Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is absolutely stunning! It was such an amazing experience to be there. During the Khmer Rouge the soldiers came to the temples and inflicted a lot of damage here. You can still see the bullet holes from the AK47's in the walls and floors.

We were also able to go on an Elephant ride! It was really neat and the elephants were so cute! I loved feeding them pineapples. They would eat the whole fruit and hold the leaves at the end of their trunks until they felt like eating it.

Knit, the boy who stole my heart

This boy; what a heart breaker! I fell in love with this little guy. His name is Knit (pronounced Kneat) he is 12 years old and just the cutest kid! Knit started following me around not to long after he arrived. He would meet me at the gate every day and walk me into the school. He would stay close to me the whole time while we were working or teaching in the classroom. He even would work right along side of me. One day he held up his finger, indicating he would be right back. He ran off and came back in not to long. He was holding something behind his back and had the biggest grin on his face. It was so adorable! He stood in front of me and closed his eyes, then opened them and pointed to me. So I closed my eyes and waited. He then proceeded to put flowers in my hair and then he kissed me on the cheek! My heart literally melted... Sarah kept calling Knit "My boyfriend." Haha he was adorable.

This kid stole my heart and I love and miss him every day.

This video was my all time favorite moment.

I cannot wait to see him again! Yeah Cambodia 2014

Chumony Village, SC and the projects

Sustainable Cambodia was about 5 minutes from hotel and Chumony village was about 15 minutes away; which made travel time really nice. As we got to the gates that led us to the school we saw the children run up and form 2 lines to welcome us in. I was so touched that they were so excited for us to be there! You could see it in the expressions on their faces. Children were beaming and parents and other village members were radiant with love for us. I was truly touched by the welcomed we received. At Chumony we had a couple of different projects. One of our biggest project was scraping the paint off of the school building and repainting it. The first day everyone was covered in paint flecks. We wore masks over our mouth, because their paint is mixed with gasoline... Supposedly the combination makes the paint stick better. I'm not really sure. The best thing about this project was the children. They were so excited to have us there. On their breaks they would grab brushes help. We often couldn't find brushes because the children had them. It was so neat that they were just as interested as we were in making their lives better.

Another big project was building a library. The nails were hard to hammer and hand mixing cement was a completely new experience. We also HAND DUG a garden. No rototillers, and plows, etc. Hand dug. Talk about labor intensive. I have a whole new appreciation for farmers who have been farming long before they had all of the fancy tools. By the time we planted and left the plants were already growing.

One other project was the library. The village members already had the frame up when we arrived. We finished putting up the wood, nailing it, and painting it. It was such an amazing experience when we opened up the library. The children were so excited to read books! As a teacher my heart sores with joy when I see kids excited about reading!