Summer In Cambodia
Week 1

Day 1 – June 24th   Today was the trip over to Cambodia.  I had a 14hr flight to Hong Kong, about a 1.5 hour layover and then a 2.5 hr flight into Phnom Penh.  Everything went pretty smoothly, coming out of the little 1 runway airport, walking into the heat and humidity was like walking into a wall.  There were a bunch of people behind a glass partition waiting for their family or loved ones, I looked up and saw Paul’s head towering above them all.  We greeted each other, I met Randy, another missionary here.  I also met Neth (pronounced Nate), Paul’s new assistant.  He’s a young man of 23, slightly built who is a worship leader at the largest church in the city.  He plays guitar and loves serving the church.  Here’s a picture of him and Paul as we’re riding the Tuk Tuk to the Long Beach hotel, where I’ll be staying for the next week, until I move into the serviced apartment I’ll be staying for the month of July.    Paul’s wearing a surgical mask because the air quality and the dust on the streets is bad.  He gave me one to wear which I happily put on.   After stopping at the hotel and unpacking a few things, we headed over to Paul and Mai’s 3 bedroom apt. a little ways away from the hotel.  We rested there a bit, had lunch, chatted and caught up with each other.  I was still feeling pretty good so Nete and I went to the Central Market, an “open air” market where lots of people sell their goods.  It was much like the markets they have in China, the smells and crush of people and the goods there packed in tightly, everyone vying for your attention, everyone wanting either a donation (beggars), or for you to purchase clothing, luggage, even jewelry.  And I was told this wasn’t even the busy time!  I wanted to get a taste of this scene so I purchased a white cotton short sleeve shirt for $5 (starting price was $8, I offered $4, she countered with $7, I went up to $5, she said no, I started to walk…) and a pair of fake Crocs, also for $5 (starting price was also $8 same process J, does everything start at $8 here?).    After walking down aisles and aisles of tightly packed merchandise, we got tired of that scene, so I asked Nete to take me to the newer, cleaner, (and cooler)  indoor mall.  Actually I think Neth preferred that anyway.  It was pretty much like a mall in the states with a food court, in-line skating roller rink and various specialty shops and department stores.      The young people obviously like this place better than the outdoor mall, but the prices are higher and you can’t get as good a deal here.  I treated Nete to Swensens Ice Cream and we relaxed and chatted.    After going back to Paul’s, Neth took off and I joined Paul and Mai for dinner.  It was nice hearing more about what they’re doing there, how much their kids are growing and the life here in Cambodia.  We made plans for the next day (a sight seeing trip around the city, breakfast down by the river and maybe some more shopping) and meeting the pastor in the afternoon and sharing a meal.    So far, so good with the food and water.  It is a little rough, I feel like I’m camping in the city, brushing my teeth with bottled water and taking a shower with no hot water.  I’m not sure if the hot water isn’t working, or they just don’t have hot water.  I’m going to have to ask Nete to ask if there is hot water or not, and maybe take a shower at Paul and Mai’s place.   I was also to sleep pretty well last night.  We’ll see how bad the jet lag is here.  I was also able to get a cell phone sim card, so last night I texted Priscilla to tell her I made it okay.  It’s faster and cheaper here to text, so that may be the way to go while I’m here.  And I was able to hop on the internet a few times so it looks like I’ll be able to update the blog every once in a while.  It should be even better next week when I move into the apartment.   Oh and the comparison to Mos Eisely?  Well getting here didn’t dispelled that thought.  It’s a wild west kind of place.  I thought driving in East Asia was bad, but here everyone rides scooters or motos and there is only 1 traffic law, if there is a space and I get to it first, you have to adjust to me.  The only saving grace is that they don’t go that fast, so making a bad driving decision is reduced, still there are accidents around here all the time if you’re not careful.  I’m glad I have a Tuk Tuk driver (his name is “Oh” by the way, that’s easy to remember and easy to pronounce).    I’ll try to have more pictures and maybe even some video uploaded somewhere sometime soon.  Be on the lookout!  Signing off for now. Day 2 - June 25   Today was very eventful.  I picked up Paul and his daughter Sonya at their apartment and we took a little tour of the city, starting off with breakfast at this little restaurant near the river called Le Croisette.  We had an American style breakfast for a very reasonable price and then heading toward the banks of the Tonle Sap river.  As we walked along we were approached by several boat tour salesmen (and women) wanting to give us a 1 hour tour of the river for only $12!  After wrangling a bit with several of the boat owners and debating whether we should take a tour, we decided to hop on a blue boat ($10) that took us to the junction of the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers (probably about ½ mile away) and back.  It turned out to be a really pleasant ride the air being much cooler and much cleaner than in the city and allowing us a pretty good view from the river of the Royal Palace and other notable building along the river banks.    After the boat ride we drove along the river way, stopping to take pictures and then Oh drove us by Sonya’s new school.  We also stopped at another outdoor market called the Russian Market where I purchased a few small items like a map of the city and a phrase book for Khmer and a traditional men’s dress shirt.  Less bargaining here, but still lots of good deals to be had.  We also stopped in a Christian co-op that produces craft items for sale.  It was really great to hear the story of how this was started by Western missionairies to help the Christians make a living by having their own business.  The Cambodians are slowly taking it over themselves.   After that we stopped off at an even newer indoor mall, very clean and modern, even more so than the one I went to yesterday.  We had a refreshing fruit smoothie, I hopped on the internet for a little while to catch up on my emails and we rested in a nice air conditioned spot.  The weather here has been not (mid 80’s) but not as humid as I thought, and it has only sprinkled once so far.  It’s the beginning of the rainy season so I’m sure it will get worse later.    We stopped at Lucky burger for lunch (McDonalds wannabe) which wasn’t too bad.  It was certainly better than the chicken burger we had at an East Asia REAL McDonalds, so the Cambodian restauranteurs are better than the East Asian ones at copies J.    We went back to Paul’s place to rest for a while before we were to meet up with Pastor Sunnut at the church.  Pastor Sunnut is a quiet and calm man in his mid 30’s and single.  He was born in ’77 right in the middle of the Pol Pot regime.  His story is so encouraging about how he came to faith in Christ as a young man and how after testing all the other gods, only Christ could help him overcome the addiction he had to watching Chinese Soap operas and other videos while in the refugee camps.  He met Pastor Barnabas at a refuge camp in Thailand and is now the shepherding pastor at the church now that Pastor Barnabas has resigned the position to serve as a leader on an international basis.    Pastor Barnabas travels quite a bit and usually isn’t in country most of the time, but we found out he happened to be in town for a short time.  Paul was surprised and happy to hear this and called him right away to invite him to dinner with Paul, Pastor Sunnut and myself.  He graciously accepted the invitation.  It was quite a privilege to meet him and to hear the many stories he had of preaching in prison (that’s how my driver came to know Christ) and his vision to build a large central training center in Phnom Penh.  He is so energetic and engaging, it’s so obvious that God’s spirit is strong in him.   It was a full day and I’m trying to learn a few important words and phrases.  Lee a suen hai-ee (goodbye for now)    Day 3 – June 26   I’ve been waking up early every day, about 5am.  I think it’s the time change and adrenaline, but the jet lag hasn’t hit me too bad so far.    Today’s schedule was to go guitar shopping.  Neth and I hopped into the Tuk Tuk, grabbed a quick bowl of Pho at a local T&Coffee shop with Oh and then headed towards the Central Market area.  Along with the centralized market there are major blvds lined with shops that sell everything from electronics to clothes to cars to you name it.  There were several musical equipment shops in this area and we visited maybe 5 or 6 different shops that had a variety of levels of guitars, mostly low end.  There were some fairly good used guitars though but wading through them all took some time.  A couple of places we just sat down and played what they had, trying to get a feel for the sound and quality of the guitar.  They aren’t that expensive (for instance, you could get an ok guitar with pickup for $85) but the sound isn’t that good.  We overstayed our welcome at one shop, playing the guitar and singing praise songs.  The lady got annoyed at us, ask us what we thought of the guitar and if we were finished playing.  She wasn’t very polite so we put the guitars back and left.  She obviously didn’t know the finer points of customer relations.  A lot of the shop owners were that way very indifferent to us.    I played one old beat up Yamaha at one of the first shops we stopped at and after playing both new and used guitars kept going back to that one in my mind.  Plus the shop owner was much more attentive to us and while he wasn’t using the hard sell, did at least seem interested in selling us a guitar.  We went back to that shop, purchased the guitar, soft case, strap, capo, and tuner, all for $112.  Overall I’m pretty happy with the guitar.  After bringing it back to the hotel, I changed the strings and wiped it down.  It has a really nice tone, but there are some buzzing sounds that come from it.  I think it’s because 1) it’s a really old guitar, and 2) the humidity here probably wreaks havoc on the glue.  Still I like the guitar and definitely something someone here could continue to learn on after I’m gone.  I may go back to the shop and pick up some other cheaper used guitars as extras for the class that starts next week.   After that we went to the mall for lunch and AC and then headed back to the hotel.  It started to rain and it was the first significant rainfall since I got here.  It wasn’t too bad and stopped after about ½ an hour.  We made it back to the hotel through the traffic and the rain, stopping along the way so that Nete could show Oh the location of the recording studio where the second CD project is being recorded.  Paul’s first assistant who now works for World Vision and is the worship leader at the church Paul attends was to start recording some guitar solo tracks that evening and Paul wanted me to meet him there after hours.  The plan was that Oh would pick me up at the hotel at 5p and drop me off at the studio where I would meet John, the one recording the guitar parts.  When we stopped off at the studio the first time, it seemed to me to be a fair distance from the hotel, and thinking ahead we would probably be returning to the hotel after dark.  This got me a little worried because I wondered how safe it would be.   We got to the recording studio safely (after getting a little lost) and when I went up stairs to the little room with 2 computers, sound proofing material on the walls and a guy recording some guitar parts, I asked if he was John.  He looked at me puzzled and wasn’t able to speak English to me.  I wondered if I was in the right place and tried to call Paul to do some translation for me, but the connection was bad so I just waited a little, hoping this was indeed the right place.  A couple of minutes later John did arrive, introduced himself and everything was fine.    I was impressed with their recording process.  The studio is a business and it’s little more than an upgraded home studio, but they were able to lay some pretty decent tracks in a short amount of time.  The musical director for the project was also there (his name is Sunbat) and he’s a character, but very talented.  He’s studied music and is basically a working musician in Phnom Penh.  He was able to get John to play some nice guitar parts that really added to the recording and very closely emulated the Hillsongs recording.    It took them about an hour to finish 1 song before they needed to take a break (something about the power resources being too low?  The realities of living in a third world country) so I decided that was a good time for me to get back to the hotel.  The trip back to the hotel was a trip.  My initial worries weren’t exaggerated.  This was the only time so far I felt a little uneasy about traveling around in a Tuk Tuk.  There was much more traffic, it was after night fall, and there were big trucks driving around too!  At one point there was a little traffic jam because a big garbage truck was stuck behind an ox driven cart, while all the motos were scooting around the large vehicles.  It was quite a scene that I don’t think I’ll ever forget.  We made it back to the hotel in one piece though and I was safe and sound.   I was able to change hotel rooms to one that did have hot running water, so now I can take comfortable showers and wash up.  One last memory of the day happened while guitar shopping.  It’s close to the national elections here so there are political campaigns going on.  When we stopped at one of the first shops there was a large commotion going on outside.  We popped our heads out of the shop to see a long parade of flatbed trucks driving down the street.  This parade had loud music and announcements and people riding in the back of the trucks driving down the street and basically stopping traffic in one direction.  It was one of the candidates campaigning.  I guess this is the way they get out the vote in Cambodia.  The candidate was riding in the back of the first truck waving to people going by.  The candidate of another party was also campaign this day and we passed their parade of cars on the way to other shops.  I’m sure I’ll see more of this happening before the election late next month.   Tomorrow I head out to one of the villages with Paul and Nete to visit the village school that was started there.  This is one of the projects Paul is trying to get started to be able to establish schools and churches in the rural areas.  Paul’s still waiting for his NGO to get established, and he has the support to start two new schools, so he needs prayer that the approval for his organization will come soon.  It probably won’t happen before the elections though.  Please keep this in prayer.  Day 4 – June 27, 2008   I accompanied Paul, Neth and Paul’s son Noah out to the countryside today.  It was a beautiful clear morning and as we left the city and the crowds of motos cars and people I couldn’t help but appreciate the beauty of the country.  Along the way we chatted about the makeup of the country, (approximately 12-13 million people with less than 10% living in the city, Phnom Penh being the only real city in the country, with mostly towns and villages making up the rest of the country.  It’s hard to believe that the whole country of Cambodia roughly equals the number of residents in LA county.    The countryside was beautiful, green rice paddies, palm trees, hills in the background, farmers out in the fields with their ox pulled plows, very much a rural setting.  As we took a couple of small roads down to the village school Paul started, I could tell the pace of life out here is much slower than in the city.  It’s not unlike other places where farm life revolves around the cycle of nature and not so much our own busy schedules.  Along the road we passed a few people walking along who seemed to recognize Paul.  He pointed to a framed building that is the beginning of a new church building.   As we pulled up to the home where the school is being held, a few really young children came scampering around the car.  It reminded me very much of our visits to Mexicali.  They obviously don’t get many visitors, so when someone does come, they are very excited.  Sina, the teacher Paul hired to teach at the school was in session with the older children, so we quietly entered the room and observed her teaching.  Paul encouraged me to take pictures of the kids and show them the picture, which they got a big kick out of, and I got a bigger kick out of.  Paul and I walked down the road a bit to look at the fields that the families farm.  It’s like a commune where they share the land and they each farm a little bit of it.  It provides food and income so they are very much dependent upon the land for life.    We passed a group of young men playing a game with their sandals.  They would each put a bit of money (spare change, but paper money, they don’t have coin) into a pile on the ground and secure it there with some dirt and rocks.  Then they would walk about 30 yards away and each take turns throwing their sandal at the pile of money.  Whoever’s sandal hit the money hard enough to move the pile got to keep the money.  I guess it was a form of gambling for them, but it did involve some skill and it obviously makes the game more fun.  Paul thought it would be fun to add to the pot and make it interesting so he took out an American $1 bill and put it in the kitty.  Boy did that get them excited! (One of the guys had the guts to ask for a $20).  The guy who eventually won hung on to the $1, you could tell it was special to them.   Paul and I continued our “tour” around the village area (not really very big, maybe a dozen huts altogether?) and we passed by an older woman resting on a mat under her hut.  Paul engaged in some conversation with her, finding out she was very much in pain.  She was probably about 60 or 70 years and very open to talking with us.  Paul asked if I wanted to pray for her, and after getting her consent, I prayed for this lady.  We didn’t know if she was a believer, but she did say she went to church.    Paul spent some time talking with Sina about future plans for starting other villages schools/churches in the area.  Sina is very gifted both in teaching and administration, and she has a real heart for this ministry.  It’s hard for her because she travels out to the village from the city (she lives on the outskirts of Phnom Penh) 6 times a week (her father is the Pastor of the church in the village), plus she goes to school at night.  Paul hopes that she will recruit and train others to be teachers in the new schools and to help administrate the whole thing.  She still rides the moto that Harvest helped to purchase a couple of years ago after her first one was stolen.  It’s in pretty good condition too even with the roads the way they are.  I guess things are improving around here.  Some of the roads that weren’t paved before are now paved which makes the going a little easier.  More jobs are being created (garment factories, mall workers, fast food restaurants) so Cambodia seems to be one of the countries on the upswing.  The church here is growing as well.  It’s fun to hear from John and Neth the things that the young people are doing to help grow the church.  Neth’s church is having a concert next week with a band from Australia.  I’m going to try to go if I can make it, it should be fun.    Before we left Paul asked if I wanted to go inside the house of one of the girls.  I said sure and they asked her if it was okay.  She nodded yes so we headed towards her house, basically a one bedroom bamboo house built on stilts.  The ladder (if you could call it that) leading up to the main part of the house was a little rickety, and everyone kept telling me how to walk up it and where to be careful.  Inside the furnishing were very simple, but everything was clean.  Surprisingly they had a couple of televisions and a stereo.  Paul told me they power the appliances with car batteries which last about a week on one charge.  Then someone comes around and recharges the battery for about a dollar.  Going down the ladder was even more of an adventure than going up, but I made it down, and thanked everyone for the experience.  The story of this family is kind of sad.  The kids were at home by themselves (or maybe with a grandma) because the mom was out in the fields working.  The father abandoned the family for another woman, which is fairly common I’m told.  It must be tough to have very much hope out here.   One last scene I’ll remember is a guy riding down the road on a moto with these two massive speakers attached to the back and music playing.  Apparently he’s some sort of salesman and sets up shop in the village.  The speakers are for the music he plays and I guess it’s all powered from a his moto battery or something.  It was just an amazing site to see.   After the village trip it was back to the mall again for pizza at Pizza World and ice cream at Swensen’s.  The pizza here isn’t that bad actually, and one of the reasons the mall is a good place to go is they have free wifi at the little coffee shop.  The Swensen’s doesn’t hurt either.  As Paul says, “all roads lead to Swensen’s”.    Last night I had dinner in the hotel.  They don’t have a restaurant in the hotel so at the mall I picked up a cooked chicken leg and some pastries at the Lucky Market found inside the mall.  It’s a medium sized market with most basics but not a lot of selection.  Many products that can be found in the US, with comparable prices.  It was comforting to see some familiar foods (Skippy Peanut Butter!).  Next week when I move into the apartment I’ll definitely be back.    Day 5 – June 28, 2008   Today was pretty much a free day for me.  No real plans made except to visit the worship team rehearsal for Living Hope in Christ church.  I actually thought it would be nice to spend some more time with John, the worship leader at LHICC.  In the morning I had a thought to have lunch with John so I texted him.  He said he was available and we made arrangements to meet for lunch.    I’m really impressed by the young people here.  They have difficult lives, but their faith in Christ gives them hope for a better future.  John’s life is not easy.  He recently had to resign from his job as Paul’s assistant to take a job with a subsidiary of World Vision.  He really didn’t want to make the switch but did because the World Vision job paid more.  It wasn’t just because of the pay, John would have gladly worked for less with Paul, but took the job because his brothers and sisters needed his support while they are finishing up their schooling.  I asked John about his family and he told me his mother passed away last year.  He was actually living on his own for the last 5 years, but when his mom passed away, she wrote him a letter asking him to move back home to help with his younger half-brother and sister.  John’s dad left the family years ago and she remarried.  In a sense, John is both brother and father to his siblings.    He is quite a responsible young man.  Later that afternoon I watched as he led the group of about 30 young people plan the worship services for their Sunday services (adult, youth and children’s).  He led them through a time of prayer and singing, and then they talked about the songs they would sing and who had what responsibilities.  John is about 28 years old, I think he was the second oldest in the whole group.   As I sat listening and watching, I was amazed at their level of musicianship but even more so their passion for music and worship.  They sing a variety of worship songs here, anything from new Hillsongs to old Vineyard songs.  John was hopping all around, leading the worship team on one song, then singing backup while someone else led, then playing electric guitar.  I wondered to myself, what can I really teach these guys?  They seem to get along pretty well.  Chatting with John afterwards, he said yes they are good, but they don’t play together well, are unprepared for rehearsals (like forgetting to bring the music with the chords) and don’t always worship the Lord in their playing.  They love to play music, but perhaps their spiritual lives don’t match.  These are things I can address with them, and from the looks of it, what I saw was only a percentage of the youth and young people that are at the church and involved in the ministry, so there’s plenty of teaching to go around.  I’ll just play it by ear.   After they wrapped up, John and I stayed behind to test out my guitar on their sound system.  The pickup on the guitar sounds terrible, but it is an old guitar, so I may need to find a way around that.  John and I started to jam together for about 30 minutes.  It was fun and I started to show him some things even in that short time.  He won’t be able to attend any of the classes since he’s working, so I’ll work with him separately after he gets off work.    John and I had dinner together at a little restaurant near the hotel.  I had a Pad Thai dish for $2.50!  The whole dinner costed about $6! (my treat) and it was very good.     Even in the city life is slower here.  I like the pace; it’s less hectic and more relaxed.  That can get frustrating sometimes, but you learn to accept it.  Paul calls it a “hammock” mentality, it’ll get done when it gets done.  I don’t think that would fly in the states…   Tomorrow I go to their church service.  Someone from Singapore will be preaching, I’m looking forward to the whole experience.  They’ve invited me to preach on a Sunday and John has invited me to come to several youth meetings to share as well.  I may also go out to one of the churches in the provinces to preach.  Plenty of things to prepare for here.    Thanks for all your prayers, and comments about the blog (Priscilla emailed me some of them) So far things are gone pretty smoothly here, with the major hurdles out of the way.  Monday I start teaching the classes.  That should be fun and I’m not sure how many people to expect.    I’ll try to think of a way to input comments directly onto the blog page if possible.    I’ll be praying for Harvest tomorrow! Blessings, Jerry   Day 6 – June 29, 2008   Today I went to Living Hope in Christ Church for service.  It reminds me very much of Harvest in makeup.  A family oriented church with a pretty sizable children’s and youth program.  They meet in a converted home with the main meeting hall on the top level.  John was the worship leader today and he wears many hats.  He was the worship leader, the translator, the youth leader, whatever was needed.  John loves being at the church spending time with the people and serving with his whole heart.  I believe one day he will become a pastor; he has the heart and gifts for it.   The whole service lasted 2.5 hours with the sermon lasting 1.5 hours.  They din’t mind it but I could tell some people were getting restless.  Still, to be able to sit for over 2 hours in the heat (although now they have air conditioning in the upper room, but with over 100 bodies in there, it still gets hot) is commendable.  Hummm, I wonder if our churches could handle that? J   The youth meeting in the afternoon was fun.  They had about 30 kids show up, had an interesting game at the beginning, an extended prayer time, some worship singing, a testimony from a man who works for Microsoft in Singapore, and then a short teaching from Pastor Barnabas’ granddaughter.  She also plays a mean electric guitar; such a talented family.  Another thing that impresses me about the Christians here is their heart for prayer.  Every meeting they spend more than a few moments in prayer.  Like the Koreans they all pray out loud at the same time, although maybe a little quieter.    During the meeting there were several loud claps of thunder startling everyone in the room.  And then we could hear the rain coming down.  This was the first serious downpour since I’ve arrived and yes, everything got flooded.  It was a warm tropical rain so it wasn’t too uncomfortable, but I had to take off my socks and wade through the flooded front yard of the church to get to the Tuk Tuk, since John and I needed to get across town to the Youth Prayer Movement planning meeting.    This is a group of about 20 young people representing about 15 churches in Phnom Penh, gathering together in a spirit of unity to pray for the country, pray for specific needs, pray for revival.  John wanted me to go there to advertise the lessons and workshops.  They were all encouraged to hear my testimony of God’s leading me to Cambodia.  One of the leaders Yokoo an Indonesian who lives in Cambodia, shared about a vision and prayer he had in 2004 that God would raise up true worshippers, because worship clears the spiritual obstructions and in a sense the prayers can break through to heaven.  He almost gave up the thought in 2005 when nothing happened.  But they have been gathering together for prayer.  He felt like my coming to Cambodia was an answer to his prayer.  It was very humbling to hear him say that.  I think this is especially important for the young people since a lot of people here have nothing to live for, or very little hope.  There are scarce jobs and opportunities especially if you’re uneducated.  The families are very poor and they basically eke out a living.  The rich people drive around in Lexus’ and Land Cruisers while the poor people are homeless and live on the streets, even when it rains.  There is such a disparity here in income levels, and there isn’t very much of a middle class here; you’re either rich or poor.    But the church is growing, and Tuesday is the National Day of Prayer.  I’ll be attending the morning session with Paul and Nete to hear Pastor Barnabas kick off the day long meeting.  Then I check out of the hotel and move into the apartment.  I’m hoping the internet connection can get set up quickly and it will be a stable connection.      Day 7 – June 30, 2008   It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here a week already.  It has gone by quickly.  Today was the first day to start teaching classes, but there were still things to prepare.  Neth and I went back to the guitar shop to buy a couple more guitars.  I felt better about going back to this shop.  The owner seemed to know his guitars, not just trying to sell us something, and the fact that I was looking to buy multiple guitars made him even more helpful.  I think I made his week, selling three guitars in a few days, plus several other accessories.  I pretty much cleared out his stock of second Yamaha’s.  But they are pretty good sounding guitars and probably made in Japan, which makes them a bit higher quality.    So after dropping off the guitars at the church, Neth took me to a Thai restaurant he frequents near his church for lunch.  I’ve been seeing a little bit more of the city each day, and it’s easier to feel comfortable and recognizing certain landmarks.  I rested at the hotel for about an hour before heading to the church for the first lessons.   We really didn’t know what to expect for the lessons.  Of course I knew that a few of the young people at Living Hope in Christ Church would be part of the class, but who else would show up was a mystery.  When I got to the church Paul and Mai and Sonya were there, and Paul told me the electricity was out in the building.  This is something that happens every once in a while and there was no way of knowing how long it would be out.  This of course would be a problem, since it’s difficult to teach an electronic keyboard class when there’s no electricity.    About 10 people were there for the beginning guitar class, and it was still early so we spent some time introducing ourselves and getting to know their exposure to playing music or their experience.  A few more people came and we started to break up into smaller groups.  We had about 6 guitars to go around for 12 people so that was a very good ratio.  But as the class went on more people began to show up.  In the end about 20 people showed up.  I spent the first 45 minutes of the class teaching them how to tune the guitar and taking turns tuning the guitars.  Some of the guitars were really old so it took some effort on their part to turn the tuning knobs.  But eventually we got it done and it was a good exercise for them and gave them a chance to hear the notes as we were tuning them.    The next step was to show them an actual chord, so I diagramed the D chord on a white board and had them each start to finger the chord all the while correcting their posture, the way they held the guitar, their finger position and encouraging them all to relax their fingers and keep them curled.  Then we started to play the D chord, counting off to keep time.  I told them the best way to learn to play quickly is to start playing slowly.  That way they wouldn’t learn with improper technique and also to repeat over and over.  So we played 1 chord over and over, slowly counting off “Moo-ay” “Bpee” “Bpay” “Boo-un” (I’ve learned to count to 4 in Khmai!).  We did this for several minutes sharing the guitars so everyone would have a chance to play.  (They also got a quick demonstration of changing a guitar string as well).   That pretty much took up the whole hour.    Not only we not have electricity for the keyboards, but that meant the lights and the AC were off as well.  There were only a few of us, but it was still hot upstairs and all the signs pointed to the rain coming soon again.  It was pretty hot and muggy, but we made it through okay.   At least with acoustic guitars we could play something.  The keyboard class was going to be another thing altogether.    Again a few people were there already, some of the guitar students stayed for the keyboard class as well.  Again about a dozen people showed up and more trickled in as the class got started.  There were a total of about 20 keyboard students as well, so it was pretty good turnout.  Too bad they couldn't actually hear themselves playing the keyboard!    I figured I could explain the layout of the keyboard, some terminology and then show them how to play a chord on the keyboard.  Like the guitar, they would need to learn the proper technique and well as train their fingers to play the chords.  We had them take turns fingering the chord, even if they couldn’t hear the sound coming out of the keyboard.  I may go back to the guitar shop and buy a used keyboard that can be powered by batteries from the old guy.   I may turn out to be his best friend J.    The power finally came back on for the last 15 minutes of the class.  Nete and I played together (him playing guitar, me playing keyboard) and we led them through a few familiar worship songs.  Then we let them back on the keyboard to practice one more time.  They were all pretty attentive and cooperative and we had a great time together.  All in all I was really encouraged by the first class.  I’m not sure how it will continue, but it was good start. I spent the evening having dinner with Paul and Mai and the kids (after dinner we played a card game) and then I headed back to the hotel.  Tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer meetings, and then I move into the apartment.  And then the Intermediate/Advance classes start, although it may be a smaller class with the Prayer meetings going on.