When we heard that we would be spending the month of February living in a stilt house in the middle of a sugar cane field in rural Cambodia, I admit my feelings were mixed. I had a certain amount of excitement at the prospect of escaping the big city and enjoying the simple country life, but at the same time I had an apprehension of exactly how simple that life would be. I had conjured up images in my head of what this “stilt house” would look like. I pictured the seven of us crammed into a tiny space; after all, how large can a stilt house be? I imagined bugs coming at me from all directions, through slatted bamboo walls and flooring. I imagined that our meals would be meager and that I’d be left wanting for more food all month long.
When we finally pulled up to our home for the month, in Prek Por (Pry-Por), I was taken aback at the beauty of my surroundings. The stilt house was elevated some 12 feet in the air, about the same height as the endless bright green stocks of sugar cane that surrounded the house on all sides. The house was neither tiny nor made of bamboo, the bugs however, were indeed real and agressive, some days worse than others. When we were welcomed to our quarters, we found that our hosts Umong and Nari had given up their own room and relocated to the front porch so that Chrislyn and I would have a private room of our own. Though this was an offer that we would not accept, the gesture and the love behind it were indicative of the way we would be treated all month.
photo credit: Ash Owens
photo credit: Ash Owens
It turns out that Nari was one of the most amazing cooks I’ve encountered in our year of traveling the globe. We were treated to all sorts of exotic fruits and fresh vegetables. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Cambodians enjoy meat as much as I do. We enjoyed pork, beef, chicken, and a variety of local fish from the nearby Mekong River. The barbecued tilapia stuffed with lemon grass was my favorite! My official take as an international foodie: Cambodian food is hugely underrated and unjustly overshadowed by its more popular Asian neighbors of Thailand and Vietnam.
The truth is, we are often treated so well by the families and ministries that have hosted us along the way. What set Umong and Nari apart in my eyes is that they treated everyone else in the same manner. Their home was, functionally speaking, a community center for anyone who had need. Countless children came to the house each day for Chinese and English classes as well as Bible lessons and church meetings. One particular little boy, Paoleng, practically lived there. He ate their food, read their books, played with their 18 month old son – Martin, and ran errands for Nari. Most days, we woke to the sound or sight of Paoleng playing with Martin (aka Tin-Tin) as Nari had gone out to the market or was preparing breakfast for the family. He was more or less a part of the family. Paoleng came from a single parent home, where love and attention was hard to come by. At Umong and Nari’s home, he had encountered a radical kind of love, one that he couldn’t get enough of.
Another individual who encountered God’s love through this family was a local homeless woman. She had a skin condition of some sort that resulted in her being shunned by all of the people around her. Because of her appearance, no one would buy from her in the market, resulting in her inability to provide for herself. Not long after Nari met and started to build a relationship with her, Umong and his brother Utry started to build a house for her. Most of our mornings were spent working on this house. It took us all month, but we finally did finish! In the process, we came to know some 30 neighborhood children who liked to hang around the work site and sing songs and dance with Chrislyn and the other girls on our team. Many of them ended up coming to our afternoon English classes, back at Umong’s house.
photo credit: Ash Owens
Teaching English was how we spent our afternoons. There was enough of a need that most of us had our own class. Being the longest tenured English speaker on our team (aka the oldest person), I taught the more advanced conversational class. It was so much fun getting to know all of my students and seeing them learn so much in the little time that we had. It was encouraging to know that just by teaching them English, we were expanding their opportunities for better schooling and jobs in the future. So many of our English students were also the ones coming to the weekly Bible studies and church meetings, hopefully expanding their grasp of God’s identity and His love for them.
February in Cambodia turned out to be one of our favorite months on the race! So now I say, bring on the bugs, the dusty roads, the bumpy tuk-tuk rides, and all of the rest of it! There is joy in being where God has called you, whether it’s Big City, USA or Middle of Nowhere, Cambodia.
