Cambodia, Here We Come!

Our flights and hotels for Cambodia are booked! Which is a major achievement here - especially the plane tickets. I could go into the craziness involved, but I am in a good mood and I don't feel like re-living that experience through writing about it. However, I will share the silver lining - we encountered a nice lady at Thai Airways and a lovely man who works for a local travel agency, both of whom were very helpful and everything they said was TRUE!

We will be going to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (to see Angkor Wat). This is what I read about Phnom Penh...
For western visitors, Phnom Penh can be a rough change. It can be very hot and (in the dry season) dusty, its infrastructure is largely lacking, and it is very poor - much poorer than, for example, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Visitors who can't handle rubbish and dust in the streets, risky traffic, blocked sidewalks, prowling tuk tuk and moto-drivers, touts and beggars may not enjoy the city.
But this place was our paradise on our vacation there last year and we cannot wait to go back! (We really need a vacation from K and we've been back for only two months.) All we really did in Phnom Penh last time was sleep, eat and stroll around the city - it was great! The food is fantastic. There are lots of NGOs there and many of the restaurants cater to expat palates. We leave late next Thursday night and already have plans to dine at a Spanish tapas place for their Sunday special unlimited paella and sangria - all for $10!

My husband is AMAZING!

One thing I enjoyed doing in the US was getting the Sunday car section before Jerry did and asking him the questions from the car advice column to see if his answers matched the "Car Guy" since he knows so much about cars. And he was almost always aligned with the printed advice given.

And since moving to K, Jerry has started reading about the cars here. Did you know that a S Asian company now owns Jaguar?

Anyway, here is the amazing thing - he is now so familiar with the cars in S Asia that when I ask him the car questions from the newspapers here, he typically gives the same advice as the Car Guy AND for the same reasons! Pretty incredible, eh? Maybe he could get a job here as the car section editor for a local paper. I would hire him. He is very knowledgeable and has excellent written and verbal English communication skills. Hormazd better watch out!

Dog Service and Tiger Security

First, thanks for praying for my friend, Jodie. A bone marrow donor has been found!! Can you believe it? A one in a million chance and a match was found. She is still waiting for final approval and a transplant date. Yea!

And now... for a tidbit about S Asia. Whenever I call for someone to work on the A/C or electrical stuff or whatever is broken in my flat, several men show up to assess the problem. They are always accompanied by this uniformed man who has a police badge looking patch on his shirt that says, "DOG SERVICE & TIGER SECURITY" Now, there are tons of stray dogs here (and lots on my street because of some crazy lady who keeps feeding them) and we are a few hours from a national tiger preserve, but really, I have no idea what this patch means. I really wish I had the nerve to ask the man if I could take a picture of his patch so I could post it here. He is a pretty friendly chap, but I would still feel weird about it. And I really really wish I knew enough Bangla to ask him what the patch means. The only thing I can think of is that he comes to make sure I am safe, since I am typically home by myself when these service people come. But why dogs and tigers???

Ya know, I think posting this blog has given me the guts to ask the next time he comes. But wouldn't it be amazing if I never had to call a service person to my flat again?!

Please help our friend, Jodie.

This blog has nothing to do with S Asia or anything funny or amusing. It is about helping to save the life of a friend. Please go to

www.savejodie.com

and take a couple of minutes to watch the video. She and her family need our help.

I first met Jodie during a youth retreat when I was in high school and I have known her husband for even longer. Their present battle moves me to tears, and besides prayers, this is the only way I know to help them from afar. Please help me help them.

Love, Mitzi

Forecast

Well, we leave the US today. There is too much to say, so I will share just one thing of great concern to me - the weather when we arrive.

On Wednesday, the high in Houston will be 51.
In our city in S Asia, the high will be 93.

Thank God this did not happen in K

Well, now we have a recent picture of ME.

Just as we were about to get ready to go to the gym for an AquaPump class, Jerry wanted to show me something while we were lounging in bed. It happened to be this large, heavy acrylic thing that sits on a base. Well, he thought the piece was attached to the base. It wasn't and it dropped and fell on my forehead. It hurt like the dickens and I started crying really loud, almost wailing! My mom rushed over and I could hear her and Jerry exclaim about how much blood was coming out. I was in LOTS of pain. My mom called our doctor friend and we all went to his office to see if I needed stitches. No stitches needed, but I will be sporting this big bandage for the next 4-5 days.

This incident reminded me and my mom of the last time something like this happened, only I was elementary-school-age playing with my cousins in Hawaii when I cut my forehead on the edge of a glass table in the house. My grandmother promptly went outside to get some grass to chew and then put in on my forehead to stop the bleeding. It worked and at the hospital my mom had to explain to person after person why I had grass on my head even though the accident was in the house. By the time we got home, my grandmother had wrapped the edges of her table with old sewing rags.

Houston Marathon

Jerry finished the Houston Marathon 40 minutes faster than he had hoped! His time was 5:18 and he felt pretty good afterwards. He woke up at 3:45am to start preparing for the race. I woke up at 7:30am to start preparing to cheer him on around mile 8.

For you runners out there - Jerry only trained for a couple of weeks when we got back to Houston. Then he strained something in his calf and had to stop running. So, he spent the next two weeks on the elliptical. The day of race, Jerry inserted SuperFeet orthotics (suggested by Jason, our PT friend). He met up with our friend Susan, who was doing the Galloway training, and did run 2 min/walk 1 min for 5 miles until his other calf started hurting. He then did run 1/walk 1 for the next 21 miles! Surprisingly, he did not cramp up and instead felt pretty good throughout the race. Besides the normal soreness/stiffness, he has several blisters on his feet.

All in all, even with the hot weather, Jerry did great and I am so proud of him!!

P.S. Much thanks to Candy for Jerry's bib, Jenn for driving Jerry to the race and Arlene for spectator navigation