It’s so strange when you are asked to define normal. Because, as a wise friend once told me, my normal is going to be different than your normal… so, what is normal?! I haven’t figured out the answer to that yet, but what I’m going to describe to you is what became my normal in the two and a half weeks I spent in a floating village in the backwaters of Cambodia. This is normal life in Bakpreah.
To begin this adventure, we all piled into a long kayak with just a small backpack. Armed with lifejackets and bucket hats, we began the 2 hour ride to the village. The waters were crowded with tourist boats, fishing boats and personal boats headed back from the bigger city of Battambang, so a few times we were graced with a few waves overboard.
Upon arriving to our house on stilts, I was so glad to have finally arrived before the skies opened up and it poured rain. I climbed the steep stairs into our 20×20 wooden house and happily put my things down.
Then it hit me.
There was absolutely nowhere to go.
Once I climbed those stairs, that was the end of my freedom. Actually, my freedom ended when I entered that canoe. I felt trapped and was nervous how the next two weeks would go when I was already feeling this way within the first 30 minutes.
This is literally my worst nightmare. Day 2 I had a breakdown. Normally, I would take a walk during the day if I wasn’t able to get out of the house all day, but here I would have to boat, or swim, which with the amount of water snakes, I was not about to do at my leisure. But, this had to become my new normal.
You know in middle-school when they have a BIG room that they call the “multipurpose” room because it is used for two main things – the cafeteria, and an assembly hall? Well, let me tell you, this little 10×10 room takes multipurpose to a whole new level.
In talking with my mom she was asking a bit about our schedule, sleeping and eating situation.
Where do you eat?
In here.
Where do you teach?
In here.
Where do you sleep?
In here.
Where is everyone?
Oh definitely right here.
I swear if I were to look at my step count for the whole two weeks it wouldn’t have exceeded the 10,000 step DAILY goal.
But it was beautiful.
By the end of our time we were able to set up our bug nets and sleeping pads in two minutes flat.
We ate rice, potatoes and cabbage cakes or ramen for dinner at 4:45pm every day.
We taught English in the morning and afternoons. And had the same students in class each day.
These kids are rockstars. Not only do they come by boat to attend school and diligently memorize their Bible verse, but often they have to spend the night in the forest to protect their fishing nets from neighboring village thieves who will come and raid the family nets. So these 9 year old boys and girls will go sleep in the trees guarding their family’s income and then come to school the next morning.
It’s scary out there. There are tree snakes, water snakes, HUGE bugs and blaring temple music right next door, and many of the kids have expressed their fear of being in the forest at night.
Not only do they come to school but they also are eager to share the gospel. Our host and her mom are passionate about empowering these kids to run church and then share the gospel to their neighbors.
We showered every night in river water the color of cardboard, did laundry in that same water where I saw live fish in my laundry bucket (no problem, just throw in a little extra detergent.) I lost a shirt off the balcony because the storm blew it into the river where it quickly sank. We woke up throughout the night often to throw a snake off the balcony, watch the cat Winston eat a lizard, or defend ourselves against a bug the size of my hand.
We were there during a Buddhist holiday, so the temple music was SO LOUD every single night, and often kept us from a restful night’s sleep. Add to that the fact that we had to be inside our bug nets by 6:30pm otherwise we would get eaten alive by mosquitos and other unidentifiable bugs. I’ve never tried to go to bed that early before in my life.
In the midst of all of that, it was really neat to see the fruit of teaching English to the kids when we went out to evangelize on a floating platform in the middle of a neighboring village.
As soon as we pulled up they started coming in droves to the platform to hear the gospel and receive a bag of spices. The beautiful part is that the kids were the ones sharing the message. We were truly there to support and encourage them to share Jesus with their own people. Afterward you could see how proud the kids were to have been able to translate the Good News from English to Khmer.
I can honestly say these were some of the hardest two weeks of my life because they disrupted my normal so much. I didn’t have control over my food, I wasn’t able to explore anything cultural or escape from the house in any way, I wore one outfit and laundered the other, slept on the floor on a deflated sleeping pad, and have never sweat so much in my entire life.
But, it was one of the best months. We saw kids empowered, language learned, cultures blended, and comfort zones stretched. I experienced God’s grace and faithfulness and learned how much more I need to submit and trust in him for my future, even though my anxiety has been at it’s peak the last two months.
So, as we have begun month 10, I’m still unsure what normal is and have no clue what normal will look like in month 11 or month 12. But what I do know is that although I may feel that I have sea-legs in life, shaky and unsure, like a baby giraffe learning to walk, I will continue to lean on the only One who promises to never be shaken.
