A Day In The Life: Cambodia
7:10am Wake Up! Usually covered in sweat despite not sleeping under my sleeping bag. The humidity here is real (98 degrees with 56% humidity), and we don’t have AC. Thankful my sleeping pad doesn’t make a lot of noise as I crawl out of the hot pink mosquito net that protects us from all the bugs. I set my feet on the ground as I land in sand. My teammates and I have dubbed this house as the sand castle, because there isn’t any floor, just sand.
7:13am Get Ready! Put on my contacts, put on the first layer of deodorant of the day, put toothpaste on my toothbrush and head to the squattie pottie. On my way, I walk past chickens, ducks, and cows. As the animals make noises, I realize they are helping me wake up more fully. I see my teammate Kendra handwashing laundry with well water to the right of me. The sun is in the process of rising, and I feel the sweet rays grace my skin. It’s going to be a good day.
7:18am Brush Teeth! I lean over the bath of water, freshly caught from the well in the backyard. I pour it over my toothbrush and start brushing my teeth. I spit the well brushed remnants into the squattie pottie, and take another pale of water to wash it down the drain.
7:20am Get Dressed! From the 3 pairs of pants, 1 pair of capris, 2 skirts, and 3 pairs of long shorts I own, I choose an outfit to teach in. I put one of my 10 shirts on, and head to the breakfast table in the next room.
7:25am I get a call on my team phone (aka baby phone) from our host. In broken English, I believe I hear him say that he will be coming to visit us at 9am. I wonder how this will work since we are teaching at 9am. As I tell him we will be teaching at that time, he insists he will be there at 9am and can’t wait to see us. Sounds good!
7:28am I join my teammates and sit down at the breakfast table. With sleepy looks on our faces, we swap stories of how we slept the night before. The answers range from “I counted down the hours till breakfast because I never fell asleep” to “It was just so hot” to “I took a sleep aid and was out all night.” We talk about a mouse we heard snicker the night before. There are always children running in and out of the house, or staring at us through the window.
7:30am Breakfast is served! One of our hosts makes us every meal here, and she is the BEST cook! We are so spoiled to have her make every meal for us, as we usually prepare every meal for ourselves on the race. Breakfast usually consists of rice and fried eggs, but today, we got a special pineapple/onion omelette with rice! We pour hot water into our coffee cups filled with instant coffee and sweetened condensed milk, and wait for it to cool down as we listen to a podcast by Christine Caine on Endurance.
8am We finish breakfast, and one of our teammates graciously gathers and stacks our plates. As we make our attempts after every meal to wash the dishes, our host family INSISTS on washing them. They exemplify what it means to have servant hearts. They serve so joyfully—all for Jesus! We stack the chairs and fill up our 1.5 L water bottles for the day, as we hear it’ll be a scorcher.
8:05am I get a phone call from my squad mentor, Chrissy, and excuse myself from the table to talk to her about the options of buying a door for our host family. The house we live in doesn’t have locks, and one of the door frames doesn’t have a physical door. Safety is a priority to Adventures in Missions, and I listen to the options to talk to the pastor about later. As a team leader, I have extra responsibilities to serve my team and our host, so today will be filled with phone calls!
This is the door we ended up getting them a few days after!
8:40am Our host comes into the room with a smile on his face. He eagerly says, “Ready?” and the 12 of us, including the pastor, his daughter, 2 neighbor kids, and our translator go outside to hop on a tractor. We drive at a slow pace, as the bumps in the road and mud puddles could take us out! I put my headphones in my ears and listen to some worship songs from SEU Worship on the way over. During the drive, we pass by houses with people gathered outside. They wave at us and yell one of the few English phrases they know, “What is your name?” They laugh with each other and pat the friend on the back to have the courage to talk to the foreigners. This happens every day, but we think it’s hilarious and yell back our names.
9am Class time! Our team of 6 plus one of our raised up squad leaders, Katie, split up into 2 groups—1 group teaches adults and 1 group teaches kids. Cherish, Alysse, Katie, and I teach the adults—the students range from 14-50 years old. We all gather around a table and everyone says their name. I take out a whiteboard pen and start writing their names on the board, so we can be intentional with remembering them. I’m thankful for the whiteboard at this school, because most of the schools we have taught at on the race do not have whiteboards or school supplies like whiteboard markers. After that, we start class with a lesson on greetings! Cherish leads our group as we teach phrases, hugs, handshakes, high-fives, and waves. In this part of Cambodia, they don’t hug each other—not because it’s looked down upon; they just have never heard of them. We teach the reasons behind each greeting, the level of the relationship (meeting for the first time, friends, etc.), and when to do each. We line the students up and give them scenarios. It’s fun to hear them introduce themselves to each other and greet one another. During the scenario where they are friends and they side hug each other, it’s very awkward and hilarious to witness.
10:30am As we wrap up class and start saying goodbye to each other, one of our Buddhist students, Sopenh, says, “Goodbye! God bless you!” We smile at him, as we feel like the Lord is softening his heart to know Him deeper. I get a call from Victoria on the tractor ride home and hear her say that she would talk to our host so he didn’t have to drive over to where we were.
11am We come home to see the pastor — surprise! After I talk about the logistics plans for the weekend, our budget, and the upcoming holiday, Khmer New Year, a group of us gather to talk to him for 30 minutes. He explains to us about his experience as a kid in the camp during the genocide of the Khmer Rouge during the Cambodian Genocide. He told us that he did not have a lot to eat, and he was separated from his family. His family members were killed, but he was not. He explains to us how grateful he is for his life and for his family.
11:30am Suddenly, I see Kendra, Cherish, and Sarah walk in with watermelons they got with 1000 Riel! Our day-to-day hosts warns them that they are covered with chemicals, and that it is dangerous to eat if they don’t soak them in water first. They oblige and put the watermelons in water.
11:31am Put on 2nd layer of deodorant for the day.
12pm Lunch time! Today we are served a new meal for lunch: meat (we never know what kind of meat we’re eating), potatoes, green tomatoes, and onions with a sweet chili sauce and white rice! The potatoes resemble French fries, and we rejoice! After praying over our meal, I talk to the team about options for travel and off days for the month. Our host gave us an option to accumulate off days to the end of the month. We discuss if we want to work through the month with no rest days only to save them all for the last few days, or if we want the rest days at the end of each week. Since the holiday is coming up, and the villages shut down—people leave town to visit their families—during that weekend and further week of the holiday, we decide to accumulate our off-days to the end of the month so we can spend more time with the kids before they all leave for holiday.
This is what we ended up doing the next day!
1pm Team time! Every day on the race, our team of 6 (+1) gathers together to unify and spend time together. We take 10 minutes to practice feedback, or as my team likes to call it “feeding the sheep.” This is a time where we can encourage each other and build each other up, as well as point out ways we can become more like Christ. It’s very fruitful, and I have enjoyed daily feedback on the race! It’s a cool time to highlight the things we see in each other—often times the things that go unnoticed. After, we usually spend an hour or so doing something led by one of our teammates. It’s up to them to choose what they want to do! Sometimes, team times are creative, sometimes they’re playful, and sometimes they’re more serious. Today, Sarah planned an activity of a game of catching chickens. Eagerly, we leap up from our chairs and run outside to see who will catch a chicken first. Somehow, I managed to catch a baby chick, and I saw that it’s leg was wrapped with accumulated string—cutting off the circulation in some of it’s talons and parts of it’s leg. Kendra and I rescued the baby chick and unwrapped and cut off the string. Thankfully we could help before it got worse!
1:45pm Shortly after, the pastor tells me the prices of doors and locks. We discuss the options.
2pm I usually go straight to my hammock after team time to spend time with God through doing devotioals, reading Scripture, and praying, but I overheard we got a tuk tuk to take us into town! We have a Journey Markers due soon, and I know I won’t have time again soon to get wifi to complete it. Journey Markers is a bi-monthly check-in that focuses on a spiritual topic, and we read it and answer questions at the end. It’s a way for AIM and leadership to see how we’re doing and see how we’re growing during our race.
2:30pm After finishing journey markers, I look down to see that my Rainbows (flip flops) are getting thrashed. Katie and I venture down the street to find a market that sells cheap water shoes. We ended up finding some classic “Addas” flip flips for $2, and we both make the purchase. We plan to give them to the host family when we leave.
2:40pm I come back to drink iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk and post a blog. I respond to messages from family and friends, and check emails. It’s a typical wifi day filled with many accumulated tasks on our to-do lists!
3:30pm After taking a tuk tuk back to the house, we come back to find cut up mango! Our hosts are so so kind, and they know we love fresh fruit! We haven’t had fresh fruit on the race for the majority of the race, so we are extra thankful! I also managed to put on my 3rd (and hopefully last) layer of deodorant for the day.
3:45pm I look at my watch to see that I am home with just enough time to spend time with God. I climb up to the roof platform on a latter that could collapse at any moment. On my way up, I am shouted at by kids below as they yell, “hi kay-c!” with the most beautiful smiles and faces I’ve ever seen. I put on my go-to worship playlist “d e v o t e d” on Spotify, and play “Altar” by SEU worship. I flip the Bible open to Psalm 119:60 and am inspired by an email from our squad mentor about immediate obedience. I flip to my current study in Mark, and to no surprise, it’s all about immediate actions of obedience. I learn that if the evil spirits immediately obey the voice of Jesus, how much more can I, a follower of Jesus, obey Him where He’s leading me? I reflect on how I’ve acted in obedience over the past few days, and ask the Lord for more opportunities to follow Him.
5pm Time to teach again from 5pm-6pm! School at 5pm is right outside of our house. I climb down the latter and run to the classroom to greet the students. We start with the “Banana Song,” shortly followed by a lesson on body parts in English! We review what we learned the day before, and I quiz the students on the spelling of the body parts. We take them to the back of the classroom and sing the “This Little Finger” song– a class favorite! We go back to the quiz and finish the lesson with the “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” song.
6pm Class ends with a daily dance party! We run outside to the blasting music out of speakers to find children hula hopping and dancing. My teammates and I make up dance moves and the kids follow. Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and Roam Jek are some favorite songs that come up. These kids KNOW how to dance! I am in a hula hoop contest with a girl named So-ring, who always finds me at the dance parties we’ve had! We all work up a sweat, as it’s still insanely humid outside. The laughter and joy we share with the kids is the highlight of the day!
6:30pm Our host calls us into dinner! Tonight’s meal is cooked carrots and potatoes, mystery meat and carrots, a pasta dish of sorts, and rice! We have a couple plates of meat to choose from, including a bowl of soup with tender meat, organs, and hard boiled eggs. I accidentally sit at a spot under the light. The lights are covered with bugs at night, and they often times drop down into our meals after getting too close to the light. I look down to find 2 mosquitos in my rice, as I keep flicking off small beetles off of me. It feels like bugs are all over me, and I move my chair on the other side of the table. It’s not all that bad! I get used to it as the days go by.
7:30pm After praying over our meal and thanking the Lord for all the ways He moved today, we find out that our host wants to take us to the lake tomorrow to get fruit and vegetables! We also find out our host invited the neighborhood children over to watch, “The Prince of Egypt” on a projector he found. The night before, we invited our host family to watch “Tangled” with us, and we loved watching the family laugh at the scenes with the animated horse! We couldn’t wait to see their reaction from “The Price of Egypt!” As we realize we are on month 7 of our race, we laugh as we talk about what life will be like when we come back to the US– if we will miss all the “good mornings” from teammates and community, or if we will retreat to isolation. We discuss the possibility of REI dividends. Someone points out that our host family’s cat is currently eating not 1 gecko, but 2 geckos in the same minute. “What an orphan spirit,” someone jokes.
7:50pm We clear the dishes and offer again to wash them. Again, a respectful no followed by an “arkoun” which means thank you in Khmer. I excuse myself to take a shower, as my face is dripping droplets of sweat. I go to take a bucket shower and feel the cold water rush around my hot skin. Bucket showers are bae. Cambodians highly value personal hygiene, so we all make sure to take showers twice a day to respect their culture.
8:10pm I come back to the room, sweating already. I take off my shoes and sneak under my bug net to rest. I accidently take some of the sand from the ground onto my sleeping pad with me. My allergies are bad the first 5 days we go into any country, so I decide to not push myself to watch the movie with the team and decide to organize this blog instead!
8:45pm I scroll through my podcasts on my phone to find one on Rest by Fellowship Monrovia, the church I went to during college in Azusa, California.
9:20pm I overhear the movie end as soon as I finish listening to the podcast. With sweat all over my face, I ask the Lord for a good night’s sleep because it’s a hot night. I laugh as I hear geckos say “gecko” because even though I hear it every night, I still find it hilarious. I try to fall asleep, but the loud speaker is playing Cambodian music so loudly, that it makes it tough to sleep. I hear the mouse again and smile. It’s been a good day.
This was a small look into one of our first days of our month in Cambodia.
Since writing that post, 2 of our students accepted Jesus! One of the students was Sopenh, the one that said “Goodbye! God bless you!” at the end of each class. Both are 17-year-old, formerly-Buddhist boys who felt God’s love for them and gave their lives to Jesus! They came over every day for a week or so before we left, and Cherish, Katie, and I took time to disciple them during the day for a few hours at a time. I’m forever grateful for Cambodia and the ways God showed up.
Another favorite moment from the month was on our last night with our day-to-day host family. After experiencing a month of their sacrifice, hospitality, and humility, we wanted to thank them. All month, they ate and slept outside on a platform—similar to the one who slept on—so that we could be inside. Even though we tried SO many times to convince them to switch, their hearts would not allow it. They insisted on putting themselves in uncomfortable positions so we could be comfortable and feel at home. Talk about hospitality! The Cambodian culture is all about hospitality. So to thank them, we decided to cook them a meal and set the table up all nice for them inside. After making them a garlic/butter pasta (made with ant-infested Raman noodles because it’s all they had), we sat them inside and served them. They looked at us as if we had lost our minds, and insisted that we join them inside. We took another 10 minutes or so to organize the tables and set up the food so we could all eat together. The pastor nicknamed the meal “#1 USA.” After eating, we asked them to read John 13:1-20 out of their Khmer Bibles (since we couldn’t explain that we wanted to wash their feet and wanted to explain why we were doing it, but we didn’t speak the same language). We ended the night by washing their feet and praying over them. We were all crying our eyes out! Then they prayed over us. Tears were flowing, let me tell you! These people truly loved us like Jesus would have, and we are better from knowing them. That night, love proved you don’t need to speak the same language.
Cambodia, you will always have a special place in my heart. It was my favorite month on the race, to date, and I will always be thankful for the ways God showed up that month.
Check out the video my teammate, Cherish, made about a Day In The Life in Cambodia!
I’ll miss ya, Cambodia!
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I’m currently posting this blog from Rwanda! We are in month 9 of the race, and are finishing our race in AFRICA!!!!!! I can’t believe this journey is coming to a close, but I am so excited to see all the Lord is going to do in Africa! Please pray for our last 3 months in Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya!
