August 25, 2009

Let's see. To be honest you don't want to know what kind of food we eat sometimes. Haha. There is this fish paste stuff that the grind up and let it sit and rot for a long time and they put it in soups and stuff. It’s not bad. But we usually cook at home or go out and eat somewhere. I ate a huge thing of rice and pork and soup for 75 cents on Monday. It was really cool. I favor the baay chaa though which is fried rice. Some of that with some eggs and meat and some veggies is so good. They also have a market called Lucky's that sells American food there. But it’s like 5 bucks for a box of cereal that is 1/4 the size of a normal one. But we bought pancake mix and syrup there and we eat that on occasion. Usually in the mornings I'll eat a peanut butter sandwich with these Vietnamese yogurt stuff they sell at Lucky's which is absolutely amazing. Then for lunch and dinner its usually some sort of rice with some sort of meat and veggies. I haven't eaten fruit or had milk in so long. There is nothing sweet here, unless you want to spend a thousand dollars on something. So we go without. But today we bought a ton of fruit. I got some dragon fruit which is like hot pink and white in the middle. It’s super good. And we're hitting up Lucky's after we ride over to President's house to drop some stuff off. They also have a place that serves these fried chicken burgers and fries here. It’s the greatest thing in the world and its dirt cheap. It keeps me going during the week. But I don't know if it’s good because I never eat American food or if it really is just that good.

I've been sick for a while now, terrible cough and cold. The air here is disgusting. It’s a good thing it rains here or the smog would be overbearing. And we've gotten rained on a few times. At this point I'm just used to being wet and it doesn't bother me at all. And my bike is terrible. It’s about half a size too small and barely works.

As for our living conditions, they're actually not bad. We have a big family room that we never really use, a kitchen, and three bedrooms. One bedroom has the washing machine and the clothes and an iron board and the other we study and sleep in. It is 2 stories but not like American stories. I can't stand fully up right in one of the bathrooms and I've smacked my head on the door frames numerous times because they are really short. Our shower is actually just a spicket thing in one of the bathrooms and the water gets everywhere. But we cook on our own a lot and Elder Sweeten teaches me how to make a lot of Cambodian food. It’s pretty good.

We went on exchanges the other day and I ended up in Takhmom. In that city there are the nicest houses I have ever seen. Ever! Yet all their neighbors live in these little shacks. Go figure.

Language is hard, and really frustrating. But whatever. God will prepare a way.