*There are pictures of most of these things on my facebook page, so feel free to friend me if you want to see them….it takes super long to upload a single photo on this blog!*
I have a really obnoxiously long, detailed, ever-growing, and largely unrealistic bucket list at home that I began about two years ago. Pardon the unoriginal idea, but if you have never made one, you definitely should. Take the pressure off of yourself to add items that you feel like “should” be on it….if you have never had a desire to see the Great Wall of China, go skydiving, eat escargot, or paint a picture, then don’t include them. My bucket list has everything from places I want to see, recipes I want to try/create, books I want to read, events I want to attend….and about 100 other random personal desires.
I had originally thought about making a bucket list for this trip, but given the unpredictability of the whole year, I feared it would become impossible to actually do anything on it.
So here is the next installment of my “Reverse Bucket List”: crazy, random things I experienced in any given country that I never could have known or predicted.
I will go to Cambodia and…
-feel like a queen spending a few nights in an AIR CONDITIONED hotel room in Siam Reap, Cambodia
-straighten my hair and put on make-up, just because I am in AC, have reliable electricity, and want to feel pretty…and then pretty much just lay around the hotel all day.
-enjoy the ridiculous amount of delicious food we can have for dirt cheap, even in a tourist destination. $1 huge tacos and $0.50 draft beer…don’t mind if I do!
-enjoyed a $6 hour long oil massage, alongside my lovely E Squad leaders Hannah and Lindsay.
-laugh hysterically at the number of times I hear “Special price just for you today, pretty lady!”
-run through the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat, racing to the top and pretending we are on “Legends of the Hidden Temple” with some of my squad girls
-do handstands with one of best friends on the Race, Becki, on one of the ancient ruins.
-lay around hotel rooms and truly feel for the first time how deep and true some of my WR friendships have become.
-venture through Phnom Penh in search of pizza at night with Becki, including charging on foot through the middle of a 6 way intersection and fearing for my life.
-realize I am a pack rat as Tasha and Becki helped me re-pack my pack. o:)
-see the horrific Killing Fields and learn chilling details about the Khmer Rouge genocide.
-jump out of a tuk-tuk in knee-high rain water and help the driver push through the water.
-find out I will be an Aunt Bethany! I hope I am as cool as crazy Aunt Bethany from Christmas Vacation!
-run down dirt roads through beautiful green rice fields for my daily exercise, with barefoot children running after me to shout “hello!” every time, with chickens, cows, and dogs scattering as I go.
-plan and carry out children’s Bible time in a lovely Cambodian village, complete with running around barefoot playing “Steal the Bacon” and “Red Rover” with the kids.
-visit local people in their humble homes to pray and visit with them.
-bathe regularly out of a huge trashcan full of cold water
-have incredible food prepared by our lovely host mother, Sam-ol, every meal.
-teach English on a daily basis to excited and willing you Cambodian people hoping to change their lives through this powerful language.
-run out into the pouring Cambodian rainstorms and dance and play and laugh with children and my team mates.
-jump into a scary, muddy swimming hole off of the bridge running over it.
-help collect crabs in the rice fields to cook for dinner
-pry up and re-lay cement where we do children ministry.
-regularly catch and name geckos and bull frogs (I’ll miss you Bradley, Thomas, and Henrietta)
-spend time with Jesus in the morning on a bamboo cot under a palm leaf hut
-shampooed lice treatments into 50+ village children’s hair (and managed to pick it up myself…)
-learned that Cambodian’s know how to cook with pumpkin better than anyone else I have ever met.
-ate frogs that were cooked whole
-ate a fish eyeball
-go to buy watermelon at a roadside stand and be handed a baby to hang out with and given a chair to sit on to stay and visit for a while. We should do this more in America, folks.
-participated in Bible study in a palm leaf hut over a lake that you walk precariously down fallen tree pieces to get to.
-play chubby bunny with the fruit known as dragon eyeballs. (thanks Chris, haha)
-wander around Phnom Penh with Amanda trying to find lice shampoo, and end up getting an oil massage with American Christmas music and Cambodian techno alternating in the background
-observe the hilarity and chaos that is any and every intersection in this city from the perceived safety of a tuk-tuk.
-see what it really means to live out Matthew 28, The Great Commission, through our contacts…Ted, Janeth, Seth, and Sam-ol.
This month has been fun, hilarious, hot, and awesome! I would definitely suggest everyone visit the beautiful and resilient country of Cambodia!
