This month I find myself living out in the countryside of Cambodia. We are partnering with a small local church, spending our mornings doing house visits within the community, gardening, fishing and personal hygiene classes. Our afternoons are spent teaching English to the kids in the area.
We are not exactly in the Stone Age, we do have electricity! In general, however, the days are much simpler.
– To get internet or find an ATM it’s a 30 minute drive into ‘town’ in an old car that doesn’t get above 50 mph. This happens about once or twice a week at most.
– We have ‘squaty potties’ for toilets. Our showers consist of cold buckets of water. We sleep on concrete floors under a tin roof.
None of this is new to me. I’ve lived in these conditions during periods of last year as I concluded my own World Race, but each time I return to this lifestyle I am reminded of the beauty of the simple life.
Most of the world looks at the conditions of this Cambodian village and sees the glaring struggles. The fact that some families can’t afford to send their children to even basic schooling. The lack of proper sanitation and hygiene among some of the community. Minimal amount of job opportunities and infrastructure. There is no doubt that certain standards of living and opportunities need to be raised for the communities like this one around the world.
We in the ‘Western World’ that often look at these communities from a distance, with pity in their eyes, can also be reminded of a few things.
– Of a place where you don’t simply know your neighbors names, you call them your closest friends. Here in the village “what’s mine is yours” is a way of life.
– That rest is not a luxury but a necessity. During the heat of the day we find ourselves taking a post-lunch hammock break in the shade of our trees.
– That silence is not a bad thing. In a world without 24 hour news networks, constant Instagram updates and group text messages I have found more time to just sit and rest with the Lord. There isn’t always an agenda, sometimes it’s simply silence and reflection. It helps break my tendency to get ‘too busy’ for God in my normal life.
It’s here in the Banteay Meanchey province of Cambodia that I am reminded of the beauty of the Simple Life.
I pray as we help these communities evolve and grow that they never lose sight of what makes them so special, and along the way we can be reminded of a few things as well.
