Well, I’ve figured out that I’m really good at one thing, especially when it comes to the blog. Procrastination…I’ve been meaning to get this written for the past month but it just hasn’t happened. Which means there’s a lot of catching up to do… When I left off last time with my cousins, a friend from US, and Chandra leaving with the Mountain View team that was here. That left it very quiet, but in a week or two it got even quieter. Eltons went home for a wedding, and since they were spending the money anyhow, they stayed for close to three weeks.

So our family was over here “by ourselves”. Really it didn’t change that much except for on Sundays. Usually our family goes to one place for church and Eltons go to another, but now our family had to cover both places. Sunday evenings we usually get together with Eltons and Royce’s (a Holderman family that we’ve learned to know). Since Elton’s weren’t here, it was just us and Royce’s.

Recently we’ve noticed that Alaina has a “lazy eye” so mid-October  Dad took her in to see the eye doctor. The Doctor prescribed a patch on one eye for 3-4 hours every day and glasses. It took about a month, but the glasses finally came. So now Alaina has a “new” look. She’s supposed to go in for another checkup in 2-3 months.

On Mom’s birthday Royce’s took Mom and Dad out for coffee. I think that it was a coincidence that it happened on her birthday though as Royce’s were taking them out as a thank you, because Dad fixed their serger sewing machine for them. Either way though they really enjoyed it.

The next day was Dad’s birthday. It turned out to be a really eventful day to for the well team. They managed to get the well truck very stuck. It was up to the running boards on one side and almost there on the other. After a lot of digging and using a big winch that we had here at the house the finally got it out.

On the Oct. 25^th Dad was pretty busy. First off, in the morning Elton’s came back from the States. So he had to run to the airport to take pick them up. Soon after that Chhom called and said that one of the ladies from Bongmelia (Bing) had been in the hospital for 2-3 days to have a baby, but things weren’t going right. So they wondered if Dad could give them a ride in to Seim Reap where Khmer ladies can get good Doctors for free. So Dad drove the hour and a half out there and picked them up…Chandra also flew in later that evening.

It was two days later then that Bing finally had her baby. She and her husband stayed at our place for three days before heading back out to Bongmelia again.

In early November all of us staff guys (Khmer and American) except Dad took a two day moto trip to Pailin. The first day was basically just driving. Then the second day we went to up in the mountains to a waterfall and were there until a little after lunch. Then we headed home again. We had a lot of fun.

While we were gone on the moto trip the water festival was happening here in Seim Reap. The main event is the boat races. Teams from around the country go to the nearest large city to compete. There are about 16 guys paddling each canoe. They compete in head to head races slowly eliminating teams. Last one standing (or floating:) wins. It is very interesting to watch since it takes extreme team work. If they don’t work together the canoe is liable to flip.

There is also a lot of little shops that pop up along the river selling anything from cotton candy to mattresses. And as is the case with most holidays around here there are hundreds of people that come to town. This makes traffic jam up really fast. I wasn’t here for the worst of it this year, but one year traffic was bad enough that a normally 5 min drive took almost 2 hrs…I was happy enough to miss it this year…

Well that’s all for now…

P.S. Mom said if yall want to send Christmas cards you can send them to Lori Helmuth at:

PO Box 171
International Falls, MN 56649

Luke for the Helmuths