Spring Cleaning.

By Michelle Ferguson -
I remember being a kid, maybe 7-10 years old, and finding great delight in joining the other neighborhood kids in a very scientific experiment.

It involved a magnifying glass, the sun, and a few unsuspecting ants...

Now, I think maybe somewhere deep down inside I felt a little bad for bringing such a painful demise upon the little guys, but here I sit years later in Phnom Penh wishing for a GIANT magnifying glass to wipe out the hoard of ants that has all but taken over our peaceful household.

Granted, we know there are far worse things in the world than a few ants, and I try to keep this in perspective. I simply want to get them under control and keep them away from our cereal and trail mix.

And our bathroom sink. I'm not sure I want to know what is attracting them there...

They have taken over things in Ziploc bags, in our fake Tupperware, and as of today.....the fridge.

I wasn't sure why the fridge door was having some trouble remaining completely closed. No food items seemed to be blocking it. But there were two distinct ant trails filtering in from separate corners and my most observant husband realized that the door was unable to seal tightly shut because of the icy glacier that had been slowly forming nicely and coldly below the freezer door..

So what do you do?? You defrost. And if Cambodia has taught us anything, it is how to be creative and improvise with what you have on hand.

In light of this, I now present to you the simple steps for defrosting a refrigerator in Cambodia.

Step #1. Go to your tool box and remove the screw driver and hammer.

Step #2. Have a second person grab a nearby plastic broom.

Step #3. Disregard the tiny "warning" sticker on your fridge with the picture of a hammer and an "x" through it.

Step #4. Slowly and carefully begin to chip away at the glacier chunks while the other person sweeps them out the door.

Step #5. Watch carefully as your 8 year old deluxe tiny gray refrigerator begins to emit strange sounds and a fog-machine-ish effect.

Step #6. Do not panic.

Step #7. Walk outside of your house and find a dolly you've never seen before sitting literally feet away from your door (all of Cambodia is like a virtual Home Depot).

Step #8. Roll your fridge out into the front yard for the sake of everyone involved.






















Step #9. Grab a cooler from the office area to temporarily store your food while you drive to purchase a new tiny deluxe gray refrigerator.






















And the above, along with prepping for a team flying in tomorrow, and a pizza date, is how we spent our Good Friday :)

Comments

Linda Raymond said…
As exciting as this Good Friday sounds, it will be hard to top Good Friday 2008! You two began the day as single people in a (VERY) long-distance relationship, sure of your feelings but not sure how everything would play out. But leave it to the Lord who spoke "This is IT!!" to both your hearts...and thankfully, you both listened and followed, while Plan B (a quite EXCELLENT and divinely-inspired plan)ruled the day, triumphing over Plan A (also a great plan but nothing compared with its competition!). Much love, endless prayers & God's blessings, your devoted madre/madre-in-lawxxxxoooo
April 13, 2009 at 4:58 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Never met someone who thinks so much like me...jinx!...Jinx again!

By -
Exactly 7 years ago today I put on a beautiful borrowed white dress (thanks Christy), had approximately 83,000 bobby pins placed in various locations throughout my hair to keep it in place, gathered with some of my most favorite people in life, and exchanged a few life altering words with a strikingly handsome young man I met on the internet. Sort of. Recounting Josh's and my story is no small feat because of its unique nature and the fact that 7 years later we still marvel at the fact that we ever met and actually managed to get married.  We joke that we got married so we could finally date, and also that we basically had an "arranged" marriage that we arranged ourselves...and then hoped for the best!  Neither of us really could have imagined that one small church group outing would end up changing the rest of our lives.  Both of us had our reasons for joining this random outing to Safeco Field to tour the stadium for a few dollars.  It was shockingly not our deep
Read more

Where hope doesn't belong.

By Michelle Ferguson -
Josh and I went to church this morning at the center here. If I haven’t said this in an earlier post, we’re volunteering for an organization called Foursquare Children of Promise that sponsors over 100 orphan homes throughout provinces in Cambodia. Our job is to coordinate teams who come in from other countries (mostly the US) to do construction work, painting, dental and medical clinics at these homes. The beauty of FCOP and what I appreciate about it most is the fact that it has at its heart the goal of raising up Cambodians to be the ones who extend the love of God to other Cambodians. It is not simply a Western methodology (and theology) imposed on a separate culture in hopes that they will embrace it. The church services are all in Khmer, with worship leaders singing songs in Khmer and pastors preaching to the congregation in their own language. A perk for me is the fact that many of the songs we sing are ones I have known for years that have been translated into Khmer. :) FCOP do
Read more