Monopoly Madness October 12, 2007

Last night we got the wise idea to stay up and have a monopoly game with our teenagers.  We waited to start until late in the day.

We got started and Isaac is Mr. Monopoly and buying up the board.  We had to stop for dinner but then got back to it.  Oh my, you can learn alot about how your kids feel about you and each other when it is cuthroat business.  giggle.  We had secret alliances going on and Mark kept trying to act like a squatter and land on our places without paying rent.  We had to really watch him.

Isaac was the first to go bankrupt.  He got huffy and went to bed.  Then I bit the dust…but I had to stay in the game as banker because the others were acting too weird.  Midnight came and went.  Kati gets kicked out but won’t leave the table.  She likes the sound of her little boot playing piece clicking on the game board.  (she had too much sugar!)  So then it is down between Mark and Danielle…omigosh!!! 

Finally I announced that the dog or the baby (I don’t know which one first) will be waking me up and no one will be helping me…so the bank needed to close.  They have laid a table cloth on the table so that no pieces can be disturbed. 

They are such hoots…Mark is 43 years old and has NEVER won at monopoly before so he is determined to trounce Danielle…Danielle says “the senior citizen is going down!” 

But here I sit, up starting a new day with the baby and the dog both at my feet and the other 4 Littles clamoring for breakfast and the day is moving on!!!

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

Awana begins and holiday news October 6, 2007

Our week ended with lots of fun as our Awana Club began.  Our plan is to have Awana each Friday afternoon from 4 to 5.  We actually have an opening ceremony, circle times, and then courtyard games.  It didn’t look like any Awana Club you’ve ever seen before but the Bykota Kids had an absolute blast.

 This week is going to be a difficult week for us.  It is the Cambodian holiday of Pchum Ben.  In English, that roughly translates to Ancestors Day.  The holiday is one in which families visit pagodas, give offerings to the monks, and each morning at the temples rice is thrown into the air for Ancestors who may otherwise be hungry through the rest of the year.  I personally don’t think that throwing rice all over the place is a good thing to do with the rat infestation problems that we have already but no one ever asks my opinion.  Sigh…

But in reality what actually happens is that this is another WEEK LONG holiday in which every one piles into cramped buses and taxis to journey out to their home province.  Phnom Penh will be like a ghost town.  No crowds, no traffic.  BUT also no stores open, no markets to shop in, nothing to do or any way to enjoy the lack of crowds/traffic.  For us, it means a real hard time staffing and caring for the Children’s Home because so many staff members are gone for all or part of the holiday.  It also means that buying food is very difficult.  Many food markets are closed but the ones that are open are going to be hiking up the prices to be at least double if not more.  So for our NGO and family, this holiday is just something that we hunker down and try to survive and trust that it will soon be over.

There will be school for the Bykota Kids on Mon and Tues but then they are to be given Weds through Fri off in order to rest.  For the Benz kids, it is school as normal.  The rest of us will be busy handling the jobs that the absent staff members will not be here to do.

Update on Lizi:  We haven’t had her back to the doctor for another weight check but we will soon.  She is eating with a ferocious appetite but it is obvious from her bowel movements that much food is not digested.  She doesn’t appear to be growing much at all.  We hope the scale shows us something differently.  We have had trouble getting rid of the scabies she came with.  Unfortunately, it appears that Mark may have gotten them from her.  Itchy!  Her lungs are staying clear though and so that is a definite answer to prayer!

Update on furlough plans:  Our plans are still progressing for our family to be in the States from the end of May to the end of August next summer.  Please pray for God’s will to be manifest in all the plans and for His provision of all needs to be in abundance.  It seems to be quite a large undertaking so there are many, many questions to be answered.

If you are desirous of a visit from our family or an opportunity to hear and see more in detail of what the Lord is doing in Cambodia, please contact us so that we can try to start on a tentative schedule.  We want to touch base with as many friends and family as we possibly can in the time we are there. 

If you have any ideas, advice, or offers of housing or transportation for the time we are in the States, please contact us.

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

What are brown plant hoppers???? October 3, 2007

And why are they causing us so much trouble????  And why is a grassy stunt virus giving us headaches?

 Even though we are Americans, we are living in Asia, and so we eat an Asian lunch each day.  The children of Bykota House eat an Asian diet full time.   So of course, that means that it is rice based.  Rice is a large expense for us.  We go through a 50 kilo bag (110 lbs) in less than a week.  Our total use runs about a quarter of a ton each month.  A bag of rice, medium quality, used to cost us $13 a bag.  Now it is up to $25 a bag.  But the price is expected to rise.

The cost is rising due to a plague of brown plant hoppers.  The insects have now left, but not before infecting large areas with a grassy stunt virus.  This is highly contagious and is affecting things in a big way here.  The farmers of your body will fully understand in a way that many of our contacts will not relate how this can hit a market.

Actually it started in 2006 but not in Cambodia, but rather in Vietnam.  The virus seriously affected the Vietnam rice harvest last year and so Vietnam has been buying large quantities of Cambodian rice and so that is why the price went up previously.  But now since the virus is here supply is going to be down, demand is going to be  up, and the cost is going to continue to go up and up. 

Not only is rice going up in cost, but because everyone here must buy rice to eat, the other food markets are seeing an increase in costs because they raising their prices to compensate for their own personal higher expenses.  Our meat and vegetables are going up and staying up we have seen about a 25% increase in cost.

We believe that our Heavenly Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills but at the moment, our reality is that we operate on a very careful budget that doesn’t have extra at this time for these kinds of price increases..  We are therefore believing that God is going to lead us to someone, either a church body, a business, a cooperative,  or an individual to underwrite our rice expenses.  At present prices, our five bags a month are costing us $125 a month ($375 a quarter).  We expect this price to go up though because of the situation. 

If you are a reader of this blog, a partner with High Tower Ministries, or a friend/family member of the Benz family, can you please join us in prayer over this need???? 

Lots of love,

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

Big week of VBS September 30, 2007

Mark had seen an ad for children’s workers training on the internet so he quickly signed up for three seats at the training before all the seats were taken.  So week before last we had 3 staff members go to the training on Weds, Thurs, and Friday.  It turned out to be hard on TR.  The man that the trainers had hired to do the translating wasn’t up to the task so they asked TR to do it for them…and then he also got roped into helping with the Praise and Worship with playing the guitar.  Then on Friday all three of the High Tower employees were asked to accompany the trainers as they went out of town to a nearby province and held VBS for a poor village.  They shared with the ministry that they really couldn’t because we needed them back home at Bykota House.  Well, I guess they wanted our workers enough that they just flat out invited all of the Bykota Kids to join to the VBS. 

So last week, every morning TR loaded up the tuk tuk and the children headed off to VBS.  They had a GREAT time!  They did their school work in the afternoon so the week wasn’t an entire loss to the school books.

On Friday the team was breaking down and the leader of the group came over and blessed TR with the guitar that he had been playing all week for VBS.  It is Takamine…so it is a very top of the line guitar.  He also gifted TR with all the accessories and a hard-sided carrying case.  What an awesome blessing to this faithful young man…God has His hand on you, TR!

Tonight  (Sunday) was a monthly Ex pat worship night.  The location has changed from all the way across town to just two blocks from our home.  We are excited about this!  Tonight we loaded up the family into the tuk tuk and headed down there.  We really enjoying this time of worship in English.  There is something about worship in your native tongue that is so much more refreshing.

Everything is back to school as normal this week but with a new addition.  We are starting our new Awana Club on Friday.  Because of staff and location restrictions, it is certainly a modified club when compared to the ones that we have been involved in but another fun way to enjoy the Word of God and to learn more about His character.  We want to thank  Trent and Laura Walker, Carthage, MO and Heritage Bible Church in Benton, KY for their donations of Awana materials that have made this venture possible.

We would like to ask everyone to please continue to lift our son, Steven in prayer for safety and well-being while he serves in Iraq and to also remember our DIL, Dany, while she waits alone in the States.  Also we have had the joyful news that our daughter, Beki is again expecting a bundle of blessing in Carthage!  Most of our family haven’t yet met our grand daughter, Olivia but we hope to have furlough next summer.

Please post or email us to let us know how you are doing.  We would really enjoy some news from back home!  Love to all!

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

Dying for a Diet Coke September 26, 2007

Christina,

Yes, in reply to your reply to my post about Diet Coke, yes, DOES give new meaning to the phrase “Dying for a Diet Coke.”  I don’t think I will ever say that phrase again.  Or if I do, I think that I will remember the sound of the gun shots and the smell of the market that day as I thought I would be shot in a big yellow tuk tuk buying soda.  That may be enough to make me kick my habit.  (MAYBE…)

Almost killed for Diet Coke September 25, 2007

Well, today’s adventure…

 It is awfully hot but after a full morning of work and a rushed lunch, I set off in the Tuk Tuk for Cambodia Trust.  My hopes is that we can get an evaluation for Hosanna, so she is with me.  Also we are meeting a driver from a provincial orphanage with a CP child so Bong Nun came along to get acquainted with her.  TR is our trusty driver.

Well, afterward, we are heading home and I am hot, sticky, and feeling terrible.  I am looking at a long evening ahead with small group being tonight and so after small group, I wanted to think of enjoying a cold Diet Coke.  So we head for the drink shop.  Off we go and right before the turn to the drink shop, there is a terrible moto and car accident right beside us.  A few minutes later you could see an ambulance trying to make its way through locked up traffic.  But PTL in the midst of traffic accidents, we are safe.

One traffic light before the drink shop, we are accelerating into the intersection when a moto from the other direction makes an illegal left turn.  Those kinds of turns happen over here by the minute…but not only did he turn illegally but he begins to drift into our tuk tuk’s lane of traffic.  TR moves over….but the moto continues on.  Then TR moves over again…but the moto continues on over.  Then finally TR is forced to lay on the horn to get the guy’s attention…just inches from collision…meanwhile Nun and Hosanna let out screams as they see the impending accident.  With a dirty look, the moto driver jerks away and leaves us.  So PTL in the midst of crazy drivers, we are safe.

Then we find the traffic so bad that we can’t even turn at the drink shop.  We can see it, but we can’t get to it.  So we head around a five block detour to get to the drink shop from the other direction.  We get there and order the Diet Coke and they cart the flat out to the tuk tuk when all of a sudden, screams ring out.  Right behind us, a moto driver whips up to someone and grabs a gold chain right off the neck of a jewelry shop owner.  The owner starts screaming as the moto speeds away.  Within SECONDS of the screaming, shots start getting fired.  The shop owner is on a motorcycle and waving a pistol around and firing as he speeds off after the thief.  The police officers there, because of the rush hour traffic, actually clear a path for the shop owner!!!!!  Now mind you, the traffic is so thick that we can’t get anywhere and there are literally thousands of bystanders in this little one block area…no exaggeration.  So Hosanna, Nun, and I are all three on the bottom of the floor of the tuk tuk.  But PTL in the middle of shots being fired, we are safe.

 We finally got home and it dawned on me, that in just the time to travel home today, I could have been killed twice or at least seriously hurt and it was all for Diet Coke.

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

Crossing a finish line September 13, 2007

Well, unlike yesterday…so far today is going okay.  Well, I did drop a full coffee cup and make a terrible mess that needed cleaned up but hey, if that is the worst to happen today, it will be a better day than yesterday!

First off updates:

Christopher is doing okay.  We are trying to keep him calm and still so that he doesn’t get the wound all sweaty and we are keeping him inside in an attempt to keep it clean.  This is making him sorta sad though because as luck would have it, today is the first day of homeschool co-op.  There are only 10 sessions this semester and he is going to miss one…so I am sorry for that. 

Camilla, the dog.  She had to have an emergency removal of the uterus to save her life this morning.  The infection was really bad.  She is resting now and on IV meds.  We are supposed to bring her home tonight at six if she is doing okay.  No little Shar Pei puppies for us…

The finishing line that the title is talking about is that all but three students have finished their first grade reading workbooks in the curriculum with School of the Nations!  This is a cause for celebration!  We are very excited and since all the students had a nervous morning of taking a test, they have been given the afternoon off.  Tomorrow we are making preperations to have an extra special lunch with a dessert for them as a party of sorts. 

Today is Isaac’s 16th birthday.  For those of you unclear of who is who in this Benz family…Isaac is our youngest biological child.  He turns 16 today, Dani turned 17 last month, and Kati turned 18 in April.  These three children are the ones that we often referred to as our “baby boom” because they were all born in such a short period of time…but that was only yesteday…how did they get to be 16, 17, and 18???  We are thankful for the young adults that they are turning into.

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

Follow up on the previous post… September 12, 2007

I finished posting the previous post “Dental Doings” about 5 PM.    While I was gone to the dentist with the 3 children, our son Isaac was gone to the vet with our Chinese Shar Pei dog.  Right after I published the post, Isaac came home.

Isaac came home with the news that the dog had a serious uterine infection and requires surgery.  We checked everything out via the internet but anyway, we really trust this French vet.  So the dog needs emergency surgery.  The vet wouldn’t even let Isaac bring Camilla home.  She is staying overnight there.  Everyone was a little upset about that…you know how dogs are a part of your family.

Well, then about 6 30, Mark is downstairs securing the courtyard because it has fallen dark and I am in the  kitchen trying to get dinner pulled together with Kati.  All of a sudden, we hear Isaac screaming…I mean SCREAMING…”Dad, come quick!  Dad, come right now!  Mom, Dad, hurry, hurry.  Christopher is really hurt bad.”  So Mark and I are galloping up the stairs and I am wondering, how can he be hurt bad…we haven’t heard a thing. 

We get to the bedroom and he is lying in the middle of the floor in a POOL of blood!  I am not exaggerating a bit!  He had removed the ladder from the bunk beds…propped it up on a night table, trying to climb even higher to do God only knows what….and he had fallen and the rung of the metal ladder cut his forehead down to the bone.  Mark grabbed a pair of clean boxers (sorry, Isaac) and started applying pressure, while I try to get kids out of the room and get some clean up going.  (We just set our protocols for body fluid clean up, thank goodness!)  But Mark won’t let me see Christopher’s forehead.

We try to get ourselves cleaned up a little bit and I call the clinic to make sure that someone is there.  We then head toward Russian market to the nearest somewhat competent clinic. 

I think I made the doctor a little nervous because RIGHT AFTER he would put on a new set of gloves, he would go across the room and touch the dirty supply cabinet and dig around for some supply or something….so I would make him change his gloves.  I mean good grief!  We are right on Tuol Tom Pong road…it is filthy and so I want things as clean as possible to work on my child’s scalp.

The cut was about 2 1/2 inches long and went to the bone.  It took 6 stitches to sew up.  We got home about 8 ish just in time to start bedtime routines.  Mark and I might get to eat sometime…I don’t know.

And THAT is how the afternoon ended!!!

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

Dentist Doings September 12, 2007

I THOUGHT that my afternoon was free today.  I have been feeling very stttttrrrreeetttched and needing some down time.  So I had an appt. in my room to turn on the air conditioner and relax with a book this afternoon.  Not to happen though.

 When kids need to go to the dentist or the doctor it usually happens like this:  we have our plans for the day and then as the children begin their schooling, we hear about this one not feeling well or this one with a toothache.  Well today, it started with one child talking about a toothache and then since teeth were being talked about, two other children report that “Yea, I got a tooth that hurts too.”  With these children who have had poor nutrition prior to coming to Bykota House (including prenatal nutrition) and poor or no dental care prior to coming to us…bad teeth are part of the package.

We haven’t been successful at all with allowing staff to take children to the doctor or the dentist.  That is a long story in and off itself but suffice it to say that has fallen to me on most occasions.  In fact, 2 or 3 afternoons a week, it seems that I am at a doctor/dentist with one child or another.  Last week it was Samuel…week before it was Bee, Mekera, and Chantee.

So today we load into our newly painted tuk tuk…3 children and myself while TR is driving.  We get to the dentist and the skies open up like it is Noah’s flood again.  Bee was one of the children with me and since he promptly fell asleep listening to the rain, I kept him until last.  Then we had to wake him up to see the dentist.  What happened was a little funny.

Bee gets into the dental chair.  Remember that this is a normal size dental chair.  There are rarely anything that is pediatric in size here in Cambodia.  So his little bitty body looks so small in that big chair.  He has been playing hard and is hot and sweaty and he actually looks like a poster child for an orphanage (sad to say). 

Then the dentist asks where does it hurt.  He tells the dentist that his teeth are just perfect.  No pain.  Nothing wrong.  (all of this is said in Khmer but I can still understand it…) TR starts giggling because Bee is so earnest in telling the dentist that some mistake has been made.  The dentist asks again “Which tooth hurts?  Your mom wouldn’t bring you here for nothing.” 

“Oh no, Aunt.  My teeth don’t hurt.  Mom is wrong, ” Bee chatters.

So I simply take out my phone and I say in Khmer…”No problem.  I will call Dad and ask him.”  Bee’s eyes get larger (if that is even possible because they were pretty big already) and then he opens his mouth for the dentist.  I put my phone away and the dentist didn’t need Bee to tell her anything.  She could see it for herself.  So she starts working on it and finds the tooth is going to need a root canal.

Well, the entire process went with the doctor using this tool or that tool…then putting it down and getting something different or something of a different size.  But EACH AND EVERY time, Bee would hunch up on one hip in order to see what she was getting.  And by the look on his face, each instrument used was something of a greater level of torture….his face was hysterical to watch.  He didn’t ever cry…but his eyes kept getting wider and wider and his look was more and more horrified.  TR finally had to leave the room because by the look on Bee’s face, TR was sure that he was being tortured even though he wasn’t crying.  I just sat there trying to keep a confident look  on my face without bursting into laughter.

When it was done, Bee stood so close to me that he was practically INSIDE my shirt.  We returned home just as school was being dismissed.   As I type this now all the children have left The Center and are at the dormitory for dinner.  There is no telling WHAT kind of tale little Bee is telling all the rest of the kids.  LOL

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

Memory September 7, 2007

In the last 3 years of living and ministering in Cambodia, we have had many odd memories as you can possibly imagine.  Many friends and family have told me that they particularly liked this story or that story.  Anyway, I thought that since some of the readers of my blog may not have shared these memories with us and so that occasionally I would post one or another of them as I found them in my computer records.

Here’s one:

I just had the sweetest memory happen so after Chantal fell asleep, I snuck out here to the laptop to type it in.

We discovered lice today.  Oh I guess it was inevitable.   Anyway, Chantal complained last night for the first time of having an “itchy.”  She came to her daddy saying she had an itchy on her head.  So Mark looked and didn’t see anything.  Later she said, that she had a bad owie on her head…again he looked but didn’t see anything.

Today she was complaining of being “hot and fweaty…”  (that is how it sounds when she says hot and sweaty with her lisp.)  After the two of us showered off in the bathroom to cool off, she was scratching at her head and said that she had a “real bad itchy, Momma.  Can you use medicine?”  So I looked at it with a flashlight and found lice.

So our day began.  We had to get the shampoo bought and then get everyone processed through.  We had to strip all beds, and check everyone’s heads, track down everyone’s combs and brushes and get them soaking in bleach solution.  It has been a long, tiring day.  We found lice only visibly on Chantal and Roy.  We had hours and hours of picking nits out of their hair and it will continue tomorrow and then we have to reshampoo on the 3rd, 8th and 15th days.  Oh yea!  This is fun!!!  Mark was gone all day and so when he got back, he was met by a shampoo wielding Kati ready to attack him.

Anyway, tonight after I got Chantal laid down in our bed, she turned to me and asked, “Momma, you cuddle with me?”

She always starts the night off in our bed and then Kati comes and gets her after she is ready for bed and finishes her devotion.  The two of them are now room mates here in Cambodia.

So I answered, “yes, I am cuddling with you, peanut.” Since she asked though, I cuddled her even closer.

“Sister won’t cuddle with me because of I have the itchy.”  I laid there wondering which sister she was talking about because Kati had insisted that she still get to sleep with her.  Danielle had picked eggs out of her head for hours so I doubt that she would have said that.

“Well, I will cuddle with you, baby.  Come closer.  I’m not afraid of the itchy.  You had the itchy before and I wasn’t afraid of it.”

She popped those two fingers out of her mouth that she is always sucking on (bad habit) and she wanted to know “when did I have the itcy again?”

“Well, when I first got you at the orphanage, I took you back to the hotel and you had the itchy then.  I had to shampoo you and that time you also had the itchy all over your body.  I had to rub medicine all over it to kill the bugs.  I had to get it in all the cracks of your toes and your fingers.  Except those two fingers you suck on.  I put a band aid over them so they wouldn’t get the medicine on it because I didn’t want you to suck on the medicine.  After I had the medicine spread all over you, I took the band aids off. Then I cuddled with you all night while you had the medicine on and in the morning we showered it off.  So I am not afraid of the itchy.”

Chantal just loves hearing the stories about when she and Seth were adopted…they are often requested and she has begun filling in parts of the story.  She took those two fingers out of her mouth again and said “and I didn’t like you?”

“Oh no, you didn’t like me at all.  When I would try to give you a kiss….”

She interrupted and filled in, “and I would turn my head around?”

“Yes, you would turn your head around and wouldn’t let me kiss you.  You didn’t know me and you didn’t like me.”

It got real quiet in the bed and I thought she was drifting off to sleep when she said real quiet like “I like you now, Momma.”

I just wanted to share that with you.  I don’t think I will ever forget it.

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda