Kampong Chhnang '09

This is a picture diary of three or four days spent in the province of Kampong Chhnang.  It was my first trip there, and I definitely want to re-visit again next summer!

With the exception of our time in Phnom Penh at the Bible college, all our meals were eaten out.  So this isn't a rare picture.  Every morning in Kampong Cham, each of us had a small loaf of crusted bread with jam, and a slice of pineapple.  For lunch and dinner?  Rice! (White or fried, with meat or vegetables of course.)

This is Pastor Kimsan, the President (or the Superintendent) of the Wesleyan Church in Cambodia.  He is a really kind man, and I enjoyed the few conversations I was able to have with him (between my very poor Khmer, and his poor English.)  Here he is doing what he usually did while our team was doing ministry, napping in the hammock!  hehe.

These are of course just cute little boys from our English classes.  I can't tell you any of their names, because at that point I didn't know how to ask "What is your name?" and I wouldn't have understood them even if I knew how to ask!  This particular village had never seen "whiteys" before, so it was exciting for us and them!

This is (Pastor) Paroath and the widow who graciously allows him to live with her, and to hold English classes and Sunday services under their home.  Our team fell in love with his ministry, so we decided together that we wanted to do something to support him.  We decided to cut back drastically on our living expenses and the 7 of us shared 1 large room at each hotel we stayed in.  We also made more humble decisions when choosing restaurants and menus. At the end of the trip, we had saved enough money to build a small structure for Paroath to use as a classroom and sanctuary.

This is very similar to the structure that Paroath will build with the money we gave him.

This is the widow's home, and below are a few desks and chairs with a whiteboard. Her yard is also very large for many children!

I used these homemade cards to teach the alphabet in my English classes.  I also had 2 foam alphabet puzzles, and the children loved competing to see which team could complete it first.

I loved playing ball with these little boys!  It was simple - we just tossed it back and forth.  This is how I learned my khmer numbers!  Muy, bpei, bpai, bpoun, bpram...

Visual aids is definitely the best way to teach English as a second language, so I collected small toys to teach a variety of lessons.  Animals was my favorite!  If you can click and zoom this picture, look at how happy Paroath's face is!