WELCOME TO VILLAGE LIFE !
3:00 am~ sometimes get waken up by the Khmer wedding music (weddings last 3 days in Cambodia, and they go non stop! :D)
5:45 am~ alarm goes off, do a little stretchy-stretch, tries to hurry and put on my clothes for the day in my see through tent before Yon, our ministry host, walks over, eye contacts in, go to the back of the building to pop a squat (toilets=non existent), come back and brush my teeth using my water bottle
6:00 am~ we start morning prayer with Yon and sometimes with his parents (aka we pray then read 2 chapters in the Bible together)
6:20ish am~ we finish, do a little stretchy-stretch again, walk back to my tent and start reading my Bible and doing my quiet time
7:30am~breakfast is served ! includes a yummy bread with sweetened condensed milk layering it, with some YUMMY sweetened instant coffee (we are telling ourself that if we drink a hot substance while were already hot, it cools us down LOL)
8:30am~we head out into the village! to tell people about Jesus! we walk up and down dirt roads and see if people are home or not. (large Buddhist population- most, like 90%, of the properties we pass have what are called “spirit houses” where the past spirits/ancestors live) a lot of people we encounter know who Jesus is, and a lot worship him however they also worship the other gods— but it’s been really cool to sit down with these people and remind them they are loved and known by Jesus, and so much more!
10:00 am~ come back to our home and have free time ! most of us go on a quick run and do a workout once we get back.
11:00 am~ LUNCH ! lunch mostly looks like vegetables, sometimes fish (most of us here are vegetarians), fruit (the mango here SLAPS), and always rice!
11:30am-3:30pm~more free time……we read our Bibles a lot, lay on the ground by a fan a lot (mostly what we do), do some yoga (mostly just me), write blogs, talk a ton— we just find random things to do to pass the time ! (currently Sarah is teaching Christine how to dance, some girls are cutting Shelby’s hair, and the rest are chilling!)
this month/country is teaching all of us a lot about stillness and what being still truly looks like. it’s definitely a learning experience coming from a place of go, go, go, + get things done
4:00 pm~ kids come ! we play volleyball and soccer with them, sometimes monkey in the middle too!
5:00 pm~ we round the kids up and walk them to the little class room (it is a few tables with chairs with a white board underneath a little awning) to teach them english. we are also getting to learn Khmer while doing this (Khmer is HARD.)
6:00 pm~ the kids leave, and we tell them “lee-high!” or “te-wea susidai!” (not actually how they are spelt, I have no idea how to spell either. they use san-script here) they mean “bye” + “good evening”
6:30 pm~ approximately when dinner starts and dinner is normally the same thing as lunch is
7:30 pm~ we run to take our bucket showers! feels so nice, even when the water is a little warm from sitting in the buckets in the heat all day. the first day here we made a little shower area for us, using bamboo wood and tarp, so thats where we shower! its quite fun bathing under the stars, in the moon light 10/10 recommend
8:00/8:30 pm~ more free time, most of us go to our tents and go to bed or watch some Netflix. we are worn plum out from the heat so we hit the hay pretty early
THAT’S PRETTY MUCH IT! I love it here. So much.
It’s so different than anything I’ve experienced before, but I am so here for it. And I am ready for all of the things the Lord has in store for this country.
STAY TUNED!
