Highlights of the week:
1)While I am beyond sad that Katie is leaving, our trip to Angkor Wat was definitely a highlight of my service to date. Now, had I gone to Angkor Wat 5 or so months ago when I first arrived in Cambodia, the day would likely have looked different. We would probably have enjoyed the anonymity of being in a sea of foreigners, and felt very much at home with them, we would likely have had a strict itinerary and stuck to it, we would likely have gotten annoyed when our driver stopped at random places we did not ask to stop at, and we probably would have been completely overwhelmed by the children trying to sell us stuff. As it was we ended up spending a good portion of our trip to Angkor Wat talking to kids about when they went to school, where they went to school, and why they were not currently getting ready for school. I spent a good chunk of time over my morning coffee helping an 11th grade Khmer boy with his English homework. We spent a good amount of time meandering through random temples we had no intention of stopping at, we took lots of obnoxious photos with complete disregard for silly things like ropes, and we both felt completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of foreigners.
2)After receiving several Christmas packages (thanks to all who sent them!) I have a new appreciation for exfoliating soap. In America I never really understood the appeal of exfoliating soap. I mean I got it in principle but I did not appreciate it. I received a bar of exfoliating soap in a package of miscellaneous goodies from my aunt Kris and my grandma, and I have to say that bathing with said bar of soap left me feeling perhaps the cleanest I have felt in this country. Dirt has a way of getting into your pores and the creases in your skin here so that you can bathe and still rub dirt off of yourself. Not so with the exfoliating soap. This handy item also provides mosquito bite relief while bathing. So, a special thanks to my aunt and grandma, and anyone who wants to send me exfoliating soap in the future is more than encouraged to do so :)
3)Favorite Foo moment: I was sitting on a table outside my house watching TV with the fam when Foo (the 2 year old) spit into a small toy (kind of looked like a little plastic drum with one of the sides missing) and handed it to me. I took it and looked at him and he stared up at me with his tiny little adorable Khmer child face and said “niam at?” which loosely translates to “are you gonna eat it?” Thanks Foo, but no. I think I will pass on eating spitty plastic toys.
4)Favorite quote of the week: After church last Sunday one of the members of the congregation who knows pretty good English asked if I wanted him to tell me what the pastor had been preaching on. I said yes and he began to break down the message which was on Philippians 4:4-7. He helped me translate a bunch of stuff into Khmer and talked about the points the pastor had made about them but the best one was this: his summary of Philippians 4:6, “God says dear brother sister, everybody you must happy happy.” Now the pure simplification of this is funny but I think you may need to live here to fully appreciate the humor in this. Another volunteer here recently asked some Khmer people why they listened to music over loud speakers SO ridiculously LOUD so often and the response was “Kampuchea jole jchet supbai supbai” which translates to “Cambodia likes happy happy.” So of course God would command all of the brothers and sisters to be happy happy.
5)Text message of the week: "Uh Vatana just called me about stool samples. Maybe I don't want to et (early terminate) afterall..."
A couple more serious notes: I had a b it of a heart wrenching moment at school this week. There is a grade 9 boy at my school who appears to have cerebral palsy. I have seen him around all year and have asked all the teachers who speak English what his disability is and no one seems to know. They always just tell me that he cannot speak but he can learn. The other day I was sitting with one of the teachers at my school and this student walked up with a note asking her to ask me whether we have people “the same as” him in America. I know it is beyond anything I can understand or identify with, and difficult anywhere, but I cannot imagine how hard it must be to be like him in a place where the majority of people do not understand much if anything about it. To not even know if there are other people around the world who are experiencing life in the same way he is. It does present an interesting issue as far as the importance of names goes. We are so focused in the western world on what a condition is called. We want to know what we have. It isn’t enough to just recognize the traits exhibited and address those; we need to have a label to smack on it. While it has been confusing for me that no one here seems to have names for such things, in some ways it does not seem to matter. They recognize what his abilities are and have found ways to work with them thus allowing him to get to get an education as a non-verbal teenager. It’s pretty impressive!
On a sad note; my closest friend here has decided to go back to the states. There were a number of things that played into her decision and while I will certainly miss her I think that her leaving holds some important lessons. Katie has many qualities, not the least of which is a huge giving heart for other people that made her an awesome volunteer. However, there is an economy to time and every time you make a decision to do something, you are intrinsically making a decision not to do something else. If in the things you are doing you find that you cannot be at your best, than perhaps your time can be better given, and your life a greater service to others, in a context in which you can be your best. There are certainly trials in most anything you put your hand to but learning to assess whether those trials are growing your character or breaking your spirit is an important lesson and knowing when to push through and when to say enough is invaluable.
