Sup Universe!
SO this week has been sad and eventful all at the same time....... What?!?!?!?!? I know that is kind of a depressing way to start a blog, but this isn't just some little made up story this is real life and real life has some tough moments, you know.
So, we'll start with the tough stuff..... this week I found out that one of my favorite kids in Svay Pak has been having a rough home life. His mom has been selling herself in Phnom Penh because for the past 7 months she has been trying to recover from the death of her husband and has had no income to speak of. In her desperation she turned to prostitution as the only answer, as so many women do here in Cambodia, and has barely been able to feed her three kids. On top of that she has been using drugs to cope with the pain of what she is going through. Needless to say this was a difficult thing for me to find out. I love this boy and I would do almost anything for him, the pastor tried to get me to adopt him last week, but I kindly refused seeing as I am returning to America in December, but I wish I could take him..... But this week when I went to visit the kids I found out that he was going to have the opportunity to go to school in Phnom Penh and live in a safe-house with a house mom and other boys who are his age. I am relieved that he will get the chance to better himself but it is so difficult to see him leave. I love him so much and I will be praying for him like crazy in the coming months and years.
SO that was sad, and good all at the same time. In much lighter news and the reason behind the title of this post, I made a little trip into the jungles of Cambodia this week. Yes it is true, I went where no one from Michigan has gone before... Not sure if that's true, probably not, a lot of people randomly end up in Cambodia at some time.... I went to the province of Preah Vihear to a place that is between 5 or 6 hours by bus/taxi. Mind you that the buses and taxis are just a touch different from those in the USA, the buses are similar but the taxis are crazy. On the way there we fit 7 people into a little toyota camry there were four of us in the back and then three in the front..... cam you say crowded???? I can!! That was quite an experience for my American hips and for the hips of the three other Khmer men in the backseat with me. and mind you we rode like this for about 1 and 1/2 hours...... HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!! I went to the jungle for a purpose though, I went to see a facility called Jombak Hoas, which basically means flying Jombak tree in Khmer. It was a really cool ropes course facility that was more low ropes than it was high ropes but the environment is so beautiful, it was awesome. The staff there were really nice and I got to have an awesome dinner at the guy who helped build it's house. I was really impressed since it's in the middle of nowhere.... I also got to sleep in a treehouse like 33 feet off the ground, it was really cool.
So there's not too much else in my life, I love you all and I miss you all, and I will hopefully talk to you all soon. Much Love in Christ
-Derek
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