Here is the first day:
It was Sunday morning when all 17 of us students and supervisors gathered at Logos and started to pile into a 15 passenger van that would lead us to a tiny village where we had no idea what was ahead of us…or what was going to happen. The car ride was very enjoyable because the whole 5 hours we were singing our hearts out with every song that we knew accompanied by Peter and Pierre who were playing the mini guitar. On the way to the village we made a stop at some hot springs where we had a nice lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chips…etc. We also hung out for a little while by the extremely hot water. Then we continued the adventure toward Kraviek. After a very bumpy, slow trek we arrived at the village where we would leave our van. We all started to unpack our luggage from the van and prepared ourselves to walk 5 kilometers…in the heat and through river crossings on a path through the jungle. Besides our bags of clothes and hammocks that we had brought for the 3 day trip ahead of us, we had boxes of water and Mama noodles that we purchased earlier that morning which all had to be brought with us as well. I have to admit that many of us had complained a few times about the walk, and how horrible it will be to walk in the scorching hot sun not to mention the fact that we had extra bags on our backs but Pierre had a great attitude and encouraged us by reminding us that we needed to keep our attitudes in the right spot. God brought us out in the middle of nowhere for a reason and we were going to the village to serve our Father, not for our own benefit.
The walk lasted about one and a half to two hours long. During that time we came across a few ox carts that offered us a ride to the village. Although we all wanted the ride the price was too high. However, we managed to get the price down from $12 to $7.50. Since we had bargained down the price with the Khmer people we took the ride and piled all of our luggage and food onto the cart, long with Daehan, Deborah, Stephen, Dillon, and me. Surprisingly enough our driver for the ox cart was a little boy that was about 10-12 years old. The ride on the ox cart was a great adventure. At least I thought so, even though the cart did almost flip over a few times because of the bumpy roads. While Deborah, Stephen and I were holding onto each other and the luggage for dear life and trying to not fall off into the mud, Daehan was in the very front of the cart swinging his hands in the air saying, “everyone lean left, lean right!!” haha. When we arrived at the Chiefs house in the village we thanked the young boy for driving us through the mud to our destination.
Soon after we arrived in the village we started setting up out hammocks in the cow shed and in trees. Then we decided to go the river to wash the sweat, dirt, and mud off of our bodies. In my opinion, the river was actually pretty nice because the water was cool, clean and it allowed us the chance to get “cleaned” up. After we dried off from being in the river we walked back through the village and to the Chief’s house where some of the guys (Aaron, Pierre, and Peter) picked up their guitars and started playing worship music. They played music for a little while but had to take a break for dinner. We walked across the dirt road to a little “restaurant” that was run by a man and his son. This is where we ate our meals every day that we were in the village. For every meal we had one package of Mama Noodles, one hard-boiled egg, and as much instant coffee as we wanted. To be honest, after the second or third meal I was already sick of having the same thing for breakfast, lunch and, dinner. After dinner we went back to playing guitars and singing together. Before we knew it, time had flown by and it soon got dark and there was a crowd of about 20-30 people who came to watch us sing. It was fun having people watch us sing praises to God. I had to keep telling myself to give the glory to God and to not draw attention towards myself. After we finished singing at about 8 pm many of us kids gathered in a circle with Ms. Harris and talked about last year’s chapel when Satan and Jesus were having a battle in front of all of our eyes. As the conversation continued I shared with my friends and Ms. Harris that lately I have had a feeling to share my testimony with the school. However, every time I want to do it I feel the time is never right. So as I was finishing up talking Pierre and Stephen told me that if it is something that I feel like I want to do, and that I also feel like God is telling me I should, then I should share my testimony with the school. As the conversation ended that night around 9 o’clock I went to my hammock feeling blessed to have friends who cared for me and encouraged me to do the right thing during the conversation.
I will post day 2's adventures in a few days. Thanks for reading!
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