#26 - The New Center Is Ready For Action! And When A Street Turns Into A Rriver!

This is one of busiest intersections in Phnom Penh.
When we drove by during the holiday, only a few cars and motorcycles are on the road.

The political situation seems to cool down a little but the issue is still not resolved.  The opposition party is now seeking support from the international community.  Last week, Cambodia observed one of their major festivals, Pchum Ben "Ancestors' Day", is a 15-day Cambodian religious festival but only the last 3 days were public holiday.  The city seems to be completely closed last Wednesday to Sunday.   Our teachers and receptionist also get to return to their hometown to see their families.

The "Central Market", which is in the heart of the city, was closed!

Gate was closed!

It is hard to imagine this place to be empty as it is always packed with people, cars, motorcycle, tuk-tuk.

There are only dry and wet seasons in countries near the equator.  In Cambodia, we are currently in wet or rainy season but we have not had such a huge rainfall until the past few days.  The street we live was flooded (from 6 inches to 1 foot deep) for the past few days but the flood water usually retreated in 4-5 hours.  Worst of all was Tuesday afternoon, it was pouring from 3pm through mid-night.  Gryphon and Joelle were amazed with the amount of rain and how fast our street was filled with water.  When water filled up the street, trash was also floating freely on the street and cockroaches have no place to hide and we killed at least 30 roaches on the side of our house that day.  Very yucky.

The most incredible scene is when we return home from the center yesterday (at least 8 hours after the last rain).  We are about 6km south of our home, one of the main road was flooded and the road literally turns into a river with at least a foot of water for at least 3-4km long.  See video below.   Thank God that we did not get stuck in the middle of the "river".

The Center

After 3 weeks of training, our teachers and receptionist are eager for some real action.  The training covered various teaching techniques, introduction to our curriculum, dos & don’ts with students, and numerous of mock teaching session with feedback and discussions.  We also covered a lot of the administrative issues like our center policy, the mission of our center and HHEC in the village etc..   

Students are returning from their hometown after festival and starting a new school year.  We will be giving out flyers in front of the primary and secondary schools starting today (Thursday).  The next week or two is a crucial time for student enrollment.  Please join us in prayer for God to bring in the students He intended for us and allow the students to see His love and grace through the teachers and volunteers.  And we pray the work of the center will glorify His name and make His name known to the people in the surrounding communities.  

We will give you another update soon with more photos of the promotion and tell you more about the blessings we have with our teachers.

The street became a river!

This woman kept riding her bicycle even in the flood!

Praise God that our car made it through this "river" (the road).  

Water flooded on our street.

Trash (and trash can cover) were floating along our street!

The water level was getting higher while Gryphon and Joelle were taking picture of the flood!