I didn’t blog much last month while my team and I were serving and living at a children’s home in Cambodia. It was partially because of the lack of internet and partially because it was a busy month, full and beautiful and exhausting in the most wonderful way. For me personally, last month can best be summed up in the following quote:
“And at the end of the day, your feet should be dirty, your hair messy, and your eyes sparkling.”
-Shanti (I have no idea who this is. My real source is Pinterest.)
The best way that I documented last month was through pictures – so many pictures of all the little moments (and all the little people) that made it one of the hardest goodbyes of the Race. So here’s a picture blog to give you all a little glimpse into my ‘Cambo life.’
First things first, we started our days in the exact same way every morning – walking or carpooling in twos on the back of our host family’s motos to get to a little (literal) hole-in-the wall restaurant for a breakfast of noodle soup. The very first morning our host told us that we were going to a ‘coffee shop’ for breakfast…needless to say we were more than a little surprised when this was where he brought us! This is why they tell you not to have expectations, right? However, we DID get a glorious cup of iced coffee with condensed milk every morning, so I really wasn’t complaining.
Our little hole-in-the-wall ‘coffee shop.’
My daily breakfast of noodle soup! Not pictured: delicious iced coffee.
I spent most of my time teaching – computer classes at a nearby school in the morning and English classes at the children’s home in the afternoon. One thing that I have realized on the Race – I really love teaching. I guess I’ve known it for awhile, but I never really saw myself in a classroom setting. Most of my “classrooms” on the Race have looked a little different than the average American schoolroom.
Teaching computer classes at the nearby school. We seized the opportunity to have our students type out Bible stories and casually incorporated the gospel into all of our lessons. When you let the missionaries teach… 😉
Getting creative in my teaching strategies and using a deck of cards to practice numbers in our youngest class.
Precious kiddos hard at work and eager to learn.
Just a few of the best students a girl could ask for.
When I wasn’t teaching the children English (or having them teach me their language, Khmer – pronounced Kha-mai), I could usually be found sitting in my hammock spending time with Jesus or just relaxing. Everything from reading, journaling, listening to music, praying, or just reflecting on all that the Lord was teaching me – my trusty Eno was the perfect place for it all. About halfway through the month the hammock life suddenly became much less appealing after a lizard had the audacity to poop on me and watch my mini freak-out from the rafters of our ‘treehouse’ in mocking satisfaction.
Our ‘dining room’ for the month, AKA the downstairs of our treehouse. That’s our lunch awaiting us after a morning full of teaching, and my beloved hammock hung here all month.
The scaly culprit. Once I realized that he and his family ate the spiders I decided we could coexist peacefully.
Because we lived on the property of the children’s home, we quickly found plenty of other ways to spend time with the kids outside of English class. Some of our favorite activities included card games, hair-braiding (contrary to the afore-mentioned quote, my hair actually looked AMAZING all month thanks to some very adorable and talented hairstylists!), playing in the rainstorms, painting nails, coloring on pieces of scrap paper, and sharing our favorite Bible verses. And since this is Asia, we can’t forget about selfies. So.many.selfies!
A typical morning of sprawling out on the floor and drawing after English class ended.
Just a few of many styles courtesy of my favorite little hairstylists!
Sharing favorite Bible verses with a spunky and sassy girl named Chanry.
This is what happened when I let some of the girls steal my iPhone for awhile. That selfie game is SO strong! 🙂
At the end of every full day, I would make my way up to our one-room ‘treehouse’ and smile gratefully at one of the most consistent and familiar things about this year – my cozy tent! And I sure was grateful for it this month, because while we had a roof over our heads to protect us from daily rainstorms, the wooden walls that surrounded us were also home to some very unwelcome critters (read: dengue-infested mosquitoes and giant, hairy spiders the size of your fist). Nooo, thank you. Here’s a glimpse of the inside of our home for the month.
(Sidenote: words cannot express how much I miss the feeling of a good couch. Or a chair. Or anything that is not the floor! It’s the little things, y’all.)
You can see the corner of my tent in the top right of this picture, and on the left you see Stacie’s hammock-turned-bed. We jerry-rigged two separate bug nets around her hammock to keep the bugs out.
There is SO much more about my life in Cambodia that I wish I had time to share with you all, but I hope that this blog gave you a better idea of how I spent my days in the month of August. It is only because of your support that I am able to have experiences like these, and I am so grateful! You are bringing more than few smiles to faces all around the world.
With love and wanderlust,
Cassady
(and some adorable friends)
