Our day began with a 2 ½ hour drive from Kampong Thom to Siem Reap. The roads have improved significantly since we first began short-term trips to Cambodia over 8 years ago, so the ride is quite nice.
Upon arriving in Siem Reap, Oudom, our translator, suggested we eat lunch at someplace quick so we could go immediately to the children’s home. Quick equals Domino’s Pizza. For real. We found a Domino’s Pizza in Cambodia. It was actually a big hit with the team. Oudom is such a gift when traveling in Cambodia. He always cares for our teams well.
Once lunch was over, we drove to the Siem Reap home to meet with Sophy (pronounced like “soapy”). Sophy is the house parent at the Siem Reap home. He has served as a driver and translator for me (John Reilly) on past trips. Don’t tell the others, but he is simply my favorite Cambodian! He is always so filled with joy and thankful to see our teams. Sophy gave our team a tour of the children’s home and answered a lot of questions to get us acquainted with the work they are doing. They currently oversee 25 children in the home and are expecting 5 additional children soon.
On past short-term trips to Cambodia, we have taught English, prayer walked, and orchestrated VBS (think Kids GiG for all you North Way-ers) for the homes. This time around they made a specific request—a chicken coop. Sophy would like to have a large chicken coop to raise chickens and have a steady supply of eggs to feed the children. This will significantly cut down on the cost of groceries. Building something would be new territory for us in this country.
To pull this off, I knew we needed someone on the ground who could arrange some tools and supplies for us prior to our arrival. Enter Hubert Tutwiler. Hubert is a Texan who moved to Cambodia many, many years ago and got connected with SEAPC. He helps to oversee many of the projects that happen at the children’s homes throughout Cambodia. I’ve been on a few trips with Hubert. While he’s somewhat retired, I was able to convince him to come to Siem Reap to give us some direction. He jumped at the chance because that’s who Hubert is. He loves the Cambodian people, especially the young children in the homes. He would do anything for them, including helping us build a coop.
Coops here are built differently than what you might expect in the US. They are made of metal, so there is a lot of cutting, grinding, and welding that needs to take place. Thankfully, our team has some welders: Bill, Dave, and myself. It’s a skill I never thought would come in handy in Cambodia, but here we are! Even Kaleigh got in on the metal working action (see photo).
Oudom, Sophy, and Hubert are just a few examples of people who have helped us succeed on these trips in the past. Their help was vital in setting up all the pieces and parts needed to get this project across the finish line.
I love watching how God lines things up when a project needs to be done. On this trip, He’s brought together just the right mix of past relationships to orchestrate a kind of project we’ve never done before. Remove any one of these people mentioned above, and this project would fall apart. Instead, it is falling into place. Kind of like dominoes. The game, not the pizza.
Tomorrow the welding begins.
~ John Reilly