No Barriers--Just Open Arms!

Well, we are here in Cambodia and loving every minute of it.  It is interesting that you plan and plan—but never quite know what to expect.  I can’t say that it is way different than what I expected, but it is just interesting to be here and to really experience it!  It actually feels very similar to the Dominican Republic, so it feels somewhat familiar to us.
When we arrived, we went over to Botevy’s home and will be staying with her family.  She is the angel woman that runs the orphanage that we are working with.  She has a heart of gold and so openly invites us in and hugs us like we are long lost family.  What a blessing to know her!  Here is link to the website for her orphanage and her story is more than inspiring!  Worth your time to read, for sure!
http://www.cicfo.org/index/Orphanage_Story.html

We are very aware that opening your home to two families that bring 15 people—is more than most would do.  She has done so with such grace and love that I hope I can be changed to a better person by just watching her and her family.  They are of our faith, so the feeling in their home is very familiar to us and makes us feel comfortable.

After getting settled, we were to go over and meet the children.  They immediately ran over and openly hugged and welcomed us to their home.  One of the kids turned on some American music and within minutes, my girls were over teaching them how to dance to the Macarena!  The orphan boys just watched and then one of them picked up a ball and they started playing soccer.  All of boys joined in—even Munchie—and they were playing with no language barriers--just to have a good time.  It was a great. 

We have learned that Botevy has to travel to the market daily to buy the food for their meals because they don’t have the fridge space to store much.  Ally and I made the trip with her and took Cole and Tyler along.  (Both are 8)  I now understand what a wet market is—it is where there is blood on the ground from the meat.  We could have purchased whole octopus, whole sting rays, roasted pig hooves or even a whole roasted pig head (with ears) and more cow and pig parts than I could begin to name.  There was more than one occasion where Cole buried his head into my shirt and wouldn’t pull away.  There was a moment right before we left that a sweet little boy came up to us and tapped his mouth.  You didn’t need to understand words to know he was hungry.  Cole just watched and didn’t know how to respond.  It is so hard to see and know that you can’t fix it for all of those little kids. 

We asked Botevy if we could take them on a field trip that would be a treat for them.  So, here we are in Siem Reap—touring Angkor Wat.  It is an ancient temple site that is over 1000 years old.  The trip up here was interesting.  We travelled in four vans to transport all 50 of us and shared the road with bicyclists, motos (or mopeds/motorcycles), tuk tuks, cars, trucks and even an occasional pig, donkey or cow.  The road was long and bumpy and our driver was free with his use of the horn.  It took us from 6:30 am to about 4:00 in the afternoon to get here although I think the actual trip was only 200 miles.   We made a potty stop and I had the chance of a lifetime to utilize a hole in the ground.  Interesting!  We also walked over to an open market and could have bought roasted spiders that were as big as my fingers and cockroaches just as big.  Let’s just say it was a cultural experience.

We are staying here at a guest house that runs $5 per person/ per night.  We were a little nervous but it has turned out to be just fine.  Not quite the Marriott but that is just fine with us.  A little lizard on the wall never hurt anybody!

We will start touring this morning as soon as the kids finish their seminary experience with Doug.  I am so grateful for Doug and Matt and that they would be willing to take our families on this journey.  What a chance of a lifetime.  We are loving every minute of it—even when the sweat is running down our backs!  None of the kids have complained a single minute but did rejoice when we found a hamburger place and some ice cream bars for sale.  Emily went to bed the other night and told me that she went to bed dreaming of a hamburger and woke up to a dream with chocolate chip ice cream.  Imagine her delight when that day her dream came trueJ

Seoul in a Day--The "Soul of Asia"

We made it to our first stop in Seoul, Korea!  We had a fast and freezing visit to see what we could in just a single day!  We got in late that night and got up the next morning to begin a quick tour.  We got to see the Blue House--which is their version of what we call the White House.  We then got to see the changing of the guard and tour the Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was build over 600 years ago.  Next was a quick stop for lunch to do a little shopping at a street market before heading back to the airport to start the final leg into Phnom Penh. 

It all started with a plate of snickerdoodles!

So many have stopped and asked us what would make us think of even doing something like this.  Well, the seed was planted over a plate of cookies that Doug dropped off at Smiths.  Matt was visiting with Doug on his way out the door and said something like, "What would you guys think of pulling your kids out of school, homeschooling them and taking them on a six month humanitarian trip with us?"  I don' t know that Doug even gave a serious response because all I heard about was just a lot of laughing.  Then, later that night--we were talking about our day and we looked at each other, stopped laughing and really thought about it.  "What would we think?"  Of course, that was quickly followed by more laughing-- "like, are we really considering this????  This is crazy!"

Or is it?...................

Well, after a lot of thought and prayer, we concluded that the list of pros was much greater than the list of cons.  The opportunity--to take our kids out of their sheltered world to show them what the real world is, in an attempt to bond closer as a family and to show them the joys of serving others--seems like our best choice.  So, off we go--"With the intent to do good!"  

 

Keys to international discovery

Can a teenager discover what the world has to offer through a humanitarian experience?

Spent two hours last night with 11 children under the age of 18 discussing what could be found in four months of travel. Grand dreams of extraterestrial experiences were discussed, and then the reality of what distracts us from actually discovering what surrounds us was realized.

We agreed that the use of electronic devices, extensive communication with friends and negative communication with others were the three main distractions. It was an exciting discussion and vocal performance by all participants. Finally we came up with the following three goals in hopes that discovering what our travels have to offer will be experienced:

The use of electronic devices are only permitted during flights, driving trips longer than 2 hours, exercise and when music is needed to influence activities. Activities may include preparation for a spiritual thought, scripture studies, going to sleep or possibly when trying to get motivated to do a cleaning session or work project at one of the orphanages.

Internet use to communicate with friends will be one hour a week and a maximum of two sessions. Sessions will be approved by parents depending on time zones and scheduled activities to prevent an individual from limiting the group’s ability to serve. 

Living with Grace and eating the good fruit in our communication with each other. We decided that a weekly award would be given to the individual who is being extra kind, extra patient and more importantly is putting the needs of others before their own. Individuals may receive added privileges for being the clean camper, happy traveller and service saint.

Only time will tell....

immunizations!?!

Wow, can anyone say five golden shots, two turtle gloves and a pin prick in a pear tree? All of us went to the cuisine of modern medicine and my wife deceitfully testified in front of the grand jury that immunizations have no legal authority to inflict pain or poison that results in the symptoms directly associated with the disease in question. So, we went, we were wiped, pinched, weighed and then pricked. All of us did well until our five year old Marcus gave blood for the lab to see if he will survive the gourmet cooking with peanut oil in the Asian area of the world. When a child looks in your eyes believing that they can trust you and then looks in your eyes wondering why they were decieved, it hurts, much more than the prick or the after aches of the immunization.

Trying to post a few pictures, on the day of awakening and hope to do so with the before photo shots. Have none of the after, but maybe that is for a good reason. Trying to stay on the positive note before we leave on the trip.