We crossed into Cambodia from Thailand by way of bus at the Poipet crossing. The difference between Thailand and Cambodia is like the difference between San Diego and inner Tijuana. Soon after the boarder—about one to two feet—the buildings turn to shoddy structures worn down from the tropical sun and the lands turn from lush rice fields interspersed between groves of tropical trees into a flooded wasteland.
After spending one glorious day running around the ancient temple ruins of Angkor Wat, we headed into Phnom Penh. Our plans were to spend a day in the city and then connect with the orphanage we were volunteering with. Unfortunately, our plans with the orphanage did not work out—God had other plans. Prior to learning that we would not be able to work at the scheduled orphanage, Tyler had overheard some American girls chatting over their Bible study at a café. It was so nice to hear and see other Americans discussing the Bible that we decided to introduce ourselves. It turned out that the girls worked for an organization called Water of Life in Phnom Penh, which was conveniently located around the corner from the café. They invited us back to the center in order to meet the director, Randy Fleming. Randy’s center ministers to the Cambodian people in a few different ways. First, the actual building serves as an orphanage for young men from rural Cambodia who cannot afford to live in the city and support themselves during college. Second, Water of Life supports other orphanages by using its center as a music school, computer school, and English school—all of which are free. They also support the orphanages by sponsoring a meal for a different orphanage each week at the Water of Life building in Phnom Penh. Lastly, Water for Life runs outreach and medical clinics at the dump in Phnom Penh and in rural villages. When the plans at our first orphanage didn’t work out, the gracious people at Water of Life welcomed us with open gates — every building in Phnom Penh has fences that run up to the roof of the buildings due to high crime.
For three weeks we lived at Water of Life (WOL) and from the very beginning we were folded into the community. Two hours after our initial arrival a local man showed up at WOL looking for English teachers. Twenty minutes later we committed to teaching English to a bunch of local school kids every night for an hour. So every night Tyler and I would walk four blocks down the road to the local school to teach alongside a local teacher. One thing in particular struck me: how different teaching styles are in America and in Cambodia. The major difference between classrooms in the US and classrooms in Cambodia is that classrooms in the US try to engage all students simultaneously. In Cambodia teachers will spend the first hour of class asking each kid one question from the previous lesson; the problem is that while one kid is answering the question, the rest of the class is playing around.
Aside from teaching English, we played with kids at orphanages in the surrounding area, participated in a bible study every night, went on multiple outreach/medical clinic trips to the dump communities, visited a rural province to visit some missionaries, and hung out with the guys living at Water of Life.
World Wide Open Ambassadors 