Cambodia...The Last Days...

Hey Mom! This may be the last email you get from me...We take off tomorrow night...But I hear there is free internet in Seoul so maybe not...We'll see...Anyways...
This past weekend we went to Siem Reap, which is the most touristy place in Cambodia...But it was pretty sweet...We visited temples there, the most famous being Angkor Wat, which was huge....One of the other temples was where parts of Tomb Raider was shot...My buddy Ben and I were like little kids hopping around all the ruins tryng not to get caught by tour guides who didn't want us on stuff :)... It was awesome...I can only describe these temples to you with pictures, so I will show you those when I get home...That night we went to dinner at a place that had traditional Khmer dancing...That was pretty cool...At the end I got my picture taken with one of the Khmer girls :)...One thing about Siem Reap that is bad though is that because it is a tourist place it also brings in the sex industry...There were a ton of massage parlours in the area, and they were not just for that...It was pretty bad to see like four guys sitting outside of one of these things at ten at night...We knew what most of them were there for...There is a lot of underage prostitution too, which a place like IJM, which I explained to you in the last email, tries to combat...
But overall it was a good weekend, even with long bus rides...Today we went to the national museum and say a lot of the art from the 11th century and so on...It was pretty cool...Tomorrow is our last day and we will say our goodbyes to all the awesome people we met on this trip...I have emails from some of them and hope to stay in contact...

This trip has been an amazing experience...I never though I would ever make it out of the country and now that I have I do not regret it...I came here thinking it would bring me out of my lull with God...I thought for sure something like this would shake me awake...It has some yes, but I realize I have to take care of stuff and be with God at all times and not rely on events and experiences to do that for me...I have now seen extreme poverty and seen what daily life is like outside the U.S...Through conversations with my teammates here I have begun the process to get rid of my ego and selfish ways...I have no idea what I will feel like when I get back home...But excited to get home too...I will be back Wednesday afternoonish and I will give you a call when we land...Thanks so much for sending my emails out to everyone and thanks for praying too...I may send you one more email in Seoul if need be...So get back to me quick if you want any info...Ok, I'm off...

Voohey::
::Jake


Here's some pictures from this weekend....

Cambodia Part 4...

Hey Mom! Here's another email...

I can''t remember where I last left you, but I think it was at the end of last week...So, here is this week's news....
Monday we got to meet with the people at IJM (International Justice Mission)...We were lucky enough to be able to meet them at their headquarters here...It was so cool to hear about what they do...Here in Cambodia, they focus on the sex slavery and brothels and such...They have people who are undercover investigators who go in and rescue underage girls from the brothels here in Cambodia, with Phnom Penh (the city we stay in) being a big target...They not only rescue the girls, they care for them and teach them that they are valueable people...In the brothels they lose a lot of sense of themselves and face stuff I would only have nightmares about...Everyone working there is very smart and they don't make decisions without doing their homework....
Tuesday morning we went to an orphange named Happy Tree that is specifically for children with HIV/AIDS...That was awesome...As soon as we walked in the kids were all over us, just grabbing our hands and just wanting to be touched...It was pretty overwhelming at first...I brought my guitar out and I swear like twenty-five kids flocked to me...After I played for a few minutes I let them strum while I did the chords and played my harmonica on the harmonica brace you got me....It was soooo much fun...The kids loved it and just kept passing the pick around...There was also this kid I met named Mein there whom I got pretty close to...Near the end of our time he was dressed for school and he brought out his school supplies and workbooks from his backpack and showed me all his assignments and smiled and pointed to the pages he got 10/10 on...I knew very very little Khmer and he knew no english, but that barrier was completely surpassed by love and care and something as simple as a smile...
That afternoon we went to a place they call Rubbish Mountain, which is their dump...The crazy thing is that there are a ton of people living there in communities...We brought in some water and food to give away, and people just rushed to us to us and in a matter of seconds we had given everything away....Then we left...It all happened so fast I still can't process it...Now, I know there can be critics on what we did, and we were some of the hardest ones ourselves...We realize that just giving stuff away sometimes can be super selfsih on our part and relationships are where it is at...Those people will not be rescued from poverty by us visiting...They will be rescued by being educated or learning a trade and going somewhere with it...There was nothing wrong with what we did, but it was not the most effective, and we know that...There is so much we talked about pertaining to this I really cannot type it all...I will tell you more when I get back home...
Yesterday (Wednesday) we visted a place called RDI (Rural Development International)....This place was something I was really interested in...A chemistry professor at a college in Buffalo started this project to create water pots that filter water and a well drilling project....But he was different than the big organizations you hear about...They are not dumb...a lot of the time big organizations like UNICEF drill wells and don't test the water, resulting in something like 7% of their wells being contaminated in Asia....They more or less throw money at the problem...RDI staffs people who know what they are doing and do their homework on locations and then keep cost down on the projects so villages can split cost and afforda well or filter...They also create job opportunites for ladies with pottery and alos teach farmers how to have self-sustaining animal farms and help them start those...In the afternoon, we actually go to helkp make the filter pots and package them, which was cool...

But I have to go now, so sorry...I will try to get pictues up tonight if I can...Tell everyone I said hi!

P.S....I am going to the Royal Palace in 10 min... :)

Voohey::
::Jake

Cambodia...Part 3

Hey Mom...Sooo nice to here about stuff back home...I did see those pictures Bobby posted...Looks like a good time...I really miss the ice and snow, hockey, and for sure burgers, ice cream, cookies, milk, sloppy joes, and cereal...Rice and tea are apart of me now...And I really wish I could have been there when Uncle Matt brought over all that venison and whatnot...But it's going good here too...

The days are definitely long and I am getting more tired...But it's ok...Since we last talked, I visited two places on Monday that were a place for children to go for school and meals and stuff...It was amazing...The kids were freaking cute and they loved to play with you and just be around you...I honestly didn't want to leave either place at the end of the day...
On tuesday we went to the U.S. embassy in the morning and got to meet with the second in charge here in Cambodia...We got to have a discussion and ask questions about what the U.S. is doing here and how that is taking place...For the most part they are doing ok, but politics were an underlying theme I could tell...That afternoon we visited some sweat shop workers at their home who were fired because they formed a union for better pay and treatment...When we were waling down the alleys to their homes I felt like I was on the Discovery Channel and we were in the documentary on third world countries...It was crazy...They were very nice ladies though and definitely had their head on their shoulders...We asked them how much they make and they said $50 a month...Even with the exchange rate thats nuts...Rent is $15-$20 a month for something even small...
Wednesday was a long day in the bus, but I got to see dolphins! We took a longboat out in the Mekong River and just chilled around while river dolphins came to surface within 15 feet of us...It was awesome...I was feeling sick that day and being out on the water with the warm breeze helped a lot...But I still had the runs for a few days after...Don't worry, I'm better now :)...
Thursday was a long drive too...We left from Kreche, where we were with the dolphins and continued on to Boung Long in the Rhotanakiri province...It definitely was nice to be in the country...The city was chocking me out some...Saw a pretty cool sunset too...We visited a village where the people don't have much contact with the outside and played frisbee with some f the teenagers for awhile...That was fun...It's amazing that even with the language barrier a smile and laugh can communicate just as well...
The day before last was one the best...We swam in a waterfall...It's was freaking awesome...I climbed behind it and we found a tunnel thing that we went a few feet down...So cool...Then that afternoon we went and swam in Crater Lake, which is an extinct volcano bowl...It was warm and a nice sunny day out...Perfect for the lake...Made me miss Michigan summers on the lake...

And God has been working on me these last few days...I have been pretty cocky and selfish and prideful lately...I've been reading a book called Crazy Love and it has helped me get back to the place I was at a awhile back with God...I am starting to go back to when it wasn't all about me and that is soo huge here...There are 15 of us and we get on each other's nerves sometime...But I have to remember that we are here together...And I am sooo ready for God to make himself more evident than has before...I have been in a lull and am sick of it...But pray that I find God here and that this last week, which seems like an eternity, can be all about Him...There are people here I can serve in these last days....I'm sick of living for myself...It has left me worn out and tired...

But I have to go...Time to go back to the hotel...I have been having a blast and this has been way worth it so far...Thanks for letting me go and tell everyone I said hi...I will write at least once more before we leave next week...So...until then...Joom Reap Leah!
Sorry... I will try next time!
Voohey::
::Jake

P.S....I tried to add pictures but the computer wouldn't pick up my camera...:(

Cambodia Part Two...

Another letter to my mom from Cambodia :)

Joom Reap Sooa!
Hey Mom,
Greetings from Cambodia again...I have no clue where to start on telling you about all the stuff we have done already...Just today we went to two places that take in kids for the day and halp educate them and feed them and whatnot, and I couldn't have had more fun hanging out weith kids who had no idea what I was saying, and I had no clue what they said...I have sooo many pictures of them and every single one is freaking cute...The new camera is insane too...It takes pictures that make me look like a frickin professional...
Rice, Me, and Tea has become one...Not one day and rarely a meal will go by where I do not have one or both of them...I'm guessing by the time I get back a good old burger on the grill at home is in order... :) Oh, and I am keeping a journal...We have to for this trip to get credit...

Over the past week or so I have taken a ferry across a huge river...ridden on a bud down the bumpiest road in the hisotry of humankind at eleven at night while trying to sleep and sitting in the back past the rear axle (not fun)...Eaten at a ton of restaurants that serve many different things...Gotten to know some of the college age guys from here at the nearest church and they were real cool...played Amazing Grace on guitar with everyone from our trip singing for the church...Ridden in the back of a pick-up down one the busier roads in Phnom Penh...visited some families waaayyy out in the countryside and crashed a bridal shower where there were a ton of women and children that we hung out with for awhile...And it's different here with that...People love it when you stop by and just talk and visit...The sense of time is not like in the states where everyone is to the minute...It's a little easier going out here, especially in the country...Also, we went to the Toul Slang Museum and the Killing Fields where we saw some really heavy stuff...I learned so much about the stuff that went on in 75-79 here and I have never been more disgusted with humanity before...I have no idea how no one knew about Pol Pot and his regime...It was so sick and so bad here during that time...And reading stories from peopel that survived through the Khmer Rouge Regime is insane...Comparitavely and Ratio-wise, this was worse than the Holocoust...Cambodia lost 1/3-1/2 of its people in four years...We had a guide at the Killing Fields who lived through it and he quietly told us about his experience and about watching his family get killed and tortured...He was very brave and you could see hoe much it hurt him, but he wanted us to know...He wanted us to see what no one else knows a lot about...Of course emtionally I was charged and still am, but I feel I have to educate people on this too, in some facet or time...

And keep praying for me, for all of us, and for God in this country...There aren't a lot of Christians, but the ones I have met are so loving and kind that I am challenged to put aside my petty crap sometimes...I need to push throught junk and simplify it down to just love...I have been to legalistic and technical with my faith...Sometimes, not always, but sometimes it is as simple as God working and you loving...

So, I have to go again and it's dinner time, while Dad would just be getting up for work...Not sure when the next time is for internet so until then, joom reap leah! (goodbye in Khmer)
Oh, and I am really missing that cold weather and ice rink right now...Tell pop thanks for getting it back going again...And let my friends come over if they want to :)

Voo hey::
::Jake