Picture this…
You’re living the life of a suspenseful movie. Foreign country, nobody speaks English, you jump in a random taxi hoping that it gets you from point A to point B and somewhere along the way you’re 93% sure that you are about to get kidnapped….well that happened to me.
It all started when we were playing an amusing game of dirt volleyball (that’s right, in Cambodia its not sand, they use dirt fields) in the pouring rain. Last Sunday we tagged along to participate in something called “sports ministry.” Our hosts this month were HUGE soccer fans, live, breathe, eat, soccer. When they decided to play volleyball one day us girls jumped all over that idea! A couple of our students came along and the rain started coming down on us. So here we are, barefoot and muddy, sliding all over the dirt court. Laughing at Rachel cause she screams bloody murder every time she touches the ball, dashing through the mud and falling on our butts. Before we know it Lauren, a girl on my team, has to sit out, becoming the new referee, because she heard a pop in her elbow.
I’m starting to learn that pick up games are tremendously more intense than a serious sports game, because just 24 hours later we are taking Lauren to the hospital. Now, American medical care is a lot different from other countries. I mean for pete’s sake the first doctor dried her x-ray with a hair dryer! Instead of risking Lauren’s condition getting worse we decided our best bet was to head west two hours to an Americanized hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The next day we wake up at the crack of dawn to head out, and our taxi is waiting outside our hostel. If you need a cheap taxi ride, come to Cambodia…$30 for a two hour trip!
The taxi ride was great. Clean car, zooming through traffic, relaxing….up until about an hour and a half into the ride. We can finally recognize that we’ve arrived in Phnom Penh. It’s not a hard city to miss, the traffic and smell is equivalent to LA. Our taxi driver, who by the way doesn’t speak a lick of English, pulls off to the side of the road and proceeds to get out while another man starts charging towards my door. All I can think is “This is it. This is the end. This is what they warn us about.” All I can do is hold my door shut as hard as I can, because I can’t even tell if the doors are locked or not! The guy coming towards us kept on walking right past us and our driver gets back in the car and drives off again. Ten minutes later we pull off onto the side of the road once again. This time there is a herd of men standing, staring in the car at the three white girls staring back in fear. Our hearts are racing, like I said, 93% sure we were about to get kidnapped. Turns out our driver was just stopping and asking for directions to the hospital. We may have been a little paranoid but how could you not be after all the horror stories you hear?!
After sitting in the hospital all day, 11 hours later, $465 later, many tears later, we get to start our journey back home for the night. Lauren tore a ligament in her elbow and was put in a cast, so we are all exhausted and ready to hit the sheets. So here we are again, calling another random taxi having faith that it will get us from point A to point B, but this time its pitch black out, and once again, not a lick of English. About 20 minutes into this cab ride, our driver stops at a gas station that looks like it’s barely holding on. I have a theory that all Cambodians know each other, because he got out of the car and chatted up a storm with the employees for a solid 15 minutes. Before we know it some random guy is on the outside rocking our car back and forth, so our first reaction? Lock the doors. We even locked our own driver out! After our heart beats have raised about a hundred pulses we are on the road again safe and sound.
Our eyes grow heavier as each minute passes, so naturally all three of us fall asleep, but we are quickly woken up by the storm that begins (because it literally rains every day in Cambodia). What I didn’t expect was to wake up, at about the time we are supposed to be home, and not recognize anything. We are on a road in the middle of nowhere, the only thing in sight is trees and a random shack every few miles. Now is the time to begin getting a little worried, so Lauren asks our driver to confirm that he is taking us in the right direction to Kampong Cham…our drivers response? He laughs! “This is it I’m getting kidnapped in the outskirts of Cambodia!!!!” I’ve never prayed so hard in my life. I prayed for safety and protection. I prayed for a translator to show up and a sense of clarity. Meanwhile I’m also planning my escape route of jumping out of the moving vehicle. Do I take my backpack with me or do I leave it behind? Which shack do I run into asking for help? Do I take my phone off airplane mode so I can make an international call for help? As always the Lord prevails and answers prayers, our host called to see how close we were and thankfully he speaks a little bit of broken Khmer. We were on the right course to home it was just a longer trip than predicted. We made it back to our hostel at about 8:30pm able to wipe the nervous sweats from our foreheads. I’ve never been so thankful for a plate of chicken curry and rice, and then climbing the the top of a bunk bed.
This was a crazy experience with a lot of paranoia, but just keep my team and I in your prayers. Continue praying for our health and safety, that God will wrap his angel’s wings around us!
xoxo
Demi
