Love, Love, Love

       Sweat. That is the first word that comes to mind when describing Cambodia. Coming out of the airport in the dead of night I was covered in it. Performing the simplest actions causes sweat to stream down my face. Our first day at the orphange I was playing with Srey Mei and while carrying her in my arms she directed me to the stage took a tissue and wiped my face from all the sweat. And that was from playing. Working in the heat multiplies that amount.

      The rain was the perfect way to end a perfect first day with the kids. In the morning I went to the village with Lisa-Maire, Karlie, Mama, and Meng. We saw Srey Chan who Lisa-Marie knew from previous years at CPO. Meng asked her if she was in school; she wasn't. If she had a job, she did; working at a club serving beer. At 16 years old. I am 16. I am in school with 6+ to go. I have no job that my family is reliant upon. I have never been inside a club. I have never drank a beer. To imagine my life like this at 16 is unimaginable. The amount of stuff we have done in just two days is already starting to blur together. Troy and I picked up trash and old clothes to put in a tuk tuk that goes to the dump. Or more like I hoisted bags into the back of the tuk tuk while Troy, who is under 5 foot, put trash into the bags. This morning we deloused the kid's hair, and it is one of the most challenging things I have ever done. You comb the kids hair to get the eggs out, and time after time you continue to see eggs in their hair. You can do the same section over and over, but the comb isn't fine enough to get every single one. This resulted in me hand picking eggs out of kids hair. It would have been easy to leave the eggs in their hair. No one would notice, no one would know. But I would know. I would know I left a kid with lice when I could have prevented it. Besides that, if someone was delousing my hair, I would want it all gone not just 50% or even 90%, all of it. I had to remind myself that every kid I was delousing had someone who loved them within a 10 foot radius of me. And everyone else who has delousing the kids was in the same boat. So even if I had no personal relations to the kid I was delousing, somebody did. And that somebody deserves to see their loved ones lice free. They all deserve to be lice free.

       It's Day 2 and the connections are already starting to be formed. Srey Mei is a four foot bundle of love. No matter how tired arms are or how sore my back is I still want to play with her, be with her every second that I can. Today she was upset because she lost 35 cents, that was intended to be used for snack money. I saw her, asked her what was wrong, and she had no answer. Her playful personality had turned quiet. When I saw her with her head down on the lunch table still crying, I wanted to make her happy. I dragged her off the table into my arms and out into the rain. I spun her around in circles, and the tears became mixed in with the rain and a smile worked its way onto face. Her smile turned into a laugh. There's a moment when you are whirling somebody around in a circle and everything is blurred except for their face. I was experiencing that moment of clarity with Srey Mei. Her face was lit up with laughter, there was rain streaming down her face, and it was perfect. I wouldn't trade that moment for anything. This is what I strive to do every day, to reach the 100%. 100% effort; at picking up trash, at delousing hair, at teaching, at playing, at loving.


HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD LOVE YOU!!