12/01/23
We wrapped up our time in our village on 11/24/23. We woke up to saying goodbye to our host and one of the other teachers. It was a time of many emotions. We were so sad to leave our village and bonds we have created over the past 45 days. At the same time we were exited to surprise two of the teams located in Siem reap. There were many tears from the teachers and the students. It was difficult to say goodbye and I miss them all so much. From our village we had about an 8 hour drive to Siem reap. The ride there was super tight. With all of our packs loaded in a 7 passenger van we had to come up with a way to fit one more person in, so we stuffed a person between the bags and the ceiling of the van. We finally made it into Siem reap at 4 pm. We got set up in our hostel, grabbed some amazing pizza and then surprised the two teams in Siem reap (for those of you who don’t know what a hostel is, it’s basically like a hotel but instead of renting a room you are renting a bed). We were greeted with excitement as we neared their house. We all caught up the best we could in the time we were given. Most of the week was spent getting used to being with the other teams and being in the city. It was draining at some points being in a new place and with a large group of people, so we all had to take it slow. We explored the city as much as we could and then we also visited Angkor Wat, which is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. It was a wonder to see the size and intricate detail of the temple. We also got to enjoy some of the local food and culture of the Khmer people. We were in Siem reap just in time for the water festival. Water festival is the same as americas New Year’s celebration. Many decoration were set up and it made the city come to life at night. My team and I left our hostel yesterday morning and moved all of our stuff into the house of the teams we met up with the first night. We then prepared ourselves to wake up at 3 AM to get everything ready for the bus come pick us up and take us to Thailand borders.
That’s all I have for the last 2 weeks. Just wanted to give a heads up, I am going to start focusing on doing a monthly newsletter instead of the story of the week. This will allow for me to focus more on my walk with Christ and where God has me in the moment. God has been teaching me to take one day at a time and trust that his plan is the best. Thank y’all for reading and I hope y’all enjoyed this blog ending out Cambodia.
