Dear God, surround me as I speak,
the bridges that I walk across are weak
Frustrations fill the void that I can’t solely bear.

Dear God, don’t let me fall apart
you’ve held me close to you
I have turned away and searched
for answers I can’t understand.

Chorus:
They say that I can move the mountains
And send them falling to the sea
They say that I can walk on water
If I would follow and believe with Faith Like a Child

Sometimes, when I feel miles away
and my eyes can’t see your face
I wonder if I’ve grown to lose the
recklessness I walked in light of you

They say that love can heal the broken
They say that hope can make you see
They say that faith can find a Savior
If you would follow and believe
With Faith Like a Child

–Faith like a child by Jars of Clay

I was listenning to this song today while working out at Himawari. I don’t have a whole speech to write about the song this time, but just thought I’d post it up as a small enouragement for the day cause it made me smile!

Only a few more weeks till I head back to Hong Kong for a short visit! Quite stoked about it but am enjoying myself here. This weekend will be the first weekend where I don’t have anyone to entertain or a packed schedule- so it should be relaxing.

I’ve had the chance to think this past week about the fact that I am “living” in Cambodia. It miight seem normal to me but to others, it is absolutely ridiculous. The dirt, the dust, the heat, they all might seem unbearable to some people but to me- it seems like a lifestyle that I have adapted to. The ants that infest our kitchen, and the ones that crawl around in my room, they are not gross anymore- they just become annoying after a while. The little rodent that run around our house and eats our dead cockroaches.

You are probably shivering at the moment wondering how in the world we could live with that, but in fact, we live in a pretty wealthy house. It’s safe, it’s big and we have our own personal space when we need it. Comparatively, that’s very different then the rest of Cambodia… or even with a lot of people in the rest of the world!

Megan’s favorite- Instead of arguing over who mows the lawn like in the states or Canada, families could argue who gets to take the long bamboo stick, stick it up on the tree and knock the cocunut down before it drops on someone’s head.

Anyhow, that’s just a short post for me. Need to get some sleep.

Will update soon again.

I was just relaxing at home this afternoon, recovering from a fever, and decided to dig through the dvd collection at the house and came across “Freedom Writers”, I have briefly heard about it before but have never watched it. I skimmed the blurb and knew I had to watch it. 

A lot of thoughts went through my head during the movie. For a short description, Freedom Writers is about a woman’s first year of teaching at a school with students who are in the school because they are forced to. Very racially mixed and segregated and have no desire to study at all. The teacher struggles through the year and changes her methods of teaching the kids. What happens next? You’ll have to watch the movie. 

Erin (the teacher) struggles with the administration and her colleagues while trying to teach the kids the ways she knows how to. It pains me to see the way the administration reacts to these students, the way they believe these children and hopeless therefore, as a teacher, you are just “baby sitting” them because they have to be there. Erin, on the other hand, thinks differently.

Through her guidance and teaching, these students change drastically from a group of kids in gangs, and believes they are at war on the street… to a group of students who believes in change, who believes in doing the right thing and being as a family. 

Words are powerful. It doesn’t matter whether you are still a teenager, or whether you have got years of experience on the work field. Words can change people, change outcomes and even save a life. It’s one of the most powerful weapons in life. 

Perhaps that’s exactly the reason why I love writing, & expressing my feelings through words.

Sorry it’s been a while since I have written, I have been working on the newsletter this past week. Let me know if you didn’t receive a copy and you would like a copy.

 

I was sitting at dinner with one of my housemates last night and we got to talking about living in Cambodia and describing the experience to family members and friends. Though it is a third-world-developing country, it is a very unique place to live in. How often do you get to tell people “I lived in Cambodia, and didn’t get bombed by a landmine!”

 

Just kidding, first of all let’s get this clear; I live in the city of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. There are no landmines here and if there was, I’m sure they would have been exploded by now. Sure, if you go into the forest and run around like a bull chasing a red flag, you might just lose a leg or two.

 

Cambodia is not an easy place to live in. It’s hot, very humid and in general, it’s a developing country. Coming from a place like Hong Kong, one of the most technological advanced, developed cities where you can find almost anything you need in a matter of minutes, it’s challenging living here. But with that being said, I can adapt quite easily and not complaining too much about living here!

 

If you have been to Cambodia, imagine trying to describe Cambodian traffic, or lack there of. If there is one phrase to describe it, it’s that Cambodia traffic is real life frogger. The rule of the driving or biking in the traffic is to never stop. If you come to an intersection, you slow down to perhaps your slowest speed but you keep moving and weave through the traffic. It’s almost impossible to describe it! It doesn’t really matter which side of the road you’re on, as long as you get to your destination in the fastest way possible. Though it might all seem like a mess, the speed on the road is very slow. Most of the time, you would be able to jog along side of the drivers and keep up with them.

 

That’s all for now, more to come next time!

 

Final note: you know you’re sick in Cambodia when you’re wearing a Hoodie without the air conditioner or a fan blowing on you! 

I know I know… you would have never thought. But it’s true! September 29th and the 30th are public holidays here in Cambodia and so we have a long four day weekend. Therefore, a bunch of colleagues and I decided to go to Sihanoukville, a famous beach area a few hours from Phnom Penh. We set off Friday after school hoping it would only take 3 hours, but with traffic and a short pit stop in the middle, it took 5 hours in total. The worse part is, we had 12 people in a van that would fit 8 people comfortably… so the ride wasn’t that great but it got us there!

The last two days, we have woken up pretty early and headed straight down to the beach. Spending the morning and half of the afternoon there… slowly head back to the hotel, relax and head to dinner. Haven’t done all that much otherwise. It has been raining quite a lot, including the first morning we went to the beach! But nonetheless, we made the most of it and swam in the ocean. More like, trying to catch waves and not get crushed by them. 

The beach that is right around our hotel is a nice beach, but am full of little girls and women trying to sell us bracelets, pedicures, manicures and even to shave our legs (with yearn!). As much sympathy as I have for these children, they really do know how to jack up the prices for foreigners… it’s a hard thing to deal with. Do you give them more money knowing they will waste the money on things they don’t need, or bargain till the end? 

Eitherway, the beaches are beautiful. I will upload photos once I get back to Phnom Penh. Sihanoukville is a very small town, you can get from one end to another in a car in about 15 minutes. Though it is beautiful during the day and I love going to the beach with my colleagues, it would be even better is someone would go out to the beach with me at night. Sit at one of the restaurants or bar by the beach, have a drink and listen to the waves crash. But instead, everyone is back at the guesthouse by 8 ready to go to bed. This is when I say… I want to go back to Hong Kong! 

Hope all is going well, write more in the next few days.