Small group fun...

I am not a morning person. That is no secret. But what is worth getting up at 4:45 am...?

This group.

Meet my small group from the church. Words are not written the same way that I would phonetically spell them, so I will write how they do and then give you a pronunciation if needed. Front (L-R) me, Srey Rath (Row-aht), Yean Yean (Yin Yin), Samnang. Back (L-R) Mang, Keo (Gaow), Elise, Huot, and Dina (Deena). For the last year, God has given me such a heart for each of these young people. They have learned and grown and I count myself blessed to have them be a part of my life. On Saturday morning, we got up super early to go on an "outing" a couple hours away. I think the "official" title of it was a natural preserve or something along those lines. It was a very relaxing place with rocks and water and little huts to sit in...

complete with hammocks

We took pictures, played cards, ate lunch, some of them went swimming (during which time I relaxed by reading my book), and we all had a great time together.

Moving Forward...

Three mornings a week, I have made it my personal "mission" to build the patience of this dear boy...

This is Pannha (pronounced Pahn-nyah). This picture is from one of the Friendship Camps we led for the English students and it was in the middle of a game. I am hoping he is not so tired-looking when he teaches me.  Pannha is my Khmer tutor and my friend.  He also is the pastor's cousin and he comes to eat dinner at the house pretty much every night.  And since I live with the pastor, I have had countless meals with him and a few other people.  I think part of the beauty of our friendship is that we laugh and joke around with each other, which makes learning all the more fun...ok, not painful is maybe a better way to put it ;-)

Some days I read in Khmer and then I have to translate into English.  Some days we learn vocabulary lists (that is NOT my favorite).  Some days we do a grammar lesson from my book.  Some days we just talk about random stuff.  Some days...we do all the above.  And all of the days require perseverance from both of us!!  I have been very impressed with him as I struggle through words.  He has to repeat himself a lot...partly because I don't know the words and partly because he SO speaks fast and I don't listen quite that fast.  

The new method of learning is actually getting me to speak Khmer to more than just him!  This is helpful since there are a lot more people to talk to than Pannha ;-)  On Sunday afternoons, I teach a small group.  Up 'til now, I have done the lessons and Sophea, the pastor, has translated for me.  From here on out, though, I am going to be leading the group without him.

{{insert a wee bit of panic}}

In an effort to prepare myself for this...and to accomplish the goal I set out to getting over my fear and being able to speak the language...I decided that I would start teaching part of my lesson in Khmer.  We read a Bible passage and I ask some processing questions to get the students to think and answer.  My idea was to at least ask the questions in Khmer.  

So Pannha and I worked on translating the questions during my tutoring times and come Sunday, I told them at the beginning of the meeting that I was going to ask the questions in Khmer.  I had to tell them ahead of time or I would chicken out and not actually do it.  I would be frustrated and disappointed in myself that I didn't try.  Thus the announcement.  Because then they would hold me accountable.  It came time for the questions and I did it!!  They didn't sound pretty or eloquent, but they were in Khmer and they all understood what I was asking!  

Mini success!

I have since prepared the questions for this coming Sunday's lesson...and have upped the ante by writing out the closing prayer too.  I have to practice reading the stuff a lot before Sunday.  I write it all out in Khmer rather than phonetically -- which I must say is a skill in and of itself.  So since my reading takes a little effort, I need to prepare a little more than usual.

I realize this picture isn't the clearest (I used my phone), but I will take other pictures of my writing another time. This just gives you an idea of what I am working with here ;-) Thank you for your continued prayers for my language skills...I need them!!

New Vocabulary...

This is a nail.
Nails belong in wood.
Nails do NOT belong in my car tire.

This evening while I was teaching my English class, one of my friends poked her cute little head in the door and called me to come outside. This is pretty abnormal and I was a little concerned by the look on her face, so I excused myself from the class for a minute to find out what was wrong. Here is sorta how the conversation went.

Dina: "Your car. Biy gong. You know?"
Heather (with a very confused face): "I'm sorry. What?"
{I should mention that "gong" is the word for bike, thus the confusion to have it in reference to my car}
Dina: "Your car. gong."
{repeat the first couple lines a few times}
Heather: "Something about a bike and my car, but I don't understand. A bike hit my car?"
Dina: "Yes."
Heather: "Is someone hurt? Is my car ok?"
Dina: "No, your car is not ok."

At this point, I am kinda at a loss because I have no idea how a bike could hit and damage my car...it was parked and should have been ok where it was. I told her I needed to finish my class and I would come down soon. The whole next 30 minutes, all I could think about was my car and confused as to how this all played out downstairs. When I ended class, I was met by a number of different people, all trying to speak Khmer to me {another reminder that I HAVE to learn this language!!} and explain to me what happen. I am sure I had one of the most confused faces ever seen because they would stop me about every 5 feet to say something else about it...and then someone else would come up and try to explain more. I kept saying that I just needed to get out of the gate so I could see what had happened. As I walked up to my car, I saw that my front tire was flat.

{{Insert MORE confusion!!}}

I kept asking over and over again, "How does a bike do this? Who was riding the bike? Where did they go? How did it deflate my tire? I don't understand." My questions were not really given any answers that made sense to me...they just kept saying something about "biy kgong"...biy means three...so now there wasn't just one bike but three bikes that made my tire go flat!!  Needless to say I was pretty well confused.  They were looking at me pretty confused too. At some point in the madness, a thought dawned on me that maybe I wasn't understanding the Khmer words. I think they had the same realization at the same time. One of them pointed at the tire and said "gong" and a light went on over my head.

The word for tire is also (inconveniently) "gong" as well!!

There were not three bikes. There wasn't even one bike involved. It was the silly little nail pictured above.  I also learned that she wasn't saying "biy" but "biyk" and the k at the end of words is a very soft sound so to my American ear, I didn't hear the "k" at all. "Biyk" means broken. So she was telling me that my car had a broken tire.

Clearly.

I wish I could say that this was the end of the excitement, but it was just the beginning of the next wave. At this point, I discover that my car doesn't have a jack. Problem #1. I also discovered that most people around here don't know how to change a car tire. Problem #2. They all have "gongs" (actual bikes) and motorbikes. Not cars. At one point, I counted 14 people trying to help change my tire. There were even passerby's that were stopping to see the show. The whole process took a very long time. Then the power at the church and the street and the whole surrounding area went out. Problem #17. {I realize I skipped #3 thru #16, but trust me, they were there.} We were then completely dependent on the lights from our cell phones!!

This was one of the more "entertaining and interesting" nights in a "Oh-Cambodia-how-I-love-thee" kind of way.

I do love that I had so many people willing and able to help me.
I love that I learned the words for broken and tire.
I love the laughs that we had when we figured out the miscommunication.
And as I have said before, I love a good story.