The 1st half of our time in Cambodia has flown by. It might be because we are staying very busy in our time at Team Challenge. This past week, we flipped into 2-a-days. Nope, no basketball practice for us. We are becoming hoeing masters. On our 1st day at Teen Challenge, Koy, the director, mentioned he would like us to cut the grass. Perfect! I figured we would get a scythe or a machete and we’d hack away at the tall stuff. Not quite.
Instead, we got hoes and our job for the past 10 days has been to hoe up all the grass on the property. Our guess is that the newly cleared ground will turn into gardens that will be planted with flowers and food to feed the women. We are hoping or it is going to be a muddy mess once rainy season rolls around.
The fun has been that the temperature has been in the upper 90’s and we usually hoe from 8:30 – 10 or 10:30 and then 2:30 – 4 or 5. It is HOT as the humidity makes the heat index well above 110 degrees. I don’t know that I have ever sweated as much as I have this past week.
We laugh as our bathing water is a bit on the brown side and so we aren’t really sure how clean we are getting. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry last week when I rolled over after a nap to find a rat a few feet away. He scampered away and I chased him with a broom. He jumped into our tub of bath water in the house. ARGH!! I have been showering outside on the lawn using a different tank of water as I just can’t bring myself to bathe in water a rat swam in. Yep, this is life on the farm this month.
Yesterday, we helped paint a shack smurf blue. I’m a bit blue yet today, but it was a nice break for the blisters on my hands to paint instead of hoe.
You can be praying for Val on our team. She somehow in the tropical heat managed to pick up pneumonia. She has been in the hospital for the last few days getting iv antibiotics. I am not sure she minds as it means she has a bed, shower, air conditioning and has evidently been watching American Idol. But, you can be praying for a quick recovery and that it will be a smooth transition for her back to the farm.
