It’s hard to believe I’m wrapping up this year. People always told me it would go fast and some days seemed to crawl, but I look back and wonder where time went. I’m so excited to return home and see family and friends I’ve missed dearly this year. I don’t think it’s truly hit that this is over. I’m sure after a few days at home and times where I find myself completely alone I’m going to have to spend time truly processing and grieving this year.
Cambodia was a country on our route I was indifferent toward. I knew little about it and I’d heard from old Racers it was one of their toughest months on The Race. That didn’t make me too thrilled coming into my last month. I came into this month exhausted: physically, spiritually and emotionally. But I love when God blows my expectations out of the water.
We spent the month teaching English to university students who live at the church. The pastor is incredible and has a heart for these students. We taught two classes a day and I ended up enjoying it more than I thought. It was more work than it sounded too. The students are smart and we had to do our research on things to teach them. It definitely made for lots of laughs. I’ve noticed outside the states people don’t beat around the bush. Questions we would consider invasive they don’t hesitate to ask. They would ask us the funniest things: Do you have a boyfriend? Would you prefer to marry a white man or a colored man? Why do you have acne on your face? Why do you look so tired?
Cambodian people are very kind. I fell in love with our tuk tuk driver for the month who is an intern at YWAM’s branch University of Nations here in Phnom Penh and he is just the sweetest thing in the world. He was always there to take care of us and to ask how our day went. I will miss our new friend “golden helmet” Ra.
Cambodians are fighters too. At the end of our time here, we traveled to the killing fields to learn more about the history of this country. During the Khmer Rouge period (1975-1979) Cambodia saw the death of over 2 million of its people in a gruesome genocide.
The Khmer Rouge period ended when former ally Vietnam invaded but resulted in more deaths in the Cambodian-Vietnamese War. Cambodia has been living peacefully for about 10 years now but learning of what they went through to get there was nothing short of gut wrenching.
We then visited Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia as a squad. Angkor Wat is a Hindu temple built for king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century and served as a capital city. It is now considered a Buddhist temple and a source of pride in Cambodia, the temple is even featured on the Cambodian flag. It was huge and fun to explore, it was way bigger than I thought. Back in its day it was rumored to be the size of Manhattan which is crazy to me!
I’m now back in Hua Hin, Thailand with my entire squad. We are in a hotel near the beach enjoying the last of our time together. We have spent time worshipping together, playing, laughing, and debriefing our year and preparing to go home.
My plane lands in the ATX, Tuesday evening. I’m still unsure of what exactly is next, but I have peace knowing I’m called to be home for a while. I’ll probably spend the first few days sleeping and fighting killer jet lag. Can’t wait to see you all in the states.
And now for some pictures as always…
[Bambi and I with our English class. We taught the smaller group in the mornings and the rest of our team taught the afternoon class.]
[We came across this cute Cambodian baby outside the temple whom we played with for a bit. Seriously, could he be any cuter?]
[The last temple just happened to be where Tomb Raider was filmed and by far the coolest in my opinion. It has huge trees whose roots wrap around the temple.]
