September 20, 2007

almost there...

Well, here it is. Here is my first post in what I am hoping to be a very eventful blog!

Where do I even begin?

I am leaving in 20 days for Cambodia! I am very excited! Nervous, but good nervous. October 10th is the big day! I think my flight is at 0810. I'll be flying to Vancouver, then over to Korea! It's a shorter flight than my last one to Hong Kong. Vancouver to Hong Kong was 13 hours. This one is only 10 1/2. From there it's straight into Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which is a 5 1/2 hour flight. Waiting for me there will be Pholly and Mr. Nara to drive me to Sihanoukville, a 5-6 hour drive away. By the time I get to my home it will have been roughly two straight days of travelling alone! Yikes!

I guess I should explain the purpose of this visit.

I went to Cambodia this past May on a missions trip and fell completely in love with the country and it's people. I was there for about two and a half weeks. This time around I'll be there for 9 months. During my 266 days there I will be teaching alot. I will be teaching advanced english in the evenings, and teaching something in the morning. I'm not sure what yet.

Wait. I'm getting ahead of myself...

I am going to be living and working at a place called Samaritan Love Mission (SLM). It's a small school for underprivillaged children. They hold a Christian school in the mornings for poor children, and in the evenings they teach english in all levels to all age groups. They are also linked to two villages. Buffalo Village and Crocodile Hole. They have gone into these places and started up schools, putting in wells and preaching the gospel. They hold medical clinics and feed the people. I'm excited to be apart of this! Along with all this I will be helping to lead and organize teams that come to SLM, and possibly running a youth group on the weekends. I hope I don't get too over whelmed!

Right now I'm just trying get things under way, have everything in place before I go. Apart of that is trying to raise enough money to support myself out there! This is not a paid position. I am volunteering this year of my life. It's kind of nerve racking to think that I'm not going to be recieving any paycheques for a while. That being said...

This Saturday, September 22nd at Academy Bar & Eatery I am hosting a coffeehouse night! It's only $2 at the door and I have a few good friends playing for us!

Kalandra Perron
Kaley Northcott
Andrew Hedlin

Show begins at 2130

Because I'm only allowed to charge $2 at the door, I'm hoping that people will want to empty out their spare change in a jar! And if someone really wanted to give more, they could make a cheque out to The Lighthouse Church and they'd get a tax deductible receipt.

I'm just saying..

Anyways, I need to be off now. I'm sure I'll have much more to say soon enough!! Hey, it's my blog right?

Here's a picture of my home in Cambodia!