A Great Fieldtrip!

Well, we are back on Phnom Penh now. What a whirlwind the weekend was! Westarted out by loading all 30 orphans, plus five adults who work with them andthe 15 of us into four vans and headed north. I think I looked it up andalthough the trip was 230 +/- miles, we were on the road for 8 ½ hours tryingto get up to Siem Reap. It is a long, bumpy road that we shared withpedestrians, bicyclists, motos (motorcycles & mopeds), cars, trucks, tractors,tuk tuks, cows, pigs, and even occasionally a donkey. Our driver was surefree with his horn. What an experience the driving is here. I clearly see why we were guided to not drive and to pay for vans & drivers for our time here. It is crazy!

Once we got up there, we checked into a little hotel. It was probably the worst hotel we have ever stayed in—but somehow felt a little like paradise when we compared it to what we saw on the way up. Not too bad for only $15.00 pernight, per room. I was impressed because Botevy took the children around andshowed the orphans the rooms and how clean they were. She wanted them to see the standard that she wants for the orphanage. She said that was the nicest place they have ever stayed. It kind of put it in perspective for us.

After getting our things settled, we started our tour of Angkor Wat. It is an ancient temple site—that is about 1300 years old. It is incredible that it is in the shape that it is. It is all built out of stone and there are101 temples that we could walk through. I don’t think that we even saw atenth of what there was to see. Part of that was due to the size of thegrounds and part of it was due to the size of our group and everyone loving tostop and take pictures. It was amazing to me that although I was stopping constantly to count our 15 heads, Botevy never had to. The orphans just played with our kids and kept in with the group. They were all just so happy to be there.

We spent two days there and then we drove north again to see what they call the FloatingVillage. It is a little village that is built on stilts out in the middle of a huge lake. A lake that was so large, I was confused and thought we were on the ocean. It was mind boggling to see this little village. The water wasn’t that deep because we could see children jumping off of their decks and playing in the mud colored water. We were amazed a couple of different times to see a little boat pull up next to our boat and have a younggirl hop from hers to ours to sell us canned pop. Another time, a boatcame along side of ours with a small girl that was maybe 4 years old with a python snake wrapped around her neck. They were wanting a dollar from us to take a picture of her. I couldn’t believe it! Marcus ran over to that side of the boat and wanted to touch it—I flew across that boat so quick! It might not look harmless-but I wasn’t going to let him take any chances! I was in awe.

The last stop for the weekend was the Cultural Center. It felt similar to the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii. We went from show to show and got to see several different dances from different parts of their country. They were beautiful dancers. It was a lot of fun and the orphans lovedbeing there. They would never see it otherwise. What a treat for us to be there with them. It was strange to see a man ride out on top of a water buffalo. Then to top the day, the water buffalo pooped. Of course, no one ran over to clean it up and sure enough, at the end of theshow—as our kids were running around playing—one of my sons stepped right in the middle of it. It was soooo gross! I thought he was going to cry and then he froze there. Doug ran over and banged the flip flop to get most of it off and took him over to the bathroom. It was definitely a moment that Cole will never forget! Neither will I!

Once along the road, we stopped because Botevy had bought some packages of TopRamein and had planned to pass it out to the kids playing near the road and itwas so fun to see the orphans get so excited to be able to hand out thoselittle packets of Top Ramien. And once we got started, the kids and adults just kept coming. I don’t even know where all they came from because there weren’t that many houses nearby—but they just kept coming and were so excited to have that little package in their hand.

I think the trip was a great success. Everyone had a good time and I was so proud of our kiddos. They just naturally joined in games with the orphans along the way—playing simple hand games and singing songs with them. One of the orphan's favorites was, “I Love To See The Temple.” They can sing it inEnglish and it is beautiful to hear them sing.

We did go to church up there and I leaned over to Botevy and asked her if their country or state minds the fact that she takes these orphans to church every Sunday. She said no and was surprised when I told her that was something that would probably not be allowed in the United States. I think that 90%of the country here believes in Buddism, 7% is Muslim and the other 3% are amixture. So, the LDS religion is not very known and is definitely looked down upon. So, for her to be able to take them to church is such a blessing for those children. They love it.