La Sonya

My good friend Jacqui emailed me some questions the other week. I answered them and we figured she might not be the only one to wonder about these things so here they are for general consumption. If you have any questions please feel free to email them all to me and I'll peck away at them and share them with you and anyone else who would like to read them. It's fun to answer questions en mass. Enjoy! Here's my crack at your questions: Were you making some sort of carrot stew?  No. I should have moved those carrots because they were my flat mates. She was cleaning them. We put veggies in water and vinegar to help clean them. She has gotten food poisoning a LOT. Not me, my stomach is steel. . . except with milk. I've been having some issues with milk. boo. What local food are you learning to love/hate?   I am LOVING this mushroom/tofu dish from the corner restaurant that we all hang out at a lot in the evenings. The guys here don't ever cook and...

The person I look up to the most in the history of existence is Jesus. I have so much to learn about relationships from him. These are three of the best things I've learned so far. 1. Forget the stereotypes. 2. It's okay to be in the moment with someone. 3. Take time to connect with people. The first I learned from the story of the woman at the well. You can find it in John 4. There are a few things to note about this story. She was a Samaritan woman. Jesus was Jewish and as a cultural rule they were not aloud to be friendly, Samaritans and Jews hadn't been getting along for a looooong time. She was also a she. As it still can be in the Middle East a man is not allowed to talk to a woman who was not a sister, mother or wife in public. These things didn't stop Jesus. The last thing to point out is she was getting water at the hottest time of they day. Water is normally gotten in the morning and in the evening. She must have been avoiding people in order to go at no...

Today was a milestone.  It might not seem like much but it is. Since getting my bike this week I've been working on getting a lay of the land and it's been an adventure of turning around, going the long way and discovering places on the other side of stinky river, the large drainage "river" that runs through our part of the city. Taken on the way back. Today was a big day because I rode my green bike (we're still working on a name) to church. Brett , our very own triathlete coach at RAW Impact , volunteered to help me figure out a way to bike to church without going on the main roads and definitely avoiding the over pass, who wants to bike up the ONE hill in Phnom Penh? Not me, that's who. So at 9 am we started off. Me on my cute green bike with a basket and cover and Brett on his very fancy professional gear bike with clip in shoes. Our route turned out to be fairly straight forward. . . for Brett. After our almost 5 miles/37 min bike ride we were there...