Thursday, July 25, 2013

Banteay Meanchey

We made it!   It was about a 2.5 hour drive out of the city of Siem Reap.  Along the way we passed many small villages and miles and miles of rice paddies.  Along the way we were passed by lots of trucks full of people, flags and loudspeakers talking about the upcoming election.  The person running in the opposition to the communist party was allowed to come back from Exile and today he and his political supporters.  We saw lots of water buffalos in the paddies, and lots of bulls, chickens and other crazy things.  The roads are narrow and many times I thought the van would not make a squeeze but our drier Hong is a pro and knows his van.  We made it through every time.

We stopped at a larger village along the way for some fruit.  The open market was really something to see.  hundreds of people selling everything from veggies, to rice, to dead chickens, live ones they would dispatch at the time you bought it.  There were lots of live eels and snakes and fish that people would home live.  It was very very hot humid and the crowd was thick. 

Finally after 2 hours, we turned into the jungle on a narrow dirt road which you can see below.  We traveled into the jungle for at least 30 minutes until we reached the orphanage.

The children were so happy to see us, we had an amazing greeting just as in Siem Reap.  After about 30 minutes of playing with the children, we started the beds which went upstairs.  You can see the materials and All of us carrying up the wood.  All the children pitched in and it formed a chain passing things up and carrying all the materials.  You could tell that we figured it out from the last orphanage.  We got all 20 beds made her in about 5 hours.  

The Orphanage made us lunch and now dinner.  For dinner we had rice, chicken soup with cabbage and onions, some salty grilled fish (head on) and some grilled eel which was surprisingly tasty.

We have no real internet connection here, but we are trying to upload it.  Might not be able to.

The kitchen is a fire pit outside the building over wood from the jungle.  There are chickens running about, a couple pigs nearby and a river across the street.

During dinner there was a huge rain storm which actually was nice.  It is so hot that I actually took a rain shower from the water off of the roof.  it was very nice and refreshing.

After dinner we watched a movie with the children.  Veggietales - Jonah and the whale.  Then we gave them new flip flops and shirts.  While watching I had a sweet little girl snuggle up with me in my lap and fall asleep.  What a precious angel.  I must admit< like with my children I was sleeping too!

I am now sitting inside my mosquito net on the mission house on the porch.  We are laying on a straw mat on the floor. There is rain dropping on the tin roof, geckos and frogs croaking and some animal howling in the jungle.  I can hear the children giggling on their new bunk beds.  It is unbelievably hot.  The sweat is rolling off of me as I type and contemplate sleep.   Being here with these people and these children, sharing God's love and my own... I feel like the luckiest guy in the world.

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