Entry 2 (Mission Trip With Church to Cambodia)

Actually this was not my first trip to Cambodia, I have already been there with my school before. Well, that was what I thought when I signed up for the trip, but i would have never imagined that how different it would be just being at different areas of Cambodia.

At Cambodia the church was split into two groups, both with different task, one group was tasked to help out and hold lessons in the orphanage, to play and make friends with the children. The other group which I was in, was tasked to build two houses in the village area, we were supposed to build a better house out of wood, nails and bamboo, which would be bigger and the family would be able to sleep more comfortably.

The first day there was at the capital Phnom Penh. It was,  out of the week there the most bearable day, we had good food and a nice hotel to stay in. 

But our fun stopped when we travelled to Prey Veng, it was a more rural part of Cambodia where there are only certain places that has cell lines. However, we were able to get good views of plain vast lands, we could see nothing but greens for about at least 5-6 kilometres away. About a few hours drive later we reached our so called dormitory, a small stretch of houses in the middle of no where. Even though the place looked a little run down you don't hear any complains from anyone we were actually happy to be able to get out of the fast paced city life and enjoy a slow paced life instead.

Our first night at the village we went to the orphanage as a group, just for about 2-3 hours and we already made friends with some of the children there, you could see how eager these children want to meet new people. But when it was time to say goodbye you just cannot simply forget the sad looks on some of their faces. Then again, the next day some of us will be coming here again, and me and my group will be heading out to our designated area to build the house.

For about 4-5 days we completed the house which was made out of nothing but wood, bamboo, nails and 9 solid vertical structures for each house, much hard work was put into building it, each day we had to suffer a two and a half hour trip to and fro in an open lorry on a bumpy road, and so much sweat and effort was put into hammering, some of us even have bruises. Our efforts were not in vain when we were able to see the happy faces of the villages when they saw the final product.

A week at Prey Veng has really thought us to humble ourselves down and to know that we should not abuse what we have here in Singapore, some kids there are only wrapped in undergarments and running around with food in their hands that are possibly filled with dust. If given a chance I would go to Cambodia again to do whatever I can to help them again.