Kampong Cham (aka The Cham) never fails to have a surprise waiting just around the corner. We’ve been living in a one room church with the pastor and his family who speak minimal English, it’s always an adventure trying to figure things out. Mallory and I have an English class that we teach every day. Our kids speak no English besides sit down and stand up and we have no translator, but hey we love our little nuggets! Teaching is not my favorite ministry, so my expectations for these two months were not the greatest. But man I love those kids! They just love to have fun and whether we’re singing the banana song or they’re getting in trouble for messing with the instruments for church they always have the biggest smile on their face. They just love life.
We also have some neighborhood kids who are always there to greet us as we walk down the street to go buy fried bananas (a true gift from God if I do say so myself). They make every day so much better just like our English students do. On sundays Mallory and I help with the sunday school at the church and our little neighbor kids are always there beaming ear to ear ready to climb and jump on us the minute we sit down.
Our days consist of more free time than I can handle and nothing to do. The Cham is a beautiful city right on the Mekong river, but there isn’t much to do. We live in a little village type area about a 5 minute tuk tuk ride away from the center of town. We do have a little market where we can buy some killer fresh fruit and veggies, fried bananas, smoothies, and if we want to get real risky some nice warm meat and seafood. A lot of our time is spent playing the card game president, I’m usually the butthole.
Occasionally we find some super cool things to do like swimming in the Mekong (which our setup sheet said not to do because it’s most likely festering with bacteria, but sometimes you just gotta live life on the edge. Sorry mom) on a beach that we had to ourselves, ride bike across a bamboo bridge, eat duck embryo, crickets, fish paste in a tube, and mini chickens with their heads still attached, and go to a carnival that reminded me of an abandoned county fair that someone magically managed to get working again. For real though, the ferris wheel was twice as fast as normal, we could open the door to our tiny little cage from the inside, they had to start it by pushing it because the motor wasn’t strong enough, and the cages that they shoved us in were not big enough for one person let alone two and wobbled more than they should.
Our adventures haven’t been the only cool things about The Cham. God has been showing me some cool things as well! I started out by working my way through the Psalms (which I eventually decided to split up and read alongside something else). And God began to show me what it truly looked like to praise Him. David was constantly praising God no matter what his circumstances were, and our circumstances here are far from ideal. We sleep on the floor under a bug net that really only keeps out the dogs and cats, my sleeping pad popped within the first week, we don’t have AC and the temperature is always 100 or above, our kitchen is horrendous, we share a room for all of our packs which makes getting dressed and ready in the mornings a pain, the squealing pigs that are most likely being slaughtered every morning at 4am, and I’m sure there are many more things. But God has been showing me how to praise Him despite and because of all these things that make living here difficult at times. He has showed me that, no we may not be living the most comfortable life, but there are so many things around to be so grateful for. I am so grateful for the kids that line the streets waiting to run out to hold our hands when we walk by, the many fans we have in the church that make the heat bearable, the delicious restaurants that we have discovered that have amazing fried noodles (I have become obsessed with fried noodles), my new discovery of how awesome yoga is, my amazing team that always makes things interesting, and so much more. There is so much to praise God for her in The Cham once you get past feeling sorry for yourself because of your living situation or whatever is going on around you. God is definitely moving here in Cambodia and in my team. These last two months may be difficult at times, but you can bet that God is going to be praised through it all
