May 10th, 2015 - Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Day 269
Peter's POV
Today was a big day. We woke up and had breakfast at our hotel. After breakfast we drove out to visit one of the schools that we are planning to help paint.
Here are some scenes from the drive out to the school:
The peanut man - none of us could figure out how he did not drop any
Little helper
When we got to the school our driver told us to walk down a road that the tuck-tuck couldn't fit down. He pointed to a guy on a scooter that would show us the way.
The poverty of the area was like nothing that I have ever seen. We didn't walk around the worst parts of Africa but I don't think that anywhere could get much worst than what we were walking through.
When we got to the church we we found one room with 75-100 kids and adults. As soon as we walked in a little girl walked up to Lea and grabbed her hand - just like in the orphanage we visited in Tanzania. They became quick friends.
We listened to the pastor give a sermon (in Khmer). After the speech my dad got up and told all of the kids about what we had learned on the trip.
After my dads speech we walked to the school with the kids. The pastors wife, , told us about the community in the area and what life was like. About how some of the parents in the community are opposed to the school because if the kids are at school than they can't work.
After we got back to the church, we played with the kids for a while. After we finished playing with the kids we helped pass out food and said our goodbyes.
While we were driving back to our hotel we saw one of the kids that I met in the school biking by. While we were passing him he handed me a rubber wrist band. We don't know what the band says but its still very cool to have.
My friend who gave me the wrist band
When we got back to the hotel we walked to get lunch at the Sugar and Spice cafe. When we were done with lunch we walked to the Russian market to do a little shopping. When we got to the market we were amazed by how cheap everything was. Yesterday my dad bought a pair of Beats headphones just to see how fake they were. But if they were fakes they were very good, so we wanted to buy a couple more pairs. We got a couple of pairs and started to look for presents for friends in Boise. When we were done we had purchased a bunch of stuff. I am not going to mention because some of you getting gifts might read this.
When we got back to the hotel we relaxed for a little bit and waited out the heat of the day. Around 6:30 we drove to get dinner. Cambodia is not the prettiest country in the world, but the people are some of the nicest we have met anywhere. We find it fun while we drive to places to smile and wave at little kids riding in the front of scooters - they almost always smile back.
The restaurants we have been to are little oasis's where you can almost forget about the poverty all around you. We had a great mothers day dinner and did a little shopping in a the restaurant gift shop. It turns out that this restaurant is another one that helps to take kids off the street and give them a better life - so cool. After dinner we headed back to the hotel after a great mothers day.