I have been up since 4; could not sleep. Toi from the office was reconfiguring my computer; the note that the Windows program was counterfeit kept popping up on the screen. However in the process of trying to fix it I lost everything that was on the computer! Did not find that out until late last night; I have to tell you I was so disturbed(!) that I was on my knees.
At 6:30 this morning Toi came to my door and asked about the computer and I asked him about all of the stuff that I had (the over 1000 songs from Itunes) and he said that we may be able to get it all back but it would take 4 to 5 hours. I felt my Lord saying, I knew about this my child, and I the Great I Am have already gone before you my child. You see, I brought Toi to your doorstep!
Well little 'i' went on my knees to thank and praise Him. As soon as I got to the camp, I spoke to Channak who is the other resident computer specialist, and he said he heard about what happened from Toi and he would try and retrieve it if I was nice!
(Hmm..., maybe I should not have taken his gym weights from his room!)
I am with the older kids now.
I just shared the story of my last major bus trip. It was when I worked for Youth For Christ and we had taken kids to Disney! My guys fell asleep and I had warned them if they slept they were 'fair game'. I put make-up on one of the guys (not easy on a moving bus!) while he slept and when we got off at one of the rest stops, he could not figure out why people were looking at him until he went to the washroom! All I heard was a yell of "Miss'!
Ha!
So now that I have planted the seed here, it would be interesting to see what will happen on this trip! One of the guys did fall asleep and, yes, I put on blue eyeliner and lip gloss on his cheek! However, he figured it out before we made our scheduled snack stop! But it was funny to see Bah Kim, who is on the committee, laughing as I put on the makeup and actually taking out his iPhone to take a pic!
The topics that were discussed were the names of the teams: Patience, Wisdom, Joy, Grace and Obedience. The games were fun and geared to working as a team and on the themes I mentioned above. Most of it was in Khmer, so I was lost a bit, but got the translation for the testimonies at the campfire on the Friday night.
There were no fans there, and the beds were bunk beds but with a difference: there was a plank of wood, and on it a thin blanket and that was it!
No mattress!
But I was touched that the girls there shared what they had with me, and they had doubled up to sleep on their 'beds' so that Teacher Shannon and I could have our space!
On the Friday we went down to the river, and each team had to put on tribal makeup and make clothing out of the grass, and 5 of us were appointed judges on the skits they had to perform in the water! Not as easy as it sounds, it was slippery with the stones so half the fun was trying to stay upright! And after the judging, the other fun part was attacking and splashing each other!
Of course I was a target and it was "get vidya sugar cute girl.ca!" I was laughing so hard that I could NOT get up and fight back as I was splashed from all sides! Also the pants I was wearing was falling down (too much info eh?). I had borrowed one of the guy's shorts since I did not have one (three quarter style) and the waist was too big! But I did stand up in victory and yelled with arms upraised!
Man, was it ever hot! I was told by one of my students that there would be no fans and that I would die! On the Sat. night I changed houses to be with the older girls. Three of us slept on the floor! It was actually cooler sleeping there. I was given cotton wool to put in my ears which served 2 purposes: prevented anything from crawling into my ears and I did not hear the mosquitoes buzzing! Well, one of the cotton wool fell out of my ear so I did hear one buzzing around!
The girls (10 of them in one house) were so excited that they would be up at 4:30 in the morning! Did I mention on the first morning there, I looked up and two of my students were standing right by my bed, and I heard 'good morning teacher' and they were already showered and changed! Plus, the little orphaned girls who lived at Place of Rescue 3, Pailin, where we camped would be up and just staring at us. They stared more at Shannon, she was the only white person here except for Marie Ens who came on Friday.
And even though it was camp, and we did not have to be up until 6 for exercise (ran and walked about a mile the first morning, still feeling those after effects let me tell you!). The little girls were up at 5 (as the norm here at POR 1) as well as the older kids!
It has been a while since I wrote the above; did not have access to my laptop and thought the above was lost. I did lose all of my other updates however and all of the music plus all of the photos I had taken and copied on my laptop!
I am learning through this to give it all to Him and do the best that I can with what I have!
Channak is not here to help me with getting the photos and sending it off to my sister who puts it all together. Prayerfully two of my ‘boys’ will help since they take pics with my camera and then put it on their Facebook!
I am glad I went to this camp. It reminded me of how much fun I had when I went to camp growing up in Trinidad and I prayed that the kids here would have the same wonderful memories as well. I had them write about their feelings and experience as an assignment, (yes I am ever the teacher!) and they did not complain but just wrote about how much they miss their friends they made and the games they played.
Thank you all for praying for me: every time I walk into my bedroom I touch the laminated sheets of your signatures showing that you will pray for me and I pray for you! Please send me your prayer requests, I want to be able to pray into your life, to know what is going on.
You, my partners, are important to me!
Dancing Khmer style with a bit of Trini dance mixed in!
Sister V
