Lasagna: A Tale of Generosity and New Friends

Saturday.

Saturday.

Saturday.

The more times you say a word, the weirder it sounds.

I've realized that a lot while teaching English. 

This morning we woke up and headed to the school around 8:00. We met up with the students and then began our trek. 

We walked down the main road and then turned off and started walking down another road. All of a sudden we were in the middle of a little neighborhood. There were shack-type houses all over and so much happening. People were coming in and out of houses and half-clothed children were running back and forth and peering out from behind doors at the two extremely white people walking through their neighborhood. Dogs and chickens roamed freely and the smell in the air wasn't too inciting. Garbage littered the ground and clothes hung from lines that crisscrossed in the alleyways and were strung out from window to window. We stepped under a roof and into a woman's house. There were no walls but there were two men shoveling concrete and building a small room off to the side. The woman sat on a what looked like a wicker table and motioned for us to come in and sit with her. The two students we were with took a seat and then Sarah and I politely slipped our shoes off and joined her on the table. The students were carrying on a conversation with her about us and translated when she asked us specific questions. I easily picked up the word "saat" when she pointed. She was telling us how beautiful we were and so we politely responded with "a kuhn turan" which means "thank you very much." After we had been sitting there for a while, answering her questions about our families and why we were in Cambodia, another woman came and joined in the conversation. She asked some more questions and then they all spoke in Khmer. I have no idea what was said, but Sarah and I just listened and tried to make friends with the children that were sneaking in to get a better look at us. 

Toward the end of our visit, the women kept expressing how grateful they were for us to be there and for visiting with them. We said our goodbyes and then continued on our walk. 

There were so many back alleys and so many turns, I was sure we were lost, but the boys knew exactly where we were. We eventually took a left that led us into what seemed like kind of a meadow. There was definitely more room between houses and a lot more vegetation. All of a sudden we heard a commotion and looked up to see three of the children that we teach in the evenings running towards us yelling "teacher!" It was so fun! They led us to their house and proudly showed us the vegetable stand that their family owns. We stood there and visited with them for a while and then an older woman began to lead us to her house which was across the path. So we all joined her on her front porch. She asked many of the same questions and was HILARIOUS. She was obviously teasing the students and they seemed to have a wonderful relationship with each other. She told us about her house and her cat *who brought a bird over and ate it by my foot the entire time* and about Cambodia. She said we needed to learn Khmer if we were going to be here for a long time. She started to count in Khmer for us and was quite impressed when I began rattling off the numbers along with her. She wanted us to guess her age, which is so hard to do here. THEY DO NOT AGE. They all think we're 30 years old and we think they're at least ten years younger than they are. She was 71 and didn't look a day over 61. We talked with her for a long time and then she began to worry because it was getting hot on the porch. So we all got up and walked back over to the students' house and went inside. The floors were dirt and rocks and there were tables and cots, as well as a van bench (like out of a car) that Sarah and I were instructed to sit on because it was the best seat in the house. After we were there for a while longer, the boys said it was time to go. We said our goodbye's and did our bowing and then headed out again. 

As we were walking, we began to smell a familiar smell...

COWS.

There was a field full of cows.

Smelled like home sweet home. 

We arrived in an area that was covered in houses on stilts. We walked up to one house that had an older woman and younger woman cooking and chopping vegetables. There were also like three little girls and a little baby teetering around in a diaper. They pulled up chairs and invited us to sit down. This family had many farm animals and took pride in the doves "that's what we decided we looked most like* that they were raising. The students told us that the doves were extremely expensive to buy. We sat there for a while and watched the roosters and puppies fight over rice. The students talked with the family for just a short amount of time and then they said it was time to go. We bowed and said thank you and goodbye and then carried on. 

We found another family just across the way and the boys talked them for an even shorter amount of time. As one of the students was talking to the family, we were told a little more about the neighborhood that we were in. It was a predominately Islamic neighborhood and consisted of many villagers that moved into the city in hopes of finding work. The land cost $7 per plot and you build your own house out of sheets of metal and wood and whatever else you can find. We said goodbye and walked a little further.

 We came to a house where several little boys were playing and proudly displaying the fish they had caught in the stream nearby. An elderly woman walked out of her house and was overjoyed to see us. She immediately grabbed onto our arms and thanked us for coming. Throughout our visit she kept hugging us and expressing her gratitude. It was beautiful. She was beautiful.

Her house was the last one that we were going to stop at, so we walked back to the school. We had lunch and then headed back to the hotel for a day planned to be full of laundry and rest.

And it was just that.  

We figured out how to use the laundry machines and did 3 loads. Then we laid all of our clothes all over the apartment to dry. We got pretty exceptional, innovative, and real here in room 202. ACU would be proud. 

4:45 rolled around and we headed downstairs to get a tuk tuk to take us to dinner. We connected with an American couple through Chris Flanders. They've lived here for 6 years. SIX YEARS. Their names are Andrew and Natalie Hayes and they are wonderful! We survived the tuk tuk ride *after getting a tiny bit lost, but we called Natalie on our local phone and she kindly directed our driver to the location* and met them at a German restaurant called Tell. We talked forever and got to know each other. The Hayes' have lived in Phnom Penh for 6 years and originally came over to join another family to form a team. They were here for 10 months and then their teammates decided to move back to the states and their lives began to take a different direction. They became missionaries here in order to begin church planting and Bible teaching but it wasn't really working out. So they both got jobs as English teachers at a local institute and were no longer full-time missionaries since they were earning an income. They try to do in-home Bible studies and they attend workshops on how to teach the Bible without the Bible. *more of a personal conversation rather than a lecture out of Leviticus* 

We chatted and ate.

And boy did we eat.

I seriously have a disorder when it comes to lasagna.

If it's on a menu, I have to order it.

If a plate of it is in front of me, I have to eat it.

If the pan was in front of me, I would eat the whole thing.

I have a problem. 

All that to say, there was lasagna on the menu and I was in Heaven.

It may have been because I've lived on rice for the past week.

Or maybe it was because it tasted like home.

Either way, I ate the entire dish in like 2 minutes.

It was the best lasagna that I've ever had.

In my entire life.

Dramatic?

Maybe.

Overjoyed due to the amount of lasagna I consumed?

Absolutely.

After we ate we they took us to their favorite grocery store nearby and we bought some stuff that we had been needing to get. They showed us the best bread to buy and the best snacks to get.

Seriously y'all. They are incredible. 

They got us a tuk tuk and told the driver where to go and we said our goodbyes, as well as made plans to meet up again soon. *as in this weekend*

As we were driving back to our hotel, I replayed my day over and over in my mind. It was a wonderful day full of beautiful people and new friends. But it was so full of opposites. 

I left a luxurious hotel this morning.

We visited the poorest neighborhood I have ever been in.

I was worried about getting my chacos muddy.

Children were running around with no clothes on.

I'm getting tired of all the rice I'm eating.

People are starving and would give anything for rice.

I ate an entire plate of lasagna without even thinking twice.

An entire family went to bed hungry tonight. 

It's an awful feeling y'all.

I live such an oblivious life.

Sure, I may give a bag of snacks to a homeless man.

Or donate my old clothes to Christian Service Center.

But it's always my leftovers. 

It's always the second thought.

Why?

I can blame it on society or the media or childhood obesity or something else.

The fact is that everyone blames everyone else for world hunger or homelessness or poverty. If we stopped blaming and started doing, things would change. 

And please don't think I'm trying to sound like one of those commercials that shows pictures of children and asks for money... because I'm not. I'm not trying to guilt trip or lecture, I'm just trying to let you know how pathetic it is that I had to fly around the world in order to realize I'm not as important as I think I am. 

But you know what?

My eyes are being opened daily. 

And I'm so very grateful for that. 

The people I visited with today had absolutely nothing and yet they offered me everything that they had. A roof to shade me from the sun, a plastic chair, a cushioned van bench, a mango, and when there was absolutely nothing material to be offered, a hug. Generosity isn't about earning a ton of money and giving a lot of it to the poor. 

It's about giving people all the love in your heart. 

It comes straight from God and it is a beautiful gift to give.

Because when you do, crazy stuff starts happening.

And before you know it, you don't matter. 

And you're okay with that. 

So, tonight, my prayer is for all of the people I met today. May they find comfort and peace and joy from the one who created us all.

I also pray that our eyes be opened. 

There is so much to see. 

You just have to look. 

Love you all like crazy,

Cassie