Wrapping up the Cambodian Mission Blogs

Hello everyone,

This will be my last blog. Sorry I did not make one sooner, the internet was not good in Vietnam.

It was so hard leaving the ship and the amazing crew (but I plan to return). After a great last week of seeing more precious people, my small team and I headed to Saigon, Vietnam. We had to take two long bus rides to get there. We stayed one night in the same hotel we stayed at in Penom Penh, then continued on the senod bus ride to the beautiful city of Saigon. We enjoyed shopping, dinner with live music, a beautiful hotel, and a half-day tour of the city.

We stayed at the famous Rex Hotel. It was built to be a hotel, but soldiers took it over and lived in it during the Vietnam War. Now, it is being rennovated and is very nice. We went on a tour around the city, visiting a palace, a Catholic cathedral, a big bus station, the Vietnam War museum (that was difficult), a pegota (which I described in the last blog), and a handicraft store where handicapped people make everything in there. They use egg shells and pearl along with paint to make paintings, pottery, coasters, etc. They are so beautiful. I bought some coasters.

On Sunday we went to a church made up of mainly young kids. It was singing week which was awesome because we got to hear their sweet little voices! The man who started the church is one cool dude. He was imprisoned several times for being a Christian, back when there were underground churches. His church is legal now thankfully. But through everything he endured, he did not want to stop pressing forward, which is so inspiring. I felt honored to have met him. I hope to return and visit him again someday.

To end, I have been blessed beyone measure. I am not able to even attempt to describe all I witnessed, saw, heard, and experienced. I hope my blogs have given you a taste of my adventure. I hope these have encouraged you and have helped you realize that there is good in this world and it is worth fighting for. Please be in continuous prayer for the Ship of Life, its crew, and all the sweet people of Cambodia.

One interesting story to share and to think about: The translator on the Ship of Life worked as a translator at a huge hospital in Vietnam several years ago. He saw how Christians coming over to volunteer were serving other people with strong compassion, and not themselves. Being able to see that was extremely powerful to him. He wanted to know about Christianity and immediately fell in love with Jesus and became a Christian. He is one of the strongest Christians I have met so far in my life. Service is huge. Jesus was the perfect example of a servant. Being someone with a servant-like heart stands out like a sore thumb. It is noticable and draws the crowds...and I love it!

Thanks for reading my letters. Blessings,

Megan

Update from Siem Reap

Hey everyone,

Just gonna update you on how my trip is going. Lots of exciting things to share. My last post was about getting to Hong Kong safely. After our last flight, we arrived in Phenom Penh and then drove about five hours to the Ship of Life. I love living on the ship, it is a lot of fun. The Cambodian men, the crew, are each so precious. We settled in Monday night and began working Tuesday morning. My job is taking blood pressure and temperature before sending them into one of the three doctor's offices or to the dentist. We have seen about 140 patients each day so far, made up of medical patients as well as dental. The people are so kind, they just sit patiently and smile at you.

I have gotten to see many different things like a scar from a snake bit on a woman's foot, the PA work on a blister on the bottom of a woman's foot, wisdom teeth removed, etc.

This weekend the people I travled with and I have spent a few days in Siem Reap visiting the Angkor Toam and Angkor Wat temples. They are amazing! We will go to church in the morning and then head back to the ship for our last week of work before spending our last weekend in Vietnam. The ship moves to a new location every weekend. It has currently been in a village about three hours from Phenom Penh, but friday while we have been gone, it has moved about five hours north of its location. So, we will have to figure out how to get there once we leave Siem Reap after church. Fun! I am looking forward to helping new people and seeing a new place.

Some cool things to share:
1) if you want to try a new food, why not a bbq tarantula?
2)there are beautiful buildings called pegotas, which are little temple-like buildings that people will make to "get points" so to speak if they have done bad things. They think that if you do a lot of bad things and make a pegota, you are then ok. There are pegotas everywhere you go not far apart from each other.
3)Many houses have boxes that look like bird houses. They are spirit boxes. They put their relatives' ashes in the box and believe the relative's spirit lives in the box.
4)Many houses have scare crows in the front to keep out evil spirits.
5)want to learn a khmer word? acun means "thank you"
6) a took-took is a moto with a buggy on the back

Debbe's and my way of finding out what time it is: taking a picture of the bathroom with her camera and adding 12 hours!!

From seeing tarantuals to pegotas to scare crows to water buffaloes to buddahs; to riding ferrys and took-tooks, it has been a great experience so far and I am so blessed and thankful that I have this opportunity to see a different part of God's beautiful creation and to bless many people with my hands.

I will update again next weekend in Vietnam. Blessings to you and please keep praying for all of the people we will be seeing this week!

Megan

First Two Days of Trip

Hi everyone,

I will let you in on our exciting adventure so far. Our first flight was Saturday, June 26th at 8:30pm to LA. Then LA to Hong Kong where a day was skipped and we went right into June 28th. There was miscommunication between the airlines so it took us a long time at the LA airport to get our next boarding passes. The plane ride to Hong Kong from LA was about 15 hours. Thankfully we all got some sleep so it did not seem super long. I have never been in a plane that big before. Two isles, 9 seats on each row, the front half had beds and a nice tv. Then from Hong Kong we took another plane to Ho Chi Minh City, then our final short plane trip to Phenom Phenh Cambodia. We are staying the night in a beautiful hotel and had a great dinner in it's restaurant.

For all of you reading this who went with me on the mission trips to Mexico, Cambodia feels and looks like Mexico to me. When I walked outside of the airport I saw tons of motor bikes, crazy traffic, stores lined up and down the streets, people walking everywhere, etc. It looks exactly like Arcelia. I think that is cool.

Some funny things to share: James and Debbie got separated from Dr. Hazelip and me in one of the airports. We were trying to get to the second floor with our four carts of luggage. Only two at a time could fit in the elevator, so James and Debbie went first. They went to what they thought was the second floor, but was only the first. Dr. Hazelip and I were having a hard time getting the escalator to stop on the "second" floor, it kept going from "first floor" back up to "third floor," when really we were right all along when needing to go up. We finally get to the floor the other two are on and there is an escalator. James managed to get his buggy of luggage up the escalator and attempted to get Debbie's cart up when half way the wheel gets stuck and stops the escalator. Dr. Hazelip and I finally get out of the elevator and witness the hilarious sight and also clearly notice the "do not put carts up the escalator sign." Everyone around, along with us, died laughing.

Another funny story. One our second to last plane ride, Debbie and I fill out the custom form with blue ink. We are finally finished and look at the directions at the bottom, "please fill out in black or green ink." GREEN???? Of all colors, green ink? I just thought that was very random, we had a good laugh. We were preparing to tell the workers at customs that we were color blind and thought the blue ink looked green. Haha not really but that would have been funny.

Third funny memory, I was feeling a little motion sick on the third plane ride. We were given lunch on this flight. Our two options were chicken and noodles or an omelette. I thought, oh great, chicken noodle soup! That will be perfect for my upset tummy. I open my bowl and see what Debbie called "oriental chicken noodle soup." Not quite Campbell's but it was good nonetheless.

We are having breakfast in the lobby at 6am and then driving five hours to the ship. We will begin our first day of seeing patients. This will be my last time to post a blog until the weekend when we become tourists and stay at a hotel.

A cool fact, our nurse Debbie has my mom's exact maiden name!!!

Everyone is well, we are already having a great time, trying to take some pictures, and are looking forward to helping people feel better. TTFN!!! Continue praying for us that everyone around can see that we are here to be a light and a hope.

Blessings,

Megan

Made it to Hong Kong!

Hi everyone,

We made it safely to Hong Kong. It is June 28th here, we skip a whole day because we crossed the International date line. We have about three hours until our next flight to Vietnam. Then our last one into Phenom Phen. Then we will spend the night at a hotel and drive the last five hours to the ship. We are all doing well. We are relaxing in the airport at the Starbucks enjoying the free internet while we can.

I will keep you posted as often as I can, I cannot guarantee it will be often. Keep us in your prayers. We are all so excited to get to work!

Blessings,

Meg

Getting ready to leave

Hi everyone,

I have decided to use blogger.com instead of email or facebook so that way it will be easier for you to read about my experience. I will not have internet on the ship, so I will keep a hand-written journal. We will have internet when we go to hotels, so I will post my daily activities here as soon as I get the chance. Please keep me and my team in your daily prayers. Also, please pray for all of the people I will treat, that we can make each day a little brighter for them. I want to learn and see a lot. I think this will be good for me because at this point I am thinking that this is what I want to do as a nurse in the future.

Blessings,

Megan