Our weekend out in the country

It was a wonderful weekend. Kim and I decided we needed a break from Phnom Pehn and there is no where more relaxing in all of Cambodia than the orphanage I taught at last fall. So we took a tuktuk (with a short stop at the airport for a DQ blizzard) out to Place of Rescue...a 45 minute ride out into the country. Rice fields, sugar palm trees, cows and country folk. It was a beautiful day..not a cloud in the sky. The dirt road from Baek Chan (a village outside of Phnom Penh) to the orphanage is one pothole after another....I think Racachu thought his tuktuk was gonna fall apart.
We helped Grandma ice cakes for the birthday party and then she took us down to the baby house. Two brand new babies....one was only 15 days old. They were precious. Their moms were young girls who came to Rescue pregnant and alone. They lived at the orphanage until the babies were born then left them there....wonderful futures are in store for these two little ones.
And I am so excited because within the next couple of years adoptions out of Cambodia to Canada will again be possible!!!! The thought of coming back here one day to bring a little baby home to love and give a future to gives me such joy and excitement!
Me and Kim have also been throwing around the idea of getting our names in Khmer tattooed on our feet when we get home...although I'll need a bit more convincing I think:)
The birthday party was a blast as usual. The kids were thrilled to have Kim and I there.
We slept over up at Grandma's house...no fans..no AC...no sleep. We woke up at 5 and got ready for church...had a nice morning chat with Grandma out on the veranda.
We went to New Life church this morning. Some of the kids from the orphange came too...their reward for memorizing verses. Its a Khmer church with an American pastor and an OUT OF THIS WORLD worship team that does Hillsong in Khmer. Its amazing. I just stood there..tears rolling down my cheeks as I watched the Cambodians singing...crying out to God....praying for their friends....overwhelmed by His love for them and their country. It was so encouraging and challenging. The poverty and seemingly hopeless situations that daily face Cambodia pale in comparison to what I know God is doing and has the power to do here. God is here....big time.

finding my place...

That has been the story of my time here in Cambodia thus far. Where do I fit? What am I doing here? Am I helping and serving? Do I feel alive and full of joy?
I had many expectations coming back to Cambodia. What it was going to be like...how I was going to feel. Teaching at the orphanage and experiencing all I saw here was heartbreaking and eye-opening and what I thought was a "real" third world country experience. I saw people dying, starving, Aids stricken....living in a garbage dump. I saw the inside of prisons and remote villages....I spent hours a day on a tuktuk....and I felt alive in every sense. I felt awakened to emotions I'd never felt before and to realities I thought only existed on National Geographic and World Vision commercials. I felt joy in teaching those orphan children and giving them love and attention.
So I come back here and walk 5 blocks to work everyday to a beautiful new school filled with children who have PARENTS and pools and fancy backpacks and talk of their weekends at their beach houses....this is NOT what Cambodia was suppose to be like! And I did not feel like I wanted to feel!
So its been a journey. Coming to the realization that I am indeed back in Cambodia. And although my helping and serving looks vastly different...I can allow God to use me in the same way and capture my heart with the same joy and aliveness that I had before.
I may be teaching the wealthy class children and although they have everything given to them...I am beginning to realize that these children are in just as much need of love and attention. Most of them don't even see their parents all week. They've been raised by nannies or relatives who care little to see the pictures they've colored or math problems they've solved at school. It breaks my heart to hear them talk with such excitement that they ACTUALLY get to see their mom this weekend.
This time my adventure looks quite different. In almost everyway. But it's an adventure all the same and I know with certainty that God can and will use me as I teach and love the future of Cambodia.

the rat

This is how it went down. Cheetit from my school called to say he was bringing us a new water jug..actually he can't speak English but somehow i understood. So i went down to open the gate and wait for him. I unlocked the gate and swung it opened. From behind me came the most awful squeal/cry/screech I've ever heard. I wheeled around to find a RAT in all its disgusting glory...wriggling around on this make shift trap that the downstairs neighbors had rigged up. A plate with poison and crazy sticky glue. So there it was...fighting its little bum off trying to get free. I screamed and started yelling at Kim to come down. So she books it downstairs..barefeet and all. She runs out and almost steps on the thing. She screams so loud and runs out of the gate and CLIMBS....yes CLIMBS onto the hood of an SUV parked in front. Only then does she realize that there is a little old Cambodian man sitting inside the vehicle and looking at her like she's crazy. By this time the ENTIRE street had stopped and is staring at us...people on motos even. So this nice girl that lives beside us came over to see what the problem was and she moved the rat out of the way into a corner..to die. It was absolutely hilarious and disgusting and embarrassing. Later on it poured..like torrental downpour. We went down to see if it had drowned but it was still wriggling away...mournfully crying out for help. This morning it was dead.....but the story lives on.

I saw beauty today...

Another week gone by and a great weekend has pasted and I find myself on a beautifully hot Tuesday afternoon. No rain today so far. My kids got to go swimming this afternoon for the first time..its usually raining in the afternoons. They were super pumped...Richard told me about a game they play called "eel"....pretty much they just swim around and catch each other. hahaha.
Richard is the smartest 6 year old I've ever met. Today he was able to explain gravity to the class better than I could...put me right in my place. See Chan my assistant was killing herself laughing. She's so great...somedays I think she should be the one up at the front and not me. I am humbled by her willingness to serve. She inspires me. Her warmth and smile are inviting. Her love for the children is so evident. Beautiful. She is beautiful.

Its really cool getting to know the kids more..their personalities....the things they do constantly that annoy the heck out of me....the things they love to do.
When I was in Cambodia in the fall and teaching out at the orphanage..it was amazing how the children there were so different yet so that same as children back home. Even though they had entirely different backgrounds and upbringings (most of them tragic and heart-breaking) and in a culture COMPLETELY different than our own....God still makes children all with the same heart. The same innocence. The same amazement at the world. Teaching at Heritage..where I'm teaching children who all come from extremely wealthy Cambodian families, I see it more and more.
This "universalness." This sameness. Its brings me both joy and comfort and amazement at our Heavenly Father.
It brings all new meaning to the song I sung as a little girl..."Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white. They are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. "

Those big brown eyes....

Sovith. He's my favorite. Is that bad? I don't care. I've never seen such cuteness inside such a small six year old body. He's beautiful. Maybe the most beautiful child I've ever seen. Beautiful brown skin....the littlest nose...but the biggest brownest eyes I've ever seen. He probably weighs 50 pounds soaking wet and isn't much taller than my waist....Cambodians tend to be on the smallish, shortish side. He sits in the front of my class at the Tiger table. They all made up names for their tables....the snakes, lions, cheetahs, leopards and tigers.
I can't help but just watch him. I could sit there for hours and just watch him try and read to himself. He's just SO CUTE! And such a good speller...always done his math questions first.
He made my day today. Just his presence. He doesn't know it....but perhaps for the first time since I've been here....I was happy.
I tell ya....its those big brown eyes.

Massages, DVD Players and Pizza Company!

Well I made to the weekend. My first two days of teaching were chaos. My students are almost all Khmer with a few Koreans. They all have the cutest names...Yuki, Sovith, Chantara, Vireak...LONG. And his twin brother Leng is in the other grade 1 class and they are OFF THE WALL. Not too sure how I'm gonna handle him all year. We've already done some science experiments with water and floating. Read lots of books..they love Dr. Seuss. They all can't say my name so they just call me "Teacha" and show me every little thing they draw or color.
I am still feeling very overwhelmed and anxious about it all but each day gets easier and more enjoyable.
Our nights in Cambodia have been rough. I've had anxiety attacks and nightmares although praise the Lord Kim hasn't had any night terrors or sleep walking incidents..yet. The neighborhood dogs seriously bark all night. Earplugs are not really drowning them out so we're getting used to going to bed around 8 so that when we are awoken at 3 am we have already had almost enough hours of sleep to sustain us thru the next day.
We had a super fun weekend. Friday night we went to The Tamarind for supper. Its this gorgeous Meditteranean restuarant with a rooftop patio. We had delicious samosas and chwarmas and hummus. On Saturday we walked to In-Style Spa and got glorious one hour full body massages for $10. Then we tuktuked it over to Sorea Mall and had lunch at Pizza Company.
We even found a DVD player and an awesome DVD/CD store....6 for $10. We decided to have a girls night and we ate left over cold pizza and watched Made of Honor on my great big king size bed. Just for a moment...we may have forgotten we were in Cambodia. Then we would hear the dogs bark...an angry shout in Khmer...the sound of a moto drive by below and it all would be real again. Sometimes I find it hard to believe I'm here again. SOOOOO many things remind me of my last time here with Brittany and Kristie. It makes me miss them and the fun memories we made here. Its good though...it helps me remember and relive and I like that.
Sometimes I wish I was seeing it all through fresh eyes. The excitement of it all for the first time. But theres a comfort in familiarity and the longer I'm here...it all comes flooding back.