“Haley, dun’t fart.” This is the most accurate description I can give of what it is like to teach a class of Cambodian preteens who speak broken English. All of a sudden there was a bad smell that crept its way into our classroom.  Emily quickly picked out one of our students and told him not to fart, which began a series of “Haley, dun’t fart” and “Emily, dun’t fart.”  We definitely did not stop them.  We actually joined in the ridiculousness. This is just a snapshot of classroom life.  There are many more stories...

so we’re a month and a half late, but we wanted to introduce our team! (disclaimer: definitely wrote this blog weeks ago but our wifi was never good enough to post it til now.) better late than never, right? anyways, we have now been to two cambodian weddings here (and are going to a third soon). here are some pics from the first one of everyone in our $3 rental dresses from the market & our $3 hair and makeup from the asians 🙂  and some pretty accurate descriptions of our lovely team members for your imaginations. for more (serious) info on our lovely ladies, check out...

On Wednesday 18 February, a boy named Vichet walked into our lives.      A close relative to ours here passed away Monday night and Tuesday night we attended the evening session of the funeral. Sophea, staff here, saw Vichet wandering around the funeral, and knowing he wasn’t from the area, tried asking questions of who he was and where he came from. He didn’t answer any of the questions.   The next morning, Vuthy came up to me and asked if I had experience with people who had mental health issues. Not really knowing in the wide range of mental...

                *So this post was actually written two weeks ago, but because of frequent power outages and sketchy wifi, I couldn’t post it until today. However, I still felt like I should still share :)*                 I wouldn’t really consider myself much of a writer, which explains why I haven’t blogged yet, but I figured I should catch you all up about what my life has looked like for the past month and...

**Double Disclaimer: Wifi is a struggle. So this blog wouldn’t post once again. So here it is—two weeks late!** * Disclaimer: This blog was to be posted last week at my one-month mark of leaving home, but last week, the power went out at where we get our wifi so I never was able to post. (The adventures never cease in Cambodia.) But today is our one-month mark of being here at YDC Kampot and doing ministry!*   Cambodia is like something I have never experienced before. Today marks one month since I left home to embark on this three-month adventure. I came here not knowing...

I believe that it is human nature to lean on things. Think about it.  Your legs get tired.  Your body feels heavy.  You are prone to lean on whatever the nearest object is, be it a pole or a chair.  You shift your weight from foot to foot and can consider it a joy when you find another person to lean on—to feel the heartbeat of another as your weary soul searches for rest.  Death is one of those situations that always exposes the vulnerable state of the human condition, creating in us a desire to lean.  On Monday our team was invited to a funeral of someone we barely knew.  The day before...

It was Saturday. Amber and I were both feeling a little off. We wanted to get away for a few minutes and refresh, so we walked up the street to what we call “the coconut place” to get an iced coffee. We ran into Dara, one of the boys we live with, who was getting some food. He asked us to sit with him and hang out. We ended up staying far longer than we expected, just hanging out and talking. It was getting close to dinnertime though, so we attempted to head back, but Dara wanted to stay just a little longer. As we finally made our way to the path to walk back, Soppanet’s...

I am not a runner. My bestie from back in the States, now she’s a runner. Me, though? Not so much. But here in Cambodia, many of us have made a point to try and go on a few runs a week. These runs are not only a chance to explore the areas around where we live, but also to get away from some of the noise of living with twelve boys and droves of children who come for classes each day.             Earlier this week, I went on one of these runs. It was a rare occasion, running by myself to “the coconuts” (aka the...