Today after breakfast, Kaillie, Eric and I took a walk around the block by our hotel, but quickly returned due to the unbearable heat. Eric and I sat outside the hotel and talked for a while with one of the workers. We are building relationships with a few of the workers. He helped us with a few Khmer words and phrases and it was really nice to talk to him.
After talking with him, Eric and I went across the street to the Buddhist Temple. We were told the monks there are very eager to speak English with foreigners, so we approached the dorms where they stay. Immediately a man walked over and asked us a language question. Before we knew it, we were seated in the middle of a circle of eager-to-learn Buddhist monks. We spoke with them about their culture and our culture. They were very interested in language and asked us about English, how much Khmer we knew, and about how we knew Spanish and French as well. They were very friendly. We asked them if they could tell us about Buddhism, but they said they only knew how to explain in Khmer. We talked extensively with four of them, Thorn Bunsok (a monk student), Khem Chanratha, a Thai teacher and and English teacher in the monastery. We got the contact information of Bunsok. He taught us the Khmer alphabet and answered a lot of our questions. They asked about our religion and we were eager to share that we were Christians, but they were so much more interested in our language that the topic was quickly changed. Later, an older English teacher in the monastery came to talk to us and invited us to come back tomorrow so that we could talk to him class! I am so excited to get to speak with them again! Begin praying for these people! Especially Bunsok! We have Bunsok’s email and will be able to stay in touch with him after we leave. That is so incredible to me.
We were picked up at 4 to go to BB3 again today. When we got there, we ate un unplanned meal right with the orphans, rather than the director’s family. And if we are going to get sick from food, this meal would be the one to do it! There were fish eggs and pork stuff and tastes that I never knew existed. It was pretty good though, and really fun to eat with the kids.
After dinner, all the kids loaded into a tuk-tuk and we all went to the park by the river! We played in the grass there for hours! There were two clowns who put on a funny how that we all watched. It was great J
After playing, we hooked up with Jill Kane. We went to her home for dinner. Her home is so beautiful! She made us tacos for dinner, and it tasted so good after to much rice and Khmer food! We ate on the floor and talked for several hours about Cambodian culture. She told us about the wedding ceremonies and her experiences teaching the people about Christ.
Fun, but exhausting, day!
My kids testifying to Buddhist monks! Oh my goodness, God is amazing!
I'm praying! Mom