writing
Im sitting down tryign to write a paper on my expereinces in cambodia. This should be extreamly easy, seeing that i just spent three weeks in the country. However whenever i try to start, i just think of so much, and the things i think about are sill fresh in their development. I can already tell that this paper is going to be nothing more than fragmented thoughts and ideas. I knew that this would happen, i knew nothing would impact me or suprise me in the midst, however know i can start to see the problems. Well this paper isn't gogin to write it-self better get back to it.
sick
It is my last day in cambodia. Wich is good becasue that means im gettign closer to a doctor..haha. I havn't been able to eat for the last four days, and i feel like a train wreck. i actuall was able to eat a little today so hopefully that means im getting better. Im not sure what it is, becasue ive never had anything like this before, basicaly i go to sleep at night tossing and turnning and have wierd half awake, half asleep dreams, then durign the day i barley have energy to move, and i can't hold food down. well i guess in order to experince the true cross cultural expereince, one needs to feel what its like to be sick.
today i fly out of cambodia, then im gogin to spend two days in hong kong, then i will leave hong kong saturday, and arive saturday in the us. im not sure when i will be gogin back home to allendale, it depends on how quickly i can catch up on sleep. well i have to go. see ya.
Willis
slow
The internet is really slow here, it took me fifteen minutes to get to this posting scren thing. ah well!
We only have a handfull of days left in cambodia, and that im excited about. We will be makign a trip by plane to angor wat, which is the most famous site in cambodia, so that should be sweet.
Ive learned some intererstign things while talking to RDI (rural development international). They gave me hope for christians and cambodians. On there team they have chemists and doctors who are workign to give cambodians clean drinking water. They told us about a huge problem with the wells that are being drilled all around the world, and the tests they have been running, that has been proving that drilling a deep well is not only not helping, but it is alos doing worse becasue the water is become even more contaminated. They said that world vision adn those typs of places don't even test the water that comes from the wells that they drill, snd that they are possibly doing way more harm than good...something to look into.
They are mass producing cheap..cheap water filters and storage units for families in cambodia, and their revolutionary ideas for productions, are spreading, and i belive we will ber hearing a lot about these water filters in the future.
There is a wedding going on right outside of the internet cafe, and it is really anoying..haha..the music and singing is startign to get old, can't wait for american music.
today i get to go to the market and shop so im excited, hopefully i can buy a bunch of cool stuff. ive already gotten about 20 dvd's some of them just came out in theater, and yes they do work, wheve played them already. im excited to get to have a fun day today, its been an exaughsting trip but i have been trying realy hard not to be negative, and to turn this trip into a positive, and i think its working...still want to come home!! but im emjoying my time here while i still can. It differetn becasue we are celebrities everyewhere we go. We get the fancy rooms, and twenty people servign us at all tims. part of me just want to be able to disapear in the crowed agian. It's nice not being noticedd every second, i miss that. well im gogin to go shopping, and im sure i will sweat a whole bunch more, its been about 90 here, and the sun is very hot!!! although its much better than snow so ive been enjoying it. well see you in a week!
Willis
Hey nate
Hey i wrote you an email, i sent it to the e-mail, on the iamwatermark home page..
sorry everyone else, i wanted to write more but my time has been cut short.
Willis
Short Term Missions trip
I won't complain too much in this blog, but i need to get a couple things of my chest right off the bat. One of the main things im learnign is how not to lead a trip to a forien country. This trip has been turned into a missions trip gone wrong. The other day we handed out candy to malnurished children...CANDY!!! im sure the little peices of sugur are gogin to do great fro there vitamin lacking bodies. The sad thing is every one keeps pattign themselves on the back for doign so. I will tell more stories later, but on this trip im afriad we are doign way mroe bad than good in cambodia. I was coming here with the hopes to learn about he culture, however i havn't learned much at all. Our whole class is exaughsted and we all want this trip to be over and we want to go home, this is the trip from hell. It has been run extreamly poorly. i havn't had a good meal in a couple of days, becasue we keep stoping at random gas stations to get food....i can only have oreos as a meal once. wow sorry, i just feel like ive wasted a lot of money!!!!!
Here is teh other end of the storym the things i am teachign myself through this trip.
The things i have seen, have been crazy. I can't bein to explain the conditions in which these people live. I went to a villiage and visited some people their and they really od live off nothing. yet they arn't very smart. This is due to the pol pot regiem wich killed off all the educaterd in cambodia. the people have been left to rebuild their country, therfore everything out here is rather random and doesn't make much sence. or maybe im just thinking to american. The people on our trip are amazed by the joy of the people, which is funny to me because thats not what i see. When i look at the people, i can see a desperation. They all seem to be floatign through life with no purpose, no goals. I was talkign to some local studetns and i asked them what they did..and they said "nothing" they litterly do nothing all day, and that is what everyone out here does. When we drive around everyone is justr kind of hangin out on the streets. I wonder what would happen if we could give the children more than candy, or more than a smile, what would happen if we could give them the power to dream. Give them the power to stand up and make a difference in their world. Im sorry that im not happy with giving them money and candy, but thats because I want to give them more!! I don't know if i can take it any more. I don't know if you know what it is like to hold a kid in your arms, and watch them smile at you, with a mouth full of rotting teeth. This wasn't even the worst. We visited rubish mountain..its a dump, a litteral place where they dump the trash. And we visited teh village that was in the middle. I saw kids, mothers, fathers, and grandparents, living, eating, and playing in trash. They where so dirty and smelled so bad, they almost wherent even people. They where almost like another form of animal.....how does this happen, i hope our peices of candy hellped them a lot, becasue i know it made our group feel like the changed their whole world. I can't help but to sit in my hotel, and sit in silence, and wonder what has gone wrong with todays christians, how can we all be so blind. How can we look at a world in such hurt and think we can help by bringing asmile...im sorry but we need to do better than that...
We have been talking to the assistant professor of the trip, in hopes that it will change, so hopefully in the next couple of days i will learn why all this is happenign, and be able to share the story of cambodia with all of you.
thanks for reading,
Willis
fithly rich, in a filthy place
I only have 10 min so this has to be quick...I can't explain cambodia to you with words, you will have to see the pictures..basically their is trash everywhere, and people everywhere. Here i am like a king, and i am the rich. everywhere i go i am eatign and staying at the fancy places, and im hating every minuite of it. the people here think that they are nothing compared to us, they hide there faces, and are ashamed. The smell here is the most foul thing ever. you can smell trash, sewer, drying meat, and incense.
The streets are chaos, and dangerouse. I have never been htis afraid of simply walking or being in an area. Everythign is dirty and extreamly unsanitary. I hate bein here and definatly want to come home, but you never learn any lessons if you don't stiuck with it....this place sucks, thats all i can say. I saw a kid sleeping on the edge of the side walk, sprawled out a dirty, with an extreamly week breath, i probably witnessed a kid dying.
I can't explain this place at all, its a hell hole!!
If eaten lots of crazy things, like chickens feet, and deep fried mountin spider(looks just like a teranchula) Its an adventure, but im not realy enjoying it, it sucks here..it sucks...it sucks...it sucks!! I hate drivign around in a huge bus with a ton of white chicks. nothign says where rich and your not like that. Everywhere we go where treated liek royalty..i hate it....i wish i could have done this trip with like three peopole. instead it justr looks like we are flaunting our money with our huge group of extreamly nicely dressed studetns. man this sucks....i hate making them feel worthless...i hate whats gogin on here, and i hate how these people have to live. We are so privlaged!!!!!!!!!!!!
