Cambodia: Day 5 & 6

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Bedroom in Om Lon's House

9:58 PM

The inevitable has come to pass. I officially got traveller's diarrhea this morning. I hope that this doesn't disgust some of you readers out there, but that's just how it is. I woke up earlier than usual this morning to a stomach that didn't hurt, but felt like it was uncomfortably full of packing peanuts and was roaring uncontrollably. Great. My time has come. I laid in bed for a while, trying to make it go away by continuing my slumber, but to no avail. I finally made my way into the restroom, defeated.

Two anti-diarrheal pills later and I'm perfectly fine. My appetite has definitely changed since I've been here; I'm not nearly as hungry as I usually am and I'm finding it pretty easy to go without a meal. The loss of my usual snacking and increase in fruits and vegetables, in addition to our busy schedule that keeps us on the go, should reap some benefits for my health.

Enough chatting, let's get on with what I've done this weekend. Yesterday we rode our bikes to Kaitlin and Spencer's before taking a tuk-tuk to Wat Phnom. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect with Wat Phnom, but I think I definitely expected something a little more extravagant. I need to do some more research on its origins so that I can better understand its significance, because right now I just perceive it as a rundown park with a giant cement mass on top of a hill. Compared to the National Museum, the Wat Phnom museum was pretty shabby and hardly worth the money we paid to get it. However, there was one redeeming factor about the Wat, and that was the monkeys. Obviously we spent the majority of our time observing them instead of the Wat. Trust me, you would have done the same thing.

After the Wat, we took a tuk-tuk to the river walk and searched for a cheap restaurant to eat at. We were walking around, observing our scenery when something caught my eye. A person was sitting down on the sidewalk, counting money, but something was slightly off. I had a very difficult time making out any facial features; all I could see was skin with thin patches of hair attached. As I passed the person, it took all of my might to not turn to look at the individual, but I finally gave in once I was a good distance away. I pretended to turn around to look at my friends, but instead looked right at a man that was suffering from a giant tumor on the right side of his face. One eye looked around, begging for money and mercy as the other eye was covered by layers of skin drooping from the top right side of his forehead. I felt hopeless for the man, knowing that in a country like this he had been left to fend for himself. I look back now, wishing that I would have done something, anything, to brighten the man's day.

We inhaled our lunch and somehow our tuk-tuk driver from the day before found us. He offered to take us to a boxing match and we immediately accepted. The driver was totally looking for any reason to go to the match, and we were his way in. Thinking that the match was only about a kilometer away, we were surprised as we drove out of Phnom Penh and into one of the immediate provinces. Our sluggish tuk-tuk made its way through acres of fields to a TV broadcast station, the venue for the night's matches.

Walking behind the station, we came to a large garage-type building, with sides open to the air and a boxing ring centered by a large stage and bleachers. We took our seats as the matches began. I was very excited to watch such a cultural event, to see how the athletes paid their respects to their teachers and to their god before their fights. That's something I realized as I watched: the people here remember their god in almost everything they do. That value is important and something that I definitely need to be better at in my own life.

The kickboxing event took up a good portion of our afternoon; we didn't get back to Spencer's until after seven. Apparently Spencer and Kaitlin had arranged to eat at our house that night, so we all made our way to Om Lon's for dinner. The table was pulled out and covered with all sorts of food: grilled beef with pineapple, curry, bread, and rice with fresh mangoes for dessert. I stuffed myself to the brim.

Sunday was an interesting day. We hadn't been to the building yet, so we were very surprised to see how big the building was. Situated in a more affluent part of town, the building stood white and tall. We walked inside and took our seats a few rows behind the last wooden pews. It was district meeting this week, so instead of having classes we just had a two-hour long meeting in the chapel. There were a ton of missionaries and a lot more members than I thought there would be. I was pleasantly surprised; the Church is very young here, but they're definitely making progress.

I didn't understand about half of the talks because they were in Cambodian, but the Spirit still felt the same.

We chatted it up with some of the senior couples after the service. I'm hoping they'll invite us over in the near future for some good American food.

Oh man, American food. I never thought I'd miss it so much. All I want right now is a big bowl of cereal...