Cambodia has been an amazing place, but a hard place. We have eaten rice almost every meal, had four rat encounters, and have about 5-12 children knocking on our windows and door every second of the day but the amazing things are that we have rice almost everyday, have four pets…one pet rat left (the other three had an accident) and children around all the time.
The Cambodian people have been a surprise to me. I’ve never been in an Asian country. I’ve been around a lot of Asians, and I like to think I was somewhat educated on their culture and what it would be like but coming to Asia for the first time was unexpected. The culture is like something i’ve never experienced, the people are kind, respectful, and i’m sureit has something to do with the shame of a family or respect of ancestors, but people seem to be genuinely kind here. They take care of each other and they truly love each other. An example being, there is no tipping here. It is unusual for people to tip, and when we pay for tuk tuk’s (little moto powered boxes) we just had them an amount and they accept it. The people are very kind and accepting. I love it.
Let me tell you a bit about my family. We live in a concrete rectangle as a team with a bathroom/shower, and a little back room where we keep our giant backpacks. It resides right below the little upstairs church that we spent the month working with, and is surrounded by others homes and families – hence the tons of children always around us. I love coming home to the little kids who call me “my mom” an the little community around us that always clls out “hello’s” to us.
Leaving Cambodia is hard. I just feel like I am returning to our little room, our wooden beds, an our rats haha. It is sad, but I am also incredibly excited to head to Thailand. It is so strange to imagine that I will be doing this ten more times. God has revealed so much to me through my team and the Cambodian people that I have gotten to live life with.
I can’t wait to remember them forever.
