This week I thought we’d share some of our daily normals that are a little different than our normals in the States. Enjoy…

Katadyn filter: We filter all our drinking water with our Katadyn filter. We’ve been told the drinking water in Phnom Penh is probably safe (it’s chlorinated), but we still filter just in case. (We use regular tap water for brushing our teeth.) We fill our filter about two times a day, since both Josh and I drink a lot of water. I think I drink a little over 4 liters of water each day. We keep two Tupperware pitchers of water in the fridge so we have cold water to drink.

Toilet Sprayer: These handy dandy high powered sprayers come with every toilet in Cambodia (but toilet paper does not, so I always carry some with me). They are great for spraying off cloth diapers and helping clean up kids after using the potty.  They also make cleaning the bathroom a simple task. When I want to wash down the bathroom, I just use the sprayer. No worries about all the water that ends up on the ground, because every bathroom comes with a floor drain. The floor drains are particularly important because water gets all over the floor when one is taking a shower.

Gas Canisters for the Stove: Most people have a gas stove, but it’s not like the States. We have to buy our gas in a canister. We always have two, one that’s being used and an extra one for when the one in use runs out. It’s always a pain if the gas runs out when you’re in the middle of baking. The first time I changed the can I was in the middle of making banana bread. I was so glad the bread turned out and glad I didn’t blow up the stove changing the can.

Electric Mosquito Wand:  This wand does a great job killing mosquitoes. It’s also a great way to relieve stress. Having a tough day with language study? Go kill 15 mosquitoes!

Mosquito Nets and Fans: We all sleep with fans blowing on us. And often have fans blowing on us when we are studying. All the kids sleep under mosquito nets. Yayyi made Anna’s net for the pack-n-play.

Outside Laundry Room: Our washing machine is in the alley behind our home. We bought a used dryer from the people who used to live in our home, but we rarely use it. We typically do our wash every other day and hang it out in the front courtyard to dry.

Gecko Droppings: As much as we love geckos because they eat mosquitoes, they leave a lot of small messes around our home. In the morning there will often be several piles on our counters and the floors…actually anywhere.

Last month we took a 4-day trip to Ratanakiri – the province where we plan to do our permanent ministry. We’re excited to report that the Lord has opened the door for our family to move up there in August, a year earlier than we’d planned. A missionary from another organization will be returning to the States for a year and needs someone to house-sit starting this summer. The timing works out perfectly as Josh will be finishing up his language coursework at school this summer. House-sitting for a year will allow us to get to know the area before renting a house of our own. It will be a much easier move for us all.

Our shortened stay in Phnom Penh will not shorten our two years of dedicated Khmer study. Once we move, we plan to continue our language study with tutors. We see this move as an opportunity to increase our language learning, as we’ve found that one can easily survive in Phnom Penh without learning Khmer. We look forward to attending a local Khmer-language church as well as being more immersed in Khmer language opportunities. Josh also hopes to start developing relationships with the Jarai church leaders who speak Khmer.

During our visit, we enjoyed spending some time with our co-workers’ families. Abi decided to celebrate her birthday a few weeks early. She designed a very cool cake with her mother.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words and sometimes some pictures can save a thousand words. I’ll let these pictures speak for Anna’s 11-month birthday. (Ok, it’s true I’m a mommy and I just couldn’t decide which pictures were the best…you should see all the cute ones I left out.)

As far as milestones: Anna now prefers real crawling over army-crawling and is very agile at walking when holding on to something. Anna takes 3 naps a day and continues to nurse every three hours during the day. She is still teeth-less (following in the steps of her Aunt Emily), but enjoys eating Khmer food. Anna especially enjoys passion fruit. [Aunt Emily has teeth now, but it took her till her first birthday before she got any.]

March starts hot season in Cambodia, which also means heat rash for the kids. Our kids’ heat rash is pretty minimal and we’re thankful that no ones seems bothered by it. I’m trying to incorporate lots of water play into our day to help minimize heat rash.

Every time we’ve done something fun in Cambodia, Becca typically says at the end of it, “But it wasn’t as great as riding a Ferris wheel.” Last May we rode the Ferris wheel at National Harbor and it was the highlight of Becca’s life. When we realized that every fun event in Cambodia was going to be compared to riding a Ferris wheel, we started looking for one here.

We were pleased to discover that DreamLand has a ferris wheel. (Don’t be deceived by the pictures on their website…the amusement park not as nice as it looks.) We decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day by a surprise ride on the Ferris wheel. Becca was thrilled to find out that Cambodia has a Ferris wheel and the kids pronouced in the “Best Day Ever!”

As an added bonus, DreamLand was having a special for Valentine’s Day. For $2 each we got into the park and were able to ride anything that was running. We went in the morning and the park was quite empty – no lines. They let us ride the merry-go-round several times. We had to ask them to start the Ferris wheel for us. And the kids enjoyed playing in the large multi-level playground. It was the perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Josh and I celebrated Valentine’s Day the evening before. It was our first time to go anywhere on the motorcycle together. Every girl’s dream Valentine’s date: Riding on your man’s motorcycle for an evening out…I held on tight.