I know I am a couple days late but still my POTD....
thread.
POTD :first:Eowyn said:Man it's been a long time since I posted! It's awesome to be back!
I know few of you had asked for an update on my trip to Cambodia so for those of you who care here goes....
For those who don't know I was in Cambodia for just under 5 months working with missionary friends of mine who are starting an orphanage or AIDS kids. I left in March and just got back August 1st.
Well, it's a little hard to relay everything that happened since this isn't exactly your typical two week mission trip but I'll give you an idea of what went on best I can.
I arrived in Phnom Penh, greeted by incredible heat, scary guys with, M-16s, and my good friends, the Mackeys. We lived in Phnom Penh for about two weeks and then moved to Sihanoukville, a port city, where the orphange is located. Moving was.... interesting! All together 17 people moving four hours away to a- off the beaten path- town, it took some skill!
Once we had settled in for the most part we spent a lot of the time getting the building for the orphage ready. Just several months before the Mackeys rented it the facility was used as a brothel. The Mackeys decided it would from now on be a place of hope and safety instead of the opposite.
So much work went into the ophanage it was crazy; painting, plumbing, electrical work and getting a staff hired all need to be done before we could move kids in. It was a stressful time as everything that could go wrong did. But we knew this was an incredible gift from the Lord and we determined to see it through.
Eventually we did get everything ready and were preparing to go pick up kids from Phnom Penh and we promptly got sick. Whooping cough- let's just say, "Not fun!"You cough, cough, cough, cough, cough up oddly colored stuff (that's as detailed as I'll get) and then you, cough, cough, lose your ability to breath for several seconds and then sometimes you :vomit: Repeat the process about 40 times a day and you have whooping cough. Everyone pretty much got it, the youngest Mackey, little Josiah, had it so bad he almost had to go to Thailand to the hospital. There are pretty much no medical facilities in Cambodia. Phnom Penh has one clinic that was pretty good, but other than that only local "clinics" that give you antibiotics for concussions (true story) :hammer:
With an already weak immune system, we couldn't take any chance in getting the kids sick. So we waited and trusted God.
After mostly getting over whooping cough we once again prepared to go to Phnom Penh to pick up kids. And we promtly got sick....again :bang:
This time Staph infections. Basically it causes any cuts, or scrapes on the skin get infected and get swollen, red, oozy, and overall, really nasty. Once again several of the Mackey kids almost had to go to Thailand because some of the infections got so bad.
So we again waited to get better. The only cure for Staph was, taking antibiotics, swabbing your nose out with nasty white goo, and washing hads everyday trillions of times, which involved boiling water (no hot water tank in the house) mixing it with tap to get it cool enough to not peel off layers of skin, scrubbing your hands raw with soap, and not touching anythin or anyone until next hand washing time! It made for some interesting times :chuckle:
Sooooo, after all that we finally made it to Phnom Penh and did in fact get kids for our orphanage. A little girl Mary Grace and a little boy, Caleb Benjamin. Mary was three ( we think) and Caleb 13 months. I of course fell in love with them both, and spent every minute I could with them. They lived at our house for 3 weeks so we could slowly transition them up to the orphange. I became mommy to Caleb, I named him, he slept in my room, I bathed hi, fed him, changed him, and rocked him back to sleep at 3 in the morning.:baby: I loved it!
After the time at our house they went to live at the orphange and my job was to spend time with them, teach them letters and words, basic things like that. We taught Caleb to walk, Mary to speak English, and both of them the joys of American food!
Both of them gained at least 2 lbs. in 3 weeks! They love to eat; pizza, chili, cinnamon rolls, they love it all. They hardly touch rice now! They are as healthy as they can be and doing so well.
I also helped training the housemom, who took care of the kids when we weren't there. All the basic things we think of as important, they don't. Hand washing, teeth brushing, wearing a diaper, eating with proper utensils, clipping nails, not letting kids play in trash and waste, it' not something they think about in Cambodia. So everything had to be taught to them, from how to put on a diaper to not feeding our kids pig eye balls and chicken feet.:chew: It was crazy, but the house mom, Sei-Pan was very teachable and willing to obey our crazy American rules!
Time flew by and before I knew it I was saying good bye to "my" kids and crying my eyes out
I could go on and on, but I'm sure that's good for now! Overall the time was incredible and I woudn't trade it for anything. It has allowed me to truely see life as a missionary, and has allowed the Lord to really work in my heart, molding me into who he wants me to be.
Thanks to all who prayed and showed intrest in my trip. It is great to be back with everyone :thumb:
Please, please ask away with any questions you have and I'll post some more random stories about specific things that happened, I'm sure I can come up with some very interesting stories for you!
Thanks for reading!
thread.
Last edited by a moderator: