, and they need to write a contract specifying the things we talked about, but I think I'll be starting in a week. The basic deal is around 20 hours or less a week, a decent hourly rate, and interesting work for some very good organizations. You can check out the web site for the specific places, if you care.

A few hours later, Jen came home with the possibility of a contract with the ILO doing some interesting software work for them, very short term, but it could be a good deal. So I now have more work on offer than I have time for.

For dinner this evening we had bratwurst and kraut. We visited our local German butcher, and he turns out to be a really great guy, very friendly, and he makes excellent brats. We can get canned kraut at Lucky Market, so we are all set. Jen also enjoyed a glass of wine (I of course had beer with the brats) from our new wine store, a little shop that is even thinking about working out a way to get diplomats wine duty free. A good way to learn about wine, good fresh sausages now and again, and some friendly folks to enjoy them with. What more could we ask for?

Goings On

It's been a busy week around here--or rather, I continue to be amazed at how personal time vanishes once you have kids, so every week feels like a busy week. We still haven't posted photos from our trip to the US, but I'm going to leave that for Ed to do when he has a chance.

Ben is now so good at walking that it's tough to get him to sit down. He loves to play chase. He also has developed a real obsession with using silverware to eat, and often tries to feed himself with a spoon in each hand. And sometimes he insists on using our spoons, too. He also likes to smear food in his hair, which means that he often gets an extra shampoo after meals. I think he's taken training in baby passive resistance. He's learned to go limp when you pick him up so he's harder to carry. Send him out to the protest!

Ellie had a tummy bug this weekend but seems to be over it now. She's doing really well in her swimming lessons and this week even put her head under water--a real accomplishment for a child who has been a waterphobe from the start.

She's given us some real zingers lately...She's created a new category of parent--"best mom" and "best dad"--which are similar to a best friend we think, though we're not sure who the competition is in either category. When she likes you, she'll say "You're my best mom". She just went through a mommy phase, which meant that Nathan was getting a bit of a cold shoulder. Sometimes she would tell him "You're not my best dad, but you're still my dad." Once she even told him, "You're not my dad." Ouch. But Nathan just laughed it off. And yesterday when I came home for lunch, the first thing she told me was "I want you to get hit by a bus." Apparently they were playing a game where you got hit by a plastic bus and fell to the ground. Then Dr. Ellie fixed you up using the therapeutic laying on of lego.

Nathan made his acting debut yesterday by volunteering to do a voice over for an Oxfam video yesterday. He also is going to to talk to the consulting folks tomorrow about doing some consulting for them. Work has slowed down a bit for me, which means that it's just busy instead of super busy. A nice change, really.