Soa Si Di  from Karen!!

I finally have a good connection to the blog today!! My connections from here have been a bit wacky, and I have not been able to post anything yet.

So it is evening in Phnom Pehn. We spent the morning with our English students. It is so fun to get to know them. We have several 14 and 15 year olds in our group, also several university students, all the way up to a 27 year old. I talked after lunch with the 27 year old named Hong (I think... they use first names and last names opposite from us, so that might be his last name).
Anyway, Hong is going to the University in Phnom Penh studying management. His goal is to return to his village on the border of Vietnam (near the sea) and be a leader in the village. I am not sure I got this all perfectly correct, but he spoke pretty good English; so interesting to talk with him. His father fought with the American Army in the 60's, even living in the US embassy for 6 months. He described a battle where the Vietnamese had killed the army leader, and was shooting all the soldiers who came to take the dead body. He pointed to a chair on the other side of the room and held a pretend gun as he told me the story. Kong's father waited until dark, took his shirt off, rubbed charcoal all over himself and quietly got the body so it could be taken back to America. The Americans liked Hong's father, even offering to take him back to America. Hong's father refused, preferring to stay with family in his native country. He was given some money by the Americans (I think) because his uncles were all killed in the war. He bought a farm and started to grow rice.Hong's father wanted his children to study, and so he and his wife saved enough to send 5 of their 8 (?) children to the University.

Hong then described with much passion the reign of Pol Pot in Cambodia. He said that Pol Pot's army liked to kill people with knives instead of wasting costly bullets on their enemies.He motioned with his hands like he was sharpening a knife. He could not understand why Pol Pot wanted to kill and lie to his people. He was so intensely perplexed by this part of Cambodia's history. I talked with him about evil, and asked if he was Buddhist (as are most of the population). He said he did not understand how people can take a stone and cut it to look like someone then pray to it. It did not make sense to him. Yet his parents are Buddhist. He said he is not Buddhist, and also not Christian. He seemed frustrated with religion and life in general.

So this is who English Camp is for. Hong will soon go back to his village in southeastern Cambodia. He has heard about this Jesus at English Camp, he has talked to Christians and seen them singing and laughing together. Hopefully he has felt the love of Christ through us, and will be open to welcoming a missionary to his town someday. He said he will come back tomorrow. I hope he does.