Hey guys it’s been a hot second since I’ve updated you all on what I’ve been up to! Well I finished my time up in Africa in Malawi where I got to volunteer in a preschool and help lead a bible study in a men’s prison (it was a super cool month). With the couple classes I’ve taken in early childhood education, I was able to take that knowledge and help these teachers learn how teach their students better and assist them in the classroom. When I first got into the classroom, I described it to others as ‘toddler fight club’, these kids were wild and boy do I mean wild. There was kicking and punching with little structure and reinforcement with these children, at first I was very frustrated with the teachers I was working with because some of the kids would listen and know how to do their schoolwork and others would be fighting and couldn’t draw a letter or count to 10, the kids how were falling behind weren’t getting any attention at all. That’s when I stepped in and took a few of those kids aside and sat with them one on one and gave them the love and attention that they needed and within a few days they were actually focusing and were doing so much better in school that even the teachers commented about it. My days singing and dancing with the preschoolers were my favorite and I’m going to treasure those moments forever. We even got to make baby baskets full of goodies and bring them to the local hospital to donate to the moms who just had babies that day!
Then I hopped, skipped, jumped all the way over to Asia and landed myself into Vietnam with a new team. I worked and stayed at Vision Café, it’s a coffee shop that every night teaches English classes in a fun and exciting way. We taught every night and during the day time our students would take us around town and bring us to their favorite places while they practiced their English with us. We had many coffee dates, tried some crazy street food, and even went on a small road trip. Vietnam culture is so different than my last four months in Africa and it took some time to get used to it but wow I love the fast pace busy Asian culture so much. I got to spend Christmas in Vietnam and as hard as it was being away from my family I had a great time. We woke up early and went to a breakfast buffet which had every American breakfast food you could think of so we felt right at home. After that we went back home and put our matching Christmas pajamas back on and opened our secret santa gifts that we got each other. Some of us went and saw Frozen 2 in the movie theater and found out real fast that it wasn’t in English and didn’t have any subtitles, so that was fun! Then we ordered pizzas for dinner and watched a Christmas movie before bed. Vietnam has been my favorite country/month on the race this far and I can’t wait to experience Asia more in these next few months!
Now I’m in Cambodia! My team and I arrived here almost a week ago and were already diving into what the Lord has in store for us this month. Our team is ATL month so that means we find out own ministry to work with for the month and figure out all of our housing and food accommodations by ourselves. We started off the week by going to the S-21 genocide museum where we learn all about the hardships that this country and its people have recently been through and learned about how they are still healing from the genocide that killed nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s 1975’s population. Throughout this past week we have been looking for different opportunities to serve this community and we have many different projects that we are working on. Some of us are ministering in the only climbing gym in Cambodia, some of us are working with sex trafficking victims, and some of us are helping new friends with their personal lives. We can’t wait to see what comes next for us here in Cambodia!
As many of you know I’m still fundraising to stay on the race, and I’ve gotten many donations and I’m so grateful for all of you that have supported me this far! With that being said I still need to raise $7,285 to stay on the field for the next 5 months. If I don’t raise that money soon, I will be at risk to being sent home early from the race. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation of any amount you can click the orange donate button at the top of this page! Thanks for all your love and support!
Much Love,
Brieanne
