Cambodia: Day 11 & Day 12

Day 11

Finding paint, sheets, and pillows in Cambodia is not nearly as easy as it would be in America. Instead of just stopping by Walmart like we would have, our group spent a very long time in the Russian Market, bargaining and trying to find what we need. About two hours later, we figured it all out and took the pillows and the sheets to the orphanage. After we delivered everything inside, the girls would make their bed, set up their mosquito nets, redo their beds again so it was perfect, and then would stay and play in there for hours. Tonight will be the first night the girls will get to sleep in their new house! Srey Neath had me sit and lie on her bed, and look out the window so I could see what she would see every night. All the girls are so extremely excited to have their first room ever and for some of them, their first beds ever. They have even put up a sign on the door that reads (in Khmer) “No Boys Allowed! Take Your Shoes Off Before Coming In!” It’s truly amazing that in a week we were able to build something from the ground up that would bring this much joy to these children.

Day 12

This morning Krissy and I taught in the classroom. We taught 3 different classes, each an hour long. Usually when we teach in the classroom, the children memorize each vocabulary word, or sentence, or whatever their unit is on. This method works well sometimes, but the children do not really get an understanding of what they are saying or speaking; they are simply memorizing not knowing the true meaning of the words. Krissy and I decided this method was not the method that we would use. When the sentence was, “The dogs go in.”, we had each kid repeat then we would ask, “Do the dogs go in?”, with their response being, “Yes, the dogs go in.” We would then ask a different question, “Do you have a dog?” or other questions just so they could comprehend what we were asking instead of just memorization. This method works very well, and I know these kids went home knowing something, not just memorizing it.

In the afternoon, we finished painting the girls’ house. On the way there Krissy and I had a really amazing talk about how normally when people find out that we are going to an orphanage in Cambodia, they ask if we are planning on adopting any of the kids, or planning on bringing some back “…so they can have a better life in America.” We were talking about how frustrating this really can be, because just like this girls’ house has shown us, we don’t need to bring a child to our country to have a better life. We can put in our time and our energy to build things, clean things, make things, or just spend time with these children, loving them, and that is what makes a child’s life better. Not just bringing them to a country with lower poverty rates. Having this conversation really opened my eyes a little, because every single day these children are so incredibly happy and even though most of them don’t have a loving family, they have each other, and now they have us… and that is what makes a child’s life better.

I am so grateful I got to know these children and have relationships with them that will truly last for the rest of my life. I can’t wait to spend these last 2 days with them.