From a Treehouse in the Jungle

I wrote this to share with you the second day living in my 'home' for the month of February.
But….since there was no wifi…you are getting it now 😉
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February 2, 2013 – Month 8 of the World Race

Yep- the rumors were true.  I have been living in a tree house.

Its basically a wooden house on stilts – at the level of the tree tops- in the jungle. In a tiny jungle village. In Cambodia. Yep. This finally feels like the stuff they were preparing us for during training camp. We are living in the freakin jungle. 

Interesting details:
-We have no electricity. We use a solar powered battery to power the lights in the house after in gets dark. Not sure how many hours they last, but he said at least 3-4hrs. Hah.

Every thing in the village runs LITERALLY off of a CAR BATTERIES. That you charge with the solar powered generator. Every few days. Yeah.

-We remarkably have both a western toilet and a squatty, in the tree house.

-We have a real shower but the water pressure is zip, so we use the hose to rinse off. (Yep- same hose you fill up the bucket to bucket flush the toilet with). 

So yeah- clarification: also no 'running water'…. But I mean, at this point, I call running water anything that 'runs' out of a hose or faucet. So we have 2 hoses in our 2 bathrooms- so I say – yes and amen – That is running water to me! But technically, the water that flows out of them comes from a water tank- and that water comes from cisterns. And the water we wash our clothes in comes from a Cistern. and the water we drink comes from a cistern (and goes through a filter) – and there are live little swimming fishies in all of them. Yep. There is a fish- or a few small fish (like the kind you'd have in a fish tank at home, little gold fish and little neon ones) in the water we drink, bathe, and do laundry in. yep. That's my running water 🙂 But none of us got sick or anything, so I guess fish water is OK! 😉 hah.

– We get 3 meals a day homecooked by the pastor's mom – they live in the tree house next door. (And by next door, I mean about 100 meters away- along  a chicken coop and duck cage  lined path through the jungle.)
And it might be HAS BEEN the most delicious food we've eaten yet on the Race. 

She cooks lots of veggie and meat stir fry with rice and pineapple and mango. And there's lots of hot sauce- even Tabasco! Which – they buy when the pastor travels to Pnohm Pehn b/c there is like noooothing around here that even vaguely resembles a grocery store. Definitely no Tabasco brand hot sauce at the tiny village market in our village.

Heck, We could barely find shampoo/conditioner and we literally bought the only pckg of toilet paper in the whole market. And they had to grab it from the back and dust it off, haha. Looks like we may end up using our trusty left hands like the locals at some point! Baaahaha, hope not! 🙁  …Side note: we did NOT ever have to 'use our left hands' bahahaha. Much to our relief, we were always able to find toilet paper, even when we had to have Pastors brother bring us some packages from the next village- because our market 'ran out'….. We also had to have several talks about 'conservative toilet paper usage'. Turns out a lot of us wad it up- and folding it is more conservation-minded. These are the topics that frequently dominated our conversations! Hahah. This is my life. Ridiculous.

– Our ministry started yesterday, when we conducted sunday school for the little kids in an even smaller, more remote, and poverty-stricken village about 30 min away by dirt road through the jungle. The sight of this "sunday school" will probably remain etched in my mind forever. The structure looked like "the first schoolhouse" of Florida, in a museum I visited in 4th grade in St Augustine. Just wooden walls and a thatch roof- like a tiki hut- and long wooden desk-like tables that the kids sat at…. patiently and somewhat nervously waiting to see what these strange white women would say and do. The kids- they looked like the faces from one of those "adopt a child" Compassion International or World Vision infomercials you see late night on TV.

Most of them barefoot and dirty, a few without pants, a few with out shirts, and a couple- tiny ones- with puffed out, distended tummies -that may have been caused my malnutrition or parasites. It was a sight that brings tears to my eyes, even now as I type this. But they were SO cute: baby doll dark eyes, precious tan-brown, dust-covered skin, and shaggy, shiny mops of black hair.

We sang songs- turns out they know "Father Abraham" in Khmer (the language here)- so THAT was fun to sing and act out in both languages, at the same time 😉 Then I narrated a skit rendition of "The Good Samaratan" that my team enthusiastically acted out, then we played some games and called it a day- which they seemed disappointed about b/c it seems they usually have sunday school for 3 hours! So maybe next week we'll have to have a longer program planned 😉

We then trekked back to our Tree House and had regular church service… HERE!
So not only do we live in a tree house, we live in a Tree House CHURCH!
We actually sleep in the sanctuary 🙂
(We have to pack up our sleeping bags/hammocks/bug nets/stuff every sunday for services.)

While we're here, it seems we'll run church services. Yesterday Kylee and I led worship (sang), Christina Young gave her testimony (stories about her life and what God has taught her), and Miranda gave the message! (With a translator) —those are my teammates. I think I'll offer to give the message next wk 🙂
I have yet to preach on the Race and I am lookin fwd to trying it  🙂

Side Note…I DID end up getting to 'preach' at church! It was SO fun! I 'preached' on my 'sermon' that I wrote back in September. It was a blog post that I shared called "I don't want to be blessed" and it was about how God has a 'Personal Promised Land', for each and every one of us. If you dont remember it, you can chk it here:  

http://christinadombrowsky.theworldrace.org/?filename=i-dont-want-to-be-blessed
It was really good! —If I do say so myself 😉 hahaha >

– After the church service -which is all teenagers (we worked with a youth-focused ministry), we hung out with the teens and practiced English and dance moves until we were too tired and sweaty to continue. Turns out Gangnam Style is popular is every country of the world these days. And all kids, of all cultures, like the dance moves. We saw Romanian and Moldovan teens dancing it out in a flash mob, we danced it with the children of the slums in Thailand, our Muslim and Indian friends in Malaysia, and now with the Cambodian teens at our church. (Havent heard of it? It's a Korean rap/dance song and only the most viewed You Tube music video…like, ever. Chk it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH1XGdu-hzQ )

– So, I think our ministry schedule is gonna be pretty chill n flexible – teaching english, small group bible studies, house visits, house maintenance in the village, church/sunday school.

And although its super hot, still. The tree house is pretty awesome. I've assessed and decided that the living conditions are even more "harsh / humble" than last month…in Malaysia,  but there's a rustic charm to it this month. Whereas last month there was nothing charming about it- it was just suburban poverty, pretty much. Not a lot of charm in that. But This…this is life in the jungle.
Living in a tree house village.
Poor and rustic… but charming and picturesque.
Like walking into a photo from National Geographic.
And then living there.
For a month.

The view of the sunset over the tree tops are incredible… 

…..and I'm sure we'll catch some sunrises, soon 😉 village life starts early. The rooster was crowing before 6am this morning! Luckily it ends super early, too. Because of the limited lighting, watching a movie or reading your kindle creates a swarming battleground of insects between you and the bright screen -which is just SO gross. We sleep under mosquito nets- and my individual net feels like a weird cage, so I'm sleeping underneath a giant one (that the Pator loaned us) with a few of the girls. It feels like sleeping in a fort like the kind you build out of sheets and chairs when ur little 😉

Ok that's a long, detailed update- but once I started writing, I wanted to tell u everything!  😉
I attached a photo of the sunset view from our treehouse home 🙂

Send me updates on you!
Xoxox
Xtina….  in a tree house in the Cambodian jungles

This is a pic of me and the kids we taught English to – not the Sunday school crew I wrote about- these are kids from our village we taught English to Monday- Thursday 🙂

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…..So this was an email I sent to some friends and fam on Day 2 of Life in the Treehouse, but – like I said- I didnt have wifi and couldnt post it until now. Sooooo if you are feeling left out and you want me to add you to my email list (for when there is NO wifi and I can only send emails on my blackberry — which is what the deal was this month and what the deal might be in Africa next month), then just send me an email real quick and I'll add you to my contact on my blackberry. SORRY if I left you out – it's only because I don't have your email address on my phone! So if you want IN on the inner circle, you got  it 😉
Just send me an email and you're in! [email protected]