As the brisk morning began to unfold many of us once again were woken up by one of our neighbors playing obnoxious Khmer music through speakers. Most, if not all, of us woke up with a mix of joy and sadness because we would be leaving a wonderful village with wonderful people in just over 4 hours. And yet again, for breakfast we all met at the little “restaurant” for some delicious Mama noodles, eggs, and instant coffee. Nearing the end of breakfast about all of the guys and a few of the girls (including me) left to go and check on the lady who had sliced her foot open the night before and the little girl who had an oil burn. When we arrived at the woman’s house we noticed that the bleeding had not leaked through the guase that my dad wrapped around her ankle. That is one of the things that we had prayed for nonstop the previous night. After the visit ended at the lady’s house we made our way to the sweet little girl’s house. When we arrived at her home her parents communicated to us that her fever had gone down a fair amount. Praise God! And her burn was already looking better. When I was making my way back to the Chief’s house with Victoria we talked about how we were all brought here to this village for a few reasons and purposes. A few being that if we would not have come in the time that we did the lady would have possibly died and the little girl would have been severely injured. So, again we all praised God when we arrived back at the house.
Soon after we came back from visiting the little girl and the woman we were all packed and ready to start the 5 kilometer hike again. I have to mention that I think that it was a bitter-sweet moment for all of us. We had all gotten attached to the village and its residents. The people there are some of the sweetest people on earth. As the 5k walk began many of us had the wonderful idea to try and get a cart to take our stuff to the van for us. But as it turned out, we ended up not getting a cart for our luggage, so we swung our backpacks on our backs and started walking. In the middle of the long walk Stephen grabbed his iPod and my speakers and started blasting all sorts of different music through them. As he did this it interrupted many of the conversations that were going on at the time, but it turned out to be okay. As a result, many if not all of us joined in singing to Hillsong, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Carrie Underwood, and many other artists. While we were having fun singing and jumping to the beat of the music I heard so many laughs coming out of my friends mouths. For me, it was an awesome time. Not only because it really helped pass the time of the walk, but it was fun to all be singing our hearts out again. As the 5k came to an end, and we reached the van I looked around and everyone was sitting under a tree in the shade with soaking wet shirts from sweat.
After about a 20 minute rest we piled all of our luggage and ourselves into the hot van and headed back to Phnom Penh. During the ride back to Phnom Penh we all did the same thing that we had done as our journey began on Sunday morning. We got Pierre’s guitar and Peter’s iPod and started singing and playing music together. About 3 hours into our trip home, which actually felt more like 45 minutes because of the music, we stopped at a shop/restaurant in a village for some lunch. When we all got settled down in our seats around the table we all ordered some pork and rice. Although noodles and eggs were an option, no one wanted it. While we were all scarfing down our rice and pork my dad had the idea for us all to go around the table and share our high and low part of the trip. When each of us were going around the table sharing our thoughts of the trip I noticed that a lot of us had the same highs and lows. There were also some people whose highs were someone else’s lows and vice versa.
When we finished lunch we once again piled into the van and continued our trip back to PP for three more hours. When those hours came to an end we made our way to Logos and climbed out of the van where we all went in our own separate directions. It was sad to see the awesome trip to Kraviek come to an end. But hopefully we can go back to the village again.
My short testimony of the trip:
This trip changed me so much. Because before the trip even began I knew a lot of the people who were coming with on the trip but I didn’t know them well. To be honest I was scared that during the trip that I would stay quiet and I wouldn’t talk very much. However, God really changed me while we were serving the people in Kraviek. I became closer to a lot of people and I am not as shy as I used to be. Also, I am so thankful for all 17 of the people who came on the trip with me. I could not have asked for any other 17 people to share this adventure with. God knew who was going on the trip and what was going to happen while we were out there before any of us did. And he also made the timing of this trip perfect for each of us.
This trip was amazing in so many ways, and I honestly wish I didn’t have to leave the village and go back to school. I would give anything to go back out there and eat noodles, eggs and instant coffee for three days or even a week.
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