Almost killed for Diet Coke

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

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…

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

 

T Shirt painting day at the provincial orphanage

Today was a visit out to a provincial orphanage.  We took with us a team from the United States.  Mark was real ambitious…at the time, I thought he was just nuts…but he wanted to try to paint T shirts with the children out there.  They hadn’t ever had the chance to do anything like this before and why don’t we try? 

It actually went just fine!  We had the orphanage staff write the children’s names on the inside back collar.  Then the children patiently lined up.  The fact that they were being patient was amazing itself!  They are usually so, so excited that you can’t control them.  We had five different stations where a worker sat with orange and yellow paint.  They dipped their hands in the paint and put the handprints in a circular pattern in the center of the shirt and it made it look like a sunshine.  It was so very cute!!!

The nannies brought the bed babies also and we dipped their little feet in the paint.  Most of the babies acted like it was some terrifying medical procedure or something but the resulting t shirt was adorable.

After t shirts, the team spread out all over the orphanage to love on all the kids and to chase them through the buildings or swing them to dizzying heights on the swing set.

We gathered again about a half hour later and the visiting team did a few songs and a funny skit.  The Bykota Kids also sang a song in both English and Khmer and then we enjoyed passing out some fruit to all the children.  We were pretty tired but the smiling faces always make it worth it.

Mark and Danielle are both sick with an infection of the pharynx…spelling???  Anyway, now we have those two on meds, Peter has a bad ear infection, Lizzy is still on two types of medicines, Visoth and Seth are on daily meds also.  It feels an awful lot like a medical clinic around here three times a day!

Lizzy didn’t go with us to the orphanage.  I am concerned with too many children that may make her even sicker.  I left her home with Nanny Nun who was also watching Sammy.

This week is school in the morning each day, ANOTHER shot clinic on Wednesday, a medical evaluation on a child from one of the provincial orphanages that we are trying to arrange and then the big Joyce Meyers Festival of Fellowship this weekend.  So it will be a busy, busy week.

Until next time we are,

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

 

Update on Soldier Boy and Lizzy and everything else

We were so blessed to get a phone call from Steven yesterday.  He is now only 4 time zones away from us.  It still seems like the other side of the world though.

 He only had 15 minutes and there was a long line behind him.  Dad, myself, Kati, Dani, Isaac, and Chantal all got a chance to say hello before he had to go.  The temperature where he was yesterday was 137 degrees.  Hard to believe how anyone can live in those temps.  He sounded in good spirits.  He misses his wife, Dany which is understandable.

Lizzy is doing better.  Since she is no longer dehydrated, she seems almost like a different baby.  Her face actually appears plumper, she has more energy, she is less fussy, and she has more of an appetite.  In the short time we have had her, she has gone from a little froggy type of scoot across the floor to up-on-all-fours for an out and out crawl.  Life is going to be busy from this point on.  Our house is NOT baby proof and she is showing us that every day.

Her second round of antibiotics is finished but her lungs are still full.  The doctor is not immediately doing a third round because she is quite sure that Lizzy has Cystic Fibrosis and will always be somewhat congested in her lungs.  I had a retired medical professional come over on Tuesday night and she showed me how to do chest percussion therapy to break up the mucus.  We have to do this 3 times a day and it is a nosy time of day because Lizzy screams to high heaven while we are doing it.  She hates it!  But the doctor assured me that the full blown war cry that Lizzy puts on is good for her too.  We may possibly lose a bit of our hearing but as long as it helps her, we are doing it.

The care of Lizzy has to be watched very carefully.  She must have a good, clean environment and over at BH there are so many children eager to hold and touch her and that is not what she needs.  So she is living at the Center with our family.  We aren’t equipped for a baby or at least we weren’t…but we have been very blessed.  Her diet must be closely monitored as well.  And of course, there is the 3X a day percussion therapy and her medicines that she must have 3 times a day. 

A visiting medical team happily carried over for us a pack n play.  So we have a bed for her.  Another ministry upon hearing of her arrival went through their supply of children’s clothes and found a few things. We couldn’t keep anything she arrived in because she was covered from head to toe with scabies.  The donated clothes combined with our small amount we had on hand from Grandma Marthalee and so she has a basic wardrobe.  We went out and found a junior chair of sorts to use as a high chair and we have had word that another family is sending us a car seat for her to use while in the van. 

We also want to thank Heather in Malaysia for her gift that covered her initial blood work and lab tests.  Please be in prayer that we can find some way to do the actual diagnostic test for CF.  We are hoping to be able to do it here and then have it couried over to Thailand or Vietnam so we can be positive of what we are dealing with.

We are in the process of apply for her passport.  The estimated cost of Lizzy’s passport so she would be free to travel to other countries in either an emergency or for testing/medical care is going to be around $300. 

School is doing very well.  Most of the Bykota Kids are in their fourth book now.  Dany, Bee, and Visoth need some special attention.  Our system is working WONDERFULLY with the other 10 students but these 3 that need special attention is one area that we aren’t doing well with.  So your prayers for us to have wisdom in how to proceed would be appreciated.

I must go now and get on with the day’s activities.  On top of everything that normally happens, we are preparing for a trip out to a provincial orphanage tomorrow where we will paint tee shirts with the children.  This will be one of those things that either will turn out to be a WONDERFUL memory  and lots of fun or it will be one of those “What were we thinking????” moments.

Breathing in, breathing out,

Rhonda

 

Fourth of July

We hope that everyone has enjoyed their Fourth of July back in America.  Our celebration here was pretty small.

Our day was a busy, busy day as usual as nothing here slowed down for an American holiday.  But at noon, I loaded our four youngest children and took Kati and Dani with me and headed to a small picnic with some other American homeschoolers.

We just all showed up with our own lunches and after a small book being read on the American flag, practicing the pledge of allegiance and praying for our country, we all settled back to enjoy a very relaxed lunch time while the children all cavorted together.  It was nice.

This Saturday the American Embassy has a big wing ding planned but the tickets were expensive and went on sale when I was still in the US.  So we didn’t get them bought in time.  That is okay though…our Saturday is really, really packed with appts. and plans already.

We regret that we weren’t able to talk to our soldier son on the Fourth but our prayers are with him and all the others serving to preserve freedom aroudn the world.

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

 

Desk delivery day

Saturday, June 23rd, was a busy, busy day here.  We had the day planned that we were going to be getting up early and going to Kompong Spue province to deliver some milk and hugs to the provincial orphanage there.  But on Friday night, the carpenter who is building the desks for our new school called and said he was ready to deliver them.

So Saturday morning started out with all the carpenters in and out of the house as they brought the desk’s pieces in and then assembled them in the rooms.  The Benz kids and the Bykota kids were all collectively anxious about when we were going to go to the orphanage.  They are always excited and look forward to it.  But we had to not only wait for the desk work to be finished, we had to wait also for the new tuk tuk which was having a little bit of work done on it.

So finally about 11 30, the desks are finished and paid for.  (I will try to post a picture of them.) Also, the tuk tuk guy called and our work was done and the tuk tuk was ready to be picked up.  We went and got it but by then it was time for lunch.  So we all sit down to eat and then get cleaned up, get the soy milks loaded, and  get all the children loaded.  We are off! 

We find the children at the orphanage ready and anxious for our arrival.  This time most of them met us at the gate.  That always scares us because they get so excited that they don’t watch out and it would be so easy to run over one of them. 

We immediately have children crawling all over us and we enjoy our time out there tremendously.  The Bykota kids sing some songs while TR accompanies them on the guitar and even Seth sung a solo.  “Savior, He can move the mountains.  My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save.”  We pass out a soy milk to each and every child and then pull the van over to the kitchen and unload another month or six weeks worth.

We were happy to find some of the children missing as some adoptions to families in France have been completed and the little ones now have Forever Families.

We came home…hot, dirty, and exhausted.  Showers were enjoyed all around and we sat back to enjoy the evening and rest.  But it wasn’t to be that way…a young couple that we know called us and wanted to finalize the sale of the small motorcycle that we had been talking to them about.  So Mark had to run out quickly to get cash and then we enjoyed visiting with them and becoming new owners of a much-needed moto.  What a day…and this was our DAY OFF.  LOL

 Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda

PS  I know that this post is only getting posted on July 5th.  But I thought it was posted on Sunday June 24th.  But today when I went to the blog to check…it was saved as a DRAFT instead of being posted.  So, I just went ahead and posted it anyway.  Sigh…me and computers and internet…

 

Time passing…

It has  been some time since I have updated the blog before today but that is because LIFE STEPPED IN.

Things were going fine but then all sorts of stuff broke loose on several fronts.

It seemed like overnight we had more than half of the Benz family and half of the Bykota Kids sick.  Visoth actually had double pneumonia and that was no fun.  Every moment of spare time became full as day after day one child or another was sick enough to merit a visit to the clinc because while we can listen to lungs, we can’t do x rays and we don’t know what we are really listening to with the stethoscope any way.  We began doling out decongestants and antibiotics and expectorants on twice a day, three times a day, some four times a day intervals and it takes a notebook to keep track of all of it.  We found ourselves wondering…now which one had that fever of 104????  We have to write it down when things get like this because it is utter madness.

Then at the same time we began some rough spots with staffing.  Bong Mark, who works at a Christian broadcasting network here in Phnom Penh was blessed with a promotion to producer but that meant much longer hours were needed.  So he had to give us notice.

Just two weeks later, Sopheap let us know that she had an opportunity to go to Bible College and so she gave us one month’s notice.

Then our cook gave notice…OKAY!!!

Are we having fun enough yet?  No, not quite enough yet…

It was at that time that we started having obvious internet problems.  But also, we realized that the entire week previous even though it looked like emails had gone through, they hadn’t ever been received on the other end.  Even when I got an update typed for the blog…it wouldn’t SAVE at all.  Quite frustrating…

So if you have emailed us in the last two or two and a half weeks and you haven’t received a reply, you might want to resend your email.  We probably did reply and it simply is hovering out there somewhere in cyber space.

The children are all pretty much over the transient sicknesses and we are just dealing with the normal stuff now.

Please pray for us as we try to fit interviews with staff applicants in and that we can successfully FIND applicants to interview.

Continue to lift up the Bykota Kids and our family for health and wellness to be upon us all.

Our computer may have received spiritual deliverance while in the US but the internet system here is just something that we struggle with.  But I continue to thank God that He called us to a place that at least has internet.  We just must continue to grow in patience.

Breathing in, breathing out,

Rhonda

We

 

End of Soccer Season

Today was the last day of our children’s soccer season.  It was such a blessing to have this league organized.  So many times in the life of a pastor or missionaries, the ministry takes over to such an extent that the missionary’s family some times gets lost in the shuffle.

 This last year we have been really blessed.  Our children are part of a very small homeschool co op here that meets weekly for several terms each year on Thursday afternoons.  Then on most Saturday mornings they had soccer from 9 to 11 right outside of the city in a very nice grassy private community that allowed the soccer league to use their open field.  Then on Sunday mornings we are now attending an English speaking church that has Sunday school.  So it seemed like that we had some sort of our “family life” again.  Also, for one week a year, my children get to participate in an English speaking VBS. 

This is such a turn around from our first year on the field.

Sadly though, homeschool co op ended this last Thursday and won’t begin again until September.  Today was the last soccer season and it won’t start again until September also.  So while Mark and I are feeling the relief in the schedule, it won’t be long until the children are missing the blessing that this was in their lives.

After soccer though, by the time we got home the rain had come.  Most of the time the rainy season in Cambodia just means a big ole’ rain each morning and each afternoon that just makes a mess.  But today is nothing but rain, rain, and more rain.  However, we are all dry at this point (no leaking or flooding coming in off of balconies) and the cool refreshing breeze coming in the window is absolutely wonderful.

At Bykota House, Bee and Visoth are beside themselves with excitment because their classes at New Life School are going on a field trip this Friday.  They are going to the zoo.  Here in Cambodia that term must be used rather loosely because it isn’t at all what we think of as a zoo.  Actually, the last time I heard someone who went out there, they found most of the animals sick or dead because some sort of illness had gone through the whole population.  We are praying that it will be enjoyable.  Nonetheless, they will enjoy the outing and the picnic lunch no matter what else may happen.

Until next time,

Breathing in, Breathing out,

Rhonda