Saturday, June 30, 2007
Back at Home!!
On Friday we arrived in New York City, only to depart for our respective homes. There were connections to be made and luggage to get.
Sandy, Nancy and I spent the night in New York before catching our flights home.
Still suffering from jet lag, I wanted to jot a few notes. No other experience has ever made me feel such a wide range of emotions. I feel so blessed to have spent time with the ladies that were on the team.
Sandy, Nancy and I spent the night in New York before catching our flights home.
Still suffering from jet lag, I wanted to jot a few notes. No other experience has ever made me feel such a wide range of emotions. I feel so blessed to have spent time with the ladies that were on the team.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Saturday and Sunday
Saturday morning we had free time before leaving for Kompong Thom. This province is north of Phnem Pengh and considered a rural area. The ride was approximately four hours long. Some of our young Cambodian sisters are with us to act as translators and assist us as needed.
We will attend church service in the rural community. There are three churches that will join together in the one service.
The city of Kompong Thom would probably be described as a one horse town. There are still vendors along the streets and the highway is busy, but it is not really for tourists. You are at Kompong Thom because you have business to be there.
The drive to church is about an hour, the reason being that the road is, well, to call this particular stretch a road is a stretch. The bus has to maneuver in such a way as to avoid huge potholes. It is dirt, the red gumbo clay that once you are swallowed you'll never see daylight again.
So we bounce and tilt along. The road is full. Between the oxen, motor scooters and bicycles it is almost as if we are characters in a video game earning points by avoiding others on the road.
The church is actually held at the home of the pastor. The congregation usually meets outside. This morning the three congregations are waiting for us. There is approximately fifty adults and loads of children.
This church is supported by First UMC of Baton Rouge so it is a special treat for the ladies from First. The offerings and gifts from Louisiana are tangible!! As can be imagined, they are very excited.
Service is brief with songs and prayers and Marissa doing another excellent job of delivering the message. As the ladies prepared to serve food, the men set up the tables and chairs. Games were played with children and cameras were going off everywhere.
Cambodians are very gracious hosts and we had our choice of beef, chicken and pork dishes. While we were eating, one of the ladies brought her child to the team asking for help as he was ill. Mae, a registered nurse, offered her assistance and, through an interpreter, said that the baby should be taken to the nearest hospital. We got Elaine and prayed over the baby and the family as they prepared to leave. It turns out that she had just lost another child having similar symptoms. The last the team heard (on Monday), the baby was still in the hospital. We ask for continued prayers for the baby and the family.
The team was taken after church to visit a couple of families that had been provided animals through the connectional gifts of UMW . There are pigs in Cambodia named after UMW circles!!! These pigs provide income to families as well as uplift the villages. As the pigs have piglets they are sold to other families . This income supplements what is earned from the rice that is planted. The same is true for the cows that are given. We also visited the watermelon patch of one of the women. They sell the watermelon and again, this supplements what they earn from the rice fields. The children are being educated, clothed and fed through these programs and families are becoming more self-sufficient.
It may not seem like a lot to us, but the women may earn an additional $50 - $75 US a year. When you consider that the annual income is only between $150-250 a year that is still quite a bit of money.
We will attend church service in the rural community. There are three churches that will join together in the one service.
The city of Kompong Thom would probably be described as a one horse town. There are still vendors along the streets and the highway is busy, but it is not really for tourists. You are at Kompong Thom because you have business to be there.
The drive to church is about an hour, the reason being that the road is, well, to call this particular stretch a road is a stretch. The bus has to maneuver in such a way as to avoid huge potholes. It is dirt, the red gumbo clay that once you are swallowed you'll never see daylight again.
So we bounce and tilt along. The road is full. Between the oxen, motor scooters and bicycles it is almost as if we are characters in a video game earning points by avoiding others on the road.
The church is actually held at the home of the pastor. The congregation usually meets outside. This morning the three congregations are waiting for us. There is approximately fifty adults and loads of children.
This church is supported by First UMC of Baton Rouge so it is a special treat for the ladies from First. The offerings and gifts from Louisiana are tangible!! As can be imagined, they are very excited.
Service is brief with songs and prayers and Marissa doing another excellent job of delivering the message. As the ladies prepared to serve food, the men set up the tables and chairs. Games were played with children and cameras were going off everywhere.
Cambodians are very gracious hosts and we had our choice of beef, chicken and pork dishes. While we were eating, one of the ladies brought her child to the team asking for help as he was ill. Mae, a registered nurse, offered her assistance and, through an interpreter, said that the baby should be taken to the nearest hospital. We got Elaine and prayed over the baby and the family as they prepared to leave. It turns out that she had just lost another child having similar symptoms. The last the team heard (on Monday), the baby was still in the hospital. We ask for continued prayers for the baby and the family.
The team was taken after church to visit a couple of families that had been provided animals through the connectional gifts of UMW . There are pigs in Cambodia named after UMW circles!!! These pigs provide income to families as well as uplift the villages. As the pigs have piglets they are sold to other families . This income supplements what is earned from the rice that is planted. The same is true for the cows that are given. We also visited the watermelon patch of one of the women. They sell the watermelon and again, this supplements what they earn from the rice fields. The children are being educated, clothed and fed through these programs and families are becoming more self-sufficient.
It may not seem like a lot to us, but the women may earn an additional $50 - $75 US a year. When you consider that the annual income is only between $150-250 a year that is still quite a bit of money.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Correction to last blog. It was Friday, not Thursday
I've really lost all concept of time, the days have gone by in a blur. We went to the dump on Friday.
It is Saturday (morning) and some of us will go the market this morning, others will stay at the hotel and rest and others may take a tuktuk to visit a site.
This afternoon we have a bus ride for approximately three hours to Kompong Thom. We will visit with women and see another outreach program. Sunday, Marissa will deliver the message at the church.
It is Saturday (morning) and some of us will go the market this morning, others will stay at the hotel and rest and others may take a tuktuk to visit a site.
This afternoon we have a bus ride for approximately three hours to Kompong Thom. We will visit with women and see another outreach program. Sunday, Marissa will deliver the message at the church.
Thursday Events
Today our field trips included a school that is located near the dump. The dump is the city's trash site. All of the trash picked up around the city is brought to this 1000 acre site. There are families that live in and around the dump. There is a system to this village. Since the pickings are insufficient for all, families have either a morning and afternoon shift plus they rotate days.
The children help during the families' scavenger times. They attend school the other part of the day, learning hygiene, reading, sewing skills, hair cuts and pedicures. These tiny innocents sang us a song and were very excited, as any child would be when there are visitors.
While we would not consider letting our child attend a school with dirt floors in a room the same size or smaller than our walk-in closets, the school is actually the opportunity of a lifetime. Education is such an intangible that some parents do not see the value and will not send their children to school or vocational school. They are only concerned about the immediate need to survive. The school operates with some funds from GBGM Women's Division.
The school is the last building before actually driving onto the dump. Mountains of separated trash are everywhere and the people meet the dump trucks. They have gotten very efficient in separating plastic, cans, clothing, food items or anything they perceive as having in value. A young boy told the school director when asked, that it takes 100 cans to earn two US pennies. Keep in mind that Cambodia's currency is 4000 riels to one US dollar, and the Cambodians have no coins.
The smell is bad, it is upsetting seeing children with their rubber boots, if they are lucky, and a sack larger than they sifting through refuse, and other kids darting between the big trucks as they empty their loads. I'm not sure which is the harder to deal with, the dump or the killing fields.
We left the dump and school to tour the Royal Palace, however the government was in session and we had to go to the Museum next door. The history of Cambodia is so rich. Unfortunately, it was a short tour as we went to lunch and then the orphanage.
Although we should know better, certain words still provoke certain images. Orphanage is one of those words, most would think perhaps of Little Orphan Annie with the row of beds in a large room. Did we get a Cambodian reality check. It was a shanty town, two stories with girls on one side and boys on the other. The irony is that no matter how bad it may look to us as Americans, it is better than where the kids were before. Again the classrooms are very small with at least a dozen or more kids in each room. The orphans had prepared gifts for us. Drawings!! There were birds and trees and all the idealism and hope of these kids. Very special frames will be purchased. Here again, UMW support through Women's division has provided scholarships for the children to learn.
We took an organ-jarring two hour ride to a village to meet the "weaving women". The homes are built on stilts. Underneath is the cooking area, loom, the animals may be penned underneath and a sleeping area. The women are assisted with "purchasing" the loom to create silk cloth -- it is highly desired and priced at $100 (US) for about 2 meters, which should make 2 skirts. The women sit at their looms with the kids in the yard or perhaps the baby sleeping under a mosquito net on the table nearby.
As the women become proficient and their cloth is sold, they pay for the loom so that another woman may be "loaned" a loom until such time that she can pay it off. There is no time limit for this to be accomplished.
The common denominator in all this are the beautiful children. More than likely if they are under 3 or 4, they are naked and later the boys may have on shorts or pants and the girls skirts.
The children help during the families' scavenger times. They attend school the other part of the day, learning hygiene, reading, sewing skills, hair cuts and pedicures. These tiny innocents sang us a song and were very excited, as any child would be when there are visitors.
While we would not consider letting our child attend a school with dirt floors in a room the same size or smaller than our walk-in closets, the school is actually the opportunity of a lifetime. Education is such an intangible that some parents do not see the value and will not send their children to school or vocational school. They are only concerned about the immediate need to survive. The school operates with some funds from GBGM Women's Division.
The school is the last building before actually driving onto the dump. Mountains of separated trash are everywhere and the people meet the dump trucks. They have gotten very efficient in separating plastic, cans, clothing, food items or anything they perceive as having in value. A young boy told the school director when asked, that it takes 100 cans to earn two US pennies. Keep in mind that Cambodia's currency is 4000 riels to one US dollar, and the Cambodians have no coins.
The smell is bad, it is upsetting seeing children with their rubber boots, if they are lucky, and a sack larger than they sifting through refuse, and other kids darting between the big trucks as they empty their loads. I'm not sure which is the harder to deal with, the dump or the killing fields.
We left the dump and school to tour the Royal Palace, however the government was in session and we had to go to the Museum next door. The history of Cambodia is so rich. Unfortunately, it was a short tour as we went to lunch and then the orphanage.
Although we should know better, certain words still provoke certain images. Orphanage is one of those words, most would think perhaps of Little Orphan Annie with the row of beds in a large room. Did we get a Cambodian reality check. It was a shanty town, two stories with girls on one side and boys on the other. The irony is that no matter how bad it may look to us as Americans, it is better than where the kids were before. Again the classrooms are very small with at least a dozen or more kids in each room. The orphans had prepared gifts for us. Drawings!! There were birds and trees and all the idealism and hope of these kids. Very special frames will be purchased. Here again, UMW support through Women's division has provided scholarships for the children to learn.
We took an organ-jarring two hour ride to a village to meet the "weaving women". The homes are built on stilts. Underneath is the cooking area, loom, the animals may be penned underneath and a sleeping area. The women are assisted with "purchasing" the loom to create silk cloth -- it is highly desired and priced at $100 (US) for about 2 meters, which should make 2 skirts. The women sit at their looms with the kids in the yard or perhaps the baby sleeping under a mosquito net on the table nearby.
As the women become proficient and their cloth is sold, they pay for the loom so that another woman may be "loaned" a loom until such time that she can pay it off. There is no time limit for this to be accomplished.
The common denominator in all this are the beautiful children. More than likely if they are under 3 or 4, they are naked and later the boys may have on shorts or pants and the girls skirts.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Observations
There are so many things that we have witnessed. After our arrival, we went to visit a torture camp of Pol Pot. It was a school that had been converted to torture prisoners into confessing that they were spies of the United States and to name other spies. The confessions preferably would be one thousand pages. There were pictures of men, women and children, both before and after death.
After they were beaten to near death, they would be taken to the killing field. There was a speaker that played music so that the surrounding farmers would not suspect what was going on. The soldiers would use boards and hit the bound prisoners from behind to crash their skull. They did not want to waste bullets. Babies were held by the foot and hit against a tree. There are remmants of clothing and bones on the ground still.
Estimates are that over 4 million died. Four million is the population of Houston.
Church service on Sunday was nothing short of spectacular. There is a small sign indicating that is a Methodist Church. It is a two story building . There are chickens and dogs in the courtyard. We take off our shoes before entering the church. All sizes and kinds are aligned against the wall.
There are chairs that we are guided to and the members make certain that the fans provide cool air for us, along with bottles of water. There are lots of young people in the church, singing, leading service, praying, helping.
Elaine is giving the sermon this morning and the people are very attentive. It is father's day and a presentation is made to the fathers at service. We gather in a circle for prayer and closing. At this point everyone starts to pray their own prayer and in that building, with the size and acoustics, it is truly an upper room experience.
Lunch is at a great buffet restaurant, all you can eat for $4.50. What a great presentation of food, there several meat dishes and fresh fruit. After lunch we have a team orientation in preparation for the seminar that starts on Monday.
Monday morning we meet with the Khmer ladies to review the program and expectations. What a beautful people they are!! Such light and inspiration as they explain the struggles of the women.
We eat lunch and go over to the hotel for the seminar. Such noise, so many smiles. Marissa gives the opening address and tells the ladies that when she looks at them, see sees the image of God. How right she is.
Tuesday we are back at the hotel for sessions starting at 8 or as close to 8 as possible. Another full day of the ladies listening and discussing Bible Stories and faith. They have warmed up to us and each other and there are several that are willing to express their opinions.
Tuesday night the ladies are dressed in their best Khmer dresses. They are so graceful when they dance and their smiles are truly from within. They show off the crafts they've made today and the quilt squares that will become the Cambodia Methodist Women's quilt.
Wednesday is viewed with some trepidation. We are going to leave these ladies!! The closing message is delivered by me. I tried to stress that they are blessed children of God. The presentation of the krama's was tearful and the hugs came from everywhere!! The ladies presented each of the team members with a gift and the tears increased.
I told Elaine that I kept thinking of the song, Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this place. I did feel his power and grace. I did hear angel wings and saw glory on each face. Surely the presence of the Lord is in Cambodia.
After they were beaten to near death, they would be taken to the killing field. There was a speaker that played music so that the surrounding farmers would not suspect what was going on. The soldiers would use boards and hit the bound prisoners from behind to crash their skull. They did not want to waste bullets. Babies were held by the foot and hit against a tree. There are remmants of clothing and bones on the ground still.
Estimates are that over 4 million died. Four million is the population of Houston.
Church service on Sunday was nothing short of spectacular. There is a small sign indicating that is a Methodist Church. It is a two story building . There are chickens and dogs in the courtyard. We take off our shoes before entering the church. All sizes and kinds are aligned against the wall.
There are chairs that we are guided to and the members make certain that the fans provide cool air for us, along with bottles of water. There are lots of young people in the church, singing, leading service, praying, helping.
Elaine is giving the sermon this morning and the people are very attentive. It is father's day and a presentation is made to the fathers at service. We gather in a circle for prayer and closing. At this point everyone starts to pray their own prayer and in that building, with the size and acoustics, it is truly an upper room experience.
Lunch is at a great buffet restaurant, all you can eat for $4.50. What a great presentation of food, there several meat dishes and fresh fruit. After lunch we have a team orientation in preparation for the seminar that starts on Monday.
Monday morning we meet with the Khmer ladies to review the program and expectations. What a beautful people they are!! Such light and inspiration as they explain the struggles of the women.
We eat lunch and go over to the hotel for the seminar. Such noise, so many smiles. Marissa gives the opening address and tells the ladies that when she looks at them, see sees the image of God. How right she is.
Tuesday we are back at the hotel for sessions starting at 8 or as close to 8 as possible. Another full day of the ladies listening and discussing Bible Stories and faith. They have warmed up to us and each other and there are several that are willing to express their opinions.
Tuesday night the ladies are dressed in their best Khmer dresses. They are so graceful when they dance and their smiles are truly from within. They show off the crafts they've made today and the quilt squares that will become the Cambodia Methodist Women's quilt.
Wednesday is viewed with some trepidation. We are going to leave these ladies!! The closing message is delivered by me. I tried to stress that they are blessed children of God. The presentation of the krama's was tearful and the hugs came from everywhere!! The ladies presented each of the team members with a gift and the tears increased.
I told Elaine that I kept thinking of the song, Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this place. I did feel his power and grace. I did hear angel wings and saw glory on each face. Surely the presence of the Lord is in Cambodia.
Today we will visit the orphanage and the dump. The dump is where the city's trash is taken. There are families and children that live there, scavenging for food, clothing and items to sell. The orphanage is nearby. The kids from the orphanage performed at the opening ceremony of the seminar. Always the children are beautiful.
We will get the chance to do some shopping and see sights today also.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
The team is forming!!
Abigal and I are awaiting Nancy's arrival at Alma Matthews. Abigal and I explored New York City, got a few souveniors and discussed our lessons that we are teaching in Cambodia.
It turns out that I brought what she forgot!! Isn't God good?
It turns out that I brought what she forgot!! Isn't God good?
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
What is Ubuntu?
UBUNTU: is an African word (and proverb) meaning "I am human because you are human".
Ubuntu psychology says, "sharing ouselves and our gifts with others optimizes our collective and individual humanity. Even in the sharing and the giving, the individual or 'other' group receives the gifts and glories of humanity."
An Ubuntu eXplorer has a unique faith and mission opportunity:
- to witness love and struggle, to share challenges and opportunities,
- to enhance cultural awareness, to exchange ideas and skills,
- to learn where Undesignated Giving and pledges support 400 programs in 110 countries
- to understand daily life with international Methodist/United Methodist, grassroots and ecumenical sisters.
Ubuntu* eXplorers, travel, visit, hear and experience mission with international sisters who will host and share their journey of faith and life.
The Ubuntu eXplorers program began in April 2006, the Women's Division and United Methodist Women through partnership with Mission Volunteers and United Methodist Volunteers In Mission (UMVIM) will offer pilot Ubuntu Journeys to many different countries.
Particpants are hosted by women's organizations that UMW supports through prayers, advocacy, financial gifts and material resources. You will learn about the cultures of the area live, travel, pray, sing, cry, teach, work, listen and tell stories and engage as Christian sisters. You will visit and have a mission experience at institutions such as schools, clinics, women's training centers, hospitals, nurseries. You might teach at a workshop where local women exchange tips on Bible Study and devotions, basic health and nutrition, artisan crafts, singing and liturgical dance.
As an Ubuntu eXplorer, in covenant, you are asked upon your return to share your mission and faith experience at your local church, UMW unit, district, conference, schools of Christian mission, work location and other organizations.
Team leaders and team members are needed for mission teams of 10-12 women to come from various churches across districts, conferences and jurisdictions. At least one member should be a young adult.
An Ubuntu Journey will be either one or two weeks based on the host organization's request and distance from the United States. Costs will be below $2,500 (inclusive of airfare, local transfer and immigration fees, room and board, local host arrangements and local workshop expenses, and a $200 registration fee towards a pooled fund for Ubuntu scholarships). Additionally, team member must be prepared to provide one suitcase of resource materials suggested by the host organization.
For more Information and registration forms, please check http://abam-umc.ora/umw/ubuntu or http://abam-umc.ora/vim/ubuntu.htm . You may also call Mission Volunteers at 212-870-3825 or the Women's Division at 212-870-3911.
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