The Global Interaction team we are a part of has been growing. Presently we have a cluster of most of the team family homes located nearby to each other. Close to the new families lives Catherine in her new home. Two of the families need to move to new homes in the coming months, but desire to stay in the same area where a sense of supportive community has formed making life easier during the early adjustments period.
Rob and Deb live 10 minutes away to the South East from the cluster but close to the schools all the team children attend. A bigger team means there are many celebrations like birthdays to share which helps with the regularity of our get togethers. Apart from regular team meetings the men and women separately meet and pray. At the end of November, we will come together for a team retreat.

Deb recently welcomed a lady from the Day for Girls Adelaide chapter as they issued postnatal packs within the village health centre where Deb volunteers. Gifts that are treasured by the many village women.
Rob has a growing friendship with a local Khmer man within the village where we live to learn more about the Khmer culture and conversational language. As each village in Cambodia has a unique and different structure as well as special ways of celebrating festivals. We value sitting with neighbours and seeing progress in the ways we connect having been living here in the village for a year now.

When Rob was a young boy, he didn’t take a lot of sick days off school, but on one occasion he felt like skipping a day of school and pretended to his mother that he didn’t feel well. To his delight he was given the day off school, but to his horror his mother then arranged a visit to the family doctor. He was certain he was going to get found out for his scheme! It was a long wait at the doctors surgery for this moment of truth, but with much relief to Rob he was diagnosed with ‘bronchitis’. Forty-something years later Rob still isn’t in a habit of taking sick days, nor does he long for the attention of medical care.

The last several months for Rob have involved some ups and downs following medical treatment for a inguinal hernia. Surgery in Cambodia can be a risky activity as the medical standards can be unreliable. So to neighbouring Thailand we went to get our health assessed and a surgeon gave the advice for Rob to receive a laparoscopic surgical procedure to treat the hernia. A few weeks after returning to Cambodia, the expected recovery was very slow and physical symptoms were no better than before the operation. Rob sought explanation of the limited recovery from a local Cambodian surgeon. Unexpectedly the doctor diagnosed a relapsed hernia that he offered to operate on right there in his clinic. Some ten weeks past between the original operation and a reluctant return to the Bangkok hospital to see the original surgeon and get his diagnosis. Unlike the Cambodian doctors assessment, with the help of ultrasound the Thai doctor made the pronouncement that there was no need for repeat surgery, but recommended the offending fluid being reduced under local anesthetic with a needle guided by ultrasound. Dressed in a theatre gown and wheeled into theatre Rob had some apprehension about the procedure, but the new doctor quickly decided that aspiration wasn’t going to be required. Having gone to Thailand expecting a homecoming with some physical incapacity, this news came as such a relief. The prognosis: gradual healing without medical intervention. Or as we believe, healing in God’s timing. Unlike the childhood experience of relief from having a reason to see a doctor, this time the relief was multi-faceted. Thank you for those of you who contribute to making our healthcare possible. The privilege we have to receive such a high standard of medical care, is something that we don’t take for granted; most of our Khmer friends have no such access and treatment beyond a saline drip and a handful of tablets is out of financial reach. 

Yet in the midst of the health care setting in Cambodia Deb has the delight to be with people as a nurse and with families as a midwife. We rejoice that during this past month the exhausting process of getting Deb’s registration as a midwife in Cambodia was finalised. The Chreav Health Centre where Deb volunteers offers an open door to being involved intimately in the culture and the lives of local families from surrounding villages. A health clinic in Cambodia has many differences to an equivalent health centre you might find in a place like Australia. A village health centre in Cambodia for example is a place you would likely take a child to have their ears pierced. But the differences in health here go much deeper on a cultural level. Lately Deb has been learning about traditional Khmer natural medicines which may be administered by traditional healers in the villages. Of these natural remedies their importance highlights the priority of women’s reproductive system, fertility, children and families in Khmer culture. The Khmer are less inclined to separate their physical life and spiritual life as many Westerners are inclined to do. How many of you would consider house work as a spiritual practice? A Khmer family would often start the day sweeping the home inside and out; but more than seeking a freshly clean house this activity has a spiritual element of sweeping the soul clean afresh for the new day.

Life and health here in Cambodia is always interesting and sometimes involves some unpredictable outcomes. Thank you for journeying with us and for the many who support us in so many different ways.

Prayer Requests:
For wholesome goodbyes as the Hutchinson family depart Australia later this month. 
For our Khmer friends whose rice harvests have been reduced by unreliable rain.
That God will be at work in the hearts and lives of the Khmer people. 

October has always been a significant month in our family. Unlike our Khmer friends, we come from a culture that celebrates birthdays. Both of Rob’s parents and our two daughters have birthdays this month. Rob’s Dad turns 88 and our youngest child Miriam turns 21. Being separated from family for significant dates like a 21st birthday celebration brings to mind some of the costs that are traded to be here in Cambodia. The cost to our children and all of us. Family is hugely important in Cambodia. Rarely will we meet a person for the first time that we are not asked about our children, where they live and whether they have visited us here. We will have a few sad thoughts this month at times, but Mim did share that one consolation was that we will not be embarrassing her with one of our speeches!

Have you ever had a conversation with someone with bright red saliva oozing from their mouth? Deb values any opportunity to share with the Khmer grandmother figures; in Khmer called ‘Yeay’. Most of them endorse the monthly spiritual practice of shaving their head. They have much wisdom, insight and stories. Deb feels honoured to sit with them and practice being present among the cultural differences around her during these interactions. One aspect that is common among many Khmer elderly women is they gnaw betel nut or tuck it under their upper lip making communication for a language learner very tricky. Now betel nut is actually not a beetle or a nut. The folded leaf comes from the betel plant ‘mlu’ in Khmer, a vine that looks a little like ivy. But the hard part, the “nut,” comes from a different plant altogether, the areca tree, a spindly palm that looks like it has bunches of green and orange grapes hanging in place of coconuts. These fruits can be eaten fresh or dried in the sun to reach the consistency of a nut. But it is only when combined with betel leaves smeared with limestone paste that it produces those signature streams of scarlet saliva which is spat out into the ground next to them and sometimes on their hands, shirt and sprayed during talking. Deb admits to an odd wave of nauseousness but feels grateful being with the elders.

Some older Khmer women continue to chew while most Khmer have given up the practice. Most of the Yeay’s have very few teeth left and may have blackened nubs that are a sign of serious chewers. Whilst a few Yeay’s told me that mlu would make my teeth stronger and improve my breath, one Yeay sharing that her ten bundles of betel per day helped her to relax and forget her worries. I know that areca has a mild narcotic effect, the Yeay’s confirm they may feel a lightheaded dreaminess. This effect, one Grandma explained, was why it is always good to offer a neighbour some betel if they happen to be angry with you.However the Yeay’s  strongest reasons for chewing betel have to do with attachments to a culture that is not our own. At a Khmer wedding, the groom will offer betel to the parents as a sign of love and loyalty. Most of the Yeay’s show me their inherited seemingly hundred-year-old betel cutters a way to pass on the practice to other generations.

Is it compost or is it rubbish? Many of the vegetable farmers in the village where we live are well experienced in recycling manure and some waste products to use as fertiliser, but at the Chreav school one of the challenges for Rob has been getting the message across that there is a difference between products that need to be separated from plant material to create mulch. It is a common practice at the school and around most country homes to sweep away every item that lands on the surface of the soil. All of this ‘rubbish’ (tree leaves, plastic food wrapping, polystyrene foam, drinking straws, etc) may find its way into the nearest waterway, or be swept into a pile and burnt. Mostly the school garden compost bins require painstaking separation and removal of plastics from the layers of ‘sweepings’ after they have been added. They say that ‘one mans trash is another mans treasure’. Possibly some deep cultural insights will be gained before the multiple instruction of children and signs on bins has the desired effects.

Prayer Requests:
For team transitioning around school holidays and living arrangements.
For creative ways to celebrate significant birthdays from afar.
Growing continually in Khmer culture understanding in relationships.