Here are a few things various internet travel sites say about Poipet, Cambodia:
- Its name rhymes with “toilet” which is appropriate, given the way the city smells and what it has to offer.
- A gritty border town, Poipet hosts a bewildering array of touts, beggars, thieves and dodgy casinos, which all contrive to separate money from the unwary.
- Spending time in Poipet involves being hassled, scammed and frustrated.
- Any visitor should explore Poipet with the expectation of spending more than reasonable and also of losing the contents of his pockets.
Awesome. Right?
Yeah, that’s what we thought too when our team found out THAT’S where we’d be spending the month of February doing ministry. A whole month in a place whose nickname is Toilet?! COME. ON. !!!!! That WOULD happen to us. The whole week before arriving we made mocking and sarcastic comments about how great our month in “Toilet Town” would be. Never technically complaining, but clearly our minds were made up about our home for the month.
The day we headed to our ministry site, we got in a van and followed our contact to our location. To our surprise, 20 miles before reaching Poi Pet, we turned left. Down a dirt road. We laughed that we must be taking a short cut to the city. But the dirt road went on. And on. And on. With each passing minute, our nervous laughter and the jokes increased as we looked out the window incredulously… we were being led into the middle of freaking nowhere.
We rolled up and piled out at the small house we’d be staying in. No electricity. No running water. And nothing else in sight. Um, what happened to Poipet? Apparently, we’d been relieved of spending our month in Toilet Town.
Our set up at our ministry site has actually been a huge blessing. We’ve had great quality time as a team and a lot of rest, both of which we were in desperate need of after last month. It’s been an adventure, and one we’ve greatly enjoyed. But after a week of eating only rice, eggs and potatoes (which we’ve learned to get creative with and cook very well, in my opinion) having no entertainment beyond ourselves, our books and a couple of games, and seeing the same surroundings day after day, we were ready for a change.
And suddenly, Toilet Town wasn’t sounding so bad.
In fact, we eagerly anticipated the weekend and celebrated when our contact suggested we should go to Poipet for the weekend and even stay the night!
We were beside ourselves.
Beggars, thieves and casinos? Scamming, hassling and frustration? Forget that. All we could think about were restaurants, cold drinks and ice cream! Air conditioning, lights and taxis!
Toilet Town? More like heaven, thank you very much.
So last Saturday morning we grabbed our daypacks and eagerly crammed onto our property’s homemade Tuk Tuk to make the journey back down the dirt road to Poipet.
Our overnight stay was as glorious as we’d imagined it to be. Air conditioning and real beds, all the coke we could drink, burgers and fries for dinner, and a grocery store that sold peanut butter. Thank you, Jesus!
As we rattled along on the ride back home, I couldn’t help but smile to myself and thank the Lord for how He changes our hearts. It’s pretty comical how drastically our view of Poipet changed with our circumstances. Hearts that were grumbling about having to spend a month in a seedy border town now leap for joy at the very thought of civilization. What we once imagined to be our nightmare has become our getaway.
The Race tends to do that. Turn our perspective upside down. Our adventures in Toilet Town are just a small glimpse of a much bigger heart change that is happening in me. It’s a work in progress. And it’s beautiful.
