Post from the Penultimate day in Poipet before Persevere on my Progress to Pandemonious Phnom Penh

Hello to all the people that I like to pretend are reading my blog,

Believe it or not, I have reached my second last day in Poipet! Yes I know! At 6.30 am on Monday morning, I will get on a bus for Phnom Penh, and say goodbye to CHO, Poipet, and the Church for the far foreseeable future. I know it sounds clichéd, but the time really has flown by. I have been here for close to four months, but I still feel like I have barely scratched the surface of the town I am in, and the people I spend every day working with, and often socialising with in the evenings as well. They say that wherever you go, it doesn't matter how crappy a place is, it's the relationships that make it, and I can definately see that at play here. Poipet is not a nice town. It is full of mud, crime and casinos, but you can look past that when you have real solid friendships built with people there.

We had our goodbye party with the 60 odd CHO staff last night. We cooked them all english food - mash, friend potatoes and beef stew. If you ever want to know what it feels like to be insignificant, try being a fork being used to mash potato for 60 people. I like to call it a 'memorable' task, as 'frustrating' is a nasty, negative word :):). The food and games afterwards went down a treat. First of all we taught them some english party games, and then a couple of Scottish engineers who are also there taught them Scottish dancing - kinda hard, as even the barangs attempting to demonstrate the dance barely had any idea what to do. The evening then progressed onto Khmai dancing, follwed by a last minute game of musical chairs. I have never laughed so hard in my life. Literally. It just descended into chaos, with adults turning into complete kids, and cheating being the way to win (well it was for me anyway ;)). I have not had such a fun evening in my entire life, and it has made me realise how much I will miss my friends at CHO.

The last few weeks at the building site have been mostly good but frustrating at times - some days we have worked right until 5 or 6, some days we kick off at 3 - literally - the moment you stop work the football comes out. But I have learnt to accept their culture. Basically it boils down to something like this 'if you try to plan for every eventuality, you will stress yourself out trying to think of everything that could go wrong. Best not plan at all, to save yourself uneeded stress and work.

Also, looking back on my time here, I realised quite how much I have come to learn about the Cambodian psyche, and the way it has been scarred by the Khmer Rouge - the trip to Phnom Penh, written about in the last past, was the turning point for me, but you see it every day, in little habits, gestures, and eccentricities that almost every Cambodian, and to a greater extent those over 40, have.

I am doing my last preach tommorrow on the exhortations at the end of 2 Thesselonians. As it's our last preach, I'm doing it with Ed and Mark, as a way of saying goodbye and thankyou for listeing to our inexperienced ramblings for the past 16 sundays.

My internet time is about to run out, so I can't really carry on. So I will sum up my time here in 27 words. My time in Cambodia has been unexpected on the spiritual front, upliftng on the friendship side of things, disturbing in many aspects, but most of all, unforgetable.

Tales from sunny Sihanoukville....

Hello all,

Lots to write about today, but not much of it centres around my work, as I have been on holiday for the past week! Woop woop! Last Tuesday morning (3/6) we got a bus to Phnom Penh and then another one on to Sihanoukville, the only thing in Cambodia that vaguely resembles a beach resort. Total journey time was about 14 hours, and would have been very comfortable, were it not for the fact that there was constant Khmer Karaoke video cds playing at the front. The stories of the music videos all go some thing like this:

Slow Gentle music playing in 6/8, pictures of pleasant Asian countryside. Man starts singing to his girlfriend, who is suitably dressed, with no exposed shoulders or legs. Girls mother comes in and is angry to find her with a man. They split up. Pictures of Girl and Boy separated, crying and lamenting their love, seemingly lost for ever. Mother comes round to her Daughter's point of view. Boy and Girl get married. More gentle music in 6/8. The end. Repeat over 21(!) identical but different songs, all the way to Phnom Penh.

Neway, Sihanoukville was loverly, with spotless tropical beaches, which were surprisingly empty given the quality of the location. What was lovely about it was the fact that you had the lovely beaches, but given Thailand's proximity and Cambodia's lack of development, it hadn't turned into a high rise tacky beach resort. It was just a sleepy seaside town, with a few backpackers there to keep the watering holes well funded. We had two days on the beach, one day on a boat doing island hopping, and one day visiting some nearby waterfalls (they were cool, but once you've been to Iguazu, you are abit spoilt when it comes to waterfalls!) It was a definite chill out holiday, which couldn't have come at a better time, as it has really energised me for the last four weeks of work at the building site.

From Sihanoukville we went for two days in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capitol, and by far its largest and most westernised place. The bumpy roads and naked children of Poipet were swapped for paved boulevards and shopping malls. Our time in Phnom Penh wasn't exactly enjoyable, given the content of our visits, but it was extremely worthwhile.

We first of all visited the Choeung Ek killing fields, about 10 miles outside of Phnom Penh. There was surprisingly little to see here, bar a large monument filled with the skulls of roughly 1000 of the 17000 total victims of this site. There were signs showing you the trees against which infants had their heads dashed before being thrown into mass graves with their parents, and signs showing you trees where loudhailers had been set up to broadcast white noise in order to hide the screams of victims as they were bludgeoned to death. (The Cambodian genocide is unique among modern genocides in that there were no mass killings in gas chambers or with machine guns. The vast majority of the 1.7 million victims were killed with hand tools, such as shovels or hoes.) There were also signs about the s about the Khmer Rouge,some of them surprisingly angry, referring to the leaders as having 'human shells, but hearts of demons'. You could see how open the wounds on the Cambodian Psyche still remain. It's hardly surprising, given that 1/4 - 1/3 of the population was wiped out, and every Cambodian over the age of 40 has vivid memories of the events.

From the killing fields, we then went to the Toul Sleng genocide museum. This is in the same building as the notorious S-21 prison, in which thousands of Khmer people met torture and death. The Khmer Rouge took control of a high school and converted it into a prison. It only receives roughly 30 - 40 visitors a day, which makes it an eerily deserted place. The museum leaves the prison in much the same layout and state as it was the day it was liberated by Vietnamese forces in 1979. There are rooms where there are metal bed frames used for tying victims to for torture, as well as the actual implements themselves. On top of this there was rooms and rooms full of mugshots of victims, as well as pictures of maimed and deformed corpses tied to the torture beds, taken by Vietnamese soldiers upon the liberation of the prison. (There was also and excellent room detailing the full history of the Khmer Rouge, which took about an hour of careful reading to pass through.) It was a draining day, spiritually, emotionally and physically, but I feel that I can understand the modern Cambodian nation and Psyche far better as a result of it.

Outside of the museum, there was a beggar which an extremely deformed face, which makes you blanch with shock the first time you see it. Seeing This beggar is a man who has had to grow used to every single person who sees him being horrified by the look of his face. Due to Buddhist philosophy, people with physical ailments are looked down upon. They are often shunned by society. What kind of existence is that? Seeing him has affected me deeply, and has him really made me think how incredibly fortunate I am with the health of my body, the comfort of my upbringing, and the benefits of living in a first world country. I have no right to complain, and nothing to complain about.

On a similar but less extreme note, over the past few weeks I have been developing a friendship with a deaf man at Church. His name is Tai, and he is from Vietnam. We have been to lunch, and we somehow manage to communicate through a mixture of sign language, and broken English written down for the other to read.

I am sorry for the unhappy nature of the bulk of the content of this post. It has been a very difficult few days for me, and it has helped me in some measure to get it all written out here. I would very much appreciate your continued prayers for me.

God Bless
Greg

Hello peoples (if there is anyone out there still reading). I'm afraid I've been a naughty boy. I haven't updated my blog in almost a month. :-(. Bad Greg. But rest assured. My crime will not go unpunished. I have already taken the liberty of giving myself a cold for the past few days. There ain't no grace for this sin I assure you.

Now we've got that initial unpleasentness over, I'm pleased to report that my cold is slowly lifting (seriously though how can you get a cold when it's close to 40 degrees outside, surely it should be called a hot?), and that it has merely left a residue of a slight cough/ sore throat combo.

Apart from this I'm doing good. I'm beggining to feel the stress of being out here abit more than before though. The work is monotonous (theres only so many buckets of brick mix that you can fill) the weather hot and totally tropical (it's like English summer on steroids) and the Cambodians inexplicable (they sent someone to translate for us when we were doing kids outreach work. I realised he wasn't particuarly good at translating when I was telling the story of David and Goliath. He failed to understand the sentence 'once there lived a boy called David'. (with a classload of Cambodian kids expecant, a lesser man would have panicked.)) Hmm. Isn't funny how you can really go to town with brackets, and then totally lose the thread of what you were saying?

But yeah, it has been quite a long time now hasn't it? It'll be 10 weeks on Tuesday that I left the UK, but (and please don't be offended by this(!)) I am not really homesick at all. I have had moments of missing things British, but these have been very fleeting. As I''ve got to know the Cambodians and their culture better though, I've started to see how they are still heavily scarred from the years of the Khmer Rouge. Alot of them don't know how to make proper adult decisions for themselves, and many of the older Cambodians have heavily scarred bodies. We have seen people with eyes missing and many many missing limbs (both from landmines and from punishment amputations).

I am slowly but surely growing to love the town and people that I'm living in and with (glad I got that one the right way round!), though they do have numerous things which are baffling and infuriating! Every time I leave Poipet for more than a day or so, I am always glad to return - it really feels like home. Last week there was a three day public holiday in Cambodia, so the team decided to go to the regional capital of Battambong. Was really good, and is an example of how a Cambodian town can develop if the local economy is purged of corruption and violence. We visited a hill with some caves which was the site where the Khmer Rouge carried out some of their mass excecutions. As you enter the main chamber of the caves, you look up 60 feet to the roof of the cave and see a hole about 10 feet across where victims would be pushed to their deaths after first having their throats cut. The skulls, bones and clothes that remain are a chilling testimony to what happened just 30 years ago in what now is a beautifull, green and trainquil place.

As for my spiritual side, God has done what I'm learning to expect him to do and has gone and done the totally unexpected. When I came, I was anticipating big spiritual experiences and to have massive revelations of God and the way his Kingdom is spreading. Though I have had moments where God has shown me new things ( I have learnt so much about the nature of grace and righteouness for example), the main changes in my life, both physical and spiritual, is learning to see God in the day to day. I'm learning to see God away from the big spiritual experiences, rather than through them. I'm also learning more about what it means to be a servant, and how there are numerous things, which are completely uneseen and unappreciated, that God wants us to do. I think im developing more of a grit your teeth and do it faith rather than a worry because I haven't had my quiet time today faith. I think this is what is needed. I'm not sure though. Wouldn't everything be so much clearer though if we knew all the time exacly what God wants us to do? But we don't. I guess that's faith.

My dear mother has informed me that these posts get posted up on the Christ Church NM missionaries board, so if you're reading this in sunny New Malden, yoyo! Wasgwanin? I hope you are all doing well. Thank you for praying for me. I always try to pray for you guys and your Church. God bless y'all brother and sisters in Christ (how cheesy can you get Greg??ed.)

I am really sorry that all you guys have suffered such a news drought from me recently, and this will certainly not happen again! I promise!

Cyall latersssss.

.-""""""-. .' '. / O O \ : : : ', ,' : \ '-......-' / '. .' '-......-'

I am sooo sorry that I haven't been in contact with you guys for abit of time, but loads and loads has been happening! My records indicate that I last posted on 29th March! Deary me it's been a long time has it not? I'm keeping a trip journal so I've got a fairly accurate record of what I've been up to, and other nuggets of information that people crave when their favourite boy is 6000 miles away in a hot, dusty Cambodian border town.

From 29th March to 12th April we were working 4 days a week at the building site and then spending fridays with the kids. In the mornings we go to school on a mat, orphanage im the afternoon. Our work at the building site has changed from making bricks to smashing rocks, as they want to make as many rocks into gravel as possible before the rainy season comes and makes it a whole lot harder to work away from the shelter. So we smash rocks with slegehammers and then put the smaller rocks into a rock crusher. Makes you feel very manly.

In Cambodia almost everyone rides small motorbikes called motos - most people cant afford a car. They are like scooters but with gears. I've been learning to ride one during our lunch/ siesta times at the building site. One of the builders - a really friendly guy called Jan To, lent his to us.

Its amazing to see everyone in the team challenged in so many different ways. For me, I am being challenged about having a servant heart, and what that truly looks like. Smallthings that no one notices like taking the uncomfortable places in the pickup, andsmallerthings like that are really really important.

Anyways, this week everyone in Cambodia has been on holiday for Khmer New Year! I’m not quite sure what the history behind it, but it basically means that everyone parties (completely sober) for a week with their families in their hometowns. Our Khmer new Year started last Friday night when we attended a party at the CHO offices where everyone ate a homemade beef curry/cassarole on the floor, followed by Khmer dancing. Following in their custom of asking us to do big things at the last minute, they asked our group if we could provide some music whilst their band had some supper. Luckily, us three guys are fairly adept at music, so I played bass, Mark played drums, and Ed boogied on the keyboard for 20 minutes or so. It’s really fun, basically , the bassist and drums lock into eachother’s rhythms, whilst the keyboarder improvises over the top and calls out chords and key changes that are coming up.

Whilst we we boogieng (SP?), we discovered that it’s another Khmer tradition to spread talcom powder on everyone’s faces during new years eve parties. This explains the photos where we all look like zombies. Also, during new year, mass waterbomb fights take place on the streets of all the towns, cities and villages. It seemed quite dangerous to see fast moving helmetless moto drivers being pelted from all sides by waterbombs, but no one seemed to get hurt! It’s just great to see so many people having much fun without a drop of alchohol being consumed.

Anyway, for our new year holiday we went to Siem Reap, which is the main tourist town of Cambodia. After a 5 weeks of being the only westerners around, it was strange NOT to be stared at in a fascinated way by every child (and some adults!) that you see. Siem Reap is basically a tourist town, with most of its income coming from the attraction of the world famous Angkor Wat. The temples in this huge complex range from 500 – 900 years old, and were amazing to look at. The lack of information boards was very frustration thooough. That’s where most of the pictures come from J

Anyway, I’m starting to ramble, so I’ll wrap things up there. If you could continue to pray for team unity, it would be great. I’m preaching tommorrow on the parable of the sowers in Mark 4, so if you could pray for that it would be great, especially that what I’m trying to say will translate well.

Thank you for taking the time to read. Please post comments.

I promise I'll get ya'll some photos! Or you could check out my facebook profile where i already have some up :).

Mucho Lovlies

Greg

Next post from Poipet...

Hello,

Things are good here, we've seen so many amazing things, I'll get to them later, but first (and by long way foremost): me. I'm doing good actually. Very busy, but good. The heat and the humidity is something that luckily I am adjusting too without too much bother (I think being skinny really comes up trumps here - the temperature is rising everday as we approach the peak of the hot season, and I think it's in the late 30s at the moment. However, a few days ago we were caught out in a freak tropical storm, which came upon us whilst we were making bricks. Luckily, we work under a corrugated iron roof, but that is about it. (there are no sides to the building). The winds were so strong and the rains so hard that you literally couldn't see more than 20 yards out into the field or hear anything at all. Quite exciting though.

Our days are long to say the least - the schedule I gave last time is slightly inaccurate - It's more like up at six and then brekkie at 6.40ish, but it wasn't too hard to adjust, as our bodies had been so scewed by the jetlag anyway. The working day generally finishes at 4.30 - 5 - quite early - which gives you a chance to get back and showered. The evenings are generally spent relaxing with the team, or praying or both or whatever. However, our team is also expected to lead devotions for the CHO staff (about 40 people) four mornings out of five a week, so we often have things to prepare for that.

Last sunday I preached at Church - was good, and went smoother than I possibly could have expected. Ironically, I was more worried about the fact that beforehand, instead of being nervous, I was perfectly beneign - though I guess that's what happens when you have a praying team behind you.

Church is interesting - it's held on the top floor of the CHO offices. 50 - 60 cambodians gather in shirts and smart trousers for what essentially is a sweatfest. Music generally consists of khmai worship songs (they have a distinctly eastern feel to them (pentatonic scales, irregular rhythms, and a general feeling of calm and philosophy), or 1980s American numbers translated.

The other day we visited an Orphanage in the afternoon. We taught them the story of Noah's ark, as well as playing a couple of games and action songs. They are so so well behaved and respectful. It was really great thought after that when we just had some free time to be crazy and play manic with the kids. It did make a nice break to making bricks all day, although we are making better friends with the other builders now. :):)

My Khmai is coming on pretty good now, and though I don't yet have the skills of Anna (our team's resident linguist, off to study languages at uni) I have a few phrases nailed. Its quite a staccato and guttural language, with lots of sounds made quite deep in the throat. Here are a few phrases badly transliterated for you....

djum riab suar - hello
djum riab lhear - goodbye
akon - thankyou
praijon protean penn - God Bless You
reatrey s'alsa day - good night.

I have many more that I could write out, but meh, not much point really.

Please pray also for continued team unity, as we get to know eachother really rather well, the small faults in everyones personalities are starting to show up. Please pray that this wouldn' effect our work in any way. Also just please keep up the general prayers!

First update from sunny, sweaty Poipet.

Dear all,

I am in Poipet now - it's an amazing place, there is one, long continuous high street which stretches for about a mile from end to end, with various residential streets branching off at irregular intervals. To call the majority of the dwellings 'houses' would be to pay them a compliment they don't really deserve, as most of them are of the wooden walls corrugated iron ceiling variety. None of the roads are paved either.

We're staying in a hotel - basic but comfortable- unfortunately it does slightly give one the impression of being separated from the locals, but that also may be because we're not actually working with them yet.

We'll be starting work on monday morning, making bricks alongside the locals for the construction of an intergrated refuge centre, orphanage and school for kids who either have escaped from the child trafficking industry or who are home alone much of the time because their parents have crossed into Thailand in search of work. Our day will look like this:

6.15 - up

7.00 - breakfast

7.30 - devotions with team and CHO staff

8.00 - start work

12.00 - 1.30 - lunch

1.30 - 5.00 - work

The Cambodians are such friendly people - not just the CHO staff but also the locals. A smile will always be returned warmly, if a little shyly, though due to the language barrier it kind of stops there. The staff at CHO are just amazing, talk about living with the joy of the spirit, they all walk around with big grins on their faces and are always up for a practical joke!

I rekon I'll be able to get to the internet once or twice a week, so I'll try and email then.

If people could pray for continued team unity, that the language barrier would start to be broken down, and that we will have the humility to accept the humble work that's going be given to us, that would be fantastic. I don't think I've quite taken in the fact that I'm away for four months, so when that realisation does hit me (as I'm sure it will during a low point) I would really really really appreciate your prayers that God would sustain me through it and give me a joy irrespective of my circumstances.

I think that's about all.

How's everything in sunny sunny England (it was 37 degrees here today!)?

looooves

Greg

Hi everyone!
This is officially my first blog post. Just testing things out here really.


coools

cya.