Mission Missings

Month 1 of 11 in Cambodia:

I'm a missionary. And, as I've been discovering over the past month, there's a lot of stuff I can't get here that's readily available at home. Some of it's totally fine. I really don't mind washing my hair with little packets of shampoo, sleeping on a thin mattress on the floor, wearing only flip-flops at all times, or scrubbing my clothes in a tub by the pump. But some stuff is rather missed: 

1. A real piano.
2. Smoothies (specifically peanut butter/banana).
3. Whole wheat bread.
4. An oven.
5. Juice (from the refrigerator).
6. Couches.
7. Taco Bell (I seriously never thought I'd say that).
8. Christmas lights.

Month 10 of 11 in Cambodia:

The update...

Most of that stuff I wrote back then is totally fine now. I don't miss it much at all anymore, and I've discovered an Asian alternative for some of it, anyway. For example, we borrowed a blender from the Home Ec room during mango season, bought ice just down the road, and made incredible smoothies several times. WW bread... well... I will enjoy it at home but I've gotten used to the French baguette bread here. In January, I moved to one of the only houses on campus that actually has an oven, so I've been able to enjoy using that. Once a week I can get sugarcane juice at the market. Couches... hammocks are just as good, if not better. My mom sent me some LED Christmas lights so those are stashed away for Christmas season. The only two things that haven't really been remedied are the piano and Taco Bell, but I will enjoy those when I do go home! 

I think I'm going to have to do a switch and write a list of stuff I'll miss about Cambodia while I'm at home:

1. Brown-skinned people (they all want to be white; I wish I were brown).
2. A cool dipper bath in the middle of a hot day.
3. Hearing and speaking Khmer.
4. Morning market.
5. Sitting on the floor during church.
6. Leaving my shoes at the door (and trying to find them afterwards).
7. Rice. Every meal.
8. Riding on a motorbike everywhere I go in town.

It's been a challenge to adjust to a new culture, but I am learning Paul's lesson:

"I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content" (Philippians 4:11).