Today I sat between my morning ministry of English teaching and my afternoon ministry of volunteering at the trauma hospital, it started pouring rain. I didn’t know if this meant a “snow day” type of situation seeing as we had to bike to the other side of town. We bike everywhere here- to the coffee shop, to ministry, to the store, and to the laundromat- all on rickety Cambodian bikes in Cambodian traffic. I have grown quite accustomed to it, just not necessarily in a monsoon. My other 10 female roommates and I are sitting in our living quarters reading novels and bibles. The time came to head for ministry and I shot a look over at my teammate Gabbie that stated are we going to do this or what?
The rain let up a little bit. We had to drop off her dirty laundry anyway. Getting clean clothes is very necessary when you have few to work with. So I threw on my raincoat and off we went. Of course, as soon as we get about a measly 50 feet from the compound- the flood gates open. When we arrive, Gabbie is trying to communicate with the laundry station about her oil-stained t-shirt from a lice treatment, and I am sitting there on my little metallic blue bike getting showered in the downpour. I figured at this rate I really could not be more soaked than I already am, so away we went biking through the puddled pot holes to the other side of town. We are working with, Anne, a lady from New Zealand at the hospital. She runs an activity program at a trauma hospital making all sorts of greeting cards to raise funds for the staff. At the moment we are making Christmas cards and helping her with anything she needs for her activity program. Just as I am craving a nice hot chocolate to counteract the rain, we arrived. Anne greeted us with her cute kiwi accent “Well there are my two drowned rats ready for a day of ministry.”
Is this day anything like how I would have guessed? Not really, but it’s pretty normal to have your days different than you would expect. In fact there are several things I have grown used to on the race.
1. killing bugs with my bare hands
2. wearing clothes for 5 days straight
3. always having someone to pray with
4. washing my hair once a week
5. being dirt cheap with literally everything
6. sharing a living space with 15+ people
7. finding stray hairs everywhere
8. never knowing what is going on
9. biking in foreign traffic laws
10. sleeping on the floor
11. cold showers
12. eating what you are given
13. washing clothes by hand
14. turning each instance into a blog post
15. letting my hair do whatever it wants (pretty liberating actually)
16. checking for wifi
17. my chaco tan lines
18. sardine style in all vehicles
19. dressing in an extreme modest fashion
20. swimming fully dressed
21. garbage scented streets
22. putting together different outfits with the same 7 pieces
23. never wearing a stitch of makeup
24. sweating
25. teaching english without qualifications
26. lice treatments
27. falling in love with foreign kids
28. breathing in dust
29. lots of accountability
30. hot weather, every day
31. taking 3 days to travel to the next location
32. walking barefoot
33. living in a supportive community
These things may sound more ridiculous than not, but that’s the point. Not much of this would be my norm in the States… maybe not wearing makeup or being barefoot. The truth is I love all of these factors on the race. They make for great stories and even better memories with a bunch of people I couldn’t imagine not seeing day in and day out.
My first day of teaching English came and went, but this is what I remember. I was actually secretly hoping to teach English this month, because I love doing ministry where I can see the fruit. Little did I know how difficult it is just to get the kids to sit down and listen, let alone teach. However, we biked there straight after breakfast. I wore a skirt so I could make a good impression- extra modest as always. So I wore my long black Lularoe skirt with the red roses on it (Thanks Rags) and off I went on my bicycle. Goodness biking in a long skirt is difficult. If it wasn’t getting caught in my pedals, it was certainly riding up in the gusts of winds as I turned each corner. Nevertheless I made it with about 10 minutes to spare. I had typed a few lesson notes on my phone to gauge the English level in the class. I thought we would start simple- nouns/ adjectives/ verbs. I could have them define the differences, make lists of each type of word and form simple sentences. Easy enough. I was in Room 3 so I got there a little early and was told to go to the classroom and wait for my students to arrive. In this particular class I have about 30 kids so it was kind of overwhelming to say the least. In Cambodia, the kids line up like little ants outside the door before class starts and all come in at once to their seats. Once they entered they all stood to say “Good Morning Teacher” in their thick accents. I greeted them back and had them take their seats. As one of my students was walking to his desk he stopped in front of me and tugged on the side of my skirt. I met him with a warm smile and he said “Teacher you have a big nose.” To which I replied, “Thank you- go sit down.”
Nothing seems to surprise me anymore. 🙂
Lastly, a few of my amazing sqaudmates are still fundraising! If you feel led to give, or follow along with their World Race journey- here are the links.
