Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Day one recap

Hey, all!

Well, we arrived in PP at about 10:45am. The flight from Taipei to PP seemed excruciatingly long this time for some reason. Narin, Sophal and Dave met us at the airport and drove us to the guest house.

It was great to watch the rest of the team experience Cambodia for the first time. It was all a little overwhelming for them, I think. The sights, sounds and smells conspired with the exhaustion to ferment a heady concoction that was half funhouse, half madhouse and half people who can't do math.

After we unpacked our bags, we hit the internet cafe for a few short moments (hence the earlier post) and returned for showers and naps. Dave and i sat down to plan the next few weeks, and then at 5pm, we all went to the orphanage (which we're trying to call an Orphan's Home from here on out). What a blast. The place is small, but tidy. When we arrived at the gates, one could hear the sound of laughing kids. We entered the facility and were greeted by a dozen or so tentative, but happy faces. We introduced ourselves and took a quick tour.

After a few minutes, the director informed us that the kids needed to eat dinner. We sat with the kids on the floor of the dining room (Central Vineyard just purchased a table and chairs, by the way, which will be delivered later this week) and chatted as they ate. After supper, we taught them Duck-Duck-Goose (or Tiet-Tiet-Moan, in Khmer). A great time was had by all.

After about 40 minutes, we decided to take off. Exhausted, we headed out to the riverfront for a delicious Khmer/Thai meal. We all enjoyed it. All except for Julie, who is feeling quite ill at the moment. (Please pray for her). AFter dinner, we drove home and dropped most of the team off at the guest house. Peter, Mindi and I all ran out to the internet cafe from which I'm posting this message.

But now it's late, and I'm about to fall asleep. I'll post more later, but here are a few tidbits of news you might like to know:

* The director informed us that we will be admitting four more children this week, bringing our grand total to 20 at this one home. Yea!

* Internet access (thanks to Central Vineyard) should be up and running at the orphanage tomorrow. That means more posting and pictures soon.

* Asia's Hope was just granted an important new NGO status from the government. I'll be signing the papers at the Ministry of Somethingorother next week.

Anyway, I should go. I need to go to bed. Tomorrow is plenty full. I'll try to post more soon.

Give my wife and kids hugs. I love them.

4 comments:

Karen said...

this post made me so happy! i'm totally crying. :)

4 new kids!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
keep the posts coming john, i love it!

tell julie i'll be praying for her!

Karen said...

oh, and i need mindi's blog address so i can read her posts as well. will you tell her i was out of town when i got her phone message? i had emailed her a while back but i'm thinking that she didn't get it for some reason.

Anonymous said...

I love to hear about what you are doing, give the little ones a hug from Gramma...
MOM

John McCollum said...

Dylan,

It stands for Non Governmental Organization. It's gives us (among other benefits) tax exempt status in Cambodia. Very good...