Hello from Bangkok again!!! (this is a hefty blog, so gear up for the ride. : )
Some of the Racers just got back from a month in Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA!! Tomorrow we head off to Hong Kong and then into mysterious places all over China to do…… no one’s really sure yet. But it’s going to be awesome, no doubt about that. ; ) Smiles.
But, before I start into Cambodia and all the amazing and wild tales from that place, I want to mention something fairly important about China — just so you all are in the loop. China is a closed nation which means ‘Christian things’ are not acceptible. In order to protect our China contacts, I’m pretty sure internet will be extremely limited. The goverment sees all is what I hear, so you may not hear from me via blogs, emails, Facebook, Skype, etc. for about 4-5 weeks (which Im sure none of you will think is strange at all since that is about my usual blogging frequency : ) I thought you would like to know anyways.
Onward to CAMBODIA! : ) As some of you may have heard through the grapevine, Cambodia started off a tad rocky for me. I have to be honest, it was shocking to leave the ‘lap of luxury’ (note: everything’s relative for World Racers, ‘luxury’ means something different to us… wink) which was Bangkok only to arrive to Phnom Penh and be greeted with the most heinous green stench coming from the alley leading to our first few nights of non-air-conditioned lodging. This was the most acutely i have felt shocked by any culture to date, no lies here. I slept sweatily (read that word carefully) that night, woke up the next morning, headed down the alley of nightmarish smells, stepped over mounds of soggy garbage sitting in organized piles all along everywhere, and promptly observed the veritable sea of motor bikes pouring down every road and every which way. I was baffled. Then i saw a lady and a girl on a motor bike get wrecked into by another motor bike. Horror. Maybe 5 minutes later, another motorbike balancing the biggest basket you’ve ever seen filled to the brim with grapefruit flew by me unsteadily and then… ohhh..whooop….aaaay… the the basket came a-tumbling over scattering citrus balls all over the sidewalk and road. More horror. Sortly after that, I was crossing what felt like 18 lanes of temporarily stopped but freakily vollatile motor-bike traffic with I think grocery bags in hand — just as i had mustered the courage it took to send myself into the road, one of the motorists made a ‘vroom!!’ noise. I jumped. He laughed. It was funny. I have to admit it. ; ) But I was still mad at Cambodia!!!
The next day my heart was softened quite a bit. All of the World Racers toured Toul Sleng Torture Museum where thousands of black and white, numbered mug shots of Cambodian and a very few foreign men, women, nursing mothers, boys, girls, and babies were hanging on wall after wall — every face we saw was someone who was tortured and killed at that very location only 30 years ago. Next we went to the Killing Fields (google it). It was beyond words. We could still see deep trenches in the fields, now overgrown with grass, but it was horrible to think of the millions of beautiful people whose executed bodies once filled the ditches. We saw bones, teeth, and pieces of colorful clothes that had been unearthed by the rain only recently. You guys, I know this part of my blog is solemn, but it was really significant to witness all that true horror. I only found one tiny flower around all those trenches — so, I picked it and put it in my journal. To remember. It was truly grievous.
Moving along, team 61 worked alongside New Life Fellowship Church for the month. Awesome place! This church is jammed packed with mostly junior-high through twenties-aged people, so it was like instant friends for us : ) Still though, I was in a funk of just feeling bone-weary with everything. The ninth month of World Race hit hard for quite a number of us. Which leads me to my 25th BIRTHDAY!!! Thanks to so so many of you who wrote me the most unbelievable emails and picked up the phone when i called you for my birthday, the beginning of my 25th year was a fabulous turning point!! From the bottom of my very soul, THANK YOU for believing in me and encouraging my heart with poems, Facebook gifts, birthday wishes delivered straight from God’s heart, funny and witty little emails, cheers, book burnings (my brother Calvin whose not even reading this), etc. etc. You have no idea — REALLY — how much of a blessing that was to me. Huge Hugs to all of you (that means ALL of you, even if you didn’t wish me happy birthday. So much love all around. Wink.)
Cambodia got so much better after that. I got to visit the slums twice a week with a couple of the other Racers, pray with some of the mothers, and just hold babies and darling filthy little kids. That is where my heart comes alive. I love the grime. I just cant explain it, it was priceless to spend just a few hours playing slapping-hang games with the children. They have so much spunk and personality. The moms were awesome, too. Although, they kept on offering me their children…. as in, to HAVE!! I politely declined, however much i wanted to accept. Smile. HaHa. (pics of slum below : )
Many of the same slum kids I got to see each thursday at JOY CLUB. Its a 3 hour kids program that the church puts on once a week. So that was another opportunity to hang out with those awesome sticky kids and try to show them that they are so worthwhile. They were sooo worth my while. (some Joy Club pics are below)
(I hope you loved these HUGE pics. They wouldn’t shrink for me ; )
Not only did we get to hang out with the incredibly young and truly cool staff at the church, but we also got to be a part of the English classes that took place on the roof of the church from dawn til dusk every weekday. College students come to church all day for free English lessons, so it s a perfect opportunity to make friends with them and really open up a door to their heart. So that’s the other thing that poured a ton of my time into, those hillarious Cambodian college kids. : ) I taught the whole class only twice — they wanted to know all about new home sales (my previous job), basements, attics, about Christmas in America, reindeer, elves, magic fairy dust, and anything at all. It was so cute to hear their questions.
There is so so much more I could tell you all about Cambodia!! But this blog is already dangerously long for the average reader, so I will try to wind it up with a humongous heart of gratefulness. Again I find my heart just exploding in thanks to God for His patience and faithful loving mercy this month and really all year. This month was tougher than I even let on in this blog, but in all of it I am finally getting what the famed ‘good news’ is. At least for the time being, I have been able to see that God’s love is practical and merciful and so faithful even when I am a snob, a pathetic doubter, a wrong-doer, a volcano of harsh words, or just a wreck . He has shown me that He is there every time I call on Him for help. I know Im a different person now than when i first began the Race. I needed to be different. many of you know — haha; ) Now I’m preaching, but it had to happen. Smiles. Thank you for enduring this far. : )
KIND OF URGENT!! One last thing before more pictures. : ) As of the last time I checked, my World Race account balance is still about $2,500 short of the full amount. I really need some help erasing that number from my future. Ahhh!! Anything you give is tax-deductible, so that is good. Anything you give over that amount will be reimbursible to me after the race so Im not completely broke as a joke when I return to the home farm. Wink. Email me at [email protected] if you have any questions at all. The easiest way to give is through my homepage; on the upper left side of this page is a “support me!” in red letters. It is so so easy from there. I love you guys so much; thank you for so much love and support you have already sent in abundance my way this year. I’ll see many of you in 40 DAYS!!!!!! God is so wonderful!!
Support me… or ELSE! wink. smile. ; )
With so much joy,
banana
