Quiet After the Storm

This is what it looked like when we moved the ship last Friday. The crew had a three day weekend because of election day on Sunday and they had to travel to their province to vote. Rick and I and Hai, the newest member of the crew, stayed behind to watch the ship. Rick and Hai did the night shifts and I did the day. It was rather nice to have some quiet time after everyone left. I am glad the elections are finally over. We are sure the current prime minister will win. He has a pretty tight grip on what goes on in the country. But now it is back to work in the village Sarykakeo. gail

Floor Coverings

I removed a tooth for a lady this week that makes mats for a living. She invited me to her home to see how they are made. They are hand made and I hope you can tell by the pictures how. The older lady “spins” a twine like material from several strands of a tough grass like material. It is stretched over a large frame and the weavers take over. One girl runs a strand of the mat between the twine and the other girl pulls it tight against the last strand. It takes 6 hrs to make a six by 3 foot mat suitable for walking on or mainly sleeping on. It does not come with a pillow top! I bought one for $7. Not sure what I will do with it. The young girls let me have a go at the technique for a few minutes. Ha Rick

Jon and Dr. Shannon are back!

Many of you know Jon and Shannon DeShazo. They have been a great influence on the work in Cambodia for six years. Shannon has been coming to help medically since being in med school and Jon helps straighten us out technically! They have worked this week and will leave Saturday morning. Shannon helped start up the nutrition program that Troy and Tabitha have nurtured to where it is today, an awesome program! Jon has been instrumental in creating a computer program that inventories our pharmacy drugs. You Da uses it to keep tract of how much and what kind of meds he dispenses. We appreciate their time and work to help us here on the ship and in Cambodia. We will miss them. gail

Back to the Ship

Upon our return to Cambodia, we stayed in Phnom Penh for a couple of days gathering supplies. Then back to the ship. We had to cross the Mekong on a ferry and this is a shot of the Ship as we passed by. It was great seeing the crew again, and I will introduce you to our two new employees soon. Darith had made us coconut muffins, but we told him we need to go on diet! Jon and Shannon Deshazo will come with her brother and fiance this week. So we are getting ready for their arrival! gail

Good Friends!

Most people realize that good friends are hard to come by in life, but we are blessed to have the best! Gary and Paula Bennett traveled with us to Los Angeles to enjoy a couple days before we headed on to Cambodia. Believe it or not, we saw two more ball games at the Dodger stadium! That was for the guys. Us girls dragged the guys to all the Hollywood sights and the Highway 1 drive. It was wonderful to share this time with our friends who help in many ways while we are gone. But now it time to get back to work! gail

Lawyer Anyone?

It is official! Brittany is now sworn in to practice Law! We are proud of her and what she has achieved. Sooo, if anyone needs a good Lawyer! gail

Greece 08

One of the reasons I let my blogging slide was because I was off seeing some fantastic scenes like this one. Diane, Alexander, Franklin Ivers and I shared a wonderful week on the Greek island of Skiathos. Of course, this is where Dimitri's family is from and why we were visiting there. It was so great to spend time with my sis! We also stopped by London and Athens to quickly see some sights on our trip. gail

Yankee Stadium

We went to the Yankee Stadium for the Wednesday night game, clad in our Rangers attire and hats in enemy territory, a guy wearing Rangers' gear approached us and asked if we needed tickets. We told him, "No," but engaged a conversation. Turns out our fellow Ranger fan was Chandler Harris, a junior Broadcast Journalism major at Abilene Christian University who is interning this summer for ESPN. He happened to have four tickets on the fourth row behind home plate and, flying solo, didn't want to sit alone cheering for the Rangers. So he invited us to join him. Needless to say, we discarded our upper deck tickets and joined Chandler on row 4. Later he emailed us saying his father was Jeff Harris who was the youth minister at Garland Road in Dallas, Texas when Gail and I attended there in the late '70's. Small world!