This coming summer we are taking teams for 2 weeks in July to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We will be posting regular updates on the trip, but we would love you to come. Below is a post I did on why I love Cambodia and why I can’t wait to go back with you. For more info on the outreach please go to the Cambodia 2011 trip page or click here.
So for your reading enjoyment here are some reasons why I like Cambodia. The first time that I went there was in the spring of 2005. I am pretty sure that as soon as I arrived I felt like I was a kid in Disney Land. I couldn’t stop looking around at the people, the traffic and the countryside. It was a completely different world than I have ever seen before, but I felt at home immediately. It was just this beautiful, hot, busy, surreal place.
When I got there the first thing I did was hop on a moto (motorcycle) and do a prayer race around the massive city of Phnom Phen. I didn’t know the language and I didn’t have any directions, all I had was my friends and some clues written in English. It was so fun zipping around the city in the warm torrential rain on the back of a moto. The driver was totally cool and when we came to a puddle he would aim right for it just to get us wet. I remember one of the stops where I went to a Buddhist Temple. I was just walking around and there were monkeys everywhere. They would just run by your feet like a cat would back home. So cool!
Another thing that I was drawn to in Cambodia was the history. During the period between 1975-1979, in my lifetime, a third of the population was murdered, or died as a result of a revolution by the Khmer Rouge. I remember the first time I went to the prison that a bunch of the executions took place at. The feelings of rage and sadness were almost unbearable. I also remember walking through the Killing Fields where thousands of bodies were laid in mass graves. I can still see the shrouds of clothes and pieces of human bone that are sticking out of the ground as a raw remembrance of what happened.
There is this town that we stop at on our way to Sihanookville that is my most favorite place in the entire world. I am not sure why it is so cool, maybe it won’t be to you, but to me it was unreal. You can buy anything there. Potato Chips, bug’s to eat, a plunger, a cow or shoes. There is no concrete in the entire town except for the highway. The whole town is on dirt roads. There are thousands of people there at any given time and the place is like a maze when you go into the shopping area. The town is not that big, you can walk the whole thing in two minutes, but it is crazy. It would kind of be like borrowing an African who grew up in the bush and placing him on the Las Vegas strip, that is how I feel every time I go to this nameless town.
I like the food. I like the white sand beach and the deep blue ocean. I like the snake house restaurant where there is a crocodile tied up in the middle. I like the work that the Samaritan Love Mission does. I like doing work projects. I like my moto driver who I have had for the last two years. I like playing with the kids and seeing them smile. I like how this country makes me feel and I like bringing Jesus to this country. I can’t wait to go back with you and do it all over again.
So cool Brianna, and Andy, I talked to Lake Samm about coming, maybe you could hop on that if they do, even though you don’t go there. I would love to do a trip with you and your family.