Back From Thailand

Hello, it’s Rick again from Cambodia! We had a great trip to Thailand last week, which was a great break, and got us energized for the final two weeks. It was a typical family beach vacation, with a few monkeys and elephants thrown in, so you’ll have to ask for a review of our pictures once we return.

This week we had planned to teach in Kompang Speu, which is a rural village, so we were looking forward to seeing how most of the country actually lives. However, a new opportunity came up in Loredt, so yesterday we began teaching there.

When we were teaching in the former brothel (Rahab’s House) at Svey Pak, we didn’t have any local adults helping out, and the kids had not been to any form of school, so attention spans and discipline were serious problems. That is to say, the kids were a little like wild animals. After that experience, we weren’t entirely excited about returning to Cambodia to teach again, because it had been so frustrating, and we weren’t sure whether the kids had actually absorbed anything. However, last Sunday was the first week to hold church in Rahab’s House, and they had 50 adults and 30 children attend the first day. Since everyone walks to church in these poorer areas, most churches have a regular attendance of 40-50 people. So we’d like to think that our week of teaching contributed to community good will, and encouraged this large crowd. Remember that the locals used to call this building the Death House, and wouldn’t allow their children near it.

So, after our very difficult time at Rahab’s House, we were encouraged by our experience yesterday at Loredt. If the rental agreement goes through this week, a new church will be planted in Loredt this Sunday, so we’re going in again to build good will in the community before the opening of the church. What’s different this time is that a couple volunteered the front room to their house, so there were 6 local adults available to supervise and direct the children. Except for the language barrier (and many of these kids have had an introduction to English), it was almost like teaching in America. The children were wonderfully behaved and attentive, and were quick to memorize verses and songs with us.

In Loredt, people grow plants in flooded fields, so the house we’re using is built on stilts over a pond. The room we’re in is about 20 feet long and 15 feet deep, and if you look through the cracks in the boards, you can see the water. We had 38 children by snack time, and we added a few more after playing games in a nearby water buffalo pasture (certified by locals as landmine free, and the water buffalo just ignored us). So just imagine what it would be like to have forty children packed into your living room for the morning, and you get a sense for how crowded it was. When we started singing and jumping around, the house started to sway quite a bit. The owners got nervous, and asked us not to jump around quite so much. We didn’t want to destroy our host’s home, so tomorrow we’ll sing songs with more sedate motions.

We’ve all passed around a brief but intense cold this trip (I had it for a couple of days in Thailand), and now its John’s turn, so I’m staying with him for a day while he recovers. Here’s our itinerary for the rest of the trip, which you can use to post on your refrigerator and track us:

June 29 – July 4 Teach at Loredt on the edge of Phnom Penh
July 5 Sight seeing at the Killing Fields
July 6 Travel to Siem Reap by bus
July 7 – 11 Teach in Siem Reap
July 12 – 13 Sight Seeing (Ankor Wat)
July 15 Return to Phnom Penh by bus
July 16 Fly to San Fransisco

Rick for the Kraemers