Month 7 came to a close and I said my goodbyes to Thailand. Month 7 was a really wonderful month and rather comfortable. I knew month 8 would be a little more rough, a little more “World Race-esque.” Hello, hello Cambodia.
The day before traveling to Cambodia I found out my team would be staying in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. I was not excited to be in another city. I wanted to be in a more rural area and was hoping to be roughing it a little. Our host came and picked us up on a Sunday in a tuk-tuk and we were headed straight for church. We drove a little through the city and then came to the river where we boarded a ferry to cross the Mekong. To our delight and surprise, as we got off the ferry and drove on the island streets, we discovered that we aren’t so much in the city as we thought we would be. It is a completely different scene with dirt roads and farm fields.
We live in our tents underneath a large tin awning that serves as a garage of sorts for our host family. They live right off the main road on this side of the river. I thought I would never have to experience any country louder than Colombia, but I was wrong. Our nights are filled with loud cars, dogs barking, roosters cock-a-doodle-dooing, Buddhist funeral wailing (which lasts two days), and more. We all share one bathroom with a manual seat-less toilet, no sink, and bucket showers. We have been served absolutely incredible meals three times a day. Who doesn’t love rice or ramen for breakfast?
We have breakfast around 6:30am and then head to our first ministry of the day. Every Monday through Friday we teach in a preschool. We assist our friend Toni when she teaches Khmer and exercises and then we take over and teach English. We’ve sang the “Hello, Hello” song and danced the Hokey Pokey. We sing the days of the week and the months of the year. I’ve been through the ABC’s more times than I can count. Preschool ends at 10:30 then we head back to home base to eat lunch, have team time and rest. Our next ministry is at 4 teaching more English. We teach one class altogether from 4-5pm then split up to three different classes to teach from 5:30-6:30pm, and 6:30pm-7:30pm. It is a lot of work but a lot of fun. I enjoy having routine and a set schedule. Saturdays are off days and Sundays are rest days after church in the morning.
My heart is full of so much love for the children and teens we teach everyday, and also the family we live with. The mother of the family is a firecracker but she doesn’t speak a lick of English. It is really fun trying to understand her. One time we thought she was thanking us for praying for her niece but then we found out she was telling us she doesn’t like the kids across the street that drink and do drugs. Who knew?! The papa has the brightest smile, even without any teeth. They have nine older children and some “adopted” children running around as well. The team has also been told that we have been adopted into the family. I’m child #13.
These people will melt your heart in a day. Mine is gone; it is complete mush. I don’t really care that sometimes I find flies in my soup and ants in my honey. I don’t care that I wake every hour of the night. I don’t care that I consistently look like an idiot trying to explain an English lesson when I don’t speak any Khmer. Like Anastasia’s shirt says that I wear very frequently, “Love needs no translation.”
