Goodbye my friends

So English camp officially ended this morning. I haven't had the time or energy to write during the week because the pace of camp makes me literally fall into bed every night. I'm looking forward to the 6 hour bus ride back to Phnom Penh so I can catch up on sleep. The 6 interns will spend Monday in the capital and then take a bus to the coast for a week of CMA missionary field forum, where we will be doing the day care for the youth and kids. During our day in the city, I hope to be able to spend some time catching up on writing about the past week.

But today was an amazing day. I have spent most of my time working more with the short termers than the kids but there are definitely youth in my group that now have a special place in my heart. One girl, Shanghai, is a beautiful girl who speaks amazing English and I spent a lot of time with her this week. One of the traditions of English camp that Bill had told me about is a song called "Goodbye my friends"that essentially says goodbye, god bless, I will see you soon. He said they sing the song on the last day and repeat it over and over until someone cries. We had our closing ceremony where we did worship and presented certificates to the kids for completing camp. When Bill announced the song, some of the kids started yelling that they didn't want to even sing it because they didn't want to say goodbye. We didn't make it through the first two lines before some of the kids were bursting into tears. By the first time through, everyone in the room was crying and hugging. I've seen emotion before but it was amazing to see 19-year-old boys that have acted all tough and strong all week coming up to me bawling their eyes out. Pittsburgh boys would never let you see their emotions. They've been through a lot and they hide their feelings. These boys have been through just as much if not more and yet their emotions were right out there for all of us to see. I almost cried myself.

To work backwards through the week, Friday was an entire day of touring the famous temples Angkor Wat. There was no teaching in the morning so we loaded the buses and spent the morning at the most famous temple complex. It is truly amazing what man can create in the past with just human strength. Even though the architecture is amazing, it is a temple to Buddhism and Hinduism. Even beautiful things can be used for something that isn't truth. The afternoon was spent walking a 4 mile route through the other ruins throughout the countryside near the main complex. In all, we walked about 6 miles. But it was amazing to see the thing that Cambodia is most known for.

The short termers will catch flights back to the real world in the next two days. As we debriefed this evening, it was a little difficult to comprehend that my trip isn't over. They are dealing with a lot of emotions and discoveries and processing that they shoved into two weeks. I have another 5 weeks to process everything I have seen. I came to Cambodia with questions and although God has started to answer some of them, He has brought more that will need processing in the coming weeks. I'm glad He has surrounded me with people that will help me do that.