St. Timothy the Majestic

Behold, the power of intergalactic fantasy and horror have combined to form this heavenly creature. May his meekness and fortitude bless us evermore.

xoxo

why we delayed our flights, pt. 1

In less than nine hours, our motley band of orphan kids will again take to the stage, after having used the Night Market stage as their only dress rehearsal. This time, it will be in front of the world authority on Khmer dance: The Princess. As in, Her Royal Highness Samdech Reach Botrei Preah Ream Norodom Buppha Devi.



Heaven help us.





xoxo

for real

At one point, our flights home were set for 19 October. And then 15 November, to leave in seven hours, no joke. Three hours ago, we jetted over to the downtown office of Korean Air to fix that and finalize delaying our departure until mid-December.

I stole some squares of their pink toilet paper out of rebellion.

Oh, and a magazine; one about corruption.



Also, I'm holding off on posting more photos of us so that you can forget what we look like, and then be horrified when we return and our faces remind you that you are not, in fact, friends with or related to exotic world travelers who delight in experiencing the bizarre, but are, instead, friends with or related to the same old, same old Todd and Amy, who live in a cupboard in Springville.

...who use commas like they were burning holes in their pockets.



Yeah, that pair.





[Who locked into their engagement one solid year ago, I might add.]

[Sheesh, stop talking, Amy.]

xoxo

delay

We were supposed to board an airplane in 7 days. That's not going to happen anymore, but it'll probably be in about a month.
I can't wait to spend time with my families, my people; I want to spend time with my families. And my people.

Hug each other for me since you're all so much closer to each other than I am.
I love you all.

xo

P.S. Look at the snake I caught in a cave. [I almost wrote cake there.] It was gentle and beautiful, but I didn't touch it because the shape of the head and pupil hinted that it might kill me.

oltvoglfbw

I have a dream cat.




xoxo

at the zoo! pt. 2

Continuing with the topic of the previous post, this blip will inform the audience of other wonders seen at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre. And without further ado, to the sun bears!



It was lovely to see so many different bears, but I was so enrapt with all of them that I didn't photograph very many. This was one that looked me dead in the eyes and then winked. I swear. But I'm not going to tell you what message was transmitted telepathically; you're going to have to look your own sun bear in the eyes someday. Anyway, there was a really dopey looking one that got scolded by another, but for the most part, they were all relaxing in the shade.

After the adventure with all the bears, we walked past some Southern Serow (Capricornis sumatraensis maritimus). Fierce. I would share a photo here, but you would be too terrified of all the terror in the male Serow's eyes that you would crawl under your seat. He was not pleased with having so many people checking out his lady. He huffed and puffed, and I quietly walked away.



This python was as thick as my torso. There were five of them. The kids were all kinds of fascinated and terrified and placed bets on who the snakes would go after first. This was the exhibit that garnered the most reverent children, staring at the creatures for much longer than all the other look-and-walk exhibits.

There was a huge spider on the sign for the pythons, and I was immediately called over to photograph it. The kids learn quickly, so they all know that I like insects and spiders. Throughout the day, the two phrases I heard the most were "Amy! Spider!" and "Amy! Walk!" This is how I know I am a Nelson. Thank you, Riley. [Todd and I easily could have spent several more hours, if not days, at this zoo. We will be going back frequently enough that if you make the voyage to these parts, we'll gladly take you too.]



This is Todd. He's drinking a Bird's Nest. What's that, you ask? According to the rest of the English on the can, it's flavor is "White Fungus". This is what curiosity does. It compels you to drink sugary, mushroom liquid. It wasn't too pleasant, really.



Gratuitous baby monkey. This one goes out to my mom.

One of my favorite creatures was a minorly ignored one: the Civets. This is an unflattering photo of one, but my, my, would I love to cuddle with one. It uses that wobbly little nose to sniff the devil out of anything and everything, including one's fingers and face and whathaveyou. It looked like a mix between a raccoon and a cat. Naturally, I pet it.





That was the main place I heard "Amy! Walk!"

Next up, this little beauty.



She was missing her right leg, but was still a million times more agile than any of us.
I liked seeing how some of the animals that were missing a limb or eye had adapted to their surroundings. There was a sun bear that was missing his left paw, and didn't seem to think anything of it. The baby elephant had a prosthetic front left leg. Easy, no problem.

We ate lunch as a mass, and slept as a mass. After their rests, Rothana, Chamroeun II, and Pheaktra came over to discuss the finer points of life. They asked all sorts of questions regarding American politics, religion, and war. They wanted to know more about what we thought of the Khmer/Thai border debate. They asked about Libya (Libye) and the Middle East and Bin Laden (Beenlada). It took us awhile to figure out what "Badaobama" was.







Srey Meas kicking back in a hammock.



Paly and his sister Seang Mai striking a pose. Do you understand why we thought we had landed on a different planet? Most of the kids looked like they were straight from Back to the Future, but the part when they actually go to the future, and it looks... awesome. I love these kids.

After lunch and nap time, more beasts.

Until then, goodnight!

xoxo

Editor's Note: Todd reminded me that I left out the most critical and time-consuming topic of discussion from our sit down with Chamroeun and Rothana. Chamroeun seemingly asked about "grandfarmers". Even with Todd trying to understand in Khmer, we could not figure out what grandfarmers were. According to Chamroeun, it's a movie about robots from space that fight with each other on Earth. Ah. Transformers. Once that clicked, Todd spent the next ten minutes trying to convince the boys that Transformers are not real. They genuinely insisted that they actually exist. This led to an in-depth explanation of animation and movie magic. At the end, Rothana said in Khmer, "ooh, America is so good at fooling people!"

at the zoo! pt. 1

Today we went to the zoo! Actually, it's officially called the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre, and it's gorgeous. It's a seemingly limitless piece of land that gives many of the animals ample room to wander and explore. This also means that 28+ kids and half as many adults got to tromp around just as much!

Long story short, it was wonderful.

We woke up early and scurried to get ready. Outside our windows, we could hear the busy little sounds of all the kids getting ready too. We could tell they were excited, just by sound... and then... we left our room. We were greeted by aliens. Or so it seemed. Todd and I were surprised to see all the kids dressed to the nines, street clothes and spiky hair, fancy sundresses with hipster belts tight at the waist. It felt like we were already in a different world. A 17-and-under world of fashion. Half the girls had pigtails like me. They were far more adorable. We loaded up the bus and were on our way.

The bus ride was filled with Khmer karaoke, and the kids sang along to most of the songs. Super cute.

We arrived and sorted out what lunch would be in a few hours, and then hopped to it! These were the first set of eyes that met mine:



Ketupa zeylonensis. Brown fish owl. There were over a dozen of them. Beautiful birds, and amply appropriate. We saw so. many. birds! I didn't even get the names of all of them, I'm sorry Andrea! But some of the others were Greater Spotted Eagles (Aquila clanga) and Black Kites (Milvus migrans), Orange-breasted Green Pigeon (Treron bicincta), White-vented Myna (Acridotheres javanicus), Grey-headed Fish Eagles (Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus), which would yelp loudly! They startled me!

And housed with all the other birds...



The placard said the following:
Large Flying-fox Pteropus vampyrus
Habitat: Tall trees
Diet: Ripe fruit
Reproduction: 1 young born in March of April
Interesting Facts: Migrates to breed during cold season, and returns to roost on the same tree branch. Helps to pollinate fruit trees. Contrary to misconception, the flying fox is a mammal, not a bird. Threatened by restaurant trade.

I love bats.

Oh, but there were so many more birds! So many! I can't even load all the photos! But look at these gorgeous little littles:



First one to tell me what those puppies are wins a prize!

And then there was yelling. And yelping. And screeching. And whooping. [Emphasis on the whooping.] Because...



...and about nine other kinds of monkeys were being ridiculous. There were peach ones, black ones, black ones with white tufts, white ones with black bellies, native wild ones, monkeys with mohawks, monkeys with monk crowns, and more. One was naughty and yanked on Todd's shirt through the fence really hard. We were all up in each others' grills.







Yes, we touched some of our primate cousins. That's Darynhel shaking hands/feet with one lovely girl who then FREAKED OUT and made the most terrifying sounds... kind of like those aliens on Sesame Street, but 10x fast. That made her baby came over and they cuddled while she continued to sing her banshee song. That's when I noticed her cataract. She was amazing.

And thus ends the first installment at the zoo. Next up: Lions. Tigers. And Sun Bears.

Oh my!

xoxo