During debrief, my squad-mate Sara Panda (her nickname) and I had a fun little adventure in Siem Reap.
I’ll have to admit, when you are in another country for ministry–sometimes it is so wonderful to just BE a tourist for a little while.
So that’s what Sara and I did. We went to a place to get pizza. For $5 we got two slices of pizza each.
Afterwards, we adventured on and came upon a street vendor that was selling t-shirts, tanktops, and dresses for super cheap. I had been on the hunt for a cute tanktop and anything to me is instantly cuter when you can get it for $1.50. Which I DID! So I bought a navy blue tanktop with an adorable tribal elephant on it (super touristy).
We continued walking because we had about an hour to kill until our tuk-tuk driver came to pick us up to take us back to our hostel.
So we started checking out other stalls. I have to say though–vendors in Siem Reap were SO pushy.
“Lady, lady! I make good price!”
“Lady, what are you looking for? Bracelets, dress, notebook?”
“Lady, lady!”
“Lady, tell me your price!”
They were constantly calling and even as we would enter a little place, they would follow us as if they were piranhas hunting their prey. It got very annoying.
One place we entered had many vendors with their stalls in it.
But then Sara and I came upon a breath of fresh air. As we were diving deeper into the piranhas stalls, just desiring to look at their goods, Sara had commented she could use some water–especially since she had a headache.
One shopkeeper who seemed younger than the rest (around 19 maybe) overheard Sara and asked if she would like to borrow some of her water? Sara readily agreed and so our new little friend went further in to where a cooler was and pulled out a brand new, icy cold bottle of water.
When we asked how much for it she said “It’s free. You need it.”
Both Sara and I wanted to buy something because we wanted to honor her and she said she hadn’t sold anything that day, but there wasn’t anything we really wanted. However, we insisted on paying her $1 for the water and because I was so thankful for the person she was and I bought a $1 bracelet. I told her I knew it wasn’t much, but I was SO appreciative to her.
Now I wear it and I constantly think of that sweet girl that was so different among the other vendors. She so readily offered what she had for a tourist instead of trying to get all she could from us. She was so genuine and kind–it’s amazing the people you get to meet in this world.
