The situations around us can easily be masked. Whether it be by only seeing what you want to see, seeing what is reality, but then having it become the norm and forgetting that it's there, or being lost in the beauty of a child's smile and greeting of “Hello.” I have seen many different situations on this journey, including many areas stricken with unbelievable poverty. This month I have been reminded of something that I was told at a ministry in Honduras. “Be aware of everything that is around you, you never know when there is a need.” That need could be anything, from someone needing food, or someone needing encouragement if they are having a bad day.” I am always happy to get other peoples' perspectives, and this part of my adventure was just that. A reminder to open your eyes to the people around you, even just to see how you can bless and love someone else who is near you.
Every day we walk to the orphanage we are serving this month, Cambodian Hope Association in Phnom Penh. It is about a five minute walk that consists of 3 turns and children smiling, waving and yelling “Hello!” to us as we make our way to and from the orphanage. Sometimes I feel like a little bit of a rock star! As we walk, the living situations vary from wealthy, middle class, to poverty…at least that's what we see from the outside view. There is one house that is really special. An impoverished home with about 5 children just a short walk away from our apartment. So why not play with the kids on the street where we live? Why wouldn't we want to love on these kids? And, how hard it is to resist when you have three smiling faces running towards you just to give everyone a big hug? This happens almost daily!
My teammate MK had a great idea! Why don't we take these little girls out to a park, or Kid City (an indoor play house for the kids to climb through and play somewhat like Crash Crawly's), somewhere where they would likely never be able to go. We discussed this with our host, had them talk to the family and it was arranged. I can't imagine how the girls felt when we came to pick them up in a tuk tuk. There was me, MK, our friend who lives in the apartment with us (sister of Rithy, the man who runs the orphanage, sorry, I can't pronounce her name), and her nephew, Sakol, who spends most of the day at the orphanage and also lives at our apartment. We thought the girls' mom would be coming as well, but no, she sent two of her little girls, one 4 and one 6 years of age, off with us for a few hours. What a strange thought! The mother has talked to our friend who lives in our apartment, but she doesn't really know us, and she just sent her kids off with three adults and another child in a tuk tuk. I am pretty sure that wouldn't happen in North America, but I guess life is different here. It was so cute when we picked them up. They were all dressed up, with matching skirts and a little unsure of what was happening — at least the older girl was.
How great it was seeing all three of their little faces light up. They didn't really know what to do at this play place at first, because they had never had the opportunity to visit a place like this, but once they got going they didn't stop! TRAMPOLINES, BALLS, SLIDES, GUNS THAT SHOT BALLS! They had a blast! Then we got to top the afternoon off with some ice cream!
