Exactly one week ago today I spent about 9 hours on a bus taking me from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. N Squad joined together for about 3 days in Siem Reap for a mini debrief before dispersing to our various ministry sites for the month. While on that 9-hour bus, I slept some, chatted with my bus buddy some, listened to my music some, until my ipod died on me.
But most of my time on that bus was spent getting lost in the world outside my window.
I can’t tell you how many times this year I’ve sat on a bus and toured the most beautiful places. My idea of ‘beautiful’ may not be the same as yours. Yes, so many trips did fall into that conventional form of beauty, but many times it looks more like dirty, or smelly, or abandoned, or ruined to the naked eye.
Well last Monday I journaled the beautiful things I was so enamored with while riding through Cambodian countryside. It turned into random jots of various things, kind of like an ‘I Spy’ game, but I wanted to share them with you.
September 30th, 2013
- Greyish/whitish cows grazing alongside the road
- Laughing children, running in circles, jumping off of tall things, mostly naked…they make me laugh.
- Green, green, green everything
- Patches of flooded swamp in front of every house
- Holes in the road filled with piles of jagged rock–no wonder our bus is zig zagging down the road
- Tarps laid out in front of homes covered with some sort of golden grain “drying out” (nothing dries in Cambodia during rainy season)
- Mothers and Grandmothers squatting low on their heels with their knees bent up by their shoulders sifting through the “drying” grain
- Motos drive in and out of other vehicles, piled with 1-4 Cambodians, usually at least one baby sandwiched in the middle
- Young girl, maybe 11, with long beautiful black hair following her mother down a long dirt path
- Little boys, probably naked, swimming in the flooded ponds with laughter I swear I can hear through the windows on the bus…they make me laugh, too.
- An entire yard covered in black and white ducks reveling in the abundance of water
- Little girl, maybe 2, wearing an orange and white dress, her hair is fixed in tiny pigtails poking up from her crown like antennae
- Purple and white lotus flowers the size of cantaloupes standing tall above their lily pads
- Blue and white ‘Cambodian People’s Party’ signs
- Fruit stands with pineapple stacked in a perfect pyramid 4-feet tall
- Combi stopped so a random variety of it’s passengers could pop a squat on the side of a dirt road, including a little girl in a black and red polka dot dress–she had to go real bad
- Thatch roof houses built up on 10-foot beams off the ground to protect from flooding
- Narrow bamboo bridges that lie flush to the flooded ditch connecting houses to the road
- Smiles–lots, and lots of smiles
- Weathered grey wood plywood sides to a house contrast to the blue door–it’s such a beautiful color of blue, kind of a cross between robin’s egg, sea foam, and that soft, but glowing blue the sky gets right before the sun rises
- I’ve been in this country for 4 or 5 days now and I still can’t figure out what side of the street traffic runs, what does that say about driving habits
- Soldier-like palms stand above every other tree like prideful guardians of Cambodia
- Sporadic flooded rice fields that are greener than grass
- Two girls parked their bikes and are trying to pick some fruit off the tall branches above them, still in their white button-up blouses and navy skirts from school uniform
- A man sits on top of a giant white stone, about the size of a boat, carving it into that all familiar Buddha idol
- Thin hammocks made from twine hang underneath the raised houses strung up between the support beams
- Out of habit, I scan the surface of the flooded fields for the ridges of an alligator back…missing Florida
- Long skinny fishing boats anchor near the tops of little trees that have been drowned in the floods and men swim next to them, pulling fishing nets behind them
- We stop at a gas station for the restroom and a young girl named Nofu walks beside me hoping I'll buy some pineapple, mango or Double Mint Gum from her. She's BEAUTIFUL. She wears a purple polka dot button up over a mustard yellow tshirt, teal flip flops and short jeans. Her hair is dark with golden streaks throughout. When i had to get back on the bus she ran around to the other side where my window was, waved our mammoth bus goodbye and gave a sweet smile I'll always remember.
This is what I think beauty is——-I think beauty is Cambodia.
#cambodiailoveyou
