Reflection 1

I have been back in the Vail Valley for just a little over two weeks now and I am having a love-hate relationship with being home. I love being home with my family, but I hate being away from the children and the country of Cambodia. There is not a day that goes by or even an hour, where I don't think about the children at CHA. I miss their smiles, the best hugs in the world, and their beautiful-amazing personalities. Every time I think about David, Dina, Witchka, Sok-Nee, and all the other little reasons for living, I tear up. They each have a chunk of my heart and it can never be replaced by anything or anyone else! I love them so much!

After experiencing this journey, I am a changed person! I grew so much. Because of this, I have many realizations about life. In Cambodia it's the little things that matter, while here, those little things are what we take for granted everyday of our lives. We also care so much about what we have, the kind, size, look of it, and how it compares to others we know. The electronics I have just laying around my house available for use at anytime of the day is weird for me now. I think back to the day I was blogging at the Internet Cafe and all I wanted and needed was to talk to my family and hear their voices. As I stood in the middle of the room, breaking down crying because the SKYPE would not work, I thought how lucky I am and how much I appreciate those electronics. Also, going shopping with my mom at the store and seeing the ten different kinds of milk, cheese, juice, gum, yogurt, cereal, etc. crushes me. Parents are so picky about what they feed their children, and children are so picky about what they eat. Any child in Cambodia would be so happy just to have a bite of food because they don't know when their next meal could be. One of our groups goals on the Cambodia Trip 2011 was to try not to complain while there. I seemed to carry this accomplished goal back with me because I am catching myself saying something negative. The other morning I woke up and I was dreading going to school.  I began telling my mom and dad how school is getting on my nerves and that I did not want to go. However, when I heard the words coming out of my mouth I stopped and thought about what I was saying. The children at CHA would love to go to school everyday-all day, and get an education which could later help them become self-sustainable. Ugh! I would do absolutely anything for each an every one of them to go to school. I am so lucky I have parents who can afford for my brother and I to go to school, which provides good education and I appreciate what I am able to learn on a daily basis.

The various things we have here are not things we should be ashamed about but, we should cherish. I encourage everyone to sit down once a day and think about how lucky we are to live in the beautiful town we live in- surrounded by amazingly generous and nice people-and evaluate what there is actually to complain about in your life. I know you can do it!!

Also, being back, I have a different patience level for things. It baffles me to see the respect the children at the orphanage show you versus the respect some of my peers and the some of the adults show each other in this valley. I have no patience anymore for those surrounding me who do not show their respect by saying  please and thank you, smiling, and being overall thankful for what they have in their life. This is a habit everyone should stride to do because you can get very far in life with  showing respect to others and their things. Everyone should realize life is not about who you are or what you have, it's about how you share it.

These little lessons I learned while in Cambodia, are continuing to re-occur in my life everyday and add to the big picture-life. Thinking about these children everyday, wondering if they have food, if they are healthy, or most of all if they have received a hug makes me want to jump on a plane tomorrow. I  know they are fine, because we have been getting emails from the orphanage, but I know they miss us just as much as we miss them!


I feel so inspired by these children that I am motivated to do anything and everything on my journey of helping! Lisamarie used this quote in one of her blogs last year, "Nothing is more unstoppable than the human soul on fire." Helping others in need and sharing my love with them makes me feel so happy!

Love.
Anna

Day 12 & 13: Siem Reap

The Cambodia Crew is in Siem Reap!! We left Phom Pehn this early this morning and headed off on our six hour bus ride to Siem Reap.  It is a very pretty bus ride - surrounding the roads is lush green  forest, rice fields, and cute little houses on the side of the road. Definitley a different way of living, but cool to see!

When we arrived in Siem Reap, we went directly to Angkor Wat to see the sunset. This was amazing! It still hadn't really set in that I was at a Seven Wonder of the World. The stone lit up with a yellow glow and the reflection it had of the moat was beyond beautiful. We then left the temple and went to the Night Market. The night market is a hip, cool market where you can buy unique and original items from Cambodia. After this, we all went to bed because we had an early morning and a long day ahead of us!

We woke up this morning at 4:30 a.m. to go see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. It was a bit cloudy this morning, but seeing it was so cool. After, we began our tour of Angkor Wat. The stone work and the stories that are told throughout the structure are breathtaking. I feel like even the pieces of stone that don't have a story being told - still have a story because of the detailed work went into this building. We climbed the original stairs to the first, second and third floors of the temple. Each of these representing the lower class, middle class, and higher class. Standing on the third floor of this temple reminded me of standing on the Empire State Building for the first time because you are looking down over one of the, if not the holyist places on planet Earth. Beautiful! We then went to the Angkor Thom temple. This temple has four faces shown on stone everywhere in it. Each of the faces are doing something different but they are all either facing North, South, East, or West. Very cool! Lastly, we went to the final temple of the day which was TamPohm. This temple is surrounded with the largest trees I have ever seen. They are overgrown and their roots are amazing. This is wear Angelina Jolie shot the movie Tomb Raider. I have never seen the movie, but our tour guide mentioned it! Every temple we saw today was breathtaking and so amazing. I still cannot believe I was at a Seven Wonder of the World yesterday. Crazy!

Thanks LM for a great trip! I recommend anybody seeing this if they visit Cambodia!