The Beaches of October

I haven't written in a while so I made it long.

Last weekend I was invited by my host brother to go down south to the beaches of Sihanoukville with a group of Cambodians from various local churches. Originally I didn't really know what to expect from the experience. I was told that this was a "youth camp" (also called 'Friendship Camp') with "kids." As I've learned so far, in Cambodia it's best not to make expectations because they've never been very accurate. I actually initially thought this camp was going to be on the weekend before it actually was - I've learned that leaving on "Thursday" doesn't necessarily mean "this Thursday" (this has happened on several occasions). I also ended up coming home a day earlier than I thought - I didn't really find out until we were boarding the bus home - "oh we're going home now? Whatever you say."

Anyways, Thursday morning I find myself hopping on a bus with about 25-30 Cambodians who all look between the ages of 16-25. These were the "kids" I was going to be joining for "friendship camp." The idea behind friendship camp is for the older kids (21-25) to be friends with the younger kids (15-20) for the weekend and have a space to worship and learn about Jesus - I ended up being somewhere in the middle, mostly as good company. On the bus, we were joined by 9 adults from Singapore that were sponsoring the event and brought a lot of leadership and energy to the group. So as the bus was nearing the final destination I was content knowing I was in the company of friendly, loving people that were all excited about the gospel - what a great place to be.

Friendship Camp 2010. Can you find Waldo?

We all stayed at a hotel called 'Holiday' which was a 5 minute walk from the beach and spent most of our time in hotel meeting room singing songs and praising God. Anytime there was a moment when someone would ask the audience to volunteer or share something, most the Cambodians nervously looked around and would always say, "Michael! Michael!" Being the only white kid in a group of 30 people has it's baggage, and makes you a very popular figure (especially if someone needs to be singled out!). But I didn't mind, I actually thought it was quite fun to be involved as much as possible, and Cambodians have become well known to make sure EVERYONE is involved. I would get stares on the beach when people would walk by this massive ball of Cambodian youth acting crazy only to see a white kid in the middle of the cluster acting just as crazy as everyone else. It felt good.

The second day two foreigners approached me during breakfast wondering what the heck I was doing with all these people and if there were other foreigners with me (they saw me on the beach). I explained to them my situation and they eventually told me that one of them was a Clairvoyant (look it up) which was a neat experience in itself, there aren't exactly a lot of them walking around the beaches of Cambodia these days. After morning worship we went to a local restaurant which would become very familiar - we went here for every single meal during the retreat, thankfully they had a variety of food. Sihanoukville is well known for it's fresh seafood and everyone laughed and watched as I had to guess how to eat a crab.

On the second day we went to the market after lunch to get some food for a big BBQ we were planning on having for our final meal on the beach and I was invited to go so I could 'site see' also known as 'we need someone to carry the food.' But it was a cool site, almost a bit like an aquarium but the animals are either dead or about to die (I saw a shark lying on a table, still alive but probably not for long). To get home we decided that there was no reason for us to take more than 1 tuk tuk for the seven of us and the giant cooler of food (a tuk tuk usually fits 4). I sat on the outside of the cart on something that definitely wasn't a seat holding on to the roof as it was the only support I could find. I had fun talking to the moto driver who spoke good english but also encouraged me to speak Khmer - we had a nice conversation and he eventually asked me where I work. It's hard to explain in a new language so I ended up saying, "I work for a Jesus organization." The funny part came next; he then told me he knew Jesus and that Jesus teaches him Taekwondo. I think we know a different Jesus...

Back to the hotel and back to being a friend. Over the week I got to know many of the kids better and now have good friendships with many of kids who attend my church. One specific bonding experience was with the church drummer Samuel who likes to listen to american pop music. I wasn't proud to represent that music genre but I definitely know the songs, and we sang them together in the hotel room as I did the robot. He likes Justin Beiber and the song 'enie minie' just came out -click here to listen- we grooved to the Beibster. I learned that by being myself helped the others feel comfortable around me and they were entertained by the idea of this slightly crazy american hanging out amongst the group. I also ended up having a group of girls around the age of 16 flirt with me - I usually didn't know what they were saying but lots of giggles - nice! "Michael do you know what 'Sraalan' means?" It's the verb for, "to love." Don't worry everyone, I haven't gotten married yet and I'm not pregnant.

So now we tell the final tale of the adventure, my favorite part. The last night eating BBQ on the beach. We swam, we played soccer, we played the guitar, and we played games. Then we fired up the grill and got our fill of squid, shrimp, pork, fish, coca-cola, pineapple, and other tasty sides. This is where things quickly escalated from awesome to super awesome. To my right kids started shooting off fireworks in honor of the Kings birthday. My left was entertained by monkeys swinging in a nearby tree as a local started doing some form of fire juggling. The sun was setting in front of me and I was surround by great company - then we started passing out glow sticks. By body nearly exploded from shear amazement. "This is all the stuff that's awesome, how could this night get any better?" After walking the beach with Samuel and another friend we returned to find the rest of the group had started a big singing and dancing ball of wonder. We marched in a circle clapping, laughing and singing (or pretending to sing, I don't know many Khmer songs). Small children and a baby with only a t-shirt found that glow sticks and a white kid was a great source of entertainment, the basically naked baby chased me around the circle for hours poking my leg with a glow stick, I couldn't stop laughing. Then it was my turn to contribute to the circle of song and dance. "Michael do you know the song 'Beautiful Girl?'" It took me a while, but they were talking about Sean Kingston, and they wanted me to sing the song in the middle of the circle. I only know the chorus to that song and can't say it's on my iTunes - with that in mind i said, "of course I'll sing it!" - I was high on life to the max. I sang the chorus 3 times and danced in the circle and everyone laughed, then they wanted another song... this is when I made either the best decision or worst decision in my life. Looking to Samuel in the crowd I said let's sing 'enie minie' together. The circle was clapping and we were stars, again I only knew the chorus "Shorty is an enie menie miney moe lova" so I didn't know to what to do for the chorus, because Samuel definitely knew it - so I did what I always do in this scenario - I laid down a fat beat. Beat boxing in a circle of Cambodian high schoolers is a great experience and I recommend it to anyone who gets the opportunity.

Me and SoKun sippin on a cup of good times.

We left the next day renewed in our experience and happy to have made new friends both from Singapore and Cambodia. This weekend taught me a few things that I can carry throughout Cambodia. We can be in our home congregation or we can be halfway around the world listening to a sermon we can't translate. We can be at home enjoying the company of our close friends or we can be on the beaches of Sihanoukville making new ones. We literally can be on the other side of the world and we can still be ourselves. No matter where we go or how we conduct our business we can find the love of God and the love of others. It's mighty powerful.