Happy Khmer New Year!

Gambles Newsletter                                    05/08/17                               Volume 3, Issue 4 Serving Cambodia through engineering design and discipleship One game during Khmer New Year is a little bit like duck, duck, goose.  It's called Leak Konsaeng.  You can check out a full description here.  Miriam just finished her performance in Our Town at school.  She did great!  She's also joined soccer (first time) and a dance team that performs in front of people! Over our Khmer New Year holiday we went to a small town called Kampot and drove scooters up a hill.  It was nice and chilly at the top and we saw a waterfall! Starbucks gift card for the first person to determine the hill that we went to. During Khmer New Year many people left in Phnom Penh head to the main Wat/Temple for games, socializing and food.  We went and enjoyed watching the celebrations.  Starbucks gift card to the first person who correctly identifies the Wat we went to.   Happy New Year! It seems strange, I know, but Cambodia celebrates 3 new years between January and April. The one with the biggest holiday is the Khmer New Year which we just celebrated earlier this month.  Most people in Phnom Penh head back to their village to be with family.  There are lots of games and food and fun!      Almost finished with L. 3! Out of the 8 levels we intend to take of Khmer, we're in level 3.  This level is all about learning the Khmer alphabet, which is one of the longest in the world.  Consonants such as ក (ka), គ (ko) អ (ah), រ (ro) and វ (wo) have begun to roll off our lips and are now recognizable on the signs we see along the road.  Vowels such as ា (a, ia),  ឿ (uw), and  ុំ (om, um) have been much harder since each vowel could make two different sounds based on what consonant it is next to. We've also learned some sight words such as ខ្ញុំ (khnom = I or me), ទិង់ (ting = to buy), សាលា រៀន (sala rien = school).  Our exam is THIS FRIDAY May 12.  Please pray for us as we learn how to read and write this vastly different language.  Please pray for our mail to reach us.  We're still missing at least a dozen cards that were mailed in January and February.  Continue to pray for language acquisition.  Our next EXAM is on Friday, May 12th. Please pray that we would speak well and remember our words. The end of the school year is coming and things are getting hectic for everyone.  And it's HOT.  I mean REALLY HOT.  Please pray that we would have patience and grace with each other. PRAISE!! We both passed our Level 2 exam! We bought a smaller vehicle for our family (Bajaj RE) and a scooter (Suzuki Address) for easier commutes. The marriage intensive we went to last month was a time of discovery about why we think wrongly about some situations.  It's helped us communicate better and more honestly. Miriam's Massages (or was that messages?) You know that kids say the darnedest things.  Here you will get a few funny quotes from our kids. "I'm not really into facts." ~ Miriam Hydrogen peroxide is one of my favorite solutions! ~Miriam's pun.  She LOVES puns! Moses' Corner Kick I have some really good news. So I am thinking of joining student council this year to be class rep but it is gonna get very competitive. There are three other 7th graders running but I already have 16 people on my side of the campaign. My head title is "Make Logos Great Again." It is very weird that I'm trying to make Logos great again if I've been going there for almost 4 months now.