Simplicity. I’ve always enjoyed the simple life. I grew up making Indian face paint with creek rocks and playing with slingshots and BB guns rather than watching t.v. shows. I feel like my life in Cambodia would be my sister Sarahglenn and I’s childhood fantasy. I just want to paint a picture of this place. This month my team was in a tiny village called Touch (sounds like Toe-ch) in the Kampot province. To get to the village from Phnom Penh you ride in a taxi on a dirt/ gravel road for a little over two hours. We did evangelism twice a day and then taught English to children in the morning and youth in the afternoon. Our ministry contact, Vuthy, is a 28 year old believer who was a Tuk Tuk driver in Phnom Penh. He accepted the Lord when he was driving around a team of missionaries and was struck by the way they were living out their faith- caring for orphans and loving on people. Vuthy joined YWAM and in November began his ministry- bringing Jesus to his family’s village and teaching English to the youth and children. We had the privilege of living with Vuthy’s family. Vuthy’s parents are not believers, but are asking questions, and his sister and brother came to accept Jesus while we were there!
Okay a little about my living conditions. There was no running water in any of the homes in the village. During the rainy season rain water is used, but since it was dry season our water was transported from a nearby lake. The water was stored in these huge stone pots. Our drinking water was filtered either by boiling or filtering the water through a clay pot type thing. We did a lot of praying over that water J. To shower we used buckets and that same pot water. Oh! I forgot to mention the tadpoles! It was quite tricky to scoop a bucket without catching a few friendly tadpoles. Since it was the same water we used to “flush” our squatty potty the little guys frequented the floor.
We had many friends. A pig, a few dogs that liked to join us while we ate, a few cows (whose rope we used to hang our laundry), ducks, chicken, roosters (who crow ALL through the night- don’t be fooled by talk of “daylight”), and other typical farm creatures. We were popular. They were not enclosed so you might have chicken join you at the table while you read a book. I had the opportunity to learn how to kill my own food! I cut the chicken’s neck and it was on the table the next day for lunch!
Every day we enjoyed some type of fresh fruit, typically mango or coconut milk. All you have to do is climb a tree to get it! That is one thing that I will greatly miss about Cambodia. Two of my favorite things.. climbing trees and fruit. You just can’t beat that!
A few highlights:
There was a family who celebrated their dead grandmother’s birthday and it was like nothing I have ever seen before. For many days we heard this music all throughout the day and night. We were invited to the final night of the celebration. There was a tent set up where Buddhist monks were praying and there were food offerings and Buddhist nuns. Tons and tons of rice soup was served. We asked the host later and he estimated around a thousand people to have been in attendance. It was crazy!
We happened to be in Cambodia during the Khmer New Year! It was three days of celebration. On the second day we took the youth to the lake. It was a blast. One of the traditions is to throw water on people while driving. Everyone is either on motorbikes or trailers being pulled by motorbikes, so getting wet was inevitable. It was actually quite nice because Cambodia during the dry season is HOT!!
