1) The first weekend we were in Cambodia, Vuthy–our ministry contact–took us to his cousin’s wedding down the street. In the morning we participated in the traditional wedding fruit walk holding trays of exotic treats, watched the beautiful ceremony, and ate too many bowls of rice porridge, which included chunks of lungs and cooked blood clots. The evening consisted of a family style dinner and cambodian dancing deep into the night.
2) This month my team was paired with one other team, which happened to have two of my Tikkun Olam teammates on it (TO was my first team). Being reunited with these sisters after a couple of months apart was SO fun! Jo & Dani, you light up my life with your loving wisdom and joyful laughter. To the entire team: Team Fidelity, you’re beautiful! Thank you for sharing your lives, movies, teaching skills, and sarcasm with me this month. It’s been a very rice month!
3) Our last off day was spent traveling 8 hours by van to Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat, one of the wonders of the world! It was worth every squished minute and bumpy mile of road just for the Mexican food we had for dinner the night we got there. Add the beauty and history of an explorative day in the kingdom ruins of Angkor Wat and you’ve got yourself a weekend to remember.
4) December 22 was the day of our village Christmas party where we hosted games, skits, songs, dinner, and gifts for all the students in the village we teach throughout the week. I can’t explain the feeling it brought to see the joy on these kids faces as they ate a hot meal and opened a gift of a pencil pouch containing a pencil, eraser, pencil sharpener, and ruler.
5) On December 25 Vuthy and his family made sure our Christmas was extra special. Demanding that everyone dress in the craziest outfit they had, we played games, ate a delicious beef barbecue meal, and danced danced danced til we ran out of songs to dance to!
6) While teaching wasn’t always easy, it still makes my top favorite moments. If not for the smiles and laughter of beautiful Cambodian kids, than definitely for the all too many “lost in translation” moments that brought laugh after laugh after laugh to us throughout the month. “C-R-Y….Scared!”
7) Our hammock hut served as host to many dates, quiet times, team times, naps, and hangouts! I’ll be missing this easy access oasis as we head to the big city next month.
8) The night sky here is deep and vast without city lights or big buildings to block it. Nights were spent naming constellations and searching for shooting stars, which, when found, blazed bright against the black sky.
9) I read this book called, “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” by Donald Miller this month. It’s one of the greatest books I’ve ever read and I recommend it to anyone out there looking for an easy, witty, thought provoking read.
10) When we got to Mercy Home Ministry they had a dormitory, kitchen hut, and two school room huts on the property. Now they have a church too! What began as a grassy patch of land has turned into a church building in just 10 days time. Our teams were able to help from the first day to the last of construction and it’s been an honor to be a part of the process. Since completion, we’ve already hosted church, a village Christmas celebration, a youth Christmas event, our family Christmas party, and a worship night full of joyful singing. Seeing this project from start to finish AND getting to help break it in has created some of my greatest memories from the month.
11) Construction projects always have a few set backs, right? In order to finish the church in time for the village Christmas party, the boys and a few of us stayed up late after dinner one night to continue transferring dirt from the rice field to the stage of the church. We had to fill in the stage area high enough to be able to set concrete on top of it. Things escalated quickly as a few slaps of muddied hands here and there turned into an all out rice field mud fight. (Don’t worry, no rice was harmed. The field we were digging up had already been harvested.)
Bonus round:
This is by far NOT one of my favorite moments of the month, but is was one of my most interesting. If you promise not to call animal control on me I’ll confess to you that I tried cooked dog meat while I was in Cambodia. When in Asia, right?
