Q: What was the base like and where did you stay?
A: So, 2 teams stayed at the “base”. My team was not there. From what I’ve heard, the hosts are great. It is a church in Siem Reap where you live and work at. No A/C (4 hours at night only I think?). My team lived in a village. There were plans to move after march, but nothing was ever set in stone. Sissaphon was the closest town to us. We stayed at a church and slept in our tents/hammocks!
Q: What did you do for fun there?
A: Morgs, I think you know this one too well to be asking, but lemme explain for the fans out there. For fun we would:
- Eat ice
- Sleep
- Hammock
- Scream
- Eat snacks
- Pretend we had a dog named fredrick
- Drive 3 hours to take a shower
- Have diarrhea
- Sweat
Anyway
Q: Did you eat authentic Cambodian food?
A: I think? If we are considering pig tongue.. But for real I had some GOOOD food in the city!
Q: What was the dress code there?
A: Apart from AIM dress code, we could not wear shorts to ministry or tanktops. In our free time we wore whatever!
Q: What was your favorite memory from Cambodia?
A: Watching the sunrise in the field at 5:30 with Arielle. That’s when we adopted fredrick and the catdog. Also bruce too. It was our first morning in the village and we waited from 4 to 11 for someone to bring us food. It finally happened thank goodness.
Q: Did you start ministry/ what was it?
A: I believe we had one full week of ministry. We split in half for ministry groups and would switch off everyday from teaching English to village ministry. We taught young Khmer children basic English, and we did house visits with a translator. House visits were my favorite ministry. I think that the Siem Reap teams worked the church services on the weekends and also ministered at the university, as well as visit villages.
Q: What were the living conditions there?
A: My team lived at a church building, so we slept in the field in our tents, or in hammocks. No beds, running water or anything like that and no kitchen. Meals were brought to us and we did have toilets. The water in the bins were not clean, so sometimes we would take bucket showers with that, but like I said it wasn’t clean water. I went into Siem Reap both weeks we were there to stay at a hostel/shower/laundry. No body really showered during the week so I’m not exactly sure what we would’ve done if we were there much longer haha.
Q: What do you recommend as an essential item for Cambodia?
A: – breathable pants (linen)
- Insulated water bottle
- Breathable underwear
- Small fan (buy in country)
- Always have toilet paper on you not a joke please always carry it with you
Sooo that was fun! My few weeks in Cambodia were really something else. But they were honestly one of my favorite times from my entire race. It was uncomfortable, but so fun. My advice would be to really embrace where you are and to not let bad circumstances get the best of you. Be optimistic and have a laughable attitude towards everything here, trust me, it makes it so much better. Don’t come in with expectations, everyones experience is different, but know that you won’t be let down here. You are gonna experience some crazy things & you will be glad you did!!
