Last Week in Cambodia: Siem Reap

Hi, this is John, writing for the Kraemers. We drove down to Siem Reap for Phnom Penh on Sunday. We met the two pastors of our assigned church at dinner that night. The senior pastor, who I still don’t know the name of [His name is Ban Yen – Rick], and the Junior pastor/translator, Kong. We discussed logistics for the next week.

On Monday, we met Kong and his friend at around 8:30 in the morning for a short 3-minute drive to the church. We were all happy with the hotel, which was much nicer than the one in Phnom Penh. The church building was very nice; it sat right next to a field that sent a cool breeze through the building. The kids at Siem Reap were much better behaved. They had more adult supervision than any other church we had visited, so they were all pressured to sit down quietly like it was school. We didn’t want them to feel bored with everything, so we quickly got out musical instruments bought at the dollar store and riled them with songs. We were surprised by the number of kids at the VBS. We were told to expect like a hundred, but we got 45 on the first day. At the end of the day, we watched as the church used our money for huge meals for the kids. 3-year-olds walked around with Styrofoam rice containers, spilling the rice around. Something had been translated wrong, because that was too much food for even us to have in one meal.

On Tuesday, the kids seemed more excited that we were there and looked less like they were in school. Kong said that all the kids at the church had been brought in by Tuk-Tuk, a carriage pulled by a motorcycle, and that none of the local kids were coming. Kong had thought that the VBS was for christian children, but had not known we were hoping for more of an outreach program. Therefore, we went out in the morning and got about 10 more kids to come in off the streets. We had the same problem with food on Tuesday, and my parents were frustrated with the misuse of their money, but couldn’t find a way to get across the language barrier. My mom was most affected.

On Wednesday, my dad was sick, and stayed home while we went to the VBS. More kids came than on Tuesday, and the VBS was a great success aside from the problem with the food. We played duck duck goose with the children after the VBs as we waited for our ride, and really connected with the kids. We met dad back at the hotel and rested for like an hour before heading out to Angkor Wat, a massive Buddhist temple and tourist attraction. My mom was angry that my dad couldn’t come, because we bought the tickets on Tuesday and couldn’t refund dad’s ticket. Angkor Wat was really hot, and had lots off century-old sandstone in it. The only fun part was the carvings of battles and kings and legends on the four walls of the temple. We also went to another temple and climbed around on the stairs their. It had like 2 dozen towers with huge faces on them. The climbing was fun, but also very hot. Lastly, we visited the temple where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed. That was the best one. It was not as hot as the other ones, and had jungle sounds all around. Their were 700 year-old-trees growing around the massive walls, and we took lots of pictures of us climbing in the trees.

On Thursday, dad was feeling better and went with us to the VBS. It was great, but at the end the Senior Pastor asked us for more money, when we had given him our budget for the entire week. We told him no, and were disappointed because we gave him more money than he should have needed to feed the kids. Were we tired on Thursday and rested for the rest of the day.

On Friday, I was feeling sick but went anyway to say goodbye to the kids. After the VBS, we stayed longer than any other day and took lots of pictures with the kids. They were very sad that we couldn’t stay another week.

On Saturday, we toured Angkor Wat in the morning, this time with my dad. We went to many of the same places, but hired a tour guide to tell us more about the places were had been through quickly. In the evening, we went to a dinner show with traditional Apsara dancing.

On Sunday, we visited the Vietnamese fishing village on the great lake in Cambodia. We sat in a motor boat and watched people who spent their entire lives on floating houses. At the end, we went to a fish farm and tourist shop. We watched the man feed some fish. The fish were fun to watch as the water thrashed while they fought for the food. Next, we purchased a large fish and watched as they fed it to some crocodiles. They tied it to a pole by the taile and dangled it down. When the crocodile got it, they pulled the fish back up. Once, when they were doing this, the half-eaten fish flew upward when the crocodile let go and I had fish entrails splattered all over me.

On Monday, we drove back to Phnom Pehn. We met some donors from IJM, and talked with them a little bit about our trip. We were tired from the drive and slept early. *Sigh* back to the bad hotel.

On Tuesday, we met our friend Kimsua at the National museum and toured that for the entire morning. I went with Kimsua on his motorcycle and bought some DVD’s at the mall while everyone else went back to the hotel. About an hour later Kimsua and I finished shopping and arrived at the hotel. We went to lunch with Kimsua and said goodbye to him. Then we visited Moses’s house and gave the VBS supplies to Moses. We said goodbye to the disciples and went back to the hotel.

John for the Kraemers