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We recently wrapped up our first month in Cambodia with a “Debrief” in Siem Reap. During this time we take a little bit of a breather from ministry, talk about or “debrief” the things that happened in ministry for the month, and find rest, adventure, and fullness in the Lord before we continue on this year long journey.
All in all, debrief is a time of fun and relaxation…
And I had a ball, even though I almost killed and made an idiot of myself a couple times. I obviously have no shame in sharing the stories, so here they are…
Bike Ride with Bliz
Yes, her actual name is Bliz and we had a great laugh as I rode a bike… for the first time on a street… ever in my life.
I feel dramatic as I write that because I fell in the mud before we ever reached the main street… Shaking my head…
On the second day of debrief, Bliz invited me to take a bike ride into town with her. The Overflow Guesthouse, the hostel we were staying at, allowed us to borrow a couple of their bikes for our adventure. Excited we get on the bikes head out on the dirt rode surrounded by moats on both sides of the rode. We make the first left and head down the rode.
“Whippee, we are having a ball!”
…Until we come upon a small heard of cows in the narrow road…
Please keep in mind, I have not ridden a bike on the street ever. And to be clear, I have ridden a bike only one time outside of childhood about 5 years ago on a Long Beach boardwalk. Linda will tell you that I squealed whole ride and begged every person I saw not to come near me.
Anyway…
Bliz starts to slow down as she reaches the four cows that are sitting in the narrow road. It takes me a second to realize she is slowing down. And what makes matters worst, I did not ask nor did I figure out how to brake before we started this ride.
“BLIZ DON’T STOP!”
I yell, but it’s too late… Bliz can’t get moving fast enough and I wasn’t slowing down quick enough.
I avoided hitting the cow, which aimed my bike at Bliz. I then avoided hitting Bliz by turning my bike towards the moat. As I headed towards the moat all the fear of flesh eating bacteria wells up inside of me, so I decided to stop trying and just fall over in the mud.
“Are you ok?” Asks the two Cambodian men who witnessed the whole fiasco.
Through my giggling I stand up and ask “how do you work the brakes on this thing”?!?!
“You squeeze the handle” says Bliz in her most innocent voice.
I bust out laughing at the simplicity of that answer. I would love to say I was smart enough to immediately head back to the hostel since we are only about 200 feet away when all this happened, but we proceed on to town. 2 hours later we returned after getting lost for 1 1/2 hours and me squealing every time a bike, moto, bus, or truck got near to me, which was quite often.
It was so much fun! And I’m not even being sarcastic!
Oh Squatty Potty
On November 3rd as we ended debrief and started our 23 hour bus ride to Chaing Mai, Thailand, I still had not had the opportunity to use a squatty potty. And believe me, I was ok with that…
But this day, that changed as we pulled into the second bathroom break of our extremely long ride. I had skipped the first break so I thought “I should try for this one to be on the safe side.”
I walk into the public bathroom and notice the regular toilet stalls on the right as I enter. I walk past them thinking “all the stalls must have toilets since everyone else has gone farther into the bathroom”. As I reflect on this moment, I recognize that everyone else was Thai people, not the Americans that were traveling with me.
I head into a stall and realize it is a dreaded, yet clean and modern, squatty potty. My brain immediately is like “GO NOW” so I decide to conquer the squatty potty!
I pull down my ali baba pants and realize I probably should have waited to do that after I had positioned myself over the urinal hole. I try to correct my mistake quickly and instead I trip and slide on the porcelain as I attempt to assume the squat position in the correct location. My body decides that I am taking way to long to figure this all out and starts to shower urine down the back of my pants. Some how I stumble up the 3 steps to the hole in time to get the other half of my urine actually in the hole.
Sigh…
I put my semi-wet clothes back on, wash my hands, and head to the bus on a mission. In the door, up the steps, open my day pack, pull out the extra set of clothes, head back off the bus, back to the bathroom, and change immediately… in the stall with the regular toilets this time.
Squatty Potty 1 – Rashidat 0
Yeah, squatty potty you conquered me this time!
Thank God we had a scenario at training camp that warned us to keep an extra change of clothes in our daypack on travel day.
