Youth Center Starts!

Hey guys! So this week has been crazy busy but has been so cool. The youth center finally started on Monday and I've really been enjoying it. I'm teaching two classes. The first class is "Conversation" and I'm teaching that with my friend Kat. Then I'm teaching a "Photography" class with my friend Grace. Both have been great so far. I was a little nervous to start teaching because I've never been a teacher before. Going into my conversation class on Monday (which was my first class of the day) I was supposed to have 7 students. After waiting 15 minutes only 2 students showed up that barely spoke english. It was really funny to try to communicate with them. We somehow managed though. We got the basics down and started simple conversation starters. As the week progressed we got more people permanently in the class. We now have 6! I prefer a smaller class because it will be really easy to build relationships with the students. We also got a translator, his name is Seeyum and we have so much fun. He is the hired translator for our team and has been to family dinner on friday nights with us. He's part of our team now which is really fun. He's such a happy guy and so helpful. If we ever need something he knows exactly where to buy it and he helps us communicate with tuk tuk drivers and our students. The photography class is a lot of fun too. Grace and I have 3 students in our class, we had 2 students until Friday and then another one added our class. They will get a lot of one on one time with us which will be really good for them. This last week they've just been getting used to holding a camera and taking pictures. We've gone over some few basic principles of lighting and they seem to catch on real quick. I can't wait to start projects with them and start posting their photos up in class. One of the perks about teaching at an openly Christian school is that we get to pray at the end of class and talk to them about God whenever we want. My students range in age from 18-21 and they are all pretty open to the Bible. I'm so stoked to see what God does with them during our time here. Even though there's the language barrier, they still manage to share prayer requests at the end of class to us and pray with us. I know God is going to do some awesome things, I seriously can't wait to see. Please pray for my students!

After my photography class I have about an hour to hang out with the youth center kids. I met two girls who have been teaching me Khmer! I've learned how to count to 10 confidently: muoy, pee, biy, boon, pram, pram muoy, pram pee, pram biy, pram boon, dop. They've taught me a lot of sayings and words, but it's so hard for me to grasp. Khmer is like no other language that I've ever heard of before. They don't understand why I can't say some things because they're alphabet is very different than ours. They are so cute though. Everyday they ask me what I want to learn and they write it all down for me on paper. I got into a conversation with one of the girls and she was telling me that she is a Christian but her whole family is Buddhist. I asked her if she has talked to them about God and she said she had but they didn't believe. She barely speaks any English but we still somehow manage to have conversations. I've hung out with these girls everyday and have really enjoyed becoming friends with them. I can't wait to get into further conversations with them about God and talk to them about leading small groups in the youth center and getting them plugged into a church. I don't even know if the other girl is a Christian, I'm hoping we can have that conversation this coming week. Yesterday we went on a walk with them down the road to some street vendors and had boiled corn and some other goods. We aren't really supposed to eat from the street vendors because they aren't clean and the water has a lot of bacteria. But... it's hard when the girls buy you things that they insist on you eating. My friend Jess was with me yesterday and we just prayed over our food before and ate it. Praise God that He has kept us healthy!

The SALT program and the orphanage have been really good this week as well. I started teaching English after soccer practice with the SALT girls and that's been really cool. I'm turning into a teacher, it's so strange. I surprisingly really enjoy it though. I really enjoy SALT a lot, and the relationships with the girls has been growing. It's so easy to make friendships here, once you pay anyone special attention they are hooked on you. I love it. This week at the orphanage we taught the kids some songs like: "Jesus loves me", "Father Abraham", and some others. They get a kick out of them, but learn so fast. They were all singing the songs in English by the time we left. They taught us the songs in Khmer as well (well they tried), we are still learning. :) We have a lot of plans that we want to do with the orphanage, and I can't wait to put those plans into effect. They are such cute kids, I'm going to have a hard time not wanting to adopt all of them.

So this is a typical day in my life here in Cambodia.... I wake up at 6am but don't get out of bed until 6:30, have a quiet time with God until 7 then go to breakfast. Then at 7:30 I have work duty until 8. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I leave for SALT practice at 7:30 and I'm out there until 11. Normally our team has worship everyday from 8-9 every morning and I participate in that on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. I go to the orphanage on Thursdays and Fridays until about 11:30. Then there's lunch at 12:30 and I have my conversation class from 1-2. Then we have a meeting from 2:30-4. Then my photo class from 4-5. We are supposed to hang out with the kids until 6 at the youth center and we pray at 6ish to wrap up the day. Then dinner is at 6:30! We are all wiped by the end. I go to bed by 10 every night (if you knew me you would be very surprised). It's super busy, but soooo good. I love being busy. We are definitely spending our time well here in Cambodia.

Last night we had a "family" dinner, we have them every Friday night. They've been a lot of fun and are a really nice way to end the week. Our team is bonding super well and we are having a lot of fun together. It's such a blessing. We sent our amazing leaders on a retreat night/Saturday to a hotel nearby so that they could have a little rest. Jess and I came home from dinner and watched a movie and ate nutella and sugar crackers. Which have been our new obsession. They are so good. We will try and bring back some bags full of them. Another thing that's really good are Cambodian donuts. There's a stand 2 minutes away on bike from our base and we get them a lot. They are only 12.5 cents! They taste really good with nutella or jelly.

Some funny things that have happened this week.... two girls from our team (Sharon and Katie) got locked out of the house last night while they were on the roof. They spent the whole night up there chatting and laughing. They were such good sports. We heard them come in at 6:45am this morning and we all were so confused where they had been. When they told us they got locked out we felt so bad, but they just laughed and actually enjoyed it so much. Soooo that was something silly. We also have a couple lists in our room that have grown, the first list is "Quotes from Cambodia" and the second list is "Only in Cambodia..." and you have to fill in the blank. For example: Only in Cambodia can you valet park your bike. Only in Cambodia do you get a spray tan from dirt from riding your bike down the road. Silly things like that. The list is getting very lengthy. We are having fun with it.

Okay that's it for now! Thank you for your prayers, I'm loving it here. I'm so happy I chose Cambodia for outreach. Love you guys!

Having fun at SALT practice

The kids at the orphanage singing some songs we taught them.

"God is love" in Khmer

Team Cambode after our family dinner (minus Mama and Papa Fry)