Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Cambodia and Angkor What?

We are back from Cambodia and had a wonderful time while we were there. Going into the trip we did not know exactly what to expect, but we did our best to be tough, flexible and optimistic, thanks to Bob Davidson! After a long 8 hour bus ride we arrived in Bangkok in the middle of the night. We found a small coffee shop connected to a guest house that we waited in for a good 3 hours. We then took a van to the border and had to cross over by walking. It was amazing to immediately see the differences between Thailand and Cambodia. Cambodia is much poorer and the architecture and structural design of the buildings is years behind Thailand; which is not too surprising considering all the political unrest that the county has had in the last century. It was very eye opening to see that kind of poverty. There were many children without clothes, babies without any adults around them, just a cup for people to put money into. We also saw many land mine victims who had lost limbs in accidents. We saw all of this in the first few minutes of crossing the border. Once we arrived to our hotel we were pleasantly surprised by our accommodations. All three of us shared a room and had our own bed. We had a bathroom with an American style toilet and a TV with English channels. Here at the Zone we do not have a TV so we have not watch any in the last 4 and a half months so it was so much fun to watch CSI!


Napping at the bus station in Cambodia

While we were in Cambodia we had the awesome opportunity to teach at two local schools for two days. The groups that we were with from Japan and Singapore did an amazing job at preparing stations for the English days at the schools. Kara was at the spelling station, where the students had to learn to spell vocabulary words from the nativity story. Hilary was at a craft station and I was at the "days of the week" station. In all, there were five groups the students rotated to. The kids had a blast. After they had completed all five stations, we ate Japanese curry together that the group from Japan generously cooked. In the afternoon we put on a carnival for the kids. They had to go the the testing station and answer a question from what they had learned that day. If they answered correctly, they received a game coupon. There were games that ranged from throwing ping pong balls into a box, horseshoes, hit the coconut with a tennis ball to blowing a ping pong ball in a pool of water. The kids had a super fun time, and as they won the games they received prizes. All the prizes were used clothes that had been donated. As the children received their clothes, their eyes lit up wit joy. Many of them won clothes to bring home to their siblings and parents. It was very rewarding to give clothing to these children who either did not have a shirt on the back or desperately needed a new one.

Crafts station at a school

The ping pong station

We (the Thailand group) did a special intensive English class for the core group of students that we were working with. These students are being supported by the church in Singapore to go to English school. They traveled with us to the school and were our helpers and translators. We put on a class for them to teach about heath and good habits. We preformed skits about what happens when you make bad choices and what happens when you make good choices. We ended the class, by playing the board game that we have spent months preparing. The class was a success and the kids learned a lot and had fun.

Intensive English with our sponsored kids


Our favorite day was Friday when we went to the Temples and Angkor Wat. We met a lot of the street children who spend their days selling bracelets and post cards to tourist. After they realized that we we not like their average tourist they stopped trying to sell us their goods, but instead walked with us through the ruins and laughed and played with us. We had a blast with children and it was really hard saying good bye.

Some of our kids at Bayon 
Hanging out with our kids

One of the little girls that was selling at Angkor Wat

We ended the trip with a trip to 60 ROAD! We heard about 60 Road all week from our kids, and knew that they desperately wanted us to take them. So Friday night they each received three dollars and went crazy at 60 Road which is a local carnival. I have to admit it was fun! We road the Ferris wheel and the bumper cars with the kids and had just as much fun as they did. It was a great way to end a great trip.


Throughout our whole experience, our eyes have been opened to the life styles of others. We have seen poverty like we have never seen before, and yet we have seen the joy in a child's eyes from receiving something so small.  This trip has changed us and shaped us and really made us think about our own lives. We are so blessed to be born in America and have so many unbelievable opportunities. God is so good and faithful. Keep Cambodia and the children in your prayers, they are God's precious children.

Tiny Helper, a precious child of God

Saturday, December 4, 2010

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

For the past two months we have been preparing to go to Cambodia with other groups from Japan and Singapore. While we are there we will work with kids who sell on the street in Angkor Wat and teach English in their schools. Our big project has been making lessons for the older kids about good health and habits. We have made up a game that has gone through many many revisions and now we think it is perfect, or at least close to perfect. This will be my second trip to Cambodia and I am excited to see some of the kids again and to get to have this experience with everyone else. The bus trip is about 15 hours so we will all be a little sore at the end but I know it will be amazing. What is better than a really long bus ride for bonding! We will be gone for about a week and probably won't have internet most of the time so don't expect too much from us in the way of communication.

Amanda and I officially graduated from Thai 2 this week and we are not starting again until January so it is a nice break for a while. Yay for Christmas break! For the last day of class we had a field trip to an elephant camp and hospital. It was fun to do something different with our classmates outside of class and once again the long bus ride was perfect for chatting and catching up. There was a tiny (sort of) baby elephant that was super super cute and I wanted to steal it and bring it home but I hear they are expensive to raise. I love elephants if you didn't know!


Eating worms at the market after the elephant camp

Baby Ellie!
On Wednesday Robert and his family invited us to dinner and to come help decorate their house for Christmas. It is great to feel part of a family here. They are always so welcoming and giving and so much fun! It is kind of weird to decorate someone else's tree because everyone definitely has a certain way you like to do it yourself. But with all of our forces combined it was beautiful in the end. There is Christmas in Thailand but it is mainly completely secular and not everyone celebrates. The malls and markets are all decorated and it is beautiful!

Stringing popcorn for the tree

Christmas decorating with the Reagans


This week I also cooked Thai food for cell group! Well really I payed for it and P Wah cooked and she taught me along the way. We made gang kiao wan gai, green curry chicken, and it was really good. I might be able to make it by myself one day, we'll see.

-Hilary