This morning I awoke to the sound of Buddhist monks chanting through my window for a funeral in the pagoda that is behind our hotel. This will continue for the next seven days, so for every morning that we are here we will be awoken at 5am to the sound of chanting. It’s not necessarily going to be a restful trip anymore.
Today was another workday, but with a twist…it was super hot!! I mean in this country I shouldn’t have been surprised, but for some reason I was. We were working on painting the outside of the house so I guess I figured that it wouldn’t be as hot since there was the potential for there to be a breeze. I was sadly mistaken. There was hardly any breeze and it was super humid. We got two coats of paint on the outside of the house and the columns around the house. The good thing about being outside in the heat was that the paint dried very quickly so it made it easier to put the two coats on in the amount of time that we had. We got done and started to clean up with the understanding that lunch would be at 12pm and we would be picked up at 1pm. This was not the case. Lunch was closer to 1pm and we didn’t leave until 1:30pm. Lunch was wonderful as usual. We had fried rice, spring rolls, vegetable soup, and bread.
Walking along the road back to our hotel.
Josh, Joe, Mary Beth and I decided to walk back to the hotel since it was a relatively short walk, only about 30 minutes. We started on our trek down the river road. Along our way we talked to a Cambodian man that had lived in Seattle, Washington. We didn’t have much time to talk to him, but I tried to infer from what he was saying to us that he had escaped the Khmer Rouge and made his way to the United States. He said that he had done a little bit of everything while he was there. He has been back in Cambodia for the past three years. I think it’s very interesting that he moved back, but I could understand why if you grew up here and wanted to continue to raise your family here. We then continued our journey. As we got to the main road we saw a dark grey sky. It looked as though it might rain on us before we made it back to the hotel. We made it about ¾ of the way to the hotel and then it started to down pour on us!! The rain was coming down in huge drops and very fast. We got drenched!!
Before we jumped in the pool.
As soon as we got back to the hotel all of four of us just jumped into the pool with all of our paint clothes on. It was so much fun! I didn’t bring a bathing suit so I’ve been swimming in my shorts and a tank top anyways, but this was just so carefree and joyful! I loved it! We played in the pool for a little bit and then it was time for me to rest a little bit. Originally, we were going to go to the Russian Market again, but with the torrential downpour we thought it was best to save that for Thursday. I’ve spent the afternoon napping and relaxing. We had dinner at Pop’s Café again. The best Italian restaurant in the world. It was amazing!! Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and played Uno and Cutthroat Uno. It was amazing!!!!! We had so much fun just goofing around and playing games. At one point one of the rules during Cutthroat Uno we had to sing everything that we said. I just didn’t talk since I don’t sing in public. It was all pretty funny!
Today was the first time that I really just let myself go and have a completely carefree time. I just played and didn’t care about what it would be like or what people would think of me. I have really enjoyed getting to know my team. I’m not ready to go home yet. I kind of wish that the trip was three weeks or a month. If it were that long then I feel like we would get a lot more accomplished. I think we could have done less tourist stuff and more work around their house or spending time with the girls. I’m really going to miss them when I get home. I really hope that there will be another opportunity for me to come here and spend time with them. The girls are so amazing. As some of their stories have come out over the duration of the trip, it makes me think so much higher of them and I didn’t think that would be possible. They have been through so much and yet they are still so positive. Americans could take note from the way they are. They have such a beautiful spirit! God has blessed them with a forgiving heart. That is definitely something that I could learn from. I hold a grudge for so long. Hatred and anger take up so much space in your heart; so much more space than love and joy. I want to have a forgiving heart.
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