We're in Cambodia!

Hi, it’s Rick and Becky again, this time from Cambodia. We made it safely here after a grueling 16 hours of flight in coach, and were greeted by our hosts with flowered necklaces, which were very damp and cooling. Between the time shift and the oppressive heat and humidity, we seem to be enjoying ourselves. The girls got up early to do a Cambodian dance down in the square in front of the Royal Palace which we can see and hear from our hotel. With single pane widows and 3 separate impromptu classes starting at 4AM, you can not help but join them. Elizabeth’s height makes for many double-takes. Everyone is very kind and happy to talk with us and stare. We spent our first afternoon here just lying around, and getting organized.

On our second day, Friday, we went out shopping for supplies with our local contact, Bridget. We spent the day driving around in the local form of taxis, the tuk-tuk, which is a motorcycle towing a 4 person trailer. It was incredibly hot in the marketplaces, but we were able to purchase most of the supplies we needed from a 6x6 foot booth stacked to the ceiling with paper, pens and other supplies.

On Saturday, we made a pre-visit to Rahabs’s house in Svay Pak, an area on the outskirts of town, where AIM is renting a former brothel for their outreach. We’ll be teaching there in two weeks, but it was good to get a vision of the area, and do a little marketing for our upcoming school. We spent about an hour playing twister, practicing letters, giving out home-made play-dough, and giving horse-back rides. We distributed bracelets from the McLaughlins, the Derriks, the Adkins, and the Grigsbys. They were very popular, with some children hiding one wrist, and asking for a second bracelet. In this neighborhood, girls are collected each night and taken to the brothels, so each of your families should have a bracelet on at least on of the girls caught up in sexual slavery. I remember putting Dana Adkin’s bracelet on one little girl who already had bracelets, then finding out later that the only girls with jewelry in this neighborhood are wearing it because it has been given to them by pedophiles. We’re eager to return to this area and share a message of hope and love to these children.

On Saturday afternoon, we drove around looking for the last of our supplies, and ended out at a craft booth, where they didn’t speak any English. It was funny to watch Becky try to communicate what she needed, until I tried to explain that I needed black construction paper without using words. We ended with another of many tutorials on how to pronounce Khmer words, this one centered on the number seven. No matter how hard we try, they all still laugh at us during our attempts, but encourage us anyway.

Your prayers ARE BEING HEARD AND ANSWERED!

Karli and the Kraemers