Hey friends! I decided to write a little Q&A blog to answer some of your questions about the race/my life in Cambodia! Hope you enjoy:)
Have you learned to speak any Cambodian?
The official language of Cambodia is Khmer. I haven’t learned very much, only a few simple phrases and how to count.
What’s the craziest food you’ve eaten?
Two weeks ago we had our month 4 debrief in Siem Reap. Every night we would have dinner on Pub Street, where people would walk around selling questionable foods to try. My friend Kendel ate a scorpion and a snake. But I’m a ween so I only tried the snake (which tasted like an extremely overcooked, stale Beggin’ Strip). Would not recommend, but apparently it’s a delicacy here.
What’s your favorite food so far?
Since I love food, I have a couple favorites. At my month 1 debrief in Jaco, I would go to this place called B-Fresh every day. They had reallyyyy good açaí bowls and sandwiches. There’s also a restaurant called Glass Coffee across the street from my current neighborhood. It’s pretty expensive for Cambodian prices, but their spring rolls are amazing.
Packing essentials for Cambodia?
Honestly my squad has been VERY fortunate with our living situations the past 5 months. We’ve been provided beds, showers, dishes, silverware, and nice toilets (granted my standards are pretty dang low nowadays). Our TL’s also go to the market every week to buy us food, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, and toilet paper. Everything I’ve bought here was pretty much for convenience. The only things I can really think of are clothing lines if you are going to hand wash your clothes instead of taking them to the laundromat (or use hammock straps like me since I didn’t bring any), or toilet paper/wipes because I refuse to use the bidet and we run out ALL.THE.TIME.
How’s your knee been throughout the trip?
I swear my knee is getting worse. Back at home I was always super active and tried to gain back my leg muscle, but here I don’t have many opportunities to go on a run and work out. The scar tissue on my knee is always aching, and I usually have to sit down during worship because I can’t stand for very long. I heard the Swazi base is a perfect place to run and work out around, so I’m hoping things will get better next month.
What’s the thing you’ve been craving the most?
I have been craving a lot of things. My family, my friends, In-N-Out, Chick-Fil-A milkshakes, and being able to flush toilet paper. But I often find myself wanting to drive to the lake in the middle of the night blasting music with the windows down with my friends. The closest I’ve come to this is sitting on the ITCS bus coming back from the villages. The windows are always open because the bus doesn’t have AC, and if I sit still and close my eyes super tight, I can pretend I’m back in AZ. Sounds kinda pathetic, but I promise it’s comforting.
What has been the most difficult part of the race? The most rewarding?
Definitely living in community. I’m exactly 50% introvert and 50% extrovert, but I sometimes need alone time to recharge. This makes living with 24 people pretty hard. The only alone time I get is when I sit on the roof and listen to music early in the morning or late at night.
The most rewarding part of my trip would be getting to make a difference. The neighborhood my squad and I are living in is considered an unreached people group, and we get to teach the kids about Jesus everyday. Some of us even got to hand out bibles to our classes, and seeing the kids get so excited makes my heart super happy:)
What has been the absolute best part of your trip?
My favorite memory of my race so far was the week I spent in Talamanca. Two of our girls teams and our guys all rode on a bus to the middle of nowhere, right next to the border of Panama. We spent the week hiking through the Costa Rican jungle to people’s houses to give them words of encouragement and show them love. We also got to spend time with the people of the community. They came to our base and we would play games, sing songs, and do crafts with them. We even went on a prayer walk at 3am and prayed over the persecuted church, right under the stars. It was a very physically and emotionally challenging week, but feeling God’s presence throughout the whole experience made it very hard to leave.
How has it affected your faith?
My relationship with God has definitely grown. My church never put as much of an emphasis on the Holy Spirit as AIM does, so I had to learn how to hear Him better. Leadership had been helping me get the hang of it in Costa Rica. I went from constantly doubting myself to getting images for my teammates while doing listening prayer. I have seen so much growth in myself over the past 5 months, and I can’t wait to see what the next 4 months bring.
How has it affected your life plans?
Being on the race has not really affected my life plans. I still plan on going to college next year and working so I can save up and travel over the next couple of summers. The only thing that has really changed is my want to play soccer. Playing club at college would be ideal, but it also might be a bad idea considering I haven’t played in almost 2 years… we’ll see what happens I guess.
I hope you guys enjoyed this blog and I answered your questions! Also thank you guys for your support! Thanks to ya’ll I’m now at $12,552. But I still need $4,048 until I’m fully funded or I’ll be sent home. Please consider supporting me so I can stay on the field and continue doing what I love. As always, anything helps and I know the Lord will provide! Thank you in advance:)
