A day in the life……. The following blog will give you a detailed description of a day in the life in a small little village in the south east corner of Cambodia. ( I did have pictures to go with each part of my day but my internet is too slow right now to load them…. sorry friends 🙁 )
At 630am I'm woken up by the sounds of the roosters and the dogs. They shout at the top of their lungs every single morning. Maybe they are doing their morning devotions? I suppose that it's okay that they wake me, because it's time for me to get up anyways. After I stretch and moan a little bit while I feel sorry for myself that it's so early and I have to get up, I make my way down the ladder of the bunk bed. It's not a graceful process… TRUST me. It's actually a strenuous process that is sure to officially wake me up.
Once my feet hit the floor I realize that I'm the last one to get up. That's not a surprise. At all. After I realize that I'm the last one to get up every single morning, I look at my pack sitting next to my bed. It's time to get dressed! Hmmmm……. Depending on what is "clean" (clean means- if you've only worn it 2 days in a row it's still good for another day) I usually have two shirts to decide on. Getting dressed in the morning is the easiest decision of my day. Not much to chose from! After I'm dressed I put my put half of my hair onto of my head like a 5 year old child and there you have it! Next, I take my vitamins, put in my contacts, and brush my teeth. But, don't be fooled. Brushing my teeth does not consist of going to the sink and turning on the water. Brushing my teeth here is a bit more of a task……. First I have to make sure I have enough water in my water bottle to pour over my toothbrush…… Then I go outside into the grass and gargle, brush, and spit into the mud/garbage pile that's right outside of our door. I'm ready!!! In about 2.5 minutes.
At 7am we all meet on our porch (a cement slab in the front of our home) to begin our day in prayer. We pray for our squad, our teams, our fundraising for this trip, all of our supporters and financial donors, our families at home, our ministry, and any other prayer requests that God lays on our hearts. It's a perfect way to start the day! While we are praying we must keep our focus on the Lord, and not the baby chicks running around our feet or the dogs licking our toes. But hey, it's totally normal when you're on The World Race!
After prayer time I pour my oatmeal into a bowl with my brown sugar and honey, sit down with my bible, journal, and ipod, and spend a full hour of just me and Jesus! It's my favorite part of the day. While I sit down for my date with Jesus, I sit in awe while I watch the sun peeking out of the palm trees, the little children running down the dirt road to go to school, and the most beautiful green rice fields as far as the eye can see. I can't think of a better place to sit and enjoy the masterpiece with the creator himself.
At 830am my team and I leave to go visit homes in the village and pray with families and tell them about Jesus. I might add, telling people in a different language about Jesus is the easiest part of this task! Walking to these homes consists of trudging through rice fields, dodging massive piles of cow poop, and leaping over mud and water puddles….. that usually results in at LEAST one of us slipping and falling.
By 930am I've successfully gotten down from my bunk bed, eaten my oatmeal with Jesus, dodged piles of cow poop, prayed with families to know Jesus, AND worked up enough sweat to bath in it. Mostly, you never stop sweating. ever.
At 10am I ride on the back of a motor bike to the public school where I teach an English class for an hour. I call my kids "my little rascals." They are 5 and 6 years old. I'm telling ya people….. they REALLY don't get much cuter than this. Basically this hour consists of me standing in front of the class screaming each letter of the alphabet at the top of my lungs and giving high fives when they know what letter comes next. It's rather hilarious, and SO rewarding and fun. A passion for teaching English over seas may be brewing….. or maybe I'm just in the honeymoon stage. Yep, that's probably it. After class is over I stand at the door and give each kid a high five and a hug as they walk out of the classroom. They LOVE this. I do too 🙂
Next comes quiet time. This usually consists of me reading for a few minutes before I pass out in the hammock. This is normally a daily occurrence. Me napping? Shocker, right? For those that know me……. are you catching my sarcasm? 😉
Lunch is at 12:30 everyday. Vuthy's mom cooks for us. Rice and eggs anyone??
Laundry time! This time of the day is when I really miss washing machines and I will never ever ever take them for granted ever again!! First I must go get water from the water barrels filled with rain water in the back of our home. I fill two pales with dirty rain water. yum! Then I sprinkle some laundry soap in the water, and begin to wash my clothes. This process kills two birds with one stone…. it's my workout time too! Scrubbing and rinsing my laundry in the hot heat is tiring! By this time I'm not only bathing in my sweat, but i'm drowning in it. Every few washes the water gets so dirty that it's nauseating and impossible to think your clothes are actually getting CLEAN, so I dump the water, and start over again. After they are washed and "clean" you find a bush or a fence post to hang them on. In my dreams my clothes are clean and fresh, but in reality they are just a LITTLE bit cleaner than they were. If anything….. they sure do smell better!!
After laundry I prepare for my 2pm class. The kids come early, so I usually sit around with them while they show me their homework that I gave them the day before. They are so proud! And so am I! At 2 class starts. These kids are between 11 and 13 years old. We work on colors, months, vocabulary, very basic sentences, and reading comprehension. We have a lot of fun and I ADORE them. Here is my favorite story in this class………… two of our vocab words the other day were 'snow' and 'Valentines Day.' Part of their homework was to go home and write 3 sentences using the vocab words. One of the girls came back the next day to show me her sentences. She was SO proud and eager to show me. Her first sentence wrote exactly this, "The snow wear in the Valentines Day." I couldn't help but laugh while I gave her a high five and said "great effort!"
Before I move on remember that I'm still sweating. That never stops. ever.
Class is over and it's time for my daily 7up! The last two hours my mouth has been watering because all I can think about is taking that first sip of a cold 7up. There is a small market stand outside of our gates. They sell COLD 7up for 50 cents. After I get my drink i'm really giddy and happy! SO refreshing. Alysa (my teammate) and I usually go on a date with our 7up. We walk down the dirt road a little ways. There is a small patch of land sitting in the middle of a rice field that has the most beautiful view you've ever seen. We trudge through the rice field with our village dog "lion" and sit in "our spot." We talk about everything……. is a perfect time to process with my dear friend and teammate. AND we have the most beautiful view in the world while we're at it!
530pm our night class begins. Jacob (my teammate) and I teach that class. It's a class full of teenage girls. They giggle ALOT and LOVE us. We are practicing vocabulary and sentence structure. I walked into class the first day and introduced myself as "teacher Bethany." These girls hardly spoke any English, but within a second of me introducing myself I hear a loud voice from the back of the room, "DO YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND!?" The class irrupts with laughter and I proceed to tell them a loud and clear "NO" 🙂 — ( The end of the month is almost here and it's STILL the running joke in the class 🙂 )
645pm is dinner. Vuthy's mom makes it for us. Rice and eggs anyone??
After dinner It's time to "clean" myself and get rid of the gallons of sweat that I produced in the last day. This entails either jumping into the lake or using a bucket to wash my hair and my body. You know, it's a great time!
After drowning ourselves in the lake to bath our team spends some time together reflecting on the day, talking through our challenges and celebrations, and encouraging one another. This is a critical time each day that is essential on the world race. It builds community and brings us closer as a team. Living with the same small group of people 24/7 is NOT an easy thing. Basically, when you go on the race you are put on a team with 6 other strangers from all over the country. You all have your own way of doing things, and everyone is VERY different. Now you have to go out into the world together, experience 11 new cultures together, grow spiritually together, learn to love each other, learn to fight for each other, learn to get along………… you know. It's hard! I enjoy this time with with my team. It's called 'feedback.' Depending on the day you either pray to survive through it, or looking forward for it to begin 😉
By this time I'm completely exhausted, but all the boys that live with us in the village want to see pictures of my family, watch a movie, sing songs, or play games. This past week we've been having dance lessons every night. I teach them routines, turns, ballet….. all the good stuff. The boys LOVE it. It's always a good laugh….. 🙂
by 8 or 9 i'm OUT for the count.
There you have it. That's a day in the life for me this month in Cambodia! The days are long, challenging, sweaty, and exhausting, BUT everyday is beautiful in this place…… ESPECIALLY when you find joy in the sucky situations and see Jesus working ALL over this place. I'll never forget this month as long as I live…….. what a time it has been! We've got 5 days left. Prayers from embracing the rest of the time here and God using me in this place for his good!
