I am two things primarily, homesick and in love with Cambodia. The homesickness manifests itself in thousands of moments of olfactory reminiscence along the river, and exclusively listening to songs about the south. Being in love with Cambodia comes even easier; in other words, how could anyone not be!
Peace is brought in daily on the Sengkae river. Heartbreak daily as I wander into the caves that hold the bodies of many thousands of intellectuals slaughtered at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. We celebrate each other with rice and banana cooked in long banana leaves over fires in the market. Sleep in the relative cool of the night, sometimes as low as 80 degrees,stretched out on the roof. Some whole evenings spent mourning that a single block away the sex trade that tortures women all through the Mekong Basin boasts the tallest buildings in our visible skyline.
God whispers to me analogies of how He gives me grace while I mop our tile floor. He teaches me about patience while I wash clothes in a bucket on the bathroom floor. I read for long hours in the library, about philosophy or apologetics. I drink iced coffee with condensed milk from Wouthi’s open aired, pink-walled coffee shop- his coffee shop framed by big signs in English with the grammar all wrong.
Our team works Monday- Saturday at Ezra Library Cafe, a space mostly inhabited by ex-pat creatives or missionaries, created to fund a free school. When not there we’re making sustainable bamboo cards at Handa Medical Center to support the trauma hospital for victims of mine explosions and Moto accidents. Just the night before last we met a man on the sidewalk that asked us to help teach English at his village’s school and I’m quite sure that his school will be a more official part of our schedule in the coming weeks.
Here in Battambang dreaming about being stateside in 71 days. Thanking God daily that I’m here right now.
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Want to know more about what I’m doing or the going ons of Cambodia? Need someone to chat with in general? Have things to tell me from the states? Email me at [email protected] or text anytime on my Cambodian number +855-87-672-623.
Love and light,
Abby Smallwood.
