After lots of meetings with the missionaries, Vana and Inpa, the staff at NACE and the youth volunteers who would be helping us run the childrens holiday program, we finally started the program on Thursday.

The first day was the Youth program and the topic was What do you worship? We had 22 youth come and we organised lots of games, songs, Bible challenges and Cameron gave a talk on God being worthy of our worship because he made everything and everyone. The youth had lots of fun and so did we. Half of them don’t go to church, so it was a different experience for them. When they arrived, they didn’t know each other, but by the end, everyone was having fun together, including us!

Rebekah, Zac and Nat had the challenge of playing piano, guitar and bongo drum for the songs, Hannah was on the data projector and Lily, Mal and Luke helped hand things out for the games. It was a great Blair team effort with the kids stepping up in areas they normally wouldn’t feel comfortable.

Youth Skipping Game Video

Everyone we’re working with and teaching are so lovely. The youth are so friendly and the kids are really enjoying hanging out with them. Its not uncommon when we talk to them or sit next to them that they touch or rub our skin. I think this is because Cambodians seem to love white skin. There are all kinds of products you can buy at the supermarkets and pharmacies to whiten your skin. Even though it is so hot here, they all wear long shirts and trousers so they don’t get any browner from the sun….and I thought it was cultural!

I feel like I can’t say anymore without mentioning the smell! Cambodia has an aroma of it’s own. We thought living near the M5 entrance might be bad for our health! Well, that’s like living in the country compared to being on a tuk tuk in Phnom Penh. It’s pretty bad. Driving along in the tuk tuk with big old trucks roaring behind and overtaking you smells pretty bad. When you’re in the middle of traffic going every which way all around you, the fumes can be pretty intense. But it’s not just the smell of exhaust fumes, that make up the smells of the city. There is rubbish everywhere, which has it’s own type of smell, but it’s also the strong smells of the street food vendors cooking their various foods on the side of the street as you pass by. The heavy smells when driving in a tuk tuk are an experience of their own.

Despite the smells and perhaps because of them, we decided we wanted to travel around by tuk tuk. We feel like you can’t truly experience Phnom Penh unless your part of the excitement of what goes on in the traffic. The other day we were coming back from the soccer centre, when an entourage of soldiers drove past on their motorbikes blowing whistles at the motorists to get out of the way as they zoomed past looking very serious with their machine guns
casually draped over their shoulders. I was praying for safety at that point, but the kids, especially Nat thought that was pretty exciting. You couldn’t get the full experience of that sitting inside a car!

Despite this, we found out today we can’t get out of our car commitment for a month. So, unfortunately we’ll have to put those glorious, somewhat disturbing smells aside for a month, until we can get back into it again! Who would have thought….when we first arrived here, we were scared to leave the house….now it doesn’t feel like we’re part of it unless we’re breathing in the smells and chaos of the traffic! Praise God for all he is doing here!