Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Thrifty Gone Awry

So having lived here for almost six months now, I was feeling it might be time to update the wardrobe. Now, since both finances and retailing options really don't allow for many opportunities to buy new clothes, I decided to go all pintrest on some of my clothing items and do it myself.
I have this one long dress that I cut to make two skirts since the floor length dress is simply too hot or hard to walk in the rain. I realized today that while I have worn one of the skirts several times, I have yet to wear the other skirt. So before heading back to the office from my lunch break I donned this "new" skirt. Now it's a little big, but I figured I was just teaching English and hanging out with karaoke girls so there shouldn't be any issue with it.
After changing I headed back. About half way through the class I realized I was the victim of a wardrobe malfunction. My skirt had fallen much to my embarrassment. Now either none of the girls noticed because they were all so enthralled in the awesome lesson going on, or  they simply didn't want to mention it. I'm going to choose the first scenario.
So fear not, I fixed the problem. Tied the skirt and then headed out with Bella to pass out fliers for a free clinic. We saw that a storm was coming but figured we could easily avoid it. And much to everyone's surprise I for once was correct. We didn't get soaked. ( ha! That's what you get for assuming the worst about my deductive skills.) Having passed out the fliers and returned ti Rahab's house, I packed up my belongings knowing that the storm was coming and it looked like there was going to be some major rain. Before I could finish gathering my stuff if began to pour. I did my best to water proof the purse and laptop. Having ghetto rigged my skirt by tying knots and my purse and laptop by stuffing it full of bags and towels to keep water off, I set out in the downpour. I made it to the end of our drive way before my awesome MacGyver inspired belongs began to fail me. The rain was so intense that the street was flooded almost to my ankles. The rain immediately soaked the skirt causing the knots to come untied. My purse over my shoulder was so bulky my right arm stuck out as if I had a cast made immobile by securing to the waist.
I tried darting under the little awnings as best I could but come on, I didn't want to look like a fool. Instead I ran the most direct route through the flooded street. My flip flops were so slippery in the brown foamy water I could barely keep them on. I was picking my feet up out of the water to run making it look like I was attempting a high knees workout. In the middle of this graceful maneuvering, my skirt almost completely fell off so I quickly grabbed it and held it with my left hand. So here I am running down the street looking like I have one immobile arm, holding up my soaking skirt, dancing around like a fool trying to keep my shoes on while doing the silliest dance through the water. (I think there is a children's animated character that would perfectly embody this scene, but sadly I can't think of which one.)
Yup. I'm glad I decided to be thrifty and wear my homemade skirt today. Maybe I should lay off the pintrest for awhile.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Kids' Club

So, as I've mentioned, we started a Kids' Club.
We've been trying to get the kids in some sort of routine and establish discipline. When we started a week ago, the kids were literally running all over Rahab's House at all hours. We kept trying to explain that was not going to work since we have English classes going. But no matter how times we nicely explained it, they would come as early as 7:30 am and take over. We were also trying to figure out a way to get the attention of 25+ children while they are running and screaming all over the roof. Between the awesome girls here, some inspiration from how the children's program in Svay Pak is run and the grace of God, we have figured out a system! We have three rules in Kids' Club: Respect God and His house, Respect Teachers, and Respect Others.
Yesterday, some of the kids decided to ignore the rules and come running in Rahab's early. We finally had to lay down the law.  So, we had to explain that the seven children who chose to ignore rules one and two would not be allowed to participate with us, but they would be more than welcome to come back the next day. So they went home, we had Kids' Club- it was great, had fun, no biggie.
Today, at 9:45 I got a little nervous. There were no kids waiting outside. At 10, we only had four kids. I was beginning to wonder if I had messed things up by sending the kids home. What if they were afraid to come back? But, we started with Kids' Club as planned. We started finger painting on the tile floor practicing the English name for the colors, and talking about Noah's rainbow. About ten minutes into Kids' Club, we had 15 kids. We began adding water to the paint to make it stretch farther. Within another 10 minutes, we had 23 kids with soapy painted water all of the roof. They were having so much fun painting with their feet, their hands, and sliding around.
We were having a blast watching the kids and playing with them and made cleaning up into a game. One of the older girls decided to take charge and remind the kids that they needed to respect God's House, and they needed to do a good job cleaning. The kids were so bent on making sure they followed rule number 1, we had a hard time getting them to stop cleaning so we could play the next game. It was so cute. When we wanted their attention, we yelled in Khmer to three and all the kids raced back to their lines, boys on one side, girls on the other, and went silent. Honestly, you would think we knew exactly what we were doing the whole time...
After talking to some of the kids, they told us they wanted to come to Kids' Club so they wanted to make sure they followed all of the rules so they didn't have to miss out on any of the fun. I can't tell you how much it blessed me to hear how much they want to be here and be with us.
The transformation between last week and this week is unbelievable! We're half way through our second week, and I have to say I think this is going to be a success!

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Update Letter


So I was asked to post my most recent update letter, so here it is. I know it's got some repeat information, but I hope it's not boring!

Well, even though Rahab’s House has been here and opened for almost eight months now, we are still trying to develop trust within the community. Right now, we go to one of the local karaoke clubs every week day and hang out with them while they play cards. We were hoping that by just hanging out with them we would be able to develop a sense of trust and show they that we don’t want anything from them. After three months of going almost every week day, we learned something very very important: the girls at the clubs think we hang out with them and bring them food because we are trying to bribe them into coming to our salon. When we found this out, I have to tell you, it was a bit of a shock. It really took me aback that after all this time, we had no idea that our attempt to give them cheaper (and slightly better) hair and make-up was being translated in their minds as a bribe.  So we decided to come up with a new plan where we invited the girls to a corner restaurant and bought them lunch, just an opportunity to talk with them.
Last week, we had a team from Korea visiting, and in attempt to get them involved in some outreach, we held our first karaoke lunch. We ordered enough food for forty people, but to be honest, the Khmer staff and I really thought that was really wishful thinking. But God was really good! We ended up having so many girls and their kids come during the course of two hours that we ran out of food. At first it made me nervous that we ran out of food, and was pretty sure that we would have some angry karaoke girls on our hands but they ended up being fine with it. Most of them sat down and ordered a drink so they could hang out with us. A few made jokes and left, but on the whole, everyone was really receptive to the whole thing. At the end, the girls were requesting food for next time. Next time! A week ago they thought we were trying to bribe them (and I’m sure some still do) and now they were trying to make plans for another hang out. Words cannot even begin to describe my excitement.
Since the community is still trying to decide whether or not they trust us, it has been exciting to watch the little progress every week. A month ago we had one message parlor that did not want us going onto their campus. After meeting the owner, he gave us open access to the message parlor and even helped facilitate classes for the girls while the team was in town. We’re hoping he will allow us access twice a week on his campus to teach English so we can reach more girls. One of the other message parlors has always been welcoming to a point. They allowed us to host monthly lunches on their campus, but last week the manager was recommending that the girls come to our salon and actually came in herself! That was huge. Finally there was one message parlor that would never grant us access to even pass out fliers for our clinic. We’ve always been turned away. They would take maybe 6-8 fliers and say they would pass out them to the girls, but that there weren’t many there, and then ask us to leave. Last week one of the managers seemed so annoyed that we were back, he let us go see the girls. I was expecting maybe twenty, after all they always told us there weren’t many. When we got in back there were close to fifty or sixty girls. They were shocked and excited to see us. I was stunned. I had no idea that it was such a big operation. When we were getting ready to leave one of the managers flagged us down. She was usually the one that rejected us, so I was expecting to get in trouble. Instead of getting angry, she asked when the next clinic would be and asked us to come back and let her know when it was so she could go.
There has been an outbreak here that has been killing children under the age of seven. As a result, most schools have shut down. Although they’ve figured out what was killing the children, and a vaccination, the schools are still closed. About three weeks ago, we had a different team from Korea visiting. While they were here, we had a large number of children start coming to their classes. We figured it must be related to the outbreak. After asking around, that’s not the case. These kids live near us, or a kids of karaoke girls and have nothing to do during the day. So we thought we’d see how things panned out. Well, it’s been three weeks since the kids started coming and they are growing in number, even without the teams, they are coming. Children we have never seen are suddenly here. And not like five or ten, we’re talking thirty or more. We’ve been talking on and off about starting a Kids’ Club since I got here; it’s good for the community, most of the karaoke girls have at least one child- why not? Well, to be honest, we really don’t have the means to maintain one. Things have changed within the last three weeks though. With the kids coming every day, even without a team, we decided we needed to do something. So as of this morning one of our Khmer staff and two of our girls that don’t go and study in the mornings are now running a Kids’ Club for an hour half every morning.  Since I am in charge of everything school related and outreach, I am working to help the girls get this up and running. With really no notice, the girls did a great job with the kids today, and we are working on a plan for the rest of the week. I think it’ll be good. It’s going to take some time to get it all in place, but then I think it will be good.
Wow. I know that is kind of a lot. I tried to condense. Sorry it is so much. I really need to be better about writing more often.
There is so much going on, and so much changing. God is good and He is faithful, but honestly it’s exhausting. A week ago, I was in tears about all the changes. Don’t get me wrong, I love to see how God is moving, but with such little staff, and such limited finances, it’s a little overwhelming sometimes. Since our American house mom has moved back to the states, there have been adjustments to the new house moms. During the day, the girls were coming to me with their questions while I was trying to teach the English classes. Trying to manage the girls, their schedules, market runs, drama in the house, outreach to the three different message parlors and the karaoke club and preparing for/interacting with the visiting teams and teach  has been a little overwhelming. I kept being reminded that it was all temporary, but that is a lot of temporary things at once. But God is good, and things in the house are calming down. The girls have more structure which helps, the teams are gone, and we’re getting into a rhythm with the outreach. So that is all good. And I’ve started going to bed earlier, which is really good. J
If you’ve made it this far into this letter, thank you. Sorry it’s so long. So let me wrap this up for you.
Our director, Steve, and his wife, Lygia, will be moving back to the states in November. We already have his replacement, Laura and she is amazing! We get along well and I think we will work well together. But if you could be in prayer for other staff we are going to be hiring. We are looking to hire counselors, teachers, and we’re going to be opening a training facility and a home for the girls so we will need not only locations for both of those facilities, but staffing for them.
Also, we have two girls that need heart surgery. One of them is part of our staff. Because of the type of surgery, they both need to go to Thailand for the operations. The girl in our program has known for most of her life that she has a hole in her heart, and the funds for her surgery are almost all raised. But Sauvry (our staff) was just diagnosed about two weeks ago. If you wouldn’t mind praying not only for the funds for her surgery, but for her as she is still trying to process all of this.


Monday, August 13, 2012

On the Other Hand

So we've been working to build trust in the community and with the girls at the massage parlors and karaoke clubs, and it has been a challenge. After three months of consistent daily outreach, the girls still aren't sure about us. Well, last week was the first of many bittersweet conversations.
We were sitting at the karaoke club near us with the girls while they were gambling. We brought them bananas to snack on. After many months of coming, they made their first joke with us. They began joking around about the different men they've been with and comparing them to the bananas. It completely freaked out Bella, and I was completely unaware at first. On the the one hand, it's a bummer that they can compare that many men, on the other hand, I am really glad that they are comfortable enough with us now to talk about it.

Today in English I was talking with some of my karaoke girls that speak more English. One of them was telling me how embarrassed she is by her job. She won't even tell her family (whom she helps support) how she makes money. On the one hand it was heart breaking listening to her, on the other what a blessing that she is open to change and open to being helped.

I was talking to another one of my girls. She wanted to show me a picture of a guy she really liked. She tried to show me once, and I never got to see it, so the second time she hurried home to get it and bring it back to me. She wad so excited to show me the man she had fallen in love with. When she handed me a picture of several men in the U.S. Navy in uniform. She pointed to the one she wished she could marry, but he was already married so they could only email. On the one hand, I was heart broken and angry to see those uniforms. I was saddened to hear that he was married and cheating on his wife, and even more upset that he had taken the heart of this beautiful young woman in front of me. On the other hand, what a blessing that she wanted to share something so precious to her with me.

We pass out protection of any girl that asks for it. While talking to two girls about giving them some, it came out in the conversation that one of the girls had already gotten pregnant before. After assuring me that she was not currently pregnant, she explained that she had five abortions and one child before learning how to properly use protection. I don't think I need to explain the saddening part of this story. The bright side on the other hand was a little harder to find, but I figure that God has plans for that little three year old boy. Thank goodness she finally learned how to use protection.

There are so many stories. So many great ones. So many sad ones. But I am noticing that as long as I look for Him, God's providence is in each one of them. I just have to look at both sides.

Photo Update

Yes, I am lame. I have not kept up with updating like I should. Do I get credit for having several drafts waiting to be finished and published? Probably not...
Well, whenever I talk to my daddy, he always asks the same question: "Any new pictures?" So this is for you Dad...
Our 4th of July celebration with the girls at Rahab's House
(celebrated with them on the 3rd but whatever...)

Seriously, how scary right? No joke, the girls almost caught Jayme and me on
fire at least two times each, but they had fun and that's what matters right?

Since we can't post faces online, I thought this captured the essence of the night
without revealing too much. This was a lot of fun!

Our 4th of July celebration just us American staff (actually held on the 5th...)
We got rained out and had to take the fireworks to my room and shoot them out of
the third story window. A few singe marks on the bed and floor, and my
room smelled like smoke for a week, but totally worth it!

The fireworks outside the window. We called the girls at Rahab's House, and they all went out
onto their balcony and watched them in the rain from down the street. It was a fun night for all.

Steve and Lygia shooting the fireworks. Moments later, the wick shot out of the
back end of this still lit into the room. The burn marks are still on my floor.
(Don't worry, no one was hurt during the production of this album...)

The beginnings of our newly developed Kids' Club. We've had between 20-30
kids everyday at Rahab's, so as of today, we have a Kids' Club. That's how we do here
in the bode.


Jayme's going away party. There was this really cool restaurant right by our house
that made really great food for a really good price, and had a great atmosphere.
Unfortunately, it ran out of food about two weeks ago and is now
permanently out of business.  

These are not actually our girls, since I can't post pictures of them, but
this is a really good representation of our massage parlor girls. I know
the picture is small (I did that on purpose), but if you notice the red circles
on the shirts, that is a number. A customer can go in and pick a girl based on her
number. It is the same in the karaoke clubs. Girls lined up with numbers and you pick one.
We've recently been granted access to two massage parlors we've never been welcomed at
before. In fact we're hoping to start an English class on one of the massage parlor
campuses!