Now that we've returned back to Taiwan from our trip to Cambodia, we wanted to take some time to think back on the experiences that we had over the last two weeks. I asked my student Gabriel to write up his feelings on a moment that he'll really remember forever from this trip.
This mission trip to Cambodia has not only changed the lives of the people there, but has also changed some of the people on the trip. One of those people that it has changed was me. In reflecting back over the trip, I would say the trip has helped me have a better understanding about life and the world we live in. One thing that I have learned since coming back from this trip is to be thankful. Being thankful of what you have is a hard skill to master.
When we painted the houses for the orphanage, we basically were being shown a small portion of their life. I was one of the first groups to paint houses on the first day of work. Our team was shown around the house to help determine the areas that needed painting. We ended up giving the whole house a new makeover. One of the things that stood out to me was their bedrooms. In a house, there lives a “dad” and “mum” who take care of 15- 20 children. The rooms are separated by gender of all ages. When I walked into the bedrooms, everything that was in there was pushed to the centre of the room to enable us to paint. The beds that these orphans slept on were raw bunk beds made of metal and small thin straw mats. Some had pillows others had small rags sewn together to make a pillow. They didn’t have blankets because they didn’t need them in that weather. In our daily life, there is hardly a time when one doesn’t just stop and wish they had more than what they had. We usually already have enough to begin with and just want instead of need. We usually either can’t get it or waste time and energy trying to obtain useless material possessions. We run in circles and exhaust and frustrate ourselves. For me, I would always complain to my mum why I couldn’t have more things or I would compare myself to others around me who had more things than I did. Inside the bedrooms, every bunk bed had the few items of material possessions that the inhabitants owned. When I glanced around the room, each bunk bed didn’t have more than two small containers of “stuff”. In comparison to any student of TAPA, these baskets would be filled with what we would call rubbish or useless little items. To the Cambodians, they treasured these items. The weird thing was they were still so happy. Even with such little items that we think will bring us joy, they were smiling from ear to ear every time I saw them. It then dawned on me that living life isn’t about how much “stuff” you can collect to make your room look like a pig sty, it’s about the relationships with others that you build that are worth more than a fancy overpriced bag. Material things aren’t necessarily bad, but in most cases they are useless.
Another form of thankfulness that I have learned from the trip is being thankful for things I take for granted. Small things that we don’t deem important in our lives are actually hard to live without if they were removed from humanity. One example is the restroom. Using the bathroom doesn’t exactly take skill and flushing the toilet is as easy as zipping up a jacket. In Cambodia, the people there are so used to simplicity it doesn’t affect their lives. The toilets there are pretty much a hole in the ground with piping coming out from the other side and where flushing the toilet is actually manual labour. In order to flush the toilet, one must fill up the water bucket by means of a metal pump from the well. One must bring the bucket and dump it into the “toilet”. Other things around the house we may take for granted are things like the television, cell phones, and iPods. We say that without these things we might die, but then shouldn’t lots of people of the world be dead by now. The teenagers in Cambodia don’t base their life on the latest electronic gadget or what new television series has been added to NBC. Their life is based on loving God, helping others, and being happy with what they have. I bet some of them don’t even know what an iPod is. I can tell you that you can live without facebook; I’ve tried it and lived to tell the tale.
One last form of thankfulness I learned is to be thankful for the family God gave me. At the orphanage, the children have foster parents that they call “super parents”. Each family, like I mentioned, has 15- 20 orphans to look after; except they aren’t treated like foster parents or orphans, they treat each other like one big family. The parents do everything with their children together; cook, eat, sleep, shower. The children play with their “brothers and sisters” like one big family. As for my family, I hardly ever wanted to go out with my family as much as I do my friends. I know that some of my peers would sometimes rather see their siblings adopted than to live with them. I know from now on I will be happy with the family that God gave me.
If I didn’t go on this trip, I think I would have spent my spring break sulking in a corner because of the how bad my life “sucked”. If I didn’t go on this trip, I would not have been able to experience a new dimension of the world I live in. If I didn’t go on this trip, I would have not been able to have my life changed. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Adams, Ms. Morauske, and Mr. Clifford for organizing a trip like this and allowing me to come along. It was AWSOME to go to Cambodia and it was sad to leave. I want to go back.
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