Hey Everyone,
So, here I am in Cambodia feeling like I’m in Africa so I figured I would give you a little tour of what I experience day to day. So before I go into detail I guess I'll write a quick preface. So when my team mate googled our city to find out what kind of touristy things there were. She read that this is where you experience the REAL Cambodia. Translation: Houses, Rice Fields, Bikes, and lots of People. No, restaurants, no internet cafes.
We are living in a church this month which is pretty sweet. Just a random tidbit. In case you were wondering… the mosquitoes are vicious in Cambodia and attack you during the night so we set up our tents for fun and for practical reasons.
We walk to our Pastors house for each of our meals. They set up a table under the house where we eat our food really quickly before the flies figure out we are there. Pastors mother is a Caterer, so I am getting to eat delicious traditional Cambodian food. My favorite meal so far is a pineapple pork dish with a pumpkin custard which isn't really a custard for dessert.
Being white Americans, we tend to gather crowds of children however these three kids are special. We call them our three amigos because the follow us everywhere which is cute. And since they are so cute I figured I would add the picture of them running to greet us.
When we are visiting people in the village the three amigos tag along. Its intriguing because whenever we stop to talk to villagers who are normally working, the kids will sit down and help with whatever the task is. In this picture the girl is helping cut the grass (its not really grass) into strips to be dried and later woven into mats.
Bikes are really the only way to travel besides walking and it has turned into my new obsession. I try to go on a bike ride at least once a day whether it be on the way to meet with villagers or to the market which is about 7 killometers away. Its hillarious to watch Pastor borrow bikes for us. He just wanders over into the next door neighbors yard and just borrows their bike for us. And if you are lucky the bike will have brakes that actually work. Oh and I almost dies on my bike ride yesterday. A cow literally jumped over the fence right in front of me and my bike just happened to not have brakes that day…but thankfully I narrowly missed the cow.
We are so blessed to be living next to the most incredible rice fields I have ever seen. We were able to help for a little while with pulling rice seedlings that would later be resold. Beyond the rice fields is a river that runs all the way through Cambodia. Its just a little muddy but its a great place to go cool off in the afternoons when its like a thousand degrees outside.
Just to end on a good note. I was walking to the river and well…I thought the puppy on the calf was too cute and I just had to share it. 🙂
-Rebecca
