Thought I’d give a quick update-my team is teaching English here Monday-Friday, and we’re working with a local church in Phnom Penh. We play volleyball and soccer with the students twice a week, and lead a worship service once a week. There’s a pretty rancid looking baptistery we’re signed up to clean out, which should be interesting because it literally looks like Slimer from Ghostbuster’s dwelling place.
So thankful to get the chance to be in Cambodia because I’ve realized how ignorant I am to lots of things, especially what’s going on in the world. I had no clue that Cambodia even existed, let alone that the country faced such horrific tragedy. We got to see the killing fields and genocide museum where people were tortured and murdered-I had no idea that over 2 million people were killed because of the Khmer Rouge rule about 30 years ago.
Knowing that the country has only known peace for like the past ten years has given me huge insight into how I can relate to people here and it’s given me way more compassion for taking the mundane task of teaching English seriously. We might be the only encouraging, smiling, laughing people in some of these kids’ lives and if for three hours every day I can be that for them- to show them that there’s more to life and that they’re valuable to God- then that’s enough.
Finally, “Do you like rap?”= the title of my last English lesson where we taught our Cambodian students about music and different types of entertainment. We played Britney Spears’ “Crazy” for pop, Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” for rap, and my personal fave, KC and Jojo’s “All My Life” for a killer R&B sample.
