Siem Reap

October 3, 2013

On Wednesday morning, twelve of us piled into a van and made the 2 1/2 hour drive to Siem Reap. It was a beautiful drive with rice paddy fields, rivers, and fields. Trucks with goods piled so high, they would have never made it under an overpass. And then people were on top of the goods! But our favorite transport sighting, we were able to photograph. A copy is below of the Chicken Run. They are live chickens hanging upside down! Who knows, maybe one of those made it in my curry chicken we ate tonight.

Siem Reap is the main tourist city in the country as we found out! Lots of Europeans, Aussies, and people from other Asian countries in the shops, restaurants, foot massage spas, and of course at the temples of Angkor. Dozens of temples spread out among lush greenery where pigs, cows and chickens ran free. We rode elephants around the Bayon Temple. Hannah and Lulu loved that. Well, we all enjoyed it. Angkor literally means "Holy City" or "Capital City." The city of Angkor, existed between the 9th and 12th centuries. What we viewed today were a lot of the ruins and remnants. A photo of one of the smaller temples is below.

We were almost done visiting the last temple when it started pouring down rain. Umbrellas and ponchos didn't keep us dry. We have had mostly dry weather until yesterday. It rained last night and it rained all afternoon and evening today. Unfortunately, this means we will not be able to go to Prey Preal to see where the Community Center is being built that our church helped fund. We are all disappointed. But it will be too muddy to be able to get there. Paul said that you almost need a 4 wheel drive when the weather is dry. So instead of going to Prey Preal tomorrow, we will meet with some of the "reintegrated" girls who want to go to nursing school. It is our hope to get a couple of these girls sponsored so they can learn to be nurses. For only about $360 a year, a girl can be trained to be a nurse here. Paul is also working on setting up his medical clinic and will offer training and jobs for some of the girls too, such as using an EEG machine.

There is so much potential here. We were dreaming today of various opportunities that could help the reintegration of the girls as well as further the ministry here. Stay tuned!

Cathleen