Can you believe month 8 has already come to an end?!?! My time in Cambodia has flown by.
Adjusting to Asian culture has been the biggest culture shock for me so far on the Race. I’ve never been to Asia before and everything is so different from home. It’s a very hot and humid climate, think 90’s with high humidity, and we’re in rainy season, which means it’s cooler here. Sweating is no joke. The official language is Khmer, which consists of different symbols. The main forms of transportation are motos (basically mopeds) and tuk tuks. Whole families ride on a single moto, which is impressive. The currency used is the Cambodian Riel (4,000 Riel= 1 USD) and USD. There are no coins here, so you feel rich when you have lots of 500 or 1,000 bill Riels, but in reality you aren’t because 1,000 Riel is equivalent to a quarter. The people are very friendly and welcoming. They smile, joke around and laugh a lot. This is the first country my squad has traveled to that’s main religion isn’t Christianity. The main religion is Buddhism and there are temples and monks everywhere.
This month my team worked at Solomon International School that is connected to the Russey Keo Baptist Church. The school and church is located in a neighborhood located right outside Phnom Penh, the capitol city of Cambodia. Solomon is a private Christian School, but it’s cheaper to attend Solomon than a public school. Most of the parents work in factories and can’t afford to send their students to school. The school has scholarships for the students, which is a blessing because otherwise they’d be at home doing nothing. Most of the students don’t come from Christian households, but they are being told about Christ daily.
Our main ministry was teaching English in the classrooms, but we also hosted a basic first aid training seminar for the teachers to better equip them. We would assist the teachers in the classrooms and help with pronunciation and writing. There wasn’t a curriculum so often times we had to come up with things to do. I learned this month that I do not have a passion for teaching kindergartner- third grade students. It was exhausting and the language barrier didn’t make things easy. I loved hanging out with the students and teachers though! I miss them already.
This month we lived with Pissey and her family. We stayed in one bedroom and slept on our sleeping mats, that’s 4 months in a row. We had a “closet” this month! Basically we could hang our clothes on a rack instead of living out of packing cubes. There were 4 fans in the room to try to cool it down, but it was still a sauna. The bathroom came with a toilet, sink, shower and bidet all-in-one. You shower right next to the toilet (there are no dividing walls) and toilet paper isn’t a thing here.
The food. I’m not even sure where to begin. The food is so different from home and the American version of Chinese food. Rice is a staple here (no surprise) and comes with most meals. Soup with Cambodian noodles is typically served for breakfast. It’s delicious, but it’s hard to eat hot soup when you’re already very hot. There are markets everywhere with everything you can imagine. The food markets sell fruits, meats, bugs, seafood, soups, fried noodles, etc. Our host is a great cook and has exposed us to a lot of different local foods. Also, Cambodians love putting lots of sugar and condensed milk in anything that is supposed to be sweet.
Have you heard of the Khmer Rouge? The Khmer Rouge was lead by a communist leader that directed a large genocide over all of Cambodia. He targeted those who had a chance to overpower him, so anyone with an education or degree. If you had soft hands or wore glasses you could be seen as a threat. He wanted to be the highest up in Cambodia, which lead to a massive killing. He wiped out 1 out of every 4 people within 4 years; a whole generation was wiped out! The Khmer Rouge ended in 1980, but many people are still affected by it. People are stuck in poverty and are afraid to get an education.
My team was able to visit Tuol Slen (S-21) and the killing fields in Phnom Penh. S-21 was a former high school in the city that was turned into a prison. Those who were arrested were tortured to death. Over 20,000 people were killed here and only 7 survived. When visiting S-21 you hear stories about what went on, see graphic pictures of people being tortured and visit classrooms that were turned into tiny prison cells. It wasn’t easy to walk through a school that became a place of torture because people were educated. There are killing fields located all over Cambodia and the one we visited was right outside the city. Men, women and children were brought here to be killed. There were mass graves located all over the field and bones are still being uncovered as the ground continues to settle. It was bad enough that people were being killed, but the way people were killed was horrific. One of the hardest parts to hear about was the killing tree. Children’s heads were smashed against this tree and their bodies were thrown in a grave right next to it. People were tortured, beaten and stoned to death. Bullets were too expensive to use so often times farming equipment such as machetes were used. Over 2.5 million people were killed at this killing field alone. Currently there is a monument filled with human skulls in remembrance of the people who died there.
Some of our adventure days consisted of exploring Phnom Penh and visiting the markets, slums, the mall and seeing a movie. Our hosts took us to the Royal Palace where people picnic outside the gates. I was able to visit Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world too. It originated as a Hindu temple, but is now a Buddhist temple. It was gorgeous. My team was able to meet up with my team leader’s friends who started S.W.A.T. Ministries and assist them with teaching self-dense to young girls who have been rescued from sex-trafficking.
Overall it was a good month. It was a month of adjusting to a new culture and the heat. It was a month of teaching and learning that I will not be an elementary school teacher. It was a month of loving on the students and teachers. It was a month full of laughter and it was a month of solidifying what the Lord has taught me so far on the Race.
Thank you for your continual prayers and words of encouragement. This year has been quiet a journey and I can’t thank you enough for making it possible!
