Sorry it has taken me so long to update you on our time here in Cambodia. It has been somewhat of a crazy month. It feels as if we've hardly settled in to ministry here and yet we have less than two weeks left. Our squad spent a few days debriefing in touristy Siem Reap from May 2-6. Here's a photo of some of my beautiful friends getting ready to go out to dinner together.
We traveled as a squad to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, for a cultural briefing with YWAM and to receive our ministry assignments and set up transportation. On May 9th, my team traveled by ourselves to Kampong Cham, about three hours northeast of Phnom Penh. This month we are working with the Youth Development Center (YDC). Our host, Cecil, pioneered the center three years ago. It is an English literacy center, but it's main focus is to share the Gospel with its students. Ninety-three percent of Cambodians are Buddhist. There are three classes each day, and the class I am teaching is a mix of brand new students who speak very little English and students who have been in the program over a year. They range in age from 14-32 and are a pretty shy group. We are teaching them about identity and worth.
We are living on the top floor of the YDC. There's no air-conditioning, no Internet, regular power outages, and frequent rat, frog, lizard, and bug sightings. The first week we were here it was extremely hot, but thankfully it seems to have cooled down a bit with the start of the rainy season. Luckily we have fans, a somewhat Western bathroom, and amazing food. Our host Cecil is from the Philippines and she cooks some of the best food I've had on the Race so far. Apparently fried tarantulas are a delicacy in Cambodia. Some of my squadmates tried them at a rest stop.
Our first day here we were able to take a tour of the city. Pakva, one of the YDC staff members, took us to Boy Mountain and Girl Mountain, the site of temples that had been built over killing fields from Cambodia's mass genocide at the hands of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. On display in one of the temples was this pile of children's skulls, and there were also a couple of mass graves you could still see.
In addition to teaching, our ministry this month includes outreach to a Vietnamese floating village, a Muslim village, and a prison. A few days ago we visited the Vietnamese floating village, where approximately 200 families live on the Mekong River because the Cambodian government won't allow them to buy land.
Just getting down the steep, slippery hill to the river was a challenge in itself. I was the first to go and fell in the mud, only moments after predicting I would wipe out before the end of the day.
Here's another ridiculous photo of me trying to avoid falling in to the river as I crossed the tiny plank into the home of one of the families. Once two or three of us got across though, they realized their house wasn't steady enough to hold all of us so we had to turn back. We ended up walking around at the top of the hill handing out candy to children instead.
Last weekend we had four days off for the King's birthday, a national holiday. We decided to head to Vietnam for the weekend, but learned a little late that you could not just buy a visa at the border. We rerouted to the beach instead. We spent three nights in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, in the Gulf of Thailand.
The highlight of our trip was supposed to be a one day boat tour and snorkeling trip to three different islands. As usual in a thirld world country, things didn't go as planned. I've never been so motion sick in my life, or seen so many different people throw up over the side of a boat. Because of a storm in the morning we were only able to visit one island and didn't get to snorkel. But all in all, it was a fun weekend at the beach.
Thank you for your continued prayers!
Love from Cambodia,
Beth
