It’s true. I’m living in Cambodia for this month with nothing but rice fields around. There’s one stand a few minutes walk down the road that sells bottles of water, fresh coconuts, juice, and stale chips. My teammate bought six bottles of water, a bottle of juice, and a bag of chips all for $1.
This is a poor country. I could tell as soon as we started driving in the capital, Phnom Penh, that this is like the Africa of Southeast Asia. Much poorer than Malaysia or Bangkok. In fact, there currency is basically worthless so they use USD instead. It’s strange to be using that after 9 months!
We are in a beautiful area about two hours from the capital. There’s an overwhelming amount of stars that shine brightly at night, palm trees in every direction, and you could easily get lost on the many small winding dirt paths that are everywhere. I wish internet were fast enough here to post pictures because some of them are amazing!
I’ve gone for a couple of runs in the countryside so far and I think I’ll be able to run a different route every day and still not go the same way twice. The rice fields are dry right now so we can run through those to even more dirt paths. Oh the opportunities!
There are opportunities here at this ministry just waiting for us as well. The A-Team is living and working together this month with another one of our teams. The main thing we’ll be doing is teaching English- several classes a day to local people from surrounding houses.
The thing I keep thinking of for my time in Cambodia is to EMBRACE it.
Embrace everything about this month.
Embrace the things that I can’t change and accept it.
Embrace the opportunity to teach English to kids and youth who are so eager to learn.
Embrace one of the last opportunities I may have for awhile to live such a simple life.
Literally, embrace the people here. There are always people around whether it’s our host and his many brothers and sisters or many of the locals who come and hang out.
And yes, even embracing the bugs that crawl on my face and the lizards falling from the ceiling as I try to go to sleep. I can’t change it, so I’m not going to live in a battle for the month trying to fight it. That’s how it’s going to be and this is exactly what the Lord has planned for month 10.
I get to climb coconut trees- or attempt to- to get breakfast, go to bed with the sun and wake with the sun, work hard and be hungry for the two meals of rice and vegetables I get each day, go for long runs on the dirt paths, and spend time giving to this ministry and getting to know the people here. This is my life in Cambodia.
EMBRACING IT
