Sorry for the lack of blogs! I know I have been sort of absent, but I’m currently working on this one (obviously), with 2 more to come! This one will be the update/overview, and then the others will be some more specific thoughts.
I’m going to start by backing up a few weeks.
We left Thailand on September 29 for Cambodia. Thailand was great- we had a great host, the best translator, and exhausting but fulfilling ministry. The things that made it difficult were all because of me. But that’s behind us now, and Cambodia has been many times better on a personal level.
After what I thought to be a sketchy border crossing that actually went really smoothly, we met up with 3 other teams, and caught a bus to Siam Reap. Siam Reap is awesome. We were there for a week for what’s called “debrief”, and our squad mentors flew out to talk with us and teach us and encourage us. It was a much needed time.
In Siam Reap, we were staying really close to what’s called Pub Street. Apparently it’s something like New Orleans, but having never been I don’t actually know. There were big markets (AKA lots of shopping), yummy restaurants, and lots of people. Pub Street is very touristy, but then as soon as you get outside of that it was kind of what I expected Cambodia to be.
We also had the opportunity to go to Angkor Wat, which is one of the 7 Wonders of the World. It was really cool. We got up really early and watched the sun rise over it, and then there are multiple temples so we spent the rest of the morning exploring those. My favorite one was this really intricately carved one. It was so beautiful!
For those of you who know me well, you will be surprised to hear that I actually love spending time with the kids. They are so funny and goofy. There is one boy, Borey, who I want to take with me. It’s been challenging and exhausting, with 5:30 AM wakeups and not a minute alone, but I don’t think I would have it any other way. When the children aren’t in our apartment, it seems so empty and quiet. We have a rough schedule of what to do with them, but mostly we’re just supposed to love them.
The biggest struggle of Cambodia is the bugs. There are so many freaking ants. I’m fairly certain that I will have a minor breakdown by the end of this month because of them. Yesterday I went hard with the baby powder in the kitchen, because the ants crawl out of the cracks in the counter, and the floor, and the walls. They also like to be in our beds. I don’t enjoy that. If anyone has any easy ant remedies, please, I beg you, send them my way. I have more ant bites than I care to think about in places that I care to think about even less. There is also a dog who I have a very strong dislike for. It likes to hang out in our apartment, and lay on our coffee table and be super inconvenient, and it literally has fleas crawling off of it. Once it gets up from lying down, we have so smash all of them that have crawled off. Just the bugs in general here are ridiculous.
But overall, Cambodia is great. I didn’t really have any mental picture of what it would be like, but I think it’s the most beautiful place I’ve actually been in my life. There was a genocide back in the 70’s where many of the educated people were targeted and killed, and I was curious as to how that has affected the country to this day, but I haven’t really seen anything that I can tell is a result of it. I would say that it is definitely not as developed as some of the other countries we have been to, but I’m not at liberty to say what may be the cause of that. It’s a beautiful, beautiful place, and if you have the chance to come, take it!
