Finishing up in Svay Pak

Wednesday we moto-ed to Svay Pak to finish our last group of girls sewing. What I found interesting was God can change our hearts off of judgement mode. I remember the first day, terrified as I rode. The dirt, the filth, the trash, poverty all along the sides of the road. Did I mention the trash? As we rode by this morning I thought, there is that little family with the little boy getting their wares out to sell. As I looked up I thought I bet they live above their business. Their little shop is a corrugated roof with a dirt floor, maybe a tarp hanging from a tree. They sell bicycle tires. That's all they have. They are very organized by size, and color type. They are cooking their breakfast on a little bbq in the middle of their space. Why did I not see that before? Kat would always say: "I bought that on the side of the road". Now I get it. Each little family sells one thing. One place sells choke chains. Now what someone in Cambodia would need a logging choke chains for, I have no idea. But he has a big pile of them. The guy next door carries the treads for bulldozers. I was so judgmental of Cambodia as a whole. Now that I've been here a week (like that's a long time!), I feel little more relaxed and see little a bit more than the first few days.
The power was back on, the flood contained, and the girls were eager to finish their projects. We had one beginner from the bracelet room, and 4 or 5 girls left from the sewing floor. We had a crowd. Everyone is an expert now on the sewing kit project. So each girl had at least one girl hanging over her shoulder telling her how to do it! I didn't even need to be there. They are so bossy (LOL) and giving all sorts of advice and making them resew things (you know how I feel about resewing...It will never be seen on a galloping horse). We finished up and they loved getting their treats and went proudly off with their bags. Phew!
Lunch was over at Rahab's House, where a team from a University in Florida was serving. Doing kids camp for the neighborhood children. The professor wheeled up in her wheel chair and we started an interesting conversation. She actually teaches Human trafficking at her University and brings her class every winter term. Cambodia is not Handicap accessible AT ALL. I so admire her! WOW! She was hit by a car on her bicycle on campus years ago.
Anyway back to lunch. Tuesday lunch was not a hit. Beef tongue soup....I ate the carrots. They were good. Rice with everything. In fact the official Khmer greeting is: Have you had rice today? While we say Hi, how are you? Today was a white colored soupy stew, I'm sure it was delicious. I'm getting used to rice. I did have a piece of bbq-d chicken, although even Kat wouldn't eat it when she saw the pancreas hanging off it. Well we think it was the pancreas, the Khmer guy across the table loves to terrorize us. Saturday they told me we were having dog. The rice was delicious. I feel like such a food snob and not very adventurous. But I'm OK with that.
We returned to Kat's disastrous office and the afternoon project was to organize it. She's been working in emergency mode and it was a wreck. So we organized sorted, returned stuff to people, swept, dusted and filed. She is so happy. Then the real reward came.
I said is there a Starbucks on the way home? She said we will swing by the mall. OMG. I have never seen a mall like this even in the states! The parking lot is hilarious because it is all motos. When we walked in my jaw dropped. A country of extremes. It is all high end stores, beautifully decorated, three levels and a Starbucks. And a Krispy Kreme. I had both. The third floor is an amusement park. Rides, a carousel, rock climbing. and all sorts of stuff. So clean. Restroom attendants included. We moto-ed off to the normal theater :( and saw Mary Poppins and had Coldstone, yes Coldstone.