Right now Chris is in America, and things here are going well for the most part. We had a rough day yesterday but otherwise things are going well. I keep finding myself feeling so thankful.
I am so thankful for awesome community here,
I am so thankful for a place that feels like home, and where my girls play with the neighbors, where we get to live in a community here.
I am so thankful for wonderful team making sure we have what we need and asking for ways to help out with Chris gone.
I am so thankful for friends who are doing the same, and are just generally supportive.
Last night the girls's and I had a somewhat formative experience, we laid our scooter down. We were only going just fast enough to have to stop hard, when a man pulled out in front of us and then we slid on the sand and fell over. We then proceeded to a gas station near by to assess damages, and clean up and calm down. Amirah's toe was hurt, and that was about it as far as injuries. We were all shaking and in a bit of shock. I proceed to go inside and buy some water. I stuck my keys in my purse, but left my scooter seat open. I came out, did a little first aid on Amirah's toe, and we got ready to go. I put my purse in my seat and closed it. We got helmets back on, and realized I had no keys...
they were in the seat. You can only open the seat with the keys. Thankfully there was a tuk tuk driver near by I asked if he could help me. He was confused why I needed help at first and the he helped me pry my seat open so I could reach my keys (this took at least 30mins, if not a bit longer). Once our keys were in hand we said goodbye and thank you, and I was overwhelmed with how thankful I was.
I am so thankful that we were all mostly ok.
I am so thankful no one hit us when we fell, but instead a few nice women stopped to help us get up, and make sure we had all our things.
I am so thankful that I speak Khmer and was able to ask for help, and work with the nice tuk tuk driver to help me.
I am so thankful for how brave my girls were wanting to get back on and continue our journey to our teammates and friends' house.
When we got to dinner at our friends house, they were great as we downloaded and processed, and then the girls were almost too tired to eat.
My teammate offered to get my mirror on my moto fixed for me, and bring my moto back to me.
Again I was so thankful we were headed to their house where dinner was already made.
I was also thankful to not have to navigate fixing my mirror, fixing things wiht my moto is always stressful for me.
The formative part of this experience was that I saw even more value in my ability to speak khmer, my amazing khmer teachers and my resiliant girls. I am even more thankful for community, I didn't feel alone, I knew there was people I could call. I thought about how much more scary the situation would of been with out my language skills, and without community, and I am so glad that wasn't the case.
I always drive carefully, but still accidents can happen, I am so thankful this was an easy small one.
To end this post, I am so incredible thankful for the people around the world who pray for us who specifically pray for our safety as we drive around and go from place to place. Thank you.