hello faithful blog readers!
We are back home on the college campus, dazed and amazed from our trip. We had a great time in Siem Reap as we visited Angkor Wat, the largest temple in the world. We first rode the boat across the Tonle Sap lake to Siem Reap. That was an adventure just by itself. We actually brought back with us some of the fish leakage from where they threw our bags up onto the boat and it landed in the fishy water. You can imagine our two-hour van ride from Charlotte with the fishy smelling bag in the packed van! Our students rode on top of elephants to get an awesome view of Angkor Wat. We saw Buddhist monks, ancient carvings of Hindu stories and Buddhist stories. We saw the silver pagoda-- Saira thinks I should decorate my office like it with pure silver as tiles on my floor and rubies and sapphires decorating the door! I'll see if it is in the college's budget.
We shopped in the Russian marketplace and the Central marketplace. So much color and beautiful instruments and silk silk silk. We saw how the silk is made-- the place I was supposed to eat the larva! But thank God, they did not offer us a chance to eat the boiled larva!! So we'll just have to go back to Cambodia to experience Shelly slurping down larva.
We will be sharing our story and pictures with the college community in the near future. We will also be sharing at St. Timothy UMC and Fletcher UMC during the month of April. Dates will be posted soon!
Thanks for all of you who have helped us on the journey. I am certain the experience will only multiply goodness across our many places in the world, for a long-time to come. We loved our journey and all the people we met along the way.
Shelly :)
This trip to Cambodia has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my entire life. After seeing some of the posts by other team members I felt like this one was appropriate. I just want to say thank you to our amazing team leaders. For Bill who keeps us all straight and does such a great job taking care of our every need, we are truly blessed to have you leading this team. To Esther our contact person here in Cambodia who has been with us ever step of the way, making sure that we had anything that we needed and were as comfortable as could be. Finally for Shelly and Kelly are super cool teachers, who helped make this class a reality and have been their to guide us and help us every step of the way. So many times I have heard ya'll say how great this team is but I believe a big part of that is because we have such great leaders. So I just want to thank you all again for all that you have done for us, this has truly been one of the greatest experiences of my life.
Michael
We had to say goodbye tonight to our friends at the Bible College. It was sad, but also I had some type of hope that this was not goodbye, but just the begining of a life long friendship with people half way across the world.
Hopefully I'll be back to Cambodia very soon.
We still have so many days left of sight seeing before we go home.
Kiyom suran Campochia.......I LOVE CAMBODIA!
Updates in the life of a Leaner
many khmer words learned
many friends made
painting skills improved
inspired constantly
khmer games played
still left to do:
SHELLY EaT LARVA!
see angkor wat
shop shop shop
peace and love
carrie ann
We are not the only Westerners visiting this beautiful southeast Asian country. But our journey has taken us places that most from the West will never see and would probably never desire to.
In the far corner of their minds, they may know the places we have seen exist but they would rather block that vision from their memories and continue on with their daily lives. Lives of prosperity, lives of convenience, lives of hustle and bustle and the daily grind.
In this land where each daily is a struggle in survival for most of the population there is an opportunity. An opportunity of hope and of a better tomorrow.
The 13 people on this mission trip, nine of whom are Brevard students or staff, are giving their time and talents to make change. Although the change is small in the overall scope of the needs here in Cambodia; every little positive result slowly adds up.
As the team leader of this group I am filled with thanks and gratitude. Thanks to the people here who have so little but yet are willing to share joyfully with us what little they have. Thanks that these people on this team have take their time to come and see and make a difference. Thanks to our Lord for the blessing we have had on our journey.
With Brevard College producing folks like I have on this team, the future of our nation can only be brighter and better.
BILL BUCHANAN
sorry faithful readers that I haven't blogged in a while...we've been oooooober busy!
but here are all the updates for you
khmer new words learned: pretty girl, no problem, good dreams, is there a problem here? how are you? i am happy, oh and naked girl (but this one was a total accident!)
accomplished thus far:
took took ride
massage :)
layed whole slab of concrete
been inspired
been captivated
tasted good food
seen the river
learned khmer
seen the palace
seen a temple
braved the traffic
still left to accomplish:
see shelly eat larva
paint a fence
be fluent in khmer
ride a moto
see angkor wat
celebrate jocie's birthday (but were doing it todayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!)
when do i want to leave: STILL NEVERRRRRR!!!!
also i thought id better explain the naked girl story, so in our time at the orphange yesterday i was trying to improve my khmer and said se se sera and they said no sat at at the end so i said se serat! and thy all started laughing, no no thats naked girl they said....carrie ann's face turned a nice color of red...and not just because it was hot :)
guess it is all part of the learning :)
until next time faithful readers
jim reep leah!
Hello, it's me, the leader of the BC traveling team. I am just amazed at how incredible our students are at being present in the moment, being flexible, gaining the insights that are readily available and wanting a voice. I have always known that our BC students are gifted and insightful people. But I can truly say now, after spending a week traveling on such a holy week journey with them, that I am honored to be among them. Holy week has taken on new meaning. It is the journey from darkness to light. It is a journey of suffering to healing. It is a journey of violence to love. In many ways, I think we have experienced many resurrection moments as we have witnessed suffering and joy at strange intersections. Standing at the killing fields, I heard myself say "how beautiful" when I saw the monument they have built to remember the horrific story, the building that holds over thousands of skulls. It was a courageous stance to never forget the story of what happened, or the millions of lives and generations that have been affected. That to me was the light in the darkness. When we see the smiles of the most vulnerable of people, I know grace is moving.
Our students are bearing witness to the power of love in this world!
