Busy Day

Monday was a busy day of running errands to try to solve the visa issue...as in mine expired today, and I still wasn't sure how it would be renewed. So, Megan and I and a couple of our Cambodian friends took a tuk-tuk to the immigration office near the airport. We had several places that we had to stop at, so we hired this tuk-tuk driver for the entire morning.

Let me just digress for one moment. In the past week, I have had a flat tire on my bike, I was riding on a moto when a tire blew, and today, one of the tires on our tuk-tuk popped....twice! I was trying to decide if that is a statement on the shape of the roads or on the quality of the tires. I think most likely both.

Our driver fixes the tire.

Quality, huh?!

I have a video of the traffic that I tried to upload twice last night, but it didn't work. I will try again, so check back for it.

The ride to the airport is a long one in a tuk-tuk, so I asked the ladies to share a little of their life stories with us. They talked about family and how they got connected with Asia's Hope. One of the women shared her age with me, and I realized that she was old enough to be alive during the time of the Khmer Rouge, albeit she was very young at the time.

(If you have not had a chance to read about this horrible time in Cambodian history, I have labeled some previous entries so that you can get caught up. It was a period of genocide in the late 70s that literally destroyed this country.)

So, I asked her if she understood what was happening at the time because she was so young. She began sharing about her experience. The Khmer Rouge split up families...because they believed that all allegiance should be to the collective. So, her mom and dad were sent to different places to work, and she was sent to another with other children her age - about 5 or 6 years old at the time. Even at that young age, she had to work the rice fields. Those of you with young kids, just imagine that.

They did not have protection from the elements or the bugs, so she ended up getting insect bites that got infected. She begged the people in charge to allow her to see her mom. So, her mother was allowed to come and get her and take care of her. Her father found a way to get to them as well. As a family, they hid from the Khmer Rouge and from the fighting that had broken out between that army and the Vietnamese.

Her mother was pregnant at the time. One night, as the fighting raged around them, she went into early labor and had the baby. The baby survived, but eight days later, her mother died. Her father, old and sick after laboring for the Khmer Rouge and not getting enough to eat, also died. She and her baby sister were left as orphans. After the regime was toppled, she was brought to an orphanage.

Through tears during this conversation, these woman also shared about other relatives and other people they knew who died during this genocide. This woman was my age. This happened during our lifetime. When I am with my Cambodian friends or I see people on the street, I think about what they have been through and the painful stories they are carrying around. I cannot imagine the horror. I cannot understand the inhumanity. I am appalled that things like this are still occurring in other places around the world.

This country was, at one time, the most beautiful in all of Southeast Asia. And now it's just a mess. But it's these woman who are giving their lives to orphans...and the children who are being transformed...who are the hope of this nation. I am blessed to serve alongside them.

Now, an update on my visa. I dropped my passport off to get my tourist visa renewed and pick it up on Tuesday. (Didn't need to take that ill-fated trip to the border. Giving thanks even now:) My paperwork for a three month visa is being processed, and when I get it, I will have to go to Vietnam (this time with a visa before leaving this country!) Then, hopefully I can get a 1 year visa with multiple entries. But, until I hold it in my hands, it all could change:) Thanks for your continued prayers.

By the way, just a little plug to exercise your right to vote today. It's a privilege that I hold dear, and was so hoping to get to do in my first election overseas. I had planned to go to the embassy last week to drop off my ballot, and then had to wait at the house for the tickets for Vietnam. Then I was on my way yesterday when I realized that I had just dropped my passport off at the Cambodian immigration office. (I so miss walking across the parking lot to the church to cast my vote!) So, allow me to live vicariously through you as you step up to the ballot. And, you know, if my preferred candidate loses by one vote, I am going to be extremely disappointed.