Go give your washing machine a hug!

     I just did my laundry. Now for any of you that has ever complained about having to pile your dirty clothes up, put some detergent in, and turn a few knobs, I want you to walk straight to your laundry room and give your washing machine a big ole hug! Seriously. We take those things for granted. Dryers are great too, but we'll just start with the wash for now. So I came home from work and told (well, acted out) my ma (that's what we'll call her from now on) that I needed to wash my clothes. I'm sure she would have been very glad to wash them for me, but i couldn't bear to add to the huge pile of dirty laundry she has to do for the other 7 people living here. So I brought my dirty clothes down to her little corner in the yard where she literally cooks over a fire and does laundry. She acted out for me how to do the laundry and filled 2 HUGE bowls up with water and put soap in one. She gave me the tiniest stool to sit on, motioning that my back would ache if i didn't sit on it. It did anyway. I started scrubbing my clothes first in the soap, then put them in the other bowl to rinse, wrung them out and started hanging them to dry. Well this apparently isn't correct. She started yelling at me in Khmer and acting out more motions, until she finally got across the point that they would smell if that's all I did. So I followed her direction and scrubbed again and then rinsed them in a THIRD bowl. Then I wrung them out and hung them out to dry. I wish I had a picture of me sitting on this tiny stool scrubbing my clothes in the heat, sitting next to a glowing fire with a pot of rice on it! We'll see tomorrow how well I did, haha. I'm thinking I should have brought more clothes so I don't have to wash them so often! And probably some lotion to soothe the chafing from all that scrubbing. I think ma and I should be in the world charades championship by the time I leave here!

     So I needed a cell phone so that I could call all of my friends that I have here (that's like 4, lol) so that we can plan to go out and party. So I asked Thida if she could take me to a phone store when she had some time available. She says, oh you want a phone? I have 2 so you can have one of them. Why on earth she has 2 phones is beyond me, but awesome! Now i have a Cambodian cell phone with a rooster ringtone. Perfect!

     Last night, Kalyan (the one who left me at the German place) told me that she considers me a part of her family. Almost made me cry! I do feel like a part of their family and it's only been a little over a week! They're great! They want to Skype my family so that they can all meet. We'll need Thida there to translate or else there will just be lots of awkward waving going on haha.

     So I eat with my office every day. It's a pretty sweet deal. Everyone just puts $1 in a pool and then we have like this huge potluck lunch every day. I'm getting more used to the food and learning what i like and what I should definitely avoid. Although I still find myself dreaming about certain foods I wish I could eat. Every once in awhile Ill imagine something wonderful cooking over the fire like peach cobbler and pan inis (Rochelle (= ) then realize it's just white rice. Oh well. Could be worse. At least I like rice. Last night we had omelets with our rice. I was looking at it thinking it looked just like grass that was inside the omelet. Kalyan laughs and says "Do you know what this is? GRASS!" haha it actually was't too bad in comparison with some other things I've eaten lately ha. By the time I get home I'll probably be happy out in the barn eating with the horses. Just kidding. Then there was a big bowl of shredded mango! yum! but then she had to add in onions and some other leaves and things and ruin a perfectly good mango!

    Well it's dinner time now. Cross your fingers as I hold my breath to find out what's going to be shoved in my mouth tonight! Sending my love from Cambodia!!