First Week at A Greater Hope Orphanage

Day 1-2, August 5-6^th:

The first day of my trip was a very long travel day. I left from LAX at 1:35A and flew into Taipei Taiwan. This flight was long but wasn't too bad and in Taipei I met up with Ginny Davis who is also volunteering at the orphanage until September 25^th and we flew together from Taipei into Phnom Penh Cambodia. It was a blessing to be able to have our layover and connecting flight together for the start of this journey, we were able to get to know a little bit about it each other which was great because we are going to be roommates for the next two months. I am very blessed to be able to share this spiritual journey with three other girls.

I know that some of my friends and family are worried for my safety here, but I know the Lord has called me here and I have full faith in Him and His plan for me being here. I am encouraged over and over again by Him in His word of His protection of us, one verse of many is Isaiah 41:10 “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

After we arrived we were met by the director Kit and another volunteer Laura who arrived earlier that day and is staying until August 22^nd. We loaded up our stuff and went into town to pickup another volunteer, Jessica, who has been here since June and will be staying until at least January. We had lunch in Phnom Penh and then headed to the orphanage. We continued our drive to the orphanage and I found myself shocked by the driving conditions. Most people here drive motos (little motorcycles) and fit 1-4 people on them including children and helmets are very rare. It is crazy to see the difference in safety standards from the States to here, it is illegal to have a child out of a car seat at home but here little babies and children are crowded on a motor without even a helmet and they are driving on crowded roads with basically no driving laws to abide by. After an hour or so drive we finally arrived at the orphanage on Monday August 6^th around 4P.

When we first arrived we got a tour of the orphanage and quickly got to playing with the kids. By this time it was playtime and they were all out in the backyard playing different games. This one that the younger ones love to play is two kids hold a string from each end and the others jump over it, they make it a little higher each time until someone touches the string, I have seen them play this simple game for over an hour, they are all so amazing and so easily entertained. The first thing I had noticed was that everyone here is barefoot. They do not wear shoes in the home here, which I knew, but I did not realize it meant they went around barefoot all the time. I later realized they all wear flip-flops if they leave their house, but mostly at home they are barefoot. After play time we had dinner, shower, Bible study in which the kids practiced two worship songs to sing to us, and then it was bedtime after being awake for nearly 48 hours.

Day 3, August 7^th:

Each morning we are able to have our own quite time with the Lord praying and reading on our own, it is a blessing to have our own time with the Lord before the start of each day. Each day usually starts with reading, then breakfast, and then teaching at 9A. This morning Ginny and I were able to help Jessica teach English to the older kids. The kids are on break from school now but they still have to do studies at the orphanage Monday-Friday, they have an hour of English each of these days which we help with. We have lunch around 11A and then after lunch until 2P is rest/naptime, this was very good news to us as we were all exhausted and jet lagged so we were able to rest.

After rest time we went into the “market”, the market is on the main dirt road and it is the villagers homes. They all sell things outside their homes such as fruit, vegetables, clothes, meat, etc... We just looked around, a few of the kids came with and got some rice soup from one of the villagers and we headed back. At this time the kids were all playing again in the yard, flying homemade kites, swinging on the swings, playing tag, and kicking a soccer ball around.

Kit had asked to get the kids together to play soccer, he had wanted to keep it a secret from the kids that I played soccer because he thought the boys would be really surprised to see a girl play well. I didn't think we would play so soon after me getting here as I was so exhausted from traveling but of course I was not about to pass up the opportunity to play soccer with the kids. I was expecting the kids to get shoes or cleats on, change into workout clothes, or something, but they just split into two teams, all barefoot, and began playing. I cannot even explain how amazing these kids are, they play on a diagonal field in the backyard with the ball pinging off the playground, you have to duck under the volleyball net in the sand, watch out for goose droppings near one of the goals, try not to hit the geese or one of their dogs running around, they play in their everyday clothes, and all of this barefoot!! And these kids are fearless, tackling each other so hard, at one point Kit told me not to be easy on them because they are tough and I was thinking, “ummm I am not worried about them, I am scared for me because we are barefoot and these kids are crazy, haha!”. It was just so amazing playing with these kids and after we played they were all laughing at me being able to play well so it was a lot of fun.

After playing we had dinner, shower, Bible study, and then bed. Monday-Thurday the kids have Bible study taught but one of the volunteers, staff members, or Ream. Friday they have a Bible test, Saturday is movie night so no study, and Sunday night two of the kids or chosen to share for Bible study. And they attend church every Sunday morning at the local Christian church, Ream's father is the pastor there and this is also where their private school is located. They also have a Bible memory verse each week which they all repeat before each meal to help them learn it. It is so amazing to be apart of a Bible filled organization and help minister and be a good role model to these children. One of my prayers for these children is that after they leave here they will stay faithful to the Lord and not fall back into this world and their buddhist culture that they will be surrounded in. The Lord commands and encourages in Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”. 

Day 4, August 8^th:

Today Ginny and I started to teach English class to the middle age kids, I am so excited to be able to teach English to the kids. I did not know before coming here that they studied during their break so I did not think I was going to be able to be involved in their schooling until they start school in September, so I feel blessed to be able to start that right away as that is one of the things I felt led to do here.

After lunch I felt ill so I slept most of the afternoon to catch up on some sleep. Afterwards it was early Bible study since Wednesday night is movie night, then after Bible study it was playtime and Kit had asked if we could get out the cleats I brought for the kids to play soccer again. I had brought cleats for the kids which were most all donated from Ahwatukee Foothills Soccer Club whom I had coached for, and I was so excited to give them to the kids as I had 18 pairs of cleats, 8 pairs of shinguards, a keeper jersey, and a pair of goalie gloves. After seeing them play barefoot and realizing that some of these kids have never worn a pair of shoes before I was very apprehensive about giving them the cleats as I thought they would not want to wear them since they are not used to wearing cleats. Was I ever wrong!! The kid's faces lit up so much when I brought the cleats out, they were all beaming with the biggest smiles and were more excited to get them than I was to give them. It was so amazing to see these kids put on the cleats and their smiling faces, they were sharing shinguards, putting them on upside down, tying them on with string, none of the boys cared that some of the cleats had pink on them, they were just in awe and amazement of getting these cleats. Thank you to those who donated items as I cannot even began to explain how joyful the kids were!!

We played through dinner time since the kids were so excited and we ended up having a late dinner, during dinner the kids lined their cleats up along the wall neatly and I looked around and most of the kids were still wearing the cleats in the house which they DO NOT wear shoes in the house. They wore them while eating dinner, they were wearing them after just walking around in them, and some wore them while doing dishes!! It was such a blessing for me to see these kids so happy with these gifts donated from people back home. I literally had to start telling the kids to take the cleats off and leave them alone before they got in trouble for wearing them in the house, a couple of them were just hovering around the cleats and kept touching and pointing to the ones they wore and just smiling.

Afterwards it was dinner, shower, movie, and bedtime. Ginny and I missed the movie as we spent some time with Kit and Ream and they were sharing with us about the education system here in Cambodia. I will share that in another blog, it is truly disturbing and heartbreaking to learn about how corrupt the education system is here and they are only harming the children which is the future of their nation.

Day 5, August 9^th:

Today Kit took us to the Christian private school that they started, it is K-6^th grade. The school is really amazing and they are only about to start their third year. The first year was only kindergarten and it became so popular among the villagers that they grew to K-6^th their second year. This school is such a blessing to these children, they have Bible study first thing in the morning and then school studies the rest of the day. The teachers here actually teach unlike at the public schools. Kit and Ream were sharing with us about the public school system and it astonished me at how corrupt it is. I will share this later after I am able to visit the public school and learn more.

After we got back it was chores time and I try to help in the afternoons with them to learn what they do. They are amazing, the kids have crops growing that they tend to, they have over 500 catfish that they take care of, they have goats, rabbits, chickens, and geese. Each week the kids are assigned tasks to complete during chore time. Some tend to the crops by watering, hoeing, sowing, fertilizing, or pulling out weeds and grass. There are so many different farming and cleaning tasks they are doing daily, they are such hard workers and extremely resourceful. Today I helped by pulling grass out of the crops which they used to feed the rabbits. Almost everyday I try to help with something during chore time, I have pulled weeds, fed the fish worms, chopped plants to mix with something to feed the geese, helped pen the chickens, and a few other things.

After chores the boys were wanting to play soccer again, they are so funny, before they were even finished with their chores they were putting their cleats on and then finished working. I had brought my old coaching shirts from AFSC, the same club that donated cleats and it just so happened that I had 9 red shirts and one jersey donated from someone and a keeper jersey. This fielded a team of 11 perfectly. I gave the kids the shirts today so we could actually know who was on who's team and they just LOVED them!!

Afterwards we had dinner, shower, Bible study, and bedtime. 

Day 6, August 10^th:

Today was a special day, it started off at English class. Since it was Friday the kids told Ginny and me that Fridays they get to play a fun game so luckily we had something planned a little fun planned already. I had brought some school supplies which have come in very handy, we gave them each a coloring page which consisted of one of the U.S. States and had little fun facts on it. The kids colored the picture and then had to speak on their state they had colored. They had so much fun coloring and learning about the states. One of the girls colored Arizona, another colored Alabama where Ginny and Laura are from, and another colored Hawaii where Jessica was from so they all thought it was a lot of fun.

We had decided the day prior that today was going to be soccer day for the girls, only a couple of girls had shown interest in playing the past few days so I wasn't sure if enough girls would participate. The boys of course were sad because they wanted to play. At playtime in the evening the girls put on the cleats and jerseys and played for almost an hour!! It was so much fun playing with the girls, the whole time it was just laughing and giggling. The boys watched and waited for the girls to finish, some were laughing at the girls playing and others just looked so sad that they were not playing. It wasn't too long until the boys slowly started taking over playing one by one.

Day 7, August 11^th:

Today was a great day of getting to travel a little and see part of the country. Kit had hired us a tuk tuk, which is a form of a taxi, and us four girls, along with two of the kids named Tate and Chanlay, and Sowly, one of the staff members, went to see some ancient temple ruins and visit Sowly's family. The temple is on the top of a hill and they have cement stairs all the way up the hill to reach them. We had such a good time hiking around and seeing the ruins, the view from the top was amazing. The countryside here is so beautiful, we were told that the land used to be full of trees like a rainforest but overtime they have cut down most all of the trees which saddens the people but the land here is still very beautiful.

After the ruins we went to visit Sowly's family in a neighboring village, we were all so blessed by them. Her family was so kind and accommodating, they kept giving us snacks of various fruits from trees around their house, they made us tea, fed us a delicious meal, and took us out on a pond full of lillypad and we were in a canoe which had been carved from a tree. At their house I had my first ride on the back of a moto, Sowly and one of the kids that went with us wanted to go get ice from a neighbors market so I jumped on the back of the moto with them and the three of us rode together. I told them my mom would be very upset if she knew I road one and without a helmet, they thought it was funny because they do not think of safety standards here when they drive.

We were able to visit Sowly's cousin's house, she is coming here to be a new staff member because one of the ladies is leaving to study to be a teacher at their school. We saw her and Sowly's family making fabric on weaving tables, their fabric is so intricate, it amazed us all how they dye the string which they get from silk worms and create these fabrics and scarves with such detailed pattern and pictures. I still have no idea how they are able to do that, but the work is so beautiful! On our way back we were able to stop at Sowly's relative's house and purchase scarves they made.

After a long day of travel we finally made it back to the house and were able to play with the kids and have movie night with them before we headed to bed.

This first week was so amazing, I was able to see some of the countryside and get a view of how the people here lived, and my time has mostly been filled with playing with the kids and getting to know them and learn their names. There are 41 kids here, 4 staff members, Kit's family, and others that help out here so there are a lot of people to meet and names to learn. Each day I have been getting a chance to play with the kids and I absolutely adore each one of them. I get to teach them in English class, play games with them, and just sit and talk with them. The kids here are so beautiful inside and out, they all have such amazing personalities. Each child is unique and it has been a blessing to get to know them, at times it is so hard to think about their past and what struggles that have endured and will endure. Each child has their own story of what brought them here and they are really heartbreaking. I pray that I can continue to be a light and witness for the Lord to these children and can bless them as much as they are blessing me.

Psalms 78:3-8

3 Which we have heard and known , and our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done . 5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: 6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born ; who should arise and declare them to their children: 7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: 8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright , and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.