The World Cup Excitement and My Encounter With Monks

It's been hard to find free time during the week! Our schedule during the week is tight and always busy. I try to visit the internet cafe during my breaks, but by the time I catch up on e-mail I have no time left to blog! However, today we have a holiday in Cambodia thanks to it being the king's mother's birthday. So thank you former Mrs Queen for being born today so we could have a day off! =) It's also my parents anniversary..HAPPY 22 YEARS MOM AND DAD!

Today, we took the opportunity to sleep in until a whopping 8:30 am! We're usually up by 6:15 am, so this was great. My internal alarm had me up and awake at 6, but I was happy my body co-operated and let me return to sleep! We decided to have a late breakfast at a little restaurant by the beach called Sisters. It rained all night so the streets in front of the school is completely flooded. It's actually been flooded for over 3 weeks, but was getting better. Now, it's back to the sidewalk being completely flooded, which means we all get wet. A western guy passed by us on his motobike and offered us a lift, but we politely declined and preferred to submerge our feet into the rotten, sewage filled flood. I thought to myself, well, let's do as the Cambodians do!

The past few days have been busy with our normal schedules of teaching and hanging with the kids during our breaks. After our afternoon classes are over we have started "scrapbooking" and making albums for the seniors who will graduate next month. It's been fun to look through the old pictures and see what everyone looked like when they were younger. I've been working on Kim Han's album, since we have become very good friends. Kim Han has been here at the orphanage since he was 5 years old. His parents both died, and he and his brother and sister have lived here ever since. Kim Han is such a sweet, kindhearted young man. I really enjoy spending time talking with him and I can see how his English has really improved just in the short time we have been here. He likes to try and teach me Khmai and the only phrase I can say is something that sounds like "M'dan Hut" which means, always true. It's just a common saying that all of the kids say and every time we run into each other we always say it. Kim Han wants to be an airplane pilot, but there is no school here in Cambodia for that so he is thinking of being a veterinarian. I don't really think he wants to be a vet..I actually see him being a pastor or missionary.

Two other boys I have grown close with are 16 year old Sarak and 14 year old Kanarith. Sarak's name is actually pronounced just like mine "Saraa" with an emphasis on the a sound. He has a younger brother who's name is Sara, and also pronounced the exact same way. I love how Cambodians have such thoughtful names for their children. (Kanarith's brother's name is Kanara.) These boys keep me laughing all the time. Kanarith tells me that the reason they killed the cat a few weeks ago is because it did not have a passport. I'm taking that to mean it wasn't theirs. So he teases me all the time about different animals and if they have passports or not. Hopefully..there will be no more cat killings around here! I have seen a huge improvement in both of their English speaking abilities just in the past few weeks. It's funny because if one of them doesn't know a word in English, they ask each other what it is and usually can come up with something that I can understand.

The kids are absolutely crazy about the World Cup! They have talked about it for weeks, and last Friday night they were finally able to watch it. We all crowded into the chapel around the small tv and everyone screamed in delight as the soccer game came onto our screen. 16 year old Sophal is probably the most dedicated soccer fan we have here, and when his beloved player Rooney came on the screen I thought he would jump out of his seat. His face was glued to the tv all night. And when I say all night..I literally mean all night. The kids stayed up until 3:30 am watching until the last game was over. (Because of the time difference between here and South Africa) This was huge for the kids because they usually have to be in bed by 9 pm. I was shocked they stayed up so late, and I didn't even make it. I fell into my bed at midnight, completely exhausted. What's funny is the kids were all up at 5 am like usual, completely happy though they had slept so little. As the afternoon rolled around, they all looked like Zombies! I think they thought they could do this every night (only on weekends) but Papa Kelly said they can stay up until 10 pm. So all of the kids were sad about that.

The US Navy rolled into town last week. The USS Tortuga is at the Sihanouk ville port, and a Mercy (medical) ship will be making it's way into port either this week or next. The Navy will be doing construction work/humanitarian aid around the city and are even coming to do some work at the orphanage next week. Their helicopters have been flying around the past few days and the kids love to see them. It's uncommon to see a helicopter here and the first time they heard it they all said, "Hey look! It's an airport!" The girls and I busted out laughing. We did correct them and hearing them try to say helicopter was just as funny.

I've realized that there isn't a lot to do in a third world country. You can go to the beach, or the market or eat food..but that's all there really is to do. Sometimes I get a little stir crazy sitting inside the walls of the orphanage all day, so I enjoy getting the chance to walk around the neighborhood. Everything is in walking distance, so that's good. But we don't go too far because it's just not safe.

There are a lot of western people here, and unfortunately quite a few of them are pedophiles. Just yesterday, I saw a western man with a young Cambodian girl sitting in a tuk tuk right in front of the school. It makes me sick not only to see that, but also worries me because anyone could come by and grab one of the kids. Most of the kids walk home, including little 6 and 7 year old girls. During the day, we are pretty safe, but at night the city completely changes as the bars and night clubs all get going. Sometimes at night we can hear the loud music from the bars flowing into our room. It just makes me sick sometimes to see these western men carting around young Cambodian women. Here in Cambodia, you can buy a girl for a night or the week and she can by your "companion."

It's hard to see that going on around you, but then I look around and see "my" kids and know that they have been saved from that kind of lifestyle. I know that God has placed them here in the orphanage in the middle of all the chaos for a reason. And it makes me so proud to see their stength in the Lord. Wednesday night, Emily and I went into the boys' room to join them in devotions and it almost made me cry watching some of these boys raise their hands worshiping the Lord. Even sweeter was watching 6 year old Joshua lifting his hands to the King of Kings.

Last Sunday, we had to walk to church because the guy who usually drives the van was unable to. I wasn't exactly excited to be walking to church, partly because it seemed so far away and at 8 am, it was already blazing hot outside. But the kids grabbed our hands and joyfully started walking, so I left my negative attitude behind and followed after them. In reality, the walk to church was only about 2 1/2 miles, but anything in 100+ degree weather is a painful affair. By the time we arrived, we were all drenched in sweat. Even the leather from my bible's cover was melting onto my arms and turning them maroon. What's crazy is the kids were all wearing long sleeves and jackets to protect their skin from getting darker due to the sun's rays.

As we were walking along some of the back alley ways, we would come across a monk praying or chanting over someone. I noticed that as we were passing by, the monk--deep into his chanting ritual--immediately stopped what he was doing and turned around facing us with a scared look on his face, almost as if He could sense a greater presence walking amongst us. This happened at least three times, and I have no doubt that the Lord was walking right alongside us as we trekked along to church.

There's a lot of darkness here as over 90% of the country is Buddhist. Yet, in the middle of a Buddhist community, we had the opportunity to go to church and worship God. As we were in the middle of the service, I was suddenly convicted about my initial feelings of not wanting to walk to church, when just to the east of us in Vietnam, or to the north in China, there are millions of Christians who are walking double and triple the miles to church, in secret and because they want to. How selfish I am to complain about walking so short a distance when at the same moment in time, there are so many who would give anything to have the freedom that I do. I forget that I have such freedom in America and even here in Cambodia, and that most people in the world do not have that freedom. The Lord reminded me of that very fact while I was in church on Sunday, and I happily walked back to the orphanage boasting in the Lord. I'm not sure if we're walking to church this Sunday, but I happily will!

Oh, it's raining again and has been for the past 30 minutes which means the street will surely be more flooded! Guess I'll be giving my feet another shower when I get back..but this time, of Purell!