Our time in Sihanoukville (which seems like another lifetime now that I am back in New Zealand) was relaxing and good mental preparation for goodbyes and re-entry into western culture. We made a giant map of our outreach time and filled up an entire whiteboard plus a small one as well which was pretty amazing to see. Our lives have been very full for the past three months!
We enjoyed airconditioning in our rooms and lounging by the pool. I did manage to get out to see some islands and do some snorkelling. The coral was actually quite nice, but if tourists continue to step on it and more and more people come to the area....hopefully someone will help to look after it before it gets bleached out! The beach was lovely and relaxing and we were even served fresh BBQed barracuda (which was delicious!). Unfortunately we all managed to get quite sunburnt since most of our skin has been modestly covering our knees and shoulders for the past 3 months. The hard thing about Sihanoukville was seeing all the "rent-a-girlfriends" (young Khmer women) with western men....it seemed that everywhere we looked we saw these odd couples.
We returned to Phnom Penh for one night before we flew back to New Zealand....I even got to talk to my parents for the first time in two months which was really exciting!! We said goodbye to Seang at the airport, but it was really sad. Continue to pray for him please...
Our trip back to New Zealand was pretty lengthy: we started with a four hour flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where we discovered that Americans and Germans need transit visas for Australia (our next layover) so managed, after the last call for our flight, to apply for and pay for (luckily we still had an emergency fund in the budget!) the visas and make it through security before our plane was even boarding. I even had time to buy myself an early birthday present....a new Camera!! The flight to the Gold Coast was 7 hours of Asian-sized legroom and non-reclining seats....in other words basically the same as first class (can you hear the sarcasm dripping off my words...). Arriving at 8am on the Gold Coast we spent the morning relaxing (and getting really sunburnt) on the squeaky white sand beach. Lovely. Were welcomed by some Blakelys and Joanna, the base registrar at the airport with balloons and great big hugs.
On Sunday morning Angela and I shared a short overview of our trip at the Anglican church in Cust (which is about 10 or 15minutes from Oxford) and spent the rest of the day enjoying western cooking, washing machines, and ice cream from the Blue House (two GIANT scoops of deliciousness for only $2!!). Today was our first day of Oxford debriefing and so we heard updates from Nathan who did his outreach in New Zealand after we said goodbye to him in Bali, and then we updated the Blakelys, George and Nathan on the time we've been apart. Right back into base life though....schedules galore and even work duty this afternoon. The low point of the day was when I dumped a stranger's coffee (one of the new DTS students' french press) all over myself, the cupboard, fridge, and floor while trying to get my breakfast and in the process of cleaning myself up almost missed breakfast! I felt like Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day :( Luckily the day got much better after that point.
Please continue to pray for all the goodbyes coming up and adjusting back to culture here. A couple people on the team are sick (colds) so please pray for quick recovery. Also lift up my time after DTS...I have 6 weeks of travel in New Zealand and no plans except for a flight from Christchurch to Auckland on April 14 and some vague ideas of what I want to do. Also pray for guidance on what to do on returning to Canada.
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