27 Days

Wow! I have been here for 27 days already! It has been so amazing. This week I was able to talk to my family and grandfather. It was so nice seeing everyone. We had our second Sunday school class and it went really well. On Saturday night everyone in fathers house played a game where you lay on each others stomach and say 'ha' and the next person says 'ha ha' and so on. I laughed so hard! It was so funny. 

One night Rhiannon, (a staff member who lives in fathers house), and I made Mexican burritos for everyone. It was so good. I helped start up a small preschool this week. It will take a few days for the kids to get it, but it went well. I saw one of the kids walking around with a soccer jersey on that had the name of the bank I worked at on it. So random! I'm learning so much from being here and this experience is life changing. I'm enjoying it so much here and can't wait to see what else the Lord has planned for me. 

20 Days In

Well today marks the 20th day since I left for Cambodia. It feels like I have been here forever. I have been crazy busy everyday and I love it! There is always something different to do each day and I'm learning so much. IHSI had a team from Michigan come this past week. They were awesome and it was so cool to get to know them. One of the first days while being here, the team held an all day seminar for Sak Saum. They did a fantastic job. We had a lot of fun doing different things like ice skating, eating spaghetti, and trying to play Khmer uno. The Cambodians added a whole bunch of rules to the game. This past Sunday I helped start up the Sunday school, and it was awesome. 

I have had a whole bunch of interesting food here in the past week. I chewed on some sugar cane, and some jackfruit. Both were so good I might be addicted. I am building relationships and getting to know more people. This past week in English class I tried writing in Khmer and as it turns out, I'm not that bad. I'm speaking a few words here and there, and I'm starting to understand it more. I can't wait to see how God is going to use me as time goes on. 

What I've Been Up To

Last week I spend time helping in quality control with Sak Saum and got to know a lot of the men and women there. We laughed and joked a lot. I spent time in the nursery playing with the children and helping some of the older kids with English. They are so cute! I went to Phnom Penh and helped match fabrics, cut fabrics and get them ready to be made into products. I'm making more relationships everyday and I'm getting to know the culture. 

I'm getting to know everyone in Father's house and I am building relationships. Everyone is trying to teach me Khmer, and I'm slowly catching on. I now have two nicknames, CeCe, and BopBop. They thought Luci was to hard to say, so they started calling me CeCe. It means 'eat eat' in Khmer. BopBop means 'round face,' that fits me quite perfectly. 

The food here is so different, but almost everything I have had has been good. I tried some pretty crazy things in the past week. I have had pig throat, fish with bones, and balut. Balut is a half developed duck egg that is boiled. I have been loving it here, and I am fitting in so well. 

First Couple of Days

Hello everyone! 

Well, I have been in Cambodia for five days already! The plane ride was long and hard, but I made it here safely. I arrived around 7pm and went to IHSI center. I am sharing a room with two beautiful girls who are eager to learn more English. The day after arriving I attended a simple Cambodian wedding and reception. After we got back in the afternoon I had some coffee with Eric and Ginny Hanson and chatted for awhile. I then attended youth group. It was game night so we had worship and played soccer. We were paired and had our hands and feet tied together. It was very fun and I played goalie. That night I had ginger pork which was spicy. 

On Sunday I went to church. The worship is in Khmer, but I recognized the melodies of the songs. After church, I helped make lunch. It was fun chatting with everyone and cutting up weird veggies. I feel so blessed to be apart of what is happening here. After we ate our spicy lunch, I learned some basic Khmer from some kids. It is a hard and weird language that involves a lot of sounds in the back of your throat. I hope I will catch on soon. I played checkers and found out in not to bad at it. I won a few times but got schooled quite a few times. 

On Monday I went into Phnom Penh where part of Sak Saum is located. There I helped pull and match fabrics to make into little wrist bags. I really like matching the colors of different patterns and chatting with the women from Sak Saum. We went to lunch at a soup place called Special Pho. I had a really good chicken soup and a coconut shake. It was so good. I stopped at Ankor market and got some things I needed. It's a lot like a cvs or rite aid with food. I got back to the center and helped out in the beginner English class. They were learning about farm animals. 

Everyone here is so nice and they all smile so much! So different from New York! Everyone in fathers house is starting to warm up to me, and I them. It is definitely different living here than in America. I'll post soon again. God bless and have a good day!