Yesterday we went to Prey Veng which is about a mile from the Vietnam border.The government doesn't pay attention to this village because the vote for a different party.
In the past there have been a lot of raids from thieves from across the border and it isn't safe after dark. Since starting a church there things have improved greatly for the people. Pastor Setan said that he has seen an improvement in the people over the last year.
The road to the village was very bad. At one point we came to a very large hole in the road...washout from a heavy rain...after some discussion the lead van made a try for it and got high centered in the middle of the hole. The hole was full of clay and mud and there was nothing to grab onto. Everyone piled out and started pushing but that didn't help. Finally a big truck came up and pulled them out.
One of the funniest things that we saw the motos with pigs on them. They were tied onto the back of the motorbike on their backs with their legs in the air. We all thought that it must be market day and they were heading in to sell the meat. One of the guys went to check on the progress of the stuck van and said that as the motos were going over bumps, the pigs squealed! They were alive! They weren't moving at all on the back of the bikes.
We headed to the village on another road. As we drove through little housing areas the children would run out and wave or just stand and watch. In our van one of our people started throwing candy out the windows. Our transportation leader,SoPaul, told us the word for candy is Scroll-crop (phonetic).
What fun it was to see the kids dive for the candy as she yelled, scroll-crop to them!
When we got to the village the pastor had a tarp set up and the rice was ready for handing out. The drama group got their set ready and we began. It was VERY hot! The drama group did great and then we all pitched in to get the rice out to the people.
There were two men from the village that were anxious and determined to help hand out the rice. The pastor told the group that they were very poor and they know what it feels like to be hungry and wanted to see others fed.
I was able to help with the handing out the bags of rice. They are heavy! We had two team members lifting...and putting them on the shoulders of each person. Sometimes one of the team would shoulder it for the villager to take to their transportation. It was very hot work. Rachel made sure that we all were drinking lots of water...but two girls from the drama team got heat exhaustion.
We are heading out to our next site...will write more this afternoon!
Sali
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