This blog will be a brief update on what our team has been up to this month in Cambodia. As I previously discussed we have drawn close to our contact Vuthy and the youth in this ministry. Our schedule every Monday through Friday consists of teaching 6 English classes each day as well as house visits for several hours each morning. In order to spread the load evenly our team members decided to each teach one class a day. My class is from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. At 4:00 pm each day the kids come together and our team teaches a bible story. We typically act these stories out with me playing the protagonist (Ex. David) and AJ playing the antagonist (ex. Goliath), while Emily narrates. Throughout the day kids can be found right outside the school playing games, and it is never very difficult to get a good game of volleyball going. That is if you’re willing to battle the heat.
On weekends our schedule looks a little different. Saturday morning our team along with DTS students lead the youth in outreach to the local community. It is referred to as youth missions. The students guide us to different homes in the village and witness our interactions as we share testimony and encouragement with the families. Along with listening, the youth have opportunities to share and develop further confidence in who they are in Christ. We teach 2 English classes on Saturdays after the mission with one of which being my students. Around 2:00 pm many of the youth come to have their hair washed for lice. Yea they are extremely common here. Saturday and Sunday nights we teach a song and dance class. So far, we have taught the song “How He Loves,” and the dances “The Cupid Shuffle” and “The Electric Slide,” as well as Cambodian traditional grooves. People love to dance and sing Karaoke here. All night every night, music can be heard in the distance even without access to power lines. People crank out the generators and party hard.
It just so happens we are here in the Cambodian Buddhist New Year (April 14 – 17) and these past few days have been one ongoing party. School was canceled and we have played games, performed skits, witnessed a 3 day singing competition with judges amongst the youth, and danced each night away. During this time I began to feel ill, which culminated in an overnight stay at a local medical clinic. A case of traveler’s sickness accompanied by a stomach infection no doubt. I received salts and fluids through an IV after becoming quite dehydrated. Not my favorite night on the race to say the least. The good news is, although I am stuck eating rice soup for a couple days, I have been able to get around fairly well today without becoming nauseated. I had two extraordinary homo sapiens Ashley and Vuthy, who hung around all night helping me get around and putting up with my occasional spouts of vomiting.
This is where we find ourselves today… I am still steadily recovering from this temporary ailment, while as a team we are preparing for our final week here in Cambodia. Another rift in the schedule coming this week is a youth camp on Thursday, which we are all staying overnight in one of the rice fields. A team from New Zealand will be joining us for this event. This coming Monday we will be traveling back to Bangkok, Thailand and flying out to Nairobi, Kenya. That’s right we are one week from being Africa bound! Thank you for all your support and comments. I greatly appreciate encouragement as well as other views and criticisms. Please continue to express your thoughts on this blog and know I read each comment although I often do not have enough time to respond.
