sorry i haven't been updating as much...i started my internship on thursday, so that's been eating up a lot of my time.

work is work...i'm basically trying to make sense of a number of datasets they have on behavioral surveillance surveys for hiv/aids and std research (government agency)...fun, fun. the work schedule here, though, is interesting. we go from 8-11:30ish, then come back and work 2-5:30ish. it's kinda nice to have that break...since my place is so close, i usually go back for lunch, though i've been trying out a few restaurants in the area. after work, it usually gets too dark to go outside alone, so most of the time, i just stay in. :( but it's given me time to read and study (yes, study...my study group has a summer reading schedule to prep for our upcoming qualifying exams). i also have cable...hehe. there's this one channel that shows pirated dvds...so i've seen the latest harry potter (tho the picture was dark, the camera was shaky, and somebody kept on coughing), part of the day after tomorrow (during which people kept on walking in front of the camera...i've never seen so many people up and about during a movie), and the return of the king.

so, you may ask, am i just staying in and watching tv? well...i've been warned about going out after dark alone, so i've been a bit cautious. my ex-pat friend, julia, hasn't been around to hang out with because she got very sick (dysentery and salmonella...she thinks it's from eating some spring rolls...had to be put on an iv...eesh). we plan on hanging out next week when she's fully recovered. and then, the monk, phad mun...i hung out with him and some of his fellow monks on saturday, and we had an interesting talk about politics. (what me, talking about politics? it started because i told them that i had gone to toul sleng genocide museum...which is a high school turned torture prison turned museum that shows how the facility was used by the khmer rouge...it was really tough to go through...to see what that government did to its own people, killing millions...hence, a pretty sober conversation in the beginning.) phad mun has school in the evenings, so i think we'll probably just meet up on the weekends. but today, one of my co-workers, chantha (she's such a sweetie!), just took me out for dinner...afterwards, she drove me around on her moto-bike and showed me some of the sights...it was really interesting to see other parts of the city, from some of the wealthier parts to some of the poorer areas. and riding a moto is really fun! ...tho there were some times when we got really close to other motos or cars. whenever that happened and i kinda tensed up, she just laughed and somehow maneuvered the moto around...yeah, she laughed at me a lot.

anyways, this past weekend, i called up my contact at servants to asia's urban poor, craig greenfield, and asked him about a church and when we could meet to talk about service opportunities. so we agreed to meet at his church, international christian fellowship, which is primarily made up of ex-pats. i'm not sure if i'll continue going to that church...he also told me about some other churches in the area, so i want to try them out. but craig and his wife took me out to dinner afterwards and shared about the organization. they do a lot of work with aids orphans, as well as disabled children...it's one of the smaller organizations, but it has a training center, holds english classes, and provides some healthcare, etc. unfortunately, because i work all day, i probably won't be able to help teach english classes, but i hope to help out on weekends, in whatever way that i can. they have mentoring program for some of the orphans, so i might be able to get involved with that in some way.

i have to admit that i've been a bit antsy...i feel like my time is so short here...i want to do as much as i can while i'm here, not sit at home watching tv. but for some reason, i feel like even the connections i've made have been a bit slow in developing...so, i need to be patient and prayerful.

i'm going through 2 corinthians right now, and wanted to share this passage:

"but thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing Him. for we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. who is sufficient for these things? for we are not peddlers of God's word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in His presence." 2 Corinthians 2:14-17