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Living Liminally in Cambodia

I have less than 3 more weeks at my site and a month from now I will be leaving Cambodia. It’s surreal. I’ve been gone from my site a fair bit this past month but am settling back in for the last few weeks before I leave.

Updates

The last weekend in May, the YAGM CamFam met up in Phnom Penh for our final worship weekend of the year. During our spring retreat, we had celebrated lent and an early Easter by telling each other the resurrection story and singing some hymns (sans the word “Hallelujah”). We rounded out our celebration of Easter during worship week with the secular practice of eating jellybeans and chocolate (courtesy of Matt and Jen’s trip to Chicago to attend the discernment process for the coming year’s volunteers) and having an Easter egg hunt. We also attended worship at City Church. I had communion for the first time at church since coming here.

For reasons unclear to me, all of our LCC pastors have yet to be ordained. This meant that they may lead worship and give sermons, but they are unable to preside over communion or baptisms. A visiting pastor delivered the sermon that Sunday and it was perhaps his presence that allowed us to have communion, though I’m not actually sure.

Right after worship weekend finished, my parents arrived in Phnom Penh to visit me. For the 8 or so days they were here, I traveled with them. During their time here, we were able to visit the Killing Fields and S21 in Phnom Penh, spend a night in Kruos and walk to the rice fields there, watch a circus performance in Siem Reap, and

Communion at City Church

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see most of the major sites in the Angkor Archaeological Park. I’m incredibly grateful that they had the time and resources to come here. Neither one of them really takes vacations, traveling for work far more than they ever have for pleasure. My presence here was certainly a motivating factor, but they also have a personal connection with Cambodia that made it a must-see place for them. Early in their marriage, my dad worked with Cambodian youth and refugees in the US. The friendships and relationships they formed at the time left a big impression on them.

After they left, I had a few days in Kruos, a couple of which were spent saying goodbye to Johanna who had come to visit one last time. Then four of us – Sopheune, Dara, Srey Yeap, and myself – loaded into the van and drove to Sihanoukville for a 3 day youth camp. The camp was a gathering of teenagers from various Lutheran churches around Cambodia. LCC, with only one youth in attendance, was made up of mostly staff. But with the other Lutheran Churches represented, there were about 100 youth. We spent the days listening to seminars and doing community service work. A youth group from Summit of Peace in Thornton, CO – one of the many sponsors of the event – was also there to lead games.

Now I am back in Kruos. But very little has slowed down. The family is in the process of packing and moving to a new home nearer to Phnom Penh where Pastor Mose will continue his studies. Sopheune will, as far as I know, take over position as lead pastor here in Kruos. But since she literally lives across the street from the church, there is no need for her to move. While I am officially listed as having a host family, the next YAGM volunteer may well live in this building alone. But I can’t say I know for sure. All I do know is that the next YAGM’s experience will be vastly different from mine.

Upon their arrival, my dad gave me a Flat Luther to carry around with me. If you are, like I was, unfamiliar with the “Flat (insert name here)” concept, it’s essentially a paper doll made up in the likeness of someone: in this case Martin Luther (in honor of the 500th

anniversary of the reformation). I’m supposed to take pictures of him experiencing Cambodia and send them back to the church in the US that my dad got him from. While there’s not much more of my year left here, I will attempt to make sure Luther gets his fair share of photos. An added bonus is that the Sunday school kids seem to find him pretty interesting and because of him, I’ve been able to interact with them in a way I haven’t had before. I imagine Luther makes me seem more approachable.

A small series of unfortunate events have plagued me these past weeks. It started with an infected bug bite that had to be drained, then moving on to things like a shattered whiteboard, a seriously stubbed toe, losing my wallet and therefore

The 5th annual Lutheran Youth camp in Sihanoukville.

Rain clouds over the rice fields

Flat Luther with one of the Sunday school boys who held onto him for most of the class and probably didn’t listen as well as he should have.

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my driver’s license and credit card, a tooth filling that fell out (yet again) and needs to be replaced, and a few other things of this ilk. I can only hope that the bad luck is over and the month ends well.

Final thoughtsThere isn’t much more to say about this past month. Looking

forward, I imagine the rest of the month will continue with my fairly typical schedule, only disrupted by the normal upheaval of Mose and family moving and all the changes that may come with that. The first week in July is my last week here. It will end with a student presentation to their parents, demonstrating what they have learned these past months. My students will be performing a skit. One final week in Cambodia after that for closing retreat with the YAGM CamFam and then I will be on a plane leaving the country.

Endings are always difficult. It’s particularly difficult to stay present in the moment when multiple things are coming to an end. Though I’ve intentionally focused mostly on the good and interesting parts of this year, that doesn’t mean there haven’t been times of intense boredom and challenges that have stretched me in ways I never would have anticipated or wished for. And yes, there have even been one or two moments in which all I wanted to do was collapse in a puddle of tears or press the fast forward button. But mostly the year has been good. And in all that stretching I was forced to do? I’ve begun to realize that I’m made of far more resilient material than I would have guessed.

ReminderIf you haven’t already, you can read more on my blog at https://liveliminally.wordpress.com/ . Also on my blog site, you

can find links to the other #YAGMCamFam blogs written by my fellow volunteers here. I highly recommend checking them out because all of them have wonderfully insightful, powerful, and funny moments to share. Plus, many of their experiences, observations and writing styles differ from my own. You can also access and download my other newsletters if you’ve somehow missed out on the earlier ones. If you’d like to continue to support the YAGM program and future YAGM participants, you can visit my fund page and donate any amount that you’d like. Those who donate on this site will receive a personal email from me with recently taken photos. http://elca.convio.net/site/TR/Events/General?px=1037990&pg=personal&fr_id=1181

Blessings and peace – Mallory

A monk at Angkor Wat

Kids playing a rope jumping game of sorts before Sunday school starts.

Grilled octopus on the beach in SihanoukvilleA solar halo over the stupa at the Killing

Fields in Phnom Penh.