Before we prepare to jump back into our own culture, we've been filling the last week in Cambodia with some great activities.

Yesterday morning a smaller group of students went to DAIL, a Korean run organization in the outskirts of Siem Reap.  Each day they feed 300+ children lunch.  Some of the children eat their only meal of the day in this place.  We looked around the community before beginning our work to see the village school and some specific families DAIL supports.  It's amazing to see such large organizations making personal connections within communities here.  When we got into the building, kids were already lined up to eat, some on their way back from school's morning shift, some on their way to the afternoon shift.  They were as energetic as ever, hardly able to maintain a line in the center of the room.  When we finally began feeding, the organization was incredible, and we fed all 300 in 25 minutes.  It was intense, but a great team to be a part of.

This morning was a bit more leisurely, as some of us rented bikes to explore Siem Reap a little differently.  Transportation in Cambodia is always an adventure, and this situation was no different.  While some chose to rent a mountain bike, others went for the "simple bike," with a basket and all.  (Bonus!)  When we hit the countryside, we quickly found these bikes were not built for off roading, but we also found a beautiful landscape.  (And we posed for our very own North Face advertisement.)  It was a great time!

Thanks for the prayers and support on our Asian adventure-- See you soon!

Its so crazy to think that this trip is almost done. In some ways it feels like we just arrived, but in others it feels that we are quite settled and at home here. These last few days of our trip are pretty free for us to chose what we want to do. This morning, a small group of us walked to the NIBC kintergarden to help the Korean students paint a mural on the wall. It is so nice to work with students from outside the Calvin community on this trip. There are some differences, but we serve the same Lord and in that we can unite and do wonderful things. We've gotten to know a ton of people on this trip, and it will be very hard to say goodbye. Some of the Koreans, and the Cambodian students we had to leave in Phnom Pehn, but there are still many we will have to leave in the next few days. The most rewarding part of the trip for me has been the personal relationships created through working and worshiping together. The natural wonder of the countryside and the ancient glory of the Angkor wat temples has been quite something, but none of that can compare with the beauty of the people in this place.

Today, a few of us went to another kindergarten this morning (which was also set up by the NIBC) The tuk-tuk ride over there was quite the ride! The driver had a difficult time on these impassable roads. Some of them were so dusty and sandy that we had to get out of the tuk-tuk a few times and walk so the tuk-tuk could pass through. Once we got to the site of the kindergarten, we had to help unpack everything and make the space look like a classroom (there is a problem w/ theft) A few of us played with the children before class started. There were less than 20 4-6 yr olds in the actual class, but the brothers and the sisters of the students wanted to learn, too. So a few people taught the older children ABC's and numbers in a different area. The rest of us played and sang songs with the class. The class wasn't as structured as the other NIBC kindergarten, but they made do with the resources they had. I did have a lot of fun playing and interacting with the children!

 Nora Wallace

Here is our return flight information for those of you that are interested

On Friday morning, we will travel by bus back to Bangkok.  We leave Seam Reap at 7:15am and need to check into the airport by 11:30pm.  S60o we have lots of additional buffer time to account for some unkowns.

We will be on the following flights (local times shown)

Bangkok to Seoul: Korean Air flight 660 Leave Bangkok at 2:50am on Saturday January 26 - Arrive at Seoul at 9:50am Seoul time

Seoul to Chicago: Korean Air flight 37  Leave Seoul at 11:40am (Seoul time) arrive at Chicago at 9:15am Chicago time.

Note that all these times are on the same day - it will be a loooong day 

After going through customs etc we will take our motorcoach back to Calvin and should arrive at the Spoelhof building (by the flagpole) somewhere between 2:00 and 3:00 pm.  Many of our students have a cell phone and they should be capable of receiving calls once we get outside of the Chicago airport (assuming that they remembered to charge them up after not using them all month :-) )

Once back home, we all have 2.5 days to adjust to the time change and something called snow - I hear it is something that is white and cold....

Regards,

Leonard De Rooy 

It's almost time to return home, and I feel like we are just getting to be familiar with the city, people, and culture. After meeting with different Cambodian people, going through an immersion experience, and visiting another village today, I think we are beginning to get a more comprehensive look at the rural life here, but there is so much left to learn. This entire trip has been not just a ''good experience'' but something that will impact all of us for a long time, if not the rest of our lives. I know I will never forget these cities, villages, and the faces of Cambodia.

There are two days left, and I have no doubt that there will be even more unexpected happenings, and unforgettable memories. Events to come include visiting a kindergarten, a particularly poverty-stricken village (even by Cambodian standards), and a group of engineers are going to check out an ancient man-made lake. Many of us are also planning to do some biking around Siem Reap. And who knows what else will happen in those two days-- after all, it is Cambodia.

 -- Emily Pavlich

 We Spent some time with the FAO(Food and Agriculture Organization of teh United Nations).  On Monday, they gave us some presentations in the Siem Reap office about the Tonle Sap enbvironment Mangement Project.  On Tuesday we broke up into three groups.  Two went to villages near Siem Reap (our group went to a Christian Village) and the third group went to a food line to serve food to more than 200 children in 30 minutes. 

Here is a great way to carry pigs on a 125cc motocycle. 

\

Children sang to us at the church 

 we handed out packages to the children and blankets to the parents (we have to remember that it IS winter for them)

Someone from the village cut down some coconuts for us.  We found that there is a LOT of milk in a coconut!

Annie worked very hard to finish her coconut :-)

Regards,

Leonard De Rooy 

Well, the group has made it "back home" to Siem Reap.  I (Prof De Rooy) arrived a day early to attend a meeting, while Prof Dornbos and the students arrived today.  Here is a blurb from him about the trip (as it relates to the distance from PP to SR):

 " From the Peace Bridge ... its precisely 312 km.  315 from "the Riverside".  I know each of these km's well b/c having just arrived back in Siem Reap safely with everyone, am reflecting on how slowed each km ticked by (there are concrete markers every km).  They ticked by slowly b/c our bus broke down something like 7-8 times (fuel pump I think).  Each time the driver/mechanic disappeared into the engine compartment he was able to get the dud bus to run about 10-20 km's.  After 4 hours, we made 140 km.  Then the bus wouldn't start.  After several retries in the back, he got it running and it stayed running ... he kept the rpms high all the way to S Reap w/o another stop.  So the motto, "go with the flow" certainly did apply.  In the end, a good experience."

 After they arrived, many of us went to the Blue Pumpkin for fruit shakes and something to eat.

We had the following winners for the distance question: Dave and LuAnn Horstman, Al Lindsten, and David Goodman.

Tomorrow we will spend the day with the UN office here in Siem Reap.

Regards,

Leonard De Rooy 

 Here is a youtube video clip of traffic in a typical PP intersection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0Z1wYC7zxw

One of the amazing things that I saw in PP was a drivers training vehicle...

Regards, 

Leonard 

Hey all,

I cannot believe how fast this 3 weeks is flying by. I am beginning to fall in love with Cambodia (the people definitely, the food and plants, but not so much the heat and the smells...since, as you may be aware, no cities or provinces in Cambodia have adequate waste treatment or collection systems. This is probably something I wouldnt ever really get used to!)

We leave Phnom Penh tomorrow after worshiping at a Khmer church...which I''m looking forward to, except for the fact that I will have to say goodbye (which I haven't mastered in Khmer) to the RULE students and An-yong to the HIL Korean students. After a week in PP, I have almost gotten the rhythm of crossing streets that have no traffic signals or enforced laws of any sort. We have seen a LOT, and I'm just starting to process it all. I'm praying that God will guide us as we unpack some of this. (e.g. the genocide museum and sights today from the Khmer Rouge regime, the need for education and civil works projects like solid waste management, and the continued corruption and injustices even in the stable/peaceful constitutional monarchy right now.) So don't be surprised if we all come back needing to talk through some things...

We have one more week, which we will spend back in Siem Reap. I'm not sure what the schedule is, but I never really have known too far in advance and it has all been good so far!

Continue praying for my classmates and me...

Thanks!

Val Horstman 

Today we went to the killing fields and the toulsleng museum, which is the largest prison and torture center.  It was awful what was done here.  This country was a very developed country and it was reduced basically to the stone age, there is nothing here.  No sewage system, no garbage system, no infrastructure at all, no education.  It's terrible.  And even worse, America is responsible for a huge amount of death here.  We bombed this country with the effect of 5 Hiroshima's.  We killed millions before the Khmer Rouge even came to power and they were hailed for defeating us and then immediately evacuated all cities on the pretense that the US was going to bomb them.  There is so much history here that I knew nothing about.  And then we went to the Royal Palace, which contains more treasure than I have ever seen in my life and it was just beautiful.  So to see the two extremes in one day was a little draining.  I have a lot of journaling to catch up on to record everything.

-Elizabeth Smit

Yesterday, a few of the Calvin students decided to visit RULE (Royal University of Law and Economics) with our Cambodian friends.  It was amazing to get to see a university in a country so different from our own.  It turns out that our friends were ditching class to hang out with us, so we ended up actually visiting that class.  It was a bit awkward at first since we didn't know that we were going to be brought into a class and had no idea what to say to the other students.  Then they started asking us questions about Calvin and our majors and then we asked them some questions and it was really interesting.  After vising the class, we got to see Vandenn's office (he's one of the ELIC teachers that we've been hanging out with).  He says that the 9 ELIC profs that work at RULE are some of the only ones that get an office.  They also have a small English language library that he says is really helpful in getting to know students better and in a deeper way.  Overall, I thought the school was nice, but I could tell that the classes are really large.  I think that if any of the RULE students ever visited Calvin, they would be completely shocked by how new and nice all of our classrooms are.  I wish we could have spent more time than just an hour there and that all of the Calvin students could have been there, but I'm glad it worked out for some of us.