Our Story

The slow whirring of the fan signals the end of another sweaty power-cut. It’s 9pm and the thermometer in our lounge reads 32°C. Welcome to Cambodia!

It’s a physically and emotionally draining place to live. With over 100 vowels and consonants the language is difficult. After fourteen months of full-time language study we may have the reading ability of a 10-year old, but your average 3 year-old can speak better than we can. In fact we’ve learnt a few words off our own 3 year-old! It’s difficult understanding only a fraction of what’s going on around us … or facing abject poverty day-to-day … or being viewed as a dollar-sign the moment you step out your house … or spending (what feels like) a week on the toilet … or finding scorpions in the bathroom … or having sewer water flood the front yard in the wet season …

Still, we’re glad we’re here! We wouldn't be anywhere else!

So why are we here? Among other things, the 30 years’ civil war (including the Khmer Rouge genocide 1975-79) left in its wake health and education systems ruined by lack of resources, personnel, and expertise. In the gradual recovery now taking place, there is a great need to train a new generation of doctors and teachers to help rebuild the country.

Over many years we both felt challenged and guided in our Christian faith to use our professional skills to help serve the people of Cambodia. So in 2004 we joined OMF International, an organization working throughout East Asia that longs to see the transformation of Cambodia through the demonstration and proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ.

Alastair, a university lecturer, is teaching alongside Cambodian staff at the Royal University of Phnom Penh’s Department of Geography. Juliet, a research scientist in microbiology, hopes to use her experience working with tuberculosis in the Ministry of Health. We are involved in supporting the Cambodian church, and continue language study half-time. In April 2006 our second child, Ellen, was born.

So, reflecting on a year in Phnom Penh, we’re encouraged with language progress, we’re grateful for the Cambodian and expat friends who enrich our lives so much, we’re honestly able to call this our ‘home’, and we’re excited with what lies ahead this coming year.

True, some days we find Cambodia a draining and heart-breaking place to live, but for us it is also a place of beauty and joy: the artistic wonder of the Angkor temples … the greening of the land after a parched dry-season … hearing Khmer Rouge victims forgiving their torturers … swimming and snorkeling in the Gulf of Thailand … riding elephants in the jungle … eating fried spider legs … never feeling cold. Cambodia is a remarkable place.

It’s 10pm and it’s still 32° in the lounge.

Alastair & Juliet Curry, with family

Royal University of Phnom Penh

Teaching Geography at the Royal University of Phnom Penh