Despite being more tired (and hot) than I ever have in my entire life, I am happy to be here serving in Cambodia. My team is living in a small village about an hour by bike (or 30 minutes by tuk tuk) outside of Siem Reap. We have been blessed with great accomodations. My new standard of great includes a bed (my own bed) and a bathroom that has a toilet and a shower. There is a plethora of bugs and lizards that share a room with us, though. And Cambodia has been the hottest country thus far, I've never before experienced such intense heat and humidity. I wish I could say that it cools down at night, but it doesn't really, so it has been some hot living. One of the staff members is an amazing cook, so we are eating well.
We are serving at a school that teaches English and computer to school-aged children in the village. Most of the classes are taught on site. Each afternoon I have the pleasure of teaching Microsoft Word and English for beginners. I have had some memorable "first" moments of teaching while here. There are two dogs who live at the school and they enjoy laying by my feet as I teach computer class. We've nicknamed one of the dogs "Food Bag" because he gets really excited when he hears the crinkling of a grocery bag. The other day I had a giant spider run across the front of the classroom towards me and I lost all credibility as a sophisticated teacher as I shrieked and ran to the back of the classroom. And I get a serious kick when teaching the younger kids the alphabet and hearing them shout out "weeeeee!" when asked to repeat the letter "v".
In the mornings, we bike to a couple different places in the village to tell and act out stories from the Bible, play games, sing songs, and then wash and comb the children's hair and clip their fingernails. This is probably my favorite time because a. we get to bike through some beautiful scenery and b. the children are super sweet and fun.
I feel seriously blessed to be here. It has been a struggle to be active and engaged because I
am so exhausted. I want to give this month all that it deserves though. I want to be able to express and live out the joy that I'm feeling inside from being here.
