First Days of Cambodia 2016

So it's been a wild ride so far!  We left Jacksonville area on Friday, May 27th and headed to Orlando to catch our flights to Cambodia.  We boarded our first flight around 6pm and that one took us to New York for our first lay over.  The cool surprise about this flight was that as we were boarding Benjamin called out and said hello to someone near the back of the line.  I, of course grilled my son to see who it was he knew and how he knew them.  Come to find out that a kid in several of his classes at Switzerland Middle was on our flight with his family!  So at New York we stepped up and visited with his family.  And we discovered, they were traveling on all of our same flights, heading to Phnom Penh to visit family!  So we got to meet a new family and travel with them for the couple days on the planes.

We had a good time getting to know them and the kids had a fun time playing games and hanging out during our layovers.  There was a loud a wild game of "Heads Up" as well as computer games, snacking and napping.

In the middle of it I thought we are raising a bunch of airport rats!

So after being in the air for over 20 hours, we arrived safely in Phnom Penh with new friends and total lack of sleep.  We touched down on Sunday at 11:30am local time which would have been 11:30pm EST, Saturday night.

We were impressed with the updates Phnom Penh has made to it's airport.  When we arrived two years ago we went downstairs to go through customs and it was a bare concrete floor with long tables set up in a large empty room.  This year, the basement floor had been covered in nice tiles and there were aisles between counters for check in.  Kit said that Cambodia is changing very fast and there has been a lot of new building.  The draw back is that there are no regulations or code inspections so everyone sort of does it their own way and safety is an option.

Kit met us at the airport with our son that we sponsor, Senghi!  That was a wonderful surprise!  Please excuse my crazed look from sleep deprivation but this was the best picture we got of him from our ride back.

We enjoyed the ride back to A Greater Hope Orphanage and just finally being back in Cambodia!  It is always an adventurous ride with questionable safety depending on the driver.  We took in the scenes along the route full of the Khmer people (which in many cases we were only inches from).

We got back to the orphanage about about 2:30pm and Kit showed us into the new guest house the orphanage built.  It is where the old water towers stood which were moved to the very back of the lot and they were upgraded too.  They collect the rain water and use this for all their water needs.  There has not been enough rain so please pray for the country to get the rain they need.

After that we helped with kids with their chores.  They have gone from having several varieties of animals to growing a massive amount of food.  Kit and Ream are wise in getting the kids trained in making a living by local means so that when they are grown they know how to farm the land here or raise animals for income.  Their gardens are beautiful and I'm sure I will take more pictures of them.

Grace, Anna and myself helped a group empty out their tomato bed.  The plants were ripped out and composted in plans of new crops being planted.  There were vine supports mended also.

Joseph helped sweep with one of the littlest guys and Benjamin helped to cut the grass with a sickle-type hand tool.  

I think the best part about the day was seeing the kids faces light up when we greeted them and called them by name!  It was precious to see them process that we remember them and they are not just one in a group of kids to us.  We chatted and remembered things from our last trip and it was a blessing for all of us!

We got to meet Joshua from the other missionary family that lives here.  They have been here for years but when we came last time they were in the States and we actually stayed in their living area.

After chores, a bunch of the guys went out to play soccer.  Kit had them gather up and bring their cleats if they had some.  He had them sit in a line, oldest to youngest and we brought out the cleats we had to give them.  Thank you so very much to those who donated these for us to give!  Kit, Alfven and Joseph helped pass out the new cleats with the oldest deciding if they wanted some new cleats.  All of them took the new cleats and passed their old ones down the line.  By the end of the process all of the guys had cleats for soccer and even some of the girls who play came over and got a pair.  They were super excited!

After that we pulled out the baseball mitts and bats we brought.  Kit had asked for one of those big, red plastic bats and a regular bat too.  So of course we had to test them all out :) 

It was very fun and I quickly realize why they needed the red bat.  Otherwise the ball would have been in the village with the way some of the boys hit!  

We had dinner and this time we are eating in the dining hall with the kids.  We are at a different table but we are all together.  It wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be.  I guess we have gotten used to the fact that the kids here find very normal, the guests eat "nicer" food.  Our food has some meat included and big chunks of veggies.  The kids did their Bible verse and prayer again which is beautiful to hear in Khmer!

After dinner we had just enough energy to take showers and drop into bed.  It was the first bed we had slept in since we left Florida so we were all ready! 

Please pray for Kit and Ream to have wisdom as they make decisions on the kids and school programs.  This is an amazing amount of responsibility and wisdom from the Lord will guide them.  From teaching the kids the Lord's love and forgiveness to guiding them in what to do when they graduate and how to build a family, it's all encompassing.