| Amanda Cotter Cambodia Update |
|
Update number 2 is very overdue – so first of all I apologise for that. I know a lot of you have been wondering what’s been happening and how I’m getting on. You will probably wish you hadn’t asked for this update when you see how long it’s going to be!! Feel free to get bored and stop reading half way through and scroll to the bottom to see how it ends haha!! Anyways I’ve now been here for almost 2 months. Can’t believe how fast it has went in and that I only have 4 months left!! Everything about this country should make me hate it – city, dirty, busy, noisy, poverty, not many people speak English…and yet I have kind of fallen in love with this country! The weather is very hot – around 35 degrees every day. It is wet season though and so 3 or 4 days a week around 2pm we get torrential rainfall, thunder and lightening! It’s mad. We have these super stylish raincoats to stop us from getting wet (see attached photo for sarcasm). I have been caught on the back of a moto in a storm and come out the end of a 5 minute journey looking like a drowned rat while the driver (on purpose?) drives through massive puddles which splash me in the face! The good thing is that I actually find it funny!! In my first week of being in Cambodia our accommodation house lost the internet access, the electricity and use of our bathrooms. In fact the bathrooms were off limits for 3 whole days which also resulted in one of the staff’s bathrooms having raw sewage leaked all over the floor. Thankfully it wasn’t my bathroom (praise God for tiny miracles eh?? Haha). We did get them all fixed!! But losing electricity for 3 or 4 hours at a time has become a regular occurrence and makes it pretty hard to get any work/preparations done in the office! No point getting stressed though – we have adopted the saying “it’s just Cambodia”. Nothing surprises us here haha! The food is great! I’ve tried my very first steak ever being in Cambodia – I even tried a medium/rare steak. Strangely it’s much cheaper to eat out than it is to buy groceries and cook. I have to admit I’m scared about how much weight I could put on while I’m here!!!! But I found out there is a kick boxing class just up the road from my house and have recently started going to kick boxing classes twice a week when I’m free in the evenings. Self defence , keep fit and good fun all in one! The trainers have no mercy whatsoever though finishing every 1 hour training session with 300 sit ups!! At the start of this week I actually went for a 26k bike ride through jungles and villages and rough terrain in the morning, and went to kick boxing that evening!! So yeah, as much as my fibromyalgia pains have been trying to play up on me, I’ve definitely not been letting them hold me back that’s for sure!!!! I’ve had to get used to creatures running out at me. Ghekkos live in our house. They walk up my bedroom wall. Apparently that’s totally normal. A cockroach was walking up my shower hose one night, and I saw the biggest spider ever in the office one morning. Thankfully it was dead! And to be honest I’ve lost count of the amount of mosquito bites I’ve had! I’ve also had to adapt very quickly to the cultural differences here. The traffic is nuts. People just drive on whatever side of the road they want and they drive into oncoming traffic very fast. Guys and girls over here aren’t really allowed to hold hands in public – but it’s totally normal to see 2 guys or 2 girls walking down the street as friends holding hands and hugging each other. In fact, as I sat in a Khmer church a few weeks ago 2 guys sat in front of me with their arm round each other and one hand sitting on the other’s leg. It takes a bit of getting used to alright!! Everyone here wants to have white skin and blue eyes and light hair – which is funny because most people back home want dark hair and dark skin and brown eyes. Even the shower gel over here has whitening cream in it. Seems to me like everyone in the world (not just western culture) is trying to be like somebody else instead of just being happy with who God created them to be! Although it’s something I could get used to – no matter how ugly I feel like I’m looking – I walk into work every day and get called beautiful because of my white skin and blue eyes!! I definitely won’t complain about that haha!! One of the Cambodian staff told me yesterday that I had a crocodile egg face. Despite how rude it sounds – apparently everyone in Cambodia wants a crocodile egg face because it’s clear and beautiful and has a nice shape. Most Cambodians say they have moon face. With random comparisons like this, the Cambodian staff always have me laughing!! Needless to say I’ve had many comments about the accent. Some love it, some can’t understand a word of it, and the Cambodians? Well they just make fun of it!! I’ve also started learning the Cambodian language – Khmer. I’m sure you can imagine what a treat that sounds with a Ballymena accent attached!! I attended Khmer culture training a few weeks back. It was very interesting into the insight of traditions, and how things which are just morally wrong can be glossed over by blaming it on ‘tradition’. For instance to play with children, Khmer people will hit or nip a child, or strip them of their clothes and do whatever it takes to make the child cry. Once the child cries the adults will laugh and then console the child by saying ‘we only do that because we love you’. It’s also a part of culture that a real man is considered to be a man who drinks a lot, gambles a lot, is violent (even with his own family), and a man who has a wife and kids, and then has a secret girlfriend with whom he will also have kids with. It seems pretty warped mindset to have, but something which has been brought up through the generations and which is seen throughout Cambodia as being perfectly normal sadly. As for the girls – they are amazing! I actually had one of the girls run to me and hug me a few weeks ago and then looked up to me saying “Amanda I never ever want you to leave, please don’t go home, you are like a sister to me”. I have been having a lot of breakthrough in devotions with the girls. A lot of girls opening up, and trusting me enough to cry in front of me. I even had the opportunity to share my victory story of overcoming severe bullying at school with one girl who is facing bullying at school, proving to her that God will protect her and help her through to the other side. Recently I had the girls write down on paper what they wanted to be when they grow up and felt led to utilise their gifts. So the girls who said they want to be teachers – I’m letting them teach! I’ve had a few girls teaching the other girls by leading devotions and they are rocking it! I’m sitting back like a proud mum just watching and saying “that’s my girl!!” haha! And the girls are so chuffed at being able to speak – it build their confidence and they are in their element with the biggest smiles on their faces. Teaching the girls to teach is such an honour. I also taught the girls one day about the power of their prayers, and how their prayers can impact God to move – it doesn’t matter how young they are – they could be the seed planted which God uses to bring their whole family to know God. I got the girls to give prayer requests and pray for each other. I sat there and listened as I heard a similar pattern of stories asking for household salvation “especially for my father as he drinks a lot and then gambles away all our money and then he hits my mum and my brothers and sisters.” Pretty hard hitting hearing that from 9 year olds eh? It’s one of those experiences I’ll never forget as 2 girls clung onto each arm of mine laying their head into my shoulders, the rest of the girls in a circle, all praying in Khmer, the innocent powerful prayers of a child. It was an awesome God moment in my life. As for the staff here there’s a few bits and pieces of news on that front! During staff devotions one day one of our Cambodian staff members took a stroke!! The first aid came in handy after all!!! The member of staff actually just assumed it was her blood pressure playing up!! She is fine now though and back to work thankfully. One of the project supervisors (Australian) here all within a couple of weeks witnessed a moto crash where she was one of the first on the scene to a guy who was coughing up blood and died soon after, and she also had her purse stolen from her while on a moto after just lifting $900 from a cash point for her birthday holiday to Vietnam. But she’s a really strong woman of God and has been so incredibly strong through all of that. As for the Cambodian girls who work in the office – it’s just like being at home in the office. They are always laughing with me and keeping me going about boyfriends, asking me everyday if I’ve found myself a husband yet!!! Haha!! They are awesome girls, a real pleasure to be around. The staff here are great and have really helped me to settle in quickly. I recently had a birthday in Cambodia. Birthday with a difference for sure! On 10th July I had a ride on an elephant and fed it bananas and hugged it and built so much of a bond with it, it actually tried to sneak it a wee cheeky kiss haha!! I also visited a buddhist temple for the first time in my life to see what it was like (and ended up seeing a woman putting wads of money into the hands of each Buddha statue). I visited a genocide museum from the time of the Paul Pott regime/killing fields which was pretty depressing and probably not birthday appropriate, but gave me major respect for this country after seeing it. And at night time I had a group of friends out for good steak and chips!! At 10.30pm the restaurant started turning the lights out and I thought they were being so rude by trying to hint at us to get out because they were closing, but it turned out the staff had actually arranged a surprise birthday cake for me – the best birthday cake I’ve ever had, all chocolaty and covered in shamrocks to make it Irish for me haha!! They also gave me vouchers for a nearby spa which was so unexpected but needless to say I’m looking forward to using them!! I finished off the evening by teaching the table some Irish slang – including the use of the word ‘wile’, discussing the true meaning of ‘fair digs’, ‘what’s the craic?’, and ‘getting on rightly’ to name a few…It was a birthday to remember for sure! I’ve met some cool people volunteering with other organisations over here, and teams who have come over for 1 or 2 weeks to volunteer with SHE, and have definitely built some lasting friendships, and experienced even other westernised cultures from meeting those people. It’s been great insight. Last week I actually joined with one of the teams to go on a family visit out into one of the provinces and saw ‘real Cambodia’. Houses out there (if they actually have one) are made of dried palm tree leaves and a few branches, with only one room – and we complain about the size and quality of our houses back home?! It was a great place to visit. As we arrived in the village, people kept coming up and pointing and staring at me and talking to each other. The translator later filled me in that people were commenting on my eyes, a few people asking if my eyes are real!! As we pulled up to the family though, it didn’t take long for the word to spread, and soon all the kids from the village had joined us for Bible stories and crafts. We had a great day! As for other experiences, one evening while out with friends, I bumped into a girl who seemed to be a prostitute. I went up to her to talk and was greeted with “oh lady I am not here for you, I am here to make money.” However I pushed past this and started a conversation with her, reminding her of how special she was and how beautiful she was inside and out. As much as she didn’t believe me when I told her these things, she opened up to me, showing me pictures of her 4 year old daughter, and her sweedish boyfriend who apparently lives with her sometimes, and other times lives at home with his family. When I asked if he treated her right she replied with “yes, he looks after my daughter while I come out here to make money for her”…I spent a lot of time just chatting to this 22 year old girl, building her confidence and telling her about God. It was such a God opportunity which only increased the burden on my heart for the fight against sex trafficking and prostitution. I have some free time over here in the evenings, and recently felt it heavy on my heart to “fight on the front line”. After a lot of prayer I’ve been in touch with some great organisations over here and have had a couple of opportunities arise. One is going into the red light district to minister to the western men and sex tourists. A toughie – but without stopping the demand there will never be a need to stop the supply. And I think these men need to hear of Jesus who rescues and restores us to newness of life just as much as anyone else! I also have the opportunity to work with an organisation with some street kids who are begging on the streets. Though it could be a bit dangerous and I’m not really sure how I feel on that part just yet. I’m putting a lot of prayer into and not rushing into anything as if I get involved with something like that I want to be fully committed to it. So now for prayer points:
Thanks again for all your emails and prayers. It’s so encouraging to continue being encouraged by you all even 2 months down the line!! Photos were going to be too large for email, so I will try to get some photos up on my website at www.amandacotter.co.uk if you want to have a look. As a side note, I’ve also created a devotional blog where I’m writing little thoughts God is revealing to me while I’m over in Cambodia. You can find a link to it on my website, feel free to go visit and have a look. Apologies again for this being so long – look on the bright side, if you are having trouble sleeping, you won’t need to count sheep now…. Speak soon!! |
