Many of my English II students have decided to join us on this trip to Cambodia, even though they are missing 3 days of classes and a 2-3 page essay on Autism. In exchange for skipping that assignment, I decided to offer my students write daily blog reports on what kind of things we were doing in Cambodia. We actually will present two reports of today, being that the group that visited Wat Preah Yesu split into two groups: one that primarily focused on teaching and entertaining kids in classes, and another that focused on painting a few houses on the campus. This report, from Gabriel, is about the painters.
Today we had an earlier morning call of 6:15. By 7:00, we were on the way to the school/orphanage. Once we got there, we found out that we would be leading the school morning program. The teachers quickly threw their heads together and came up with a plan of songs and skits for the children done by the children. My team, which included me, Vivian, Sky, Alix, and James, ended up with 28 kids from grades 1 to 3 and had to teach them to act out the story of David and Goliath.
45 minutes later, the team for painting was getting ready to give a house a new coat. The whole house needed 5 rooms to be painted; the kitchen, main room, parents room, boys room, and girls room. We taped masking tape along the edge to keep paint from accidentally getting on to certain parts. Once everyone on the paint team started to paint, we soon had 3 three more volunteers. Each of the drivers decided that they wanted to help out and started to pick up paint brushes. We finished most of one house and had started to tape the second house by the time lunch came around. We moved to the cafeteria and were greeted by large platters of rice, curry, and fruits.
Our afternoon lasted only a few hours but we still painted what we could. By the end of the day, one house was officially finished and the other house two-thirds of the way finished. We used water pumped from a well and powdered soap to remove the paint from our bodies. The kids who had finished their school for the day, came around and watched us as we finished. We left the place around 4:00 and went back to our hotel for showers and rest. At 6:00, we went into town and got to spend $8.00 on food. The area we eat at is filled with an overflowing amount of shops, food, and souvenirs.
From 6:30 to 8:30 we got to eat and shop. We came back to the hotel and gathered for songs and worship. We finished that just 15 minutes ago and then I started to write this journal. By 10:30 I should be in my bed asleep, and blissfully unaware of the fact that I need to wake up at 6:00 tomorrow.
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