Drew and Theany

I wanted to tell my community about what is happening in my life, so here it is: I have a girlfriend! Her name is Theany (pronouned Tierny). She's Cambodian, and we met while she was volunteering as a nurse at our Lakeside School.

She is going into her 4th year as a nursing student, and volunteered for almost 1 year before becoming a part time staff with Village Earth. We just started to really get to know each other in August 2009 when she sat next to me on the bus back from Angkor Wat, and afterward I asked her to teach me Khmer, which she did quite well.

From there I realized that she was an unbelievably cool girl, and might just be interested in me. When I started to tell her all of the things I liked about her, she let me know how Khmer culture is and impressed me with how she set the context for our courtship.

We come from opposite sides of the world, but have lots of things in common. She's not a very typical Khmer girl with how she approaches life and people. She's a little louder and more outgoing than most, and likes sports. I met her family and they are also impressive. Lots of strong women and a very close family. They asked me lots of questions about my intentions and character, and I felt well received by them.

Thanks for being interested in our lives!

Along comes a young girl,
she's pretty as a prayer book,
sweet as an apple, on Christmas Day.

I said "good gracious"
could this be my luck?
If that's my prayer book,
Lord let us pray!

Paul Simon