After having a good breakfast at the hotel, we had our first devotion and practised for the Christmas skit that we had planned for the kids at Bykota house:
Then, we got ready to meet Mark and his family to go to the nearby petrol station to purchase milk before we head to the rubbish dump. We bought ALOT of MILK!!! Approximately 150 i tink!
Ben: We should have taken a photo of the shopkeeper's faces. They were like Woah! I think we cleared most of their stock actually.
Compared to last year, we walked much further into the rubbish dump, and as I looked at the heaps of rubbish, i can't help but be shocked at how much the heaps grew, and how hard it was to live there in the midst of all the smoke from the burning of the rubbish there, and of course in the midst of the stench from all these rubbish.
The families who live there make a living out of these rubbish. Kids as well as adults dig through the piles of rubbish to look for things which they can sell. Unfortunately, even in this place, there is corruption, as men in trucks will always go there to get the "good stuff" from the rubbish first, which leaves the families who live there with less things that they can sell. These trucks sometimes even run over people who were sleeping on the ground.. We had gotten many packets of milk,but it ran out quickly as there were too many people living there - old people and little children also.
Ben: The kids were really happy to get a milk packet. They would be smiling from ear to ear, then they would look at the packet and say "Orkun" which is thank you in Khmer.
After the trip to the rubbish dump, we went back to wash up - the stench of the place stayed on our clothes and our shoes.....
We had our lunch, and went to our next destination- the Mark's house! They had moved to a bigger place now because of the number of children there and it was great to see the children again! Mark and Rhonda gave us a short briefing and also updated us on what had happened since last year.
Ben: It was all new for me though, since it was my 1st trip. Though the new place is suppose to be bigger it felt quite cramp to me. Kids all over the place + pets.
We had a discussion with the kids about the rubbish dump as many of them had gone there with us . We talked about the need for God's love, education and choices ..
Following that, the children got ready to decorate the house with paper-cut snowflakes :D
cut cut cut, cut cut cut.....
Ben: I don't recall cutting anything actually...
We went to the Mediterrean restaurant for dinner with Mark's family :D
Ben: I liked the layout of the place. It has a roof top dining area that is really cool! The downside of that is extra ingredients on the plates.
Then, we had to prepare for an early night as we have to wake up really early the next day ( 6am P.P time) to get ready to go the village!
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