If only I had enough words to encompass how much I already loved this place. Kampong Cham is such a wonderful place, but the people that make up Kampong Cham are even more wonderful. Our host, Vandy, operates an orphanage for 43 children. The orphanage is located in a village in Kampong Cham, Cambodia. My team arrived here a little over a week ago and the vast amount of experiences I’ve already gained is incredible.
Once we touched down on the runway in Phnom Penh, I became overwhelmed with adoration for this foreign land. Little did I know that my adoration was going to grow exponentially over the next few days. Our host, Vandy, and Courtney (an intern at the orphanage), picked us up at the airport and drove us from Phnom Penh to Kampong Cham. I felt much like a kid in the candy store- so much to look at and indulge in. I wanted to be immersed in the culture instantly (which was pretty quickly *hint hint no AC and bucket showers). We finally arrived to our host home at about 2 am (after 20+ hours of flying). The following day we began to go out and explore our home for the next month. Vandy, of course, had to show us Kampong Cham’s finest attraction first- the Tarantula Village. Yes, it’s as terrifying as it sounds. Except it’s not really a “village”. It’s a market that sales edible bugs (i.e. crickets, tarantula, etc.). A few girls did dig into the Cambodia delicacy: tarantula. I, however, couldn’t down it. The cooked tarantula wasn’t even the most alarming part- the live tarantula was. There were young girls everywhere walking around with buckets of tarantulas. The girls would hold them and pass them around to the different shoppers- aka every scared American they saw. Thankfully, some of my teammates are more brave and cuddling with a tarantula wasn’t a problem. For me however, I need some work in that area. Large hairy spiders aren’t really my thing.
Besides the tarantula (and other terrifying animals like anacondas) I’m falling more in love with this little village every moment of the day. The kids at the orphanage are by far the best part! They are so sweet and so receptive of love, as well as giving it! It’s already been so encouraging to watch these relationships with the kids grow stronger and stronger. I can’t wait to see how they grow more and more over the next few weeks.
My team and I are doing great and the Lord is moving in BIG ways. I’ll share those more specific stories in a following blog.
Much much love,
Meredith Lewis
