Tastes like…Baby Duck Egg January 10, 2010

Right after we successfully wrote our last blog post, we were walking through the market in Siem Reap. The night before, we had bought some Cambodian pants from a precious girl named Terri. We passed by her stand and she greeted us with big hugs. We talked to her for a few minutes and then said our goodbyes. We walked for about another two minutes when we both felt like we needed to turn around. We headed back to Terri’s stand and she looked confused. We asked her for her e-mail and explained to her that the reason we had come back was because of Jesus. Like almost every other Cambodian, Terri had never heard about Jesus, but was excited that we wanted to keep in touch with her. We are very excited about Terri and the opportunity the Lord has given us to stay in touch with her. She possesses the joy of the Lord and is a woman of sincerity. We are confident that she is someone the Lord has big plans for her. Continue to pray for Terri and our e-mail conversations with her.

We headed back to Phnom Penh on Tuesday morning. We paid 50 cents less for the bus ride back and should have realized the caliber of the bus would be significantly cheaper than the 5 dollar bus we had taken to Siem Reap.  What should have taken 5 hours to get back to Phnom Penh took around 7 hours due to the insane amount of stops we had to make.  We stopped to pick up just about every random Cambodian hitch-hiker on the side of the road.  We also made stops at Cambodian “convenient-stores.”  Here we learned about all of Cambodians’ favorite snacks which include: seasoned grasshoppers, fried rats, just rats, rats in dough, and more bread filled with mystery meat.   Don’t worry though: we were assured that it was okay to eat the rats because we were told, “They’re only field rats.”  We avoided the rats by eating Sour Cream & Onion Pringles.  Judging by the eyes staring at us, we could have not looked more Western.

We arrived to our apartment, where we met our fifth roommate.  Neet Mul is a 16 month old boy, who has been rescued from the province.  Being under-nourished, he only weighed about 8 or 9 pounds.  The Cambodian social worker that Bethany works with had received a phone call from the pastor of the province and went and rescued Neet Mul from circumstances that are difficult to wrap our heads around.  Neet Mul was often tied by his ankles to his house while his mother would go and take care of other responsibilities.  Since Bethany and Ruthie are both working women, we were given the opportunity to babysit Neet Mul on Wednesday.  He was a joy, but he is also old enough to realize that he is in a strange environment away from his community.  We learned a lot about motherhood on Wednesday and we also learned that neither of us are ready to be mothers quite yet.  Being a mom is quite the workout, and we were pretty tired by the time Wednesday night came around.  Thursday morning, Neet Mul was taken to a temporary home until a permanent home is provided for him.  We really enjoyed being able to experience and be a part of the process of fostering children.  Please be praying for Neet Mul.  Pray that the Lord would continue to nourish his body and that He would increase Neet Mul’s strength.  Pray that the Lord would provide a family for Neet Mul.  Pray that he would be placed into a family that would love him well.

Thursday morning we had the privilege to visit the big Cambodian Market (it has another name- we just can’t even attempt to spell it).  This was like no market that we had seen before.  It was mind-boggling.  The place was HUGE.  You can literally buy anything you could ever need or want at this place.  Just picture a Wal-Mart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Depot, H-E-B, Dillard’s, Victoria’s Secret, Taco Bell, Burger King, Super Cuts, Toys-R-Us, Best Buy, and some fresh produce.  Combine all of that with the deathly smell of raw beef, fish, pork, and other mystery meats with no air circulation in a super-cramped environment and you have the Cambodian Market.  We don’t know which was worse: watching them cut up huge pieces of meat on the floor and then sell them, or watching them eat their food from the same floor  We also learned if we really wanted to we could buy the orange Buddhist robes at the market, and if we ever get low on cash we can just buy stashes of fake money at the market.  Once you leave the market there is no denying where you were that day, as the smell saturates your clothes.  You reek of the lovely smell that is the Cambodian Market.  All that to say- it was a unforgettable experience.

After the Cambodian market, we felt like we could tackle anything. In the afternoon, we headed to the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields.  No amount of mental preparation can adequately prepare you for what you experience at these two places.  We arrived at the genocide museum first.  This facility used to be a school, but when Pol Pot’s regime took over Phnom Penh, it was turned into a prison.  Thousands of educated men and women and their families were sent to this facility.  The goal of Pol Pot’s regime was to establish a society of equality.  Therefore any individual who was seen as educated was murdered.  Any individual who was wealthy or held a prominent position in the previous Government was murdered.  They only wanted to keep citizens of Cambodia who would not be a threat, which pretty much left the low-class and farming community.  Victims sent to this prison were tied to the ceilings of their tiny cells so that they could not sit down.  They were often tortured with the hopes that they would give valuable information to Pol Pot’s corrupt Government.  The museum consists of five different sections and you are able to see pretty much everything.  The first two buildings, each with three floors, was used for torture rooms.  In these rooms, some of the torture equipment was left in the rooms alongside of a “bed”.  In the third section we were able to see their cells where they were tied to the ceilings.  The museum also has pictures of all of the innocent victims who were sent to the prison, including young children all the way up to the elderly.  The most difficult part of the entire museum were the detailed pictures the museum has documented.  It was incredibly difficult to look at pictures of people being tortured and murdered.  To say the least, it was an emotional experience.  To get all the intensity done in one day, we headed to the killing fields next.  A little fun fact: the Travel Channel was at the Killing Fields and we were caught on camera, so keep an eye out for us on the Travel Channel, woo.  Again, the killing fields were a lot to take in.  We had a guide who gave us really good information and perspective.  Thousands of people were brought to this Killing Field to be murdered.  When they arrived, most were killed instantly, but as the numbers increased, people were kept in dark cellars until they were ready to kill them.  The Pol Pot regime dug many deep holes where they would throw the dead bodies into.  It was not until the 1980′s that the bodies were taken out of these holes.  We learned that over 2 million Cambodians were killed by the Khmer Rouge, it has been noted to be worst than Hitler’s mass genocide of the Jews.  Something that has been difficult for us, is the mass genocide that Cambodia experienced is something the majority of the world is ignorant of.  The Killing Fields had a mini museum which gave a lot of great information.  One of Pol Pot’s head officers was a man named Duch.  He was one of the directors of the killing fields and was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Cambodians, including many children.  About twenty years ago, Duch became a Christian and he is the only head officer who is apologetic and takes full responsibility for what he has done.  He is currently in prison and is still waiting for his trial.  This has been a sweet reminder that Jesus came not for the righteous, but for the sinner.  We are grateful that we serve a God of power.  We are grateful that we serve a God who has provided a sacrifice so that all of our sins are washed away by His blood.  We serve a God of redemption, what a sweet reminder of this.  Although, the Genocide Museum and Killing Fields were difficult, it without a doubt gave us better perspective on why Cambodia is in the current state it is in.

Friday morning we went to our friend Michael’s bakery shop.  He has hired four girls who have been rescued from the sex-trafficking industry to work for him.  They all have baking experience that they learned at an aftercare facility.  All four of the girls are also new believers.  It was incredible to get to see girls who have been rescued from horrible circumstances and have come to know Jesus.  We have enjoyed getting to know these girls.  They are so sweet, full of life, and they radiate Christ’s joy.  Upon meeting them, you would have no idea of the horrible things they have experienced.  When you look at them, they exude the restoring power of the Lord.  They really are a testimony  to the power that Christ has to radically change one’s life.  Michael asked us to lead their morning devotional before work, and then after that it was off to the kitchen.  We had a lot of fun trying to “help” them.  Really we just watched and provided comic relief when we tried to do something.  The highlight of the day had to be all of the dancing.  As soon as Michael left the shop, they became completely different girls.  They were just like our friends that we would hang out with.  They busted out the music, and immediately a dance party was started.  We enjoyed dancing to everything from Beyonce to 1990s rap music.  Which is funny because they have no idea all the horrible words in the rap lyrics but they dance nonetheless.  We for sure learned a lot about what the Lord’s redemption and we got to spend the day dancing in the joy of the Lord.

We had a girls night with Bethany on Friday night.  We had dinner, went to a free wine tasting event, and then saw a double feature at “Flicks”, which is the closest thing to a movie theatre Cambodia provides.  Note to the wise: do not go and see the movie ” The Lovely Bones”, probably the creepiest movie we have ever seen.

Saturday morning began with another trip to Michael’s bakery.  Alli, who is the creator and director of a ministry called Hard Places, asked us to do a “hygiene lesson” for the girls.  We know what you are all thinking: Kristen and Kellie educating on hygiene, that’s ironic!  But, nonetheless, it was a blast.  Alli had us use baby powder to symbolize germs that can be easily spread.  By the time our skit was done, we were both covered with baby powder.  We got a group picture with the girls and once Alli and Michael left, an intense baby powder war occurred.  We were all covered with baby powder about ten minutes later.  It was refreshing to be able to just play and laugh with the girls.  The Spirit is undoubtedly bonding us, and it is already difficult to think about saying goodbye to these precious girls in a couple of weeks.  These next ten days, we will be spending every morning with Michael’s girls and we could not be more exited and fully expectant that the Lord is only going to continue to bless our time together.  Please pray for these four girls. Pray that the Spirit would continue to fill them up with His joy and that He would instill a spirit of boldness so that their bakery can be a light in a dark city.  Michael’s hope is that when the business becomes self-sustaining that he can have the girls run the bakery by themselves.  Pray that the Lord would provide many customers!!

Michael invited us to a cell group outside of Phnom Penh that is in a small town.  The town is full of garment factories.  So most of the town’s population is women because it is mostly only women who are working in the factories.  They move here from the province to make money to send home to their families.  In Cambodia, it is the woman who is expected to provide for her family.  The men here just really do not take any responsibility for their families so it falls on the woman.  These women all work insane amounts of hours in horrible working conditions for about 50 dollars a month.  We went to one girl’s home that she shares with her sister.  The rooms are so small and the conditions are awful.  We could not have felt more welcomed by a small group of believers.  We were the only Westerners in this area and Michael told us, westerners are never present.  After meeting and talking with a variety of men and women we were able to experience home church.  We were instantly put on the spot and asked to do a traditional Khmi dance in the middle of a circle with about thirty Cambodians laughing and clapping at our attempt.  Worship and prayer followed and it was insanely refreshing and good for us to experience Cambodians who are filled with the Spirit and who are passionately following after Jesus.  The man who leads the home church had an amazing teaching, all of which Michael translated for us.  It was so great to see Cambodian men who are leading and loving well, since we haven’t seen much of that at all.  Something that we both admire greatly in these people is the boldness that they possess.  In Cambodia to accept Jesus is rare.  To be Cambodian means to be Buddhist and many of these Cambodians in this house church were the only one in their families who follow Jesus.  This takes a lot of bravery.  Pray for this community.  Pray that the Lord would provide richly for these people.  Pray that their joy would spread throughout the entire community and that hundreds would come to know the Lord.

After home church, we were invited into the home of one of the women there.   We had heard that baby duck egg was a common food enjoyed by many in Cambodia, but by no means were we intrigued to try it.  When we sat down in this woman’s home, five baby duck eggs were placed in front of us.  So, yes, we have eaten baby duck egg.  The first bite is not too bad, it pretty much tastes like a hard-boiled egg.  The second bite gets progressively worst, and by the third and fourth bite, you are eating baby duck eyes.  It is one of those things, we are glad we can say we’ve tried, but something we will not be eating again… unless invited to another home where we are offered it again. Pray that this does not happen, and that if it does, pray for our digestive tracts.  The worst part of the baby duck egg though has to be the belching that follows it.  All night we kept experiencing the baby duck egg aftermath- the nasty taste it leaves lingering in your body only to be burped out later and tasted over and over and over again.

On the way back to the house, it was around 9pm and Michael drove us around the common areas that women prostitute themselves and where the brothels are located.  It is so overwhelming to see the large amount of women that are standing outside waiting for someone to come pick them up.  Most of these women come from the provinces too, and are just living in the city trying to provide for their families.  We also learned that a lot of it has to do with children.  Because Michael, who has spent a lot of time talking with these women, has learned that none of them want to be doing this but there comes a point when they are so hungry and their children are hungry that they prostitute themselves.  It is a way to survive.  Their children have to have food, and because they aren’t educated it is almost impossible to find a job.  We stopped at a bar and went in to have a drink.  We went ahead and asked two of the “bar women” to sit with us.  ”Bar Women” are women who basically are paid to flirt and entertain men at the tables and in personal karaoke rooms (Asians are oddly obsessed with karaoke- it is EVERYWHERE).  As Michael puts it, these women are just allowed to get “huggy- huggy” with the men.  These two women could not have looked more surprised that two American women and 1 American man just wanted to talk.  They told us that we were the first Western women who had come in the bar, we are pretty proud of that title.  They were very honest with us in the fact that they dislike their work, but that they have no other opportunities and have the responsibility for providing for their families.  Our conversations with them were good and they invited us to come back and do karaoke with them, I think we are going to take them up on their offer! Also, next week, Michael is going to take us bar- hopping with him, which we are excited about.  Pray that we would be an encouragement to these women.

Thanks for all of the encouragement and the prayers.  The Lord is being really good to us here, and we are learning a lot about who He is.  We love you.