Day 4 - Bye bye Tung Kea

We were awakened by the "mooing" of cows in front of the church hall windows very early in the morning. The roosters were comparatively softer to them. So while it was still dawn, all of us were already awake. The villagers had woken up very early to collect the rice harvest (ard 4am?) , so we could see piles of rice plants tied up outside the church hall... and tonnes of cow dung from the cow. -.- what a way to wake up. haha. The villagers had been worshipping in the pastor's house since 7am i think :D ooh and we had to push the van cos the battery ran out of power and we had to charge it...

Ben: Yes, it's a great workout in the morning. :D Anyway spending the night at the village wasn't too bad. Apparently we didn't go during the period the insects comes out to play (around March?) so it was pretty uninterrupted sleep. It was quite chilly at night though.


oh, i have to add, because the water in cambodia is so dirty, we have to brush our teeth and rinse our mouths with bottled mineral water everywhere, even in hotels. So today we happily brushed our teeth anywhere we wanted and just spat it out anywhere else cos there were no basins in the village :D

Ben: Yeah, we had to conserve the water too. I managed to use 1/4 of a bottle to brush my teeth when others used the whole thing. BTW, did anyone not brush their teeth that day?

Breakfast was porridge and eggs with fermented beans. The porridge tasted wonderful cos it was straight from the fields..and err ( we try to forget the fact that cow dung co-exist beside these rice plants that the villagers had collected ;p) yea :) Steven loved the porridge :) I think it tasted like oatmeal :)

First on the agenda today after breakfast was the second round of walking to a different part of the village to pray for the families as well as some plans that the church were embarking on. We headed south this time, and it got increasingly harder to walk about as the paths were very small, just a tiny path in the midst of the rice fields and ponds and dung and the houses were alot further.. we prayed with the pastor over a plot of land which the village church was interested in buying to build houses for the widows in that area, and for his brother who was not a christian. I must say that we are thankful that even though many of the villagers didn't believe in Christ, they were very open for prayers of blessing and we trust that when we plant the seeds, God will grow the seeds into trees in His time.

We had opportunities to pray for many sick people - there was this man who had a very swollen stomach and he rested in his hammock; in fact many of the villagers were suffering from bad stomachs, which was not surprising due to the unhygienic conditions and the lack of education in these medical aspects.

Ben: We had a short discussion about bringing some doctors on the next trip but we'll see how God provides. The medical expertise would certainly go a long way to help the villagers there.


In the meantime, while we were moving from place to place, the little village kids followed us around, and they were very sweet; they plucked flowers for some of us as we were walking :) flowers are called "ga" in Khmer :) Even though we can't communicate, it was something that touched us deeply - holding hands with the little kids, smiling at each other - things that just melt your heart :)

Ben: Lurong was really happy to have the village kid hold her hand and walk with her. I have an entire video clip to prove it!



On our way back to the church we saw a monkey kept by a family and it was blind in one eye! And.. we passed by a snake -.- the village pastor chased it off. Paul say green bamboo snakes are very venomous -.- snakes are called "Sa Tan" (similar to Chinese) in Khmer. Interesting.

Ben: Yeah that was near the Chinese household, so there are chinese in Cambodia. Anyway the most prominent religion in the village, and around Cambodia in general, is Buddhism. While walking around the village we noticed quite a number of shrines and temples. But it's good to know that there are a number of churches being planted and growing.

After that, we had a leaders' training- which got delayed cos a lot of the villagers wanted to collect more rice plants from the harvest. Paul shared with the leaders and we laid hands and prayed for them after that...

Then... it was time for our last meal at the village! It was a very nice meal :) we had vegetable soup with pineapples inside, stir fried onions and fish cooked over fire :) after a satisfying meal, we were prepared for the church service. :D

Ben: Yes that was the best meal at the village for certain!

The service was a very simple one, but it was nice to hear familiar songs - even in villages ( songs like "my life is in you, salvation belongs to our God). Paul preached about Jesus calming the storm in Mark, and we prayed for many of them - many of them were concerned about their children, their problems and their faith.. after a long service ( because of the translations needed), we were ready to go back to Phnom Penh.


We went for an early dinner at A2, a taiwanese restaurant which sells bubble tea. I loved it when we went there last year so we had to go again. Haha. Good cheap food at ard 1.50 Us per meal and err 1.50 Us per bubble tea drink also. then we went to Mark's house to pick up our luggage and headed back to the hotel.

Ben: A2 kept messing up our orders! >.< Likely due to the language barrier.




By then the sky was already dark, and many of us were very tired. We had an early night as we were all very tired from the work that day and the lack of sleep -..- ooh! and we happily bathed in the hotel shower; many of us didnt bathe at the village yesterday. (oops) in fact, i didn't pee, shit or bathe to be exact. HA HA. it's a public secret. i think i slept the earliest...... zzz..


Up next .... working at the Bykota house !