We left our town for a village the other day. When we
arrived, we quickly realized that it wasn’t a village we’d be going to, but
another town. It’s much nicer and so much more peaceful. We’re staying in a
guest house (like a small motel) with air con, tv, and a nice shower.
We will only be here for three days, but we love it so much
we wish we could stay for the rest of the month.
Those are tarantulas that they fried and ate, at the bus stop on the way to the village.
When we arrived, our contact Chris, who is unbelievably cool,
showed us around the town and what we’d be doing for ministry. He took us to
two churches we’d be going to and the school we’d be teaching at.
So today, the two teams split up and my team went to Chris’s
church which is actually at his parents’ house. The church is filled with young
people and many didn’t show up in attendance. Chris said maybe it was because
the foreigners scared them off. We worshiped, shared the message, then left to
play soccer on the government field down the street.
I am not much of a soccer player, so I played some version of
Monkey in the Middle with girls who weren’t playing soccer either. Then we sat
down and tried learning Khmer (said come-i, the language they speak here),
which is much harder than I expected, but I can count to 10!
Before we left, we went back to the church and plugged the drums,
keyboard, and mics back in and of course, I preformed for everyone! Sam played
keyboard (one key at a time), Courtney rocked out the drums, and I oprahed it
out on the mic! We sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Marry Had a Little
Lamb. Our band name is: SamAubreeandCourtney, said really fast.
The girls from church who I played games with and who taught me Khmer.
Later in the evening after dinner, Andrew and I found
ourselves a sort of Ferris wheel and decided to check it out. From far off, it
looked pretty rickety; when we got closer, it looked the same, rickety and
rusty. The seats were cages and most of them were wet.
When we arrived, no one was around and we were wondering if
anyone actually rode this even though lights we on. There were other rides
around and even a bouncy slide, but no one to take money or work the machines
it seemed.
All of a sudden a guy on a motorcycle drove up and parked. He
waved at us and the pointed to the Ferris wheel and we said, “Yes!� He turned
the other direction, bent down, picked up a crank handle from the grass, and
walked over to the machine.
He hand cranked it up, the chainsaw engine, and came over to
let us in one of the cages. We went round and round and round and round and
round and round and round and round, I was getting sick. He didn’t stop us at
the top and it was going so fast. I don’t actually think he would have stopped
us if we wouldn’t have told him too.
Finally Andrew held up his hands to stop and he slowed it down. We eventually did stop at the top, only for a few seconds. It was a great adventure!
A blurry picture of the amusement park and Ferris wheel.
