The occasion for our second trip to Pochentong International Airport, was to welcome Samantha, as she arrived to embark on her calling of service to the Khmer people.



Then we headed 'out to dinner' to celebrate the occasion.

Kerri and Michael arrived in Phnom Penh and headed straight to Metro House to meet their sponsor child.





It was history in the making as Kerri and Michael were the first sponsors from Metro House to meet their sponsor child.





It wasn't long before Kerri was leading the story telling session.

When the rellies and friends visited Sihanoukville last month, Larissa and Rebecca wanted to get the children some balls. So here’s some of the children ‘having a ball’ enjoying the balls.







And here’s Larissa and Rebecca with their parents Di and Graham (my old boss) just before they disembarked the ship.

The Christmas story is taking some explaining to the children of Metro House - "What do you mean Mary is 'with child', asked Joseph?"

Further to a previous blog entry telling of the plight of a lady with HIV Aids, someone touched by the womans circumstances, has reached out to ensure that this woman lives a life filled with hope, love and financial support. That's awesome!

"No man or woman stands as tall as one who stoops to help his brother." (Adapted from a quote by Theodore Roosevelt).

We were away both Friday and Saturday night, but now we are back in the study catching up on our correspondence. So if you contacted us over the past few days, you should get our reply soon!

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were in Cambodia earlier this week, before departing Phnom Penh for Vietnam on a small private jet with their entourage. But we hear that they were due back here on Friday.

Here's a pic of them touring Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

What a difference a couple of weeks makes?!

After two weeks, the ladies participating in the sewing classes at our home, are producing saleable items and generating an income. It was great to see them receive payment for their goods.

If you would like to be a part of this program, please contact us to find out how you can be involved.

In Perth we used to work long hours which meant that we avoided peak hour traffic. Here in Cambodia, it's madness out there on the roads at the best of times, let alone at peak hour. Here's some pics of us waiting in the traffic to cross the bridge to return to the city.

The piglet income generation program is going great out in the village. Rashers, Plugger, Babe, Porky and the two who remain nameless, are 'growing' great and the people themselves are much brighter and filled with hope for their future because of the new income generation program. How easy it is to give hope to these needy people?!

Can you believe that they have built extra pens in faith that more piglets will be given to them? If you would like to provide a village family with a piglet or piglets, please let us know. AUD$60 buys a piglet and some food for its transition from the piggery to its new home.

The little children were strolling along the country track singing Alleluia, Alleluia, which was music to our ears! The local Pastor is such an amazing man of God. Truly inspirational!



Each person in the village, whether young or old, has their own unique tale to tell.





This dear old lady was delighted when I gave her my kromar and immediately wrapped it around her head. She's amazing!

Could it be Doctor Dolittle, talking to the pigs?!

It's always great to get out to the village and distribute gifts of clothing and school supplies. It's a special place. If you would like to assist with donations, just let us know.

It has been a continual feast at our home this weekend. The Kiwis joined our guests today and we all enjoyed taking turns at nursing the latest addition to the Dyer family. Of course, little Karla and Sam were cute, as always!



Patrick said "Can we have one like this?!"

These 3 people are amazing!

All are 'Pol Pot victims' in the sense that their parents were killed by the regime. After their parents were killed the Vietnamese soldiers took them to a government orphanage. None of them know what year they were born as the carers at the orphanage 'guessed' they were approximately 5 years old. Their stories of 'survival' in the orphanage are amazing and truly inspirational. Despite their tragic start in life, all are very successful.

As some of you would know, Malin (in the middle) is now the manager of Transform Cambodia's Metro House. Naran now lives with her American husband in Hawaii and is currently studying dentistry. She has been enjoying a vacation in Cambodia catching up with friends and returns to Hawaii tomorrow. Phanira is an engineer who lives and works in Siem Reap.

Friends gathered at our home this morning for another of Patrick's 'Aussie Breakfast' specials. They love it and had a great time.

The children at Metro House are working hard to achieve high standards and are reaping the rewards in the form of achievement certificates. Well done!

Speaking of high standards, two of Metro House's children have been promoted to year two at the government school. The children of Transform Cambodia are beginning to shine among their peers in the government schools. How good is that?!

Day 3 of the sewing classes and some of the ladies being taught how to sew by Stitches-of-Hope's Kay & Aldy, have progressed to the treadle sewing machines.



As Aldy says...

"We are delighted at how skilled some of these girls are - their potential is enormous!

I love being part of this practical project to give skills that will ensure employment and some self-sufficiency in the future ..."

The class size has increased each day and Wednesday there were 12 ladies in attendance, enjoying good quality time together learning sewing skills.

The tests of this life are to make,
not break us.
Trouble may demolish a woman's business
but build up her character.
The blow at the outward woman
may be the great blessing to the inner woman.

Malthie D. Babcock

The Cambodian climate is ruled by the monsoons. As we haven't had any rain for a number of days it appears as though the 'wet' season - between June - October, which brings new life, with irregular rainfall that becomes very heavy during the last two months - has departed, ushering in the 'dry'.

As the year comes to an end, the Khmer people begin to feel the 'cold' until the oppressive heat kicks in early in the year. Mind you, when we talk about the 'cold', we are referring to temperatures that drop to the high 20's.

FYI - It's currently 32.5 degrees in our study at 12:49pm.

Well the computer challenges continue - so even though things were working great for a day, we obviously only had a 'curb side warranty', as it didn't last much longer than when the technician left the building ;)

Cambodia's Prince Norodom Ranariddh said he will set up a new political party and is currently waiting for official permission from the government.

The new party will be set up under his name and take part in next years election. The party is to be set up in his name so as to ensure that another party is not stolen from him, as he believes was the case in which he was ousted from a royalist party recently.

It's Day 2 of the sewing and Aldy goes solo teaching the ladies. Kay on the other hand, was put to work sewing curtains for our living area!

Some new faces joined the class this morning and the ladies from yesterday returned with their pieces of handiwork, showing off their homework.

It was great to see the lady with HIV Aids join us today. You may have read in an earlier posting on the blog that told of her struggle to work doing the laundry job, due to a lack of strength. How good will it be when she can generate an income from sewing to support her young son and herself?! She is currently earning approximately US50 cents per day.

I can't begin to imagine what it must be like to not have enough strength to earn enough money to feed your child!

It was a lovely afternoon at the Kelly household, as ladies gathered together to learn a new skill from Kay and Aldy, working with Chanty as their translator. The group included some mothers of children from Transform Cambodia's Metro House.

Besides learning the skills, the ladies enjoyed a special afternoon tea, as we celebrated Kay's ..th birthday. The classes will continue here for the next 3 weeks.

The Khmer people are very particular when it comes to US dollars. They must be in good condition, otherwise they just will not accept it.

Recently when Patrick was trying to make purchases, all of the vendors kept handing him back the $US10 note, so he thought it was to do with the condition of it. Finally, when trying to make purchases with the note at an international bookstore, an English speaking Khmer girl informed him that it was a fake! Oh, so that's why nobody wanted it! It looked like the real thing to us. Lucky is wasn't a $US100 note ;)

After Church this morning, we headed off on a sightseeing trip in a tuk tuk, with Kay and Aldy. We visited Wat Phnom (where we - Patrick and Carol (thanks to Kay) - had a ride on an elephant named Sambo), a quick stroll by the riverside and a quick photo shoot in front of the Royal Palace. There were comments from us about what a shame it is that the weddings are getting more and more Westernised, as the traditional Khmer weddings are beautiful.

A nice morning was had by all, before returning home.

After such a big day out, Patrick hoisted the Aussie flag on the balcony and then it was time to sit and relax and enjoy a meal together. Good food and great company, complete with views of the fireworks down at the riverside, made for a very pleasant evening.

Kay, Aldy and Patrick headed out to Prek Tamak, with 9 other people (that's a total of 12 people), who all squeezed into a tuk tuk. The village is situated on the banks of the Mekong River, approximately 30 kms from Phnom Penh.



If you can fit 12 people in a tuk tuk, imagine how many people and how much luggage you can fit in and on a ute!



This girl was happy selling her wares at the river crossing.



The tuk tuk being driven off the barge after crossing the river.



These ladies weave mats and receive 50 US cents per day, if they complete 2 mats each day.



Children at the village enjoyed having their photo taken.





What a privilege it was to be invited to speak to the congregation at the worship service which was held in the village Church.

It was great to visit Metro House, now that the team and children have returned from the long break due to the King's Birthday, Water Festival and Independence Day, all following on from one another, last week.

It was a great time (and very noisy) as we and everyone at Metro House, were so pleased and excited to see each other.

We enjoyed the children's singing and were impressed to see the progress the girls have made in developing their traditional Khmer dancing skills.

Kay returned to Cambodia on the weekend to continue sewing classes for the poor, in and around Phnom Penh. For those of you who don't already know, Kay visited Cambodia on a Riverview Church awareness trip two years ago and felt called to return twice a year to teach sewing to the poor.

Aldy from Perth has also joined Kay on this trip. They are amazing women dedicated to making a difference in the lives of the poor by sharing their expertise.

Both Kay and Aldy have been busy this week visiting villages and projects in the city and surrounding provinces. The full sewing program commences next week.

It is great, as always, to have the opportunity to partner with Kay in organising groups to take part in the Stitches-of-Hope program.

It is fantastic to see the poor women enjoying a time of friendship and fellowship while acquiring a skill and great to see their self confidence rise. Little things make a big difference!

We now have our computers at home networked correctly, thanks to Sophorn's expertise. It's great to have internet, email and Skype all operating simultaneously on both of our computers.

I bet Sophorn is happy too - I think he was starting to think that he was working full time for us ;)

Even though it is a public holiday here today, we did manage to find a toy store that was open downtown. So we had some fun buying a selection of Christmas presents for the children at Metro House.

This will be without doubt the biggest Christmas of their lives! But first of all we had better explain to them what Christmas is all about. How beautiful is that?!

It's always nice to bring back gifts of clothing and toys etc. for the poor children who live down by the Tonle Sap River and also the children at Metro House. It blesses their day!

Some of you may have heard a rumour that Patrick was sacked as Kellys' in Cambodia's Minister for Travel. That wasn't the case at all. Mind you, I did think about sacking him (but opted just to put him on probation) when he told me that he had booked our return flight departing Perth at 1am and it included not only one stop over in Kuala Lumpur but an additional one in Siem Reap. So it did take us quite a number of hours to get back to Phnom Penh ;)

But he has done a great job this time arranging our travel back home to Perth in December so his authority has been fully reinstated. However, he isn't sure that he wants the job, as he found it too stressful.

We depart Phnom Penh at 1220pm and only have one stop over in Singapore. We arrive at Perth International Airport at 0040 on December 15th (sorry Phil and Lissa). So we look forward to seeing you all there at the airport ;)

After recent enquiries from various people, we thought it would be a good idea to let everyone know of the progress of our 'Ministry Partnership Team' and financial percentage totals. So here we go!

We are blessed to have a team of 26 monthly pledge partners, (with contributions starting from $20 per month). These contributions total 73.3% of our annual support target.

As you can see, in order to get to 100% we need other people to join our 'Ministry Partnership Team'.

If you are interested in joining with us in our ministry, please email us at patrickandcarol@everyday.com.kh

We would love to have you on our team so that you too, have the opportunity to share in impacting the poor and needy of Cambodia!

'Kellys' in Cambodia' look forward to hearing from you soon.

As 'Kellys' in Cambodia', we have an ambitious vision to reach out in love to bring hope to Cambodia’s poor and needy. We are making a difference as we embrace, equip and empower families in the city and surrounding villages.

We, together with other people, are contributing to the lives of poor and needy people of all ages, in a number of ways. Since we have been serving in Cambodia, and in addition to our commitment to Transform Cambodia, we have contributed by providing finances, together with financial contributions from other people, in providing the following:-

Rice ($15.00 per 50kg bag)
Clothing, toys and medical assistance for individuals and families (Donations)
Meals for young working children (Donations)
Administrative & marketing support to Missionaries working in Cambodia
English lessons and educational supplies for children and adults (Donations)
Sewing & Craft classes. The sessions offer an opportunity to network, build self esteem and skills which increases employment prospects. Transport to and from each of the sessions, as well as refreshments are included. (Donations)
Sewing Machines ($150)
Bicycles ($65) for children and adults required to travel long distances to the local school, workplace, markets etc.
Piglets ($60) for families interested in income generation, together with financial planning advice
Fish nets ($13.50) and traps ($1.50. Yes that's correct $1.50) to ensure self sufficiency and income generation
Christmas packs for prisoners (Donations)
Kelly's Free Motel

If you share the same vision and would like to impact lives of Cambodia’s poor and needy with us by contributing to any of the above enterprises (all costs are noted in AUD's), please email us at patrickandcarol@everyday.com.kh

We would love to hear from you!

A combination of public holidays and festival time provides a lengthy break here in Cambodia. Celebrations to mark former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk's 84th birthday were marked with fireworks and a public holiday but little fanfare.

King Norodom Sihanouk's son, a former ballet dancer and U.N. cultural ambassador who has spent much of his life abroad, was crowned king in October 2004, assuring the continuation of the ancient monarchy.

Then there's the Water Festival. Strangely, the current of the Tonle Sap river, which runs through Phnom Penh Cambodia from the Tonle Sap Lake to the Mekong, switches direction each November.

During the heyday of the Khmer Empire, the rulers were thought to have the power to effect this reversal. These days, it's the occasion for boat races on the river.

The festival always takes place around the full moon in November with each boat paddled by 40 rowers and decorated with incredible care and attention.

The 3 day Water Festival attracts millions of people from all corners of the country, causing the Phnom Penh city population to swell by approximately 1.5 million. This year saw 409 boats with more than 20.000 oarsmen and oarswomen participate.



On the first day, eyes are painted onto the prows, and more than 100 boats assemble on the Mekong.



The rowers are kept in time by a skipper who beats out a rhythm using a ceremonial paddle. The boats traditionally carry "fools", who keep the audience amused with satirical jokes. Then for three days, the canoes race against each other in pairs until a final winner is declared.

As the sun sets on the last day of the festival, the grand finale makes this one of the greatest spectacles the world can offer. All the boats line up on the Mekong and the most beautifully decorated vessel then sails calmly out alone into the centre of the river where it performs the "cutting of the string" ceremony. Only when this has been completed can the people be sure they have dutifully honoured the mighty Mekong and ensured that the floods are over for the year.

We get a great view of the fire works display night after night from our balcony.

The anniversary of Cambodia's independence from France in 1953 is celebrated each year on 9 November. During the day there are cultural activities and a parade of colorful floats along Norodom Boulevard.

In the evenings the Royal Palace and other important buildings and monuments are floodlit.

And yes, we will have another fireworks display by the river to view from our balcony.

It was great to surprise our dear home group friends and join in the current Reinhard Bonnke study.

I love Bonnke's quote from Evangelism By Fire

"The evangelist is a man with a driving urgency, not a man with two minds. The Gospel and nothing else on earth matters: neither fame, money, earthly pleasures nor life itself."

Amen to that, I say!

It was our first time in our 'new Perth home' - that is the home of Phil and Lissa - which they have so kindheartedly welcomed us to share with them each time we return to Perth.

An amazing couple who are such a blessing to us!

I just thought that I should mention that we had a quick trip home to Perth - just in case you hadn't guessed by now, due to the lack of posts on the blog.

It was such a blessing to get a break and nice to be able to surprise family - and we look forward to seeing more of you upon our return in December.