Work, Work, Work...

Today was our first real work day. We traveled to the Daughters' house to do some small projects around the house. Well we thought they would be small projects. A couple from Common Ground, the Beringers, are going to be coming to live with the girls and work with the girls for the next several years. There is a small make-shift apartment on the first floor of the house. It hasn't been cleaned or painted in a very long time. Our job was to take out all of the furniture and items in the rooms (the two interns that have been here have been living in that room and will move back into the room when we're done), wipe down the walls and paint. We started taking everything out. That was easy. Then came the part about wiping down the walls. This was easy, just a little more complicated than it needed to be.

Wiping down the walls in the apartment.

The windows were horribly dirty!!! So we're still wiping...

First we had to find buckets for water. That took us scavenging around the property to find pails. We finally found them. The next step was to find rags. They had some towels, but Theary decided it would be a better idea to go by second-hand cloths to use instead, since that would be cheaper than replacing the towels. We finally got the cloths and it was time to wipe down the walls. Another easy step in the process. After that was done we each wrote a Bible passage or two on the walls in marker to bless the home where the Beringers will be living. This was a great idea until we got to the paint. We had no pans to roll out paint or cups to hold paint while we trimmed so there was another scavenger hunt involved. We found stuff and got started. The paint when you went to dip it out had the consistency of pudding. This made us all really excited because we thought we would only need one coat. Oh boy was I surprised when I went to trim the door and it was like painting with water colors. It took us the whole morning to paint the two small rooms of that apartment and you can still see some of the Bible passages through the layers of paint. The room does look much nicer and much more clean now that it has a new coat of paint; it just took much, much longer than expected. After awhile of painting, I needed a break so I spent time with Srey Nouch.

Little Srey Nouch and me.

Her oldest sister is apart of the Daughters Project. Their family is in extreme poverty so Tida, Srey Di (another sister) and Srey Nouch have been living at the Daughters house for a little while now. Srey Nouch is so unbelievably smart. She catches onto things very quickly and wants to practice her English whenever she can.

Making friendship bracelets with Srey Nouch.

We spent the afternoon making friendship bracelets. After we were done with that it was time for lunch. Some of the girls that work at Theary's house and some of the girls who live at the orphanage down the road made us an amazing lunch. They made us noodles, vegetables, fried chicken, some type of beef, and they also brought us fruit plates. We were all very full by the end of lunch. After lunch it was time to go back to the hotel so that the interns would have their space back in order to hold Kids Club. Kids Club is when the children that live in that neighborhood can come and play games and do crafts. It supports a sense of community in that area. We did a little swimming at the hotel pool and then it was time for me to take a nap. We finished up the night at a cute little French restaurant more downtown in Phnom Penh. It was amazing food! I'm glad we ended such a fun day with such an amazing meal!

While we were swimming in the pool, I had a really wonderful conversation with the ladies on the trip. I have a lot on my heart and mind right now. A lot of what they said has given me some clarity into what my next steps should be. I have always tried to take the easiest path in a situation, instead of doing what's best for all involved. I think this time around it's time to wise up and put faith in God that He is pushing me down the path He wants me on and because of that He will support me no matter what. Because I am so scientifically minded I have such a hard time just having faith. That is definitely something that I need to work on and need to pray about. I truly believe that God is working on my heart this trip for so many reasons.