Truen Luig Knyome Luang

It's the middle of our Monday and the middle of our first day of our fourth week. I can't believe it's July 1st. In 8 days, Sarah and I will have been here for a month.. WHAT?

It's crazy that we live here. 

Yesterday was an absolutely glorious day. 

And yes, I'll tell you all about it. 

We got picked up for church and arrived at the school a little before service started. We visited with everyone and with the children. We were expecting to be teaching the children again, but Srey Nang told us that Chanty was teaching them so that we could worship with our friends that were coming. 

Mallory and Shanleigh were coming to church! 

WE WERE ECSTATIC.

Mallory and Shanleigh are friends from ACU that are also in the WorldWide Witness program. They were in class with Sarah and I and are also working here in Phnom Penh this summer. They are working with Dennis and Sharon Welch who run the SNACK program, which is a program takes food out into the villages and feeds the children healthy and vitamin-rich foods that help reduce malnutrition. *I think that's a run-on sentence, but I don't care* We haven't been able to see them at all because our schedules are crazy and traffic is crazy and life is crazy. You know. So we were so happy to know that they were coming to church. 

It was a glorious reunion and we were able to meet Sharon and Dennis, as well as their adopted daughter, Theary. *Teary* 

We worshiped *in Khmer* and heard Sokhom preach. Dennis was even invited to finish Sokhom's sermon so he stepped up and preached as well. It was so fun to see my students leading singing, prayers, and communion. But the best part was when Srun began passing out the little yellow songbooks that are full of English worship songs. He got to me and whispered "Amazing Grace" excitedly. Then, with all that they had, they began singing Amazing Grace in English. 

Y'all. 

I almost cried right there next to Srey Nang. 

I taught them the words to the song last week and now they were singing it during church. We went through all the verses. 

No, it was not done in perfect English.

But it was sung absolutely from the heart.

It was beautiful. 

*Proud teacher moment* 

We finished service and then chatted with everyone, made introductions, and caught up with Mallory and Shanleigh. Then we headed to lunch with Dennis, Sharon, Theary, and the girls. We stopped by the bus station on the way to the restaurant and bought our bus tickets for our trip this weekend. *Sarah and I are going with Sharon, Theary, Mallory, and Shanleigh to a town called Siem Riep for the weekend* Then we went to the restaurant that they had picked for us to try. It was a vegetarian restaurant that served food made completely out of mushrooms. It was very interesting and very delicious. They have a million different kinds of mushrooms here and some taste like different meats. Yes it's weird. But it was so good! We had some fried ones that tasted like chicken. We had a "hamburger," as well as fried rice with mushrooms and noodles with mushrooms. We drank Khmer tea and iced coffee with milk. *remember it's made with sweetened condensed milk* It was a delicious lunch and we enjoyed getting to know Sharon, Dennis, and Theary better. They asked us our favorite, least favorite, and most surprising/most unprepared for things since we've been here. Those were hard questions but I immediately knew my favorite part: my students. I love the relationships that I'm making and I love learning *even though it's the hardest part* how to speak to their hearts. I didn't really have a least favorite, except maybe the fact that I get sick a lot. My stomach just can't handle all the flavors here. The most surprising thing was definitely those first 3 days... I was so homesick and I was completely unprepared. In all my preparation for this trip, I hadn't even thought about homesickness. But I learned how to change my outlook early on, so that has been wonderful. Yes, I miss my family. And my friends. And my bed. And my cat. But I'll see them soon. Until then, I'm completely Khmer.

They told us about their struggles and victories in moving here and learning how to minister to these people. 

It was a great lunch and soon it was time to go. They took us to Mallory and Shanleigh's apartment and we said goodbye. We climbed a million flights of stairs and finally reached their apartment. *the higher you live, the wealthier you are* We were given a quick tour, changed out of our church clothes, and then headed back down the millions of stairs. We reached the street and they showed us around their neighborhood and led us to the Russian Market. The Russian Market is a HUGE maze thing that is covered *kind of under a huge tent* and is full of vendors that sell everything. Clothes, shoes, food, bags, jewelry, furniture... everything. We shopped around and they taught Sarah and I the art of haggling. I was to scared to try it yesterday, but someday I'll be able to be assertive. Until then, thanks girls for helping us not pay over $5 for anything. 

After the Russian Market, we wandered the streets and tried different food from food carts. We had grilled bananas and some kind of baked crepe thing that tasted like a fortune cookie. We had so much fun just wandering around and looking like idiots taking pictures of ourselves. We finally made it back to their apartment and our gracious hostesses made us all smoothies to help us cool off. We all sat and talked for a long time. It was so wonderful to just talk about our experiences and share stories. You don't realize how much you miss having stuff in common with people. 

Once it started to get closer to dinner time, we walked out to the street and hopped on a tuk tuk that was riverside-bound. We got to the riverside *even though there was a torrential downpour* and found the restaurant we wanted to eat at. It was called Viva and it served Mexican and Khmer food. 

It was heavenly. 

You never know what you have until it's gone. 

And let me tell you... 

I now know that I'm in love with Mexican food. 

After dinner *and the rainstorm* we walked down the street and past a million restaurants and little shops. On the other side of the insanely busy road, is the river and a huge park area that runs the length of the river. There were thousands and thousands of people out and enjoying the cool weather and beautiful sunset. We walked through the Night Market which is exactly like the Russian Market, except that it's only open at night and it's all open. After the Night Market, we *very carefully and very quickly* crossed the street and ended up in the park area. There were people everywhere and so many things going on. My favorite evening activity that was taking place, was the evening aerobics class. There was a man leading it and a ton of women, all wearing red, following his every move. It was hilarious and Mallory and I joined in for a moment. 

We kept walking and talking until we reached their favorite ice cream shop called "Toto's." It was definitely designed to appeal to Westerners, and believe me, it appealed to me. It was all white and robin's egg blue inside. The seat cushions were robin's egg blue and polka dots and the lampshades had pastel teapots all over them. It was seriously the cutest little ice cream parlor. We sampled a bunch of kinds, including mangosteen, *my favorite Cambodian fruit* and finally decided on a variety of flavors. I had a scoop of strawberry sorbet, Sarah had tiramisu *sorry if that's spelled wrong* and coffee almond, Shanleigh had coconut and jackfruit, and Mallory had coffee and chocolate. We talked about our thoughts on being here and shared more experiences, victories, and struggles. 

After the ice cream, we said goodbye and hopped on our separate tuk tuks.  

It was seriously the best day ever. 

We kept talking about community and how desperately it's needed by people. We take it for granted back in the states, but it's such a necessary part of life. It's so comforting to know you have people that care about you and have experienced the same things you have and have struggled with the same things you have. 

We got lost on our tuk tuk ride back, but it's okay. We survived and made it home around 8:30.

Our day was full of community and it was absolutely wonderful. 

This morning came entirely too early, but we woke up and made it downstairs by 6:35 so we could FaceTime with our families for an hour. It was so wonderful to get to see and talk with them. Veesna arrived with the tuk tuk and we headed to school. 

We reviewed and then learned more vocabulary words this morning. It was an interesting experience *no surprise there* but we made it through 2 hours and learned 6 new words.

 

Limb

Complete

Frequently

Mock

Earn

Ignore  

We had lunch at 10:15 and then sat and visited with everyone. Sythourn brought his guitar *after we requested him to* and songbook down and put on a concert for us. He played a lot of worship songs in Khmer and I recognized a couple of the tunes. Then he played "You Raise Me Up" and sang it in Khmer. 

It was beautiful. 

As he sang, I looked around at all of my new friends and thought about all my friends at home. I thought about my community in Abilene and my Cambodian community. 

I am so blessed. 

I am completely surrounded by people that love me and raise me up daily. 

I am completely surrounded by incredibly beautiful people.

As he sang "truen luig knyome luang"

I thanked God for all the people in my life and for their ability to raise me up. 

So if you're reading this, thank you. 

Truen luig kynome luang.

You raise me up. 

Love you all SO much,

Cassie