Month Five… Here we go..
I have no idea what happened to the last 10 days of my life. I am now sitting in a hotel room in Phnom Penh, Cambodia attempting to process how I got here and the chaos of debrief. Here is my attempt to process the last 10 days of life!
Steven, Alyssa and I at the KL towers
10 days ago… Left our sketchy hostel in Kuala Lumpur. We had decided to leave for Pangkor Island (debrief location) a few days early before the rest of the squad. Our excuse to arriving so early was to rest and prepare for debrief, but in all honesty we were more than ready to leave our $4/night hostel. We certainly got what we paid for plus the added bonus of pet mice and a monkey that only came out at night. Add to the mix the man thong we found tucked under a mattress, the butterfly needle on the floor and used condoms on the window sill and you have a quality world race location!
Our hostel in China Town…
How to use an outlet if you dont have a converter… do not try this at home…
So, with no confirmed location to sleep that night, we packed up and took a 4-hr bus ride and 20 min ferry to Pangkor Island where the sea monitors roam and the smell of fish seeps into you pores. To our delight, we walked right off the ferry to find a little cheap hotel complete with A/C and laundry. The nice Chinese man who rented out the room was very concerned at the thought of 5 people in such a small space… if he only knew…
On the beach of Pangkor
9 days ago… Made the move to our final hotel for debrief. Classy? I'll say! But then again my perspective may be skewed after the sketch hostel. It did not take us long to find the movie channel and watch movie after movie including Forrest Gump, Transformers, X-men, and some movie about old high school rivalries. Am I ashamed we spent our first day inside the cool A/C watching movies instead of at the beach? Absolutely not!
8 days ago… Our coaches Chuck and Selena as well as our Squad Coordinator, Tim arrived! We joined them for a delicious lunch, which consequently did not sit well in several stomachs…oops.
7 days ago… The entire squad flooded the Island. Teams traveled anywhere from a couple of hours to 8+ hours from all across Malaysia to come for a relaxing, refreshing week after a long month of ministry! World Race definitely takes over wherever we go and the once empty shops were filled with white people.
6, 5, 4 and 3 days ago… Debriefs, one on ones, more debriefs and meetings. Worship and prayer, dinners forgotten or squeezed in when possible. This is a new perspective of debrief as squad leader… the diagnosis? I. LOVE. THIS.
This is what a lot of our debrief looked like 🙂
2 days ago… Travel day! Wake up at 5:30am to be down stairs at 6:00am. Scored a couple of new shirts and a hat off the free table (where we all ditch the stuff we don't want to carry around any more). Impulse decision? Probably 🙂 Catch the ferry at 7am start the travel process to get to Cambodia. We left our lovely squad leaders at the airport (Gooodbye Joel and Melina!!) and barely make our flight since they moved the time up to leave a half an hour earlier than previously planned.
SIDE NOTE: Kuala Lumpur airport = fastest security ever. Didn't even have to put my pocket knife in my checked bag!! Just kidding… kinda.
Yesterday… Woke up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia! Said goodbye to the teams as they carted off to their various ministry locations for the month. Alyssa, Steven and I promptly found a coffee shop by the water front and had much needed rest and catch up time…AFTER finding a new place to stay for the night.
Today we are in relaxation mode. New city means new language, new ways of transportation, new food (rumor has it they eat dog here) and new places to explore… but as for now? A much needed nap is in order.
