La Sonya

*typical oozy Sonya happy gushing ahead* Hi guys! Can we talk for a moment about things I love about living here in Phnom Penh?  My neighborhood . We might have a large populous of westerners but it's the best little neighborhood in all of Toul Tom Poung (that's the name of this area of Phnom Penh.)  Royal Mart . It's owned by our land lord but it's got the best prices. I save almost a dollar on my muesli. I can dash down to the corner grab soy milk and dash back up my stairs all during a commercial break.  Plus they all know me now and we swap smiles and small Khmer greetings.  T he Russian Market.  This is where I can go get my fresh veggies and dried goods. I have my regular stalls that I visit. We're friends and getting good at communicating. I can also stop by and pick up some comfy clothes that are made local. I'll take another blog to talk about this place in depth. Joma . I stop most mornings before work to hang out with a few other coworke...

We recently had an office worship talk about all of us being different parts of the body of Christ. Brett, who gave the talk, focused on how we all have different skill sets and attributes that contribute to the smooth functioning of RAW Impact. The verses are found in 1 Corinthians 12 . To bring it all home and make it personal he had us write our name on a piece of paper and that paper got passed around with all of us taking turns writing something we see as an attribute or a word to describe their unique skill set and what they bring to the team etc. As a words of affirmation-love language person I loved the worship exercise. It was, however, a bit uncomfortable when at the end the person to the left read aloud the list of words used to describe me. Only because sometimes. . . okay, always. . .I find it hard to be the focus of a room full of compliments. I don't mind being the focus of attention when I am calling the attention, just not when I don't have control and it...

To my dearest kids at OACS, Today was the first day of school at SALT School, that's the school where I am helping teach the teachers. The students were all nervous and excited and the teachers busy and tired. It reminded me of all our first days of school together. In fact, it made me think about each and everyone of you. So I decided to write you all a letter to say hello. So here we go, HELLO!!!! I have now been in Cambodia for over a month! Which means you have all been in school for over a month! I left America the same week you started school! My flight over here was very long. I left San Francisco at a little past midnight on a Tuesday and I arrived in Cambodia on Thursday afternoon! Two very long plane rides!! I live in the capital city of Cambodia called Phnom Penh (the h's are not really pronounced so it sounds more like Pnom Pen). It is a very busy city! The streets are almost always busy during the day but at night it gets quiet again. I live in an apartment o...

Two weeks ago I joined my first RAW team trip as the second logistics leader. Which basically means I was the person who helped make sure everything ran smoothly, from the tuk tuk drivers to the food service at the Titanic. I learned quickly and had great teachers. Here's a rundown of the two weeks the year 10 students (that's Sophomores to us Americans) had while here. Day 1 Group arrive at airport dazed and confused :) Shove all luggage into bus and pile in tuk tuk Take the group on their first adventure to the hotel via busy, crazy roads. Let them settle in for a couple hours Go to fancy restaurant on the river front called Titanic (luckily there are no icebergs in Cambodia. . . ) Day 2 Embrace and understand the cultural day Visit RAW Impact offices and learn what we do on a daily basis Visit SheRescue office and learn about human trafficking and the journey Cambodia has been on to eliminate sex trafficking. Visit S21 also called Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum , t...

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...