God placed me in two atmospheres that I used to see myself wanting to work in when I was younger – a hospital, a school.
The teams that are still in Battambang: Kaleo, N’Sync, and Covenant
Monday-Friday
6:00 team devotions on the roof
6:30 be downstairs for breakfast
7:00 devotions around the breakfast tables, led by our hosts
7:30-8:30 sometimes go to a cafe or coffee shop
9:00 be at the hospital (twenty minute bike ride there)
11:00 leave the hospital (twenty minute bike ride back)
11:15-11:45 sometimes go to a cafe or coffee shop
12:00 be at the compound for lunch
12:30 squad devotions downstairs
1:00-3:30 free time (rest, lesson plan for class, Monday and Friday clean up from lunch, blog, journal, read, go to a cafe or coffee shop, ATL)
3:30 play with the kids outside of Ezra (right next to where we live), get ready for class
4:00-4:45 teach class (younger class)
4:45-5:15 play with the kids, get ready for next class
5:15-6:00 teach class (older class)
6:00 clean up
6:30 dinner
7:30 team time
9:00 be in our compound
10:00 be quiet in our rooms
World Mate Emergency Hospital is a trauma hospital for victims of landmines and serious accidents – mainly traffic accidents, workplace accidents involving machinery and falls. There are many incidences of amputees resulting in long stays. At the hospital we work with Ann, the activities coordinator. She has been in Cambodia for seven years and saw the need for a program that would assist patients in the process of keeping hands and minds occupied to benefit their psychological recovery. Twer Daoee Dai. “Made by Hand.” Those who are interested can participate in handcraft activities to help alleviate the boredom and sense of hopelessness that many of them experience. A key part of the handcraft program is paper-making from recycled fabric and natural products. When the paper and envelopes are made, we then decorate them for every season, right now we’re working on Christmas cards. After the cards and envelopes are packaged, they’re sold in New Zealand. The profits go to building the activities program.
During orientation we walked through the whole hospital. There are two sides. One with no air conditioning, and rows of beds lined up in one big room with curtains separating the men’s side and the women and kids side. The quarters are tight, but they get the same treatment as those in the other section where patients have their own air conditioned room. The hospital has doctors, nurses, and caregivers. The nurses help the doctors, and the caregivers feed, bathe, and clean the patients, they’re typically their family members. So our job is to love on the caregivers, because they are constantly taking care of others. Most of them only speak Khmer so it is a struggle, but we are learning basic words and we’re able to play games with them – jenga, snakes and ladders, and matching games. They also sometimes help with the cards.
So at the hospital we either make paper, decorate cards, or find caregivers to pour into.
We work at Ezra (Ezra is our hosts) Learning Center in the afternoons. At four we teach elementary and middle school girls. At five we teach junior high and high school girls. A few guys from Covenant teach the same ages of boys at both hours. This first week we have taught about Jonah and the Whale, and also emotions. When we begin class, we ask the students how they are and it never fails that they answer in unison, “Im fine thank you, how are you teacher?” So because they always answer with “fine” we wanted to teach them different emotions to know how they are actually doing. There’s probably 100-130 students in both hours.
This month join me in praying for both the hospital and the school. Pray that doors would be open for us to share the gospel at the hospital and build relationships with the patients, nurses, doctors, and caregivers. Pray that at the school the things that we teach them would resonate and that they would share it with those that they go home to.
