On our way

We started our journey at the Canal house, where we were picked up by Natalie and her mom-in-law in a red truck.  Yes, a red, short-ish truck.  All of our stuff fit in the back.  We got pulled over for speeding and found that the officer who had stopped us had served in the military and did a tour in Cambodia in the 1980's.  It was cool talking to him.  We didn't get a ticket.
We breezed through check-in.  Soon we were on our way via KOREAN AIR.

Fly Korean Air.  You'll thank me later.

We flew over Japan.  By the time we flew over Japan, it was Tuesday instead of Monday.  So I waved and sang 'Happy Birthday' to my dear cousin, Elder Bame.  Didn't plan that.

The Korean Airport is beautiful.  McKae and I did some traditional printing because it was the activity of choice.

Then we boarded the plane, Korean Air again, to Phnom Penh.  There was a fair amount of turbulence. But finally we were in Cambodia!


On Wednesday, which was Tuesday night for you on the other side of the world, we explored a bit.
First, we went to the grocery store and the market.
Something you should know about traffic here.  There are no rules.  Well, there are, 1) Moto drivers must wear helmets 2) Watch where you're going.  You would think, by looking at how many vehicles are on the streets, that there are a ton of accidents all the time.  We've been here for a few days and we've only seen one accident.  It was between two motos.  Small kine accident. I think Cambodia people are better drivers because they have to be very aware of everyone around them- otherwise they'll get run over.
The food here- well everything here, but mostly the food- is very cheap.  Cambodia uses the metric system.  I think, deep in my brain, I knew that.  I'm not quite used to it. There is a, you know, slight language barrier.  It is so weird to be the minority tongue here.  Cool, but weird.  It tests your brain to see if there is any other way to get the point across.

After the market, we went to buy bikes.
In the terms of general population, I'm tall.  Compared to my family I'm not that tall, but I'm pushing 5'10''.   The bike store had 1 bike that was my size.  There was a different one that they had me try but the handles were really close together and my knees got in the way of my steering.
So we had our bikes.  Something that we didn't really think of until we were getting ready to leave was...how are we getting our bikes anywhere?  We have no idea where we're going, we don't speak the language, we have no idea how to deal with traffic, and we've only been in the country for about 14 hours.
I'll upload the video to YouTube later.  Natalie has it.
We followed the car- and the car drove slowly- to the orphanage.

CICFO
We walked into the orphanage and the children met us in the courtyard.  They greeted us with hugs- which is difficult because I am substantially taller than they are and I still haven't quite figured that out yet.  The kids lined up and introduced themselves.  "Hello my name is ____, I am ____ years old.  Nice to meet you."
After their adorable introductions, the kids sang for us.  They began with A Child's Prayer.  When was the last time you heard that song?

Heavenly Father, are you really there, 

and do you hear and answer every child's prayer?

I was a goner.  I started crying, it was terrible.  They're orphans and it was one of the sweetest, most touching things I've ever heard.  The thought that immediately followed yes He does, he knows you're here and he loves you was  Neco told me never to cry in front of Southeast Asians because they'll think you're crazy.   I started to sing with them to stop myself from crying.  We got through the rest of A Child's Prayer, I am a Child of God in English and in Khmer (pronounced kuh-my), Listen to the Still Small Voice, and I think there was one more but we'll leave it there. 

A few of the little girls started doing a traditional Khmer (kuh-my) dance for a few minutes and then we were done with the formal meeting and we went off to play.  McKae and I played with the kids for a few hours.  The taught us their games, they communicated in broken English, we ran around playing Tom and Jerry, duck-duck-goose, some other Khmer running game.  They showed us their dogs.   Oh man these kids are so cute!  

When it was time to go, the little ones bid farewell with more hugs and a few of the older children guided us back to Botevy's house so that we wouldn't get lost.  

The end.  There are lots of pictures on facebook that you are welcome to view, I can't post very many here.