A Place Where You Belong.

I just want to preface this ridiculously long blog by saying, if you don't make it through the whole thing, this is what matters: 1. I love Cambodia. 2. I love Sunset Lake.

Everyone wants to spend a week in the jungle, right?

Maybe not. I didn't.

It was New Years Eve, and we had just gotten back from Bali and we had the weekend to unpack, do laundry and pack again. We were set

to leave Monday for a week in the jungle with the senior class on senior survival.

I didn't want to go. I was tired, of people, of activity. [Which, yes, please Annie, complain more about your life...]

But I didn't say anything, I just took as much time by myself as I could find on Sabbath and on Sunday, and showed up Monday morning like I was supposed to.

Every day during the week the seniors have music class in my room during seventh period. I had never paid much attention to them, I am always making my out while they are making their way in. They're loud, and take up a lot of space, and I wasn't super excited about a week with them.

After nearly ten hours on the bus over some of the bumpiest roads I have ever experienced we arrived at Jombok Hoas. It is an ADRA run camp with challenge course type activities. Every year the seniors, the SMs and Rithy spend a week there bonding and growing as a class.

When we arrived were given open air bungalows with mosquito nets, sarongs and buckets for showering, and a lecture about malaria.

After we ate dinner we sat down to have worship. As we sang songs the sun was setting between the trees and I smiled thinking about Sunset Lake, those first Sunday nights, everyone a little unsure, but willing to try, a bunch of kids I didn't know but would soon love, and I prayed the same would happen here.

Monday morning dawned and we were fed rice and vegetables, which would be the case for three meals a day for the entire week. These Cambodians and their rice, my goodness. It was chilly in the morning, I'm not really sure what the temperature was. My definition of temperature has changed since I've been in Cambodia. But it was cool enough for JEANS! It was magical. After worship we were divided into groups and went out for different activities and games with our groups until lunch.

We had some issues with Khmer. Three of the seniors are from Laos and don't speak Khmer. So when we were doing activities they were left out of discussions and actions because everyone was speaking Khmer. At first no one was translating. Which wasn't a big deal for us SMs, it was more for the Laos boys we wanted them speaking English. But as the week went on a few of the kids were really good about translating for us.

Part of the schedule every day was the after lunch we had two hours of free time. Two beautiful hours!! I wasted no time in grabbing my Bible and heading down a path to find a place to read. As I sat on the ground and took in the silence I thought about camp and T.O. time every day, and how my Bible, the woods, and the silence kept me sane.

The week continued and we did all kinds of things, swaying bridge, leap of faith, giant swing, repelling, rock climbing, etc. And with each activity I became a little more comfortable, found a few more things to laugh at, learned another name. And then Wednesday at lunch it happened, the moment inhibitions were lost. -I remember at camp during adventure camp, my girls were still trying to figure the whole camp thing out. We had corndogs at dinner, one went uneaten and I turned it into a microphone to interview them about their days, and they laughed. And that was it. They were open. - At lunch someone asked me if I was juhlohm [confused] and I threw my hands in the air and responded loudly juhlohm ahtay! No confused! And they laughed. Loud. And that was it.

That night we played a game, do you love your neighbor? There was switching places involved and I was bad at it. I screamed a lot. They laughed and exclaimed juhlohm ahtay!

The following day was our last full day. After lunch and our final glorious T.O. time we marched through the jungle to the grand finale, the zip line. On the walk out Visak said well you know, Bill Gates first rule, life's not fair. We all laughed, because how does he just know that?! From then on we came up with more rules based on experiences we were having.

Rule number one: Life's not fair.

Rule number two: Don't break the bus.

Rule number three: Mix together and then you will know.

Rule number four: Copy everything as fast as you can.

Rule number five: Don't go to the bathroom when the bus is leaving.

And they continued on through rule sixteen: Don't laugh at me.

While we sat and waited for our turn to climb the big tree Dee-mons[please excuse my phonetic spelling] asked us, what is the opposite of handsome? Feetsome! Let me just say, funniest joke ever. Ohhhh Teacher Travis! You look so feetsome!

They taught me a game where in order to play I needed to know English. I lost. They all laughed at me, ohhh Teacher, you don't know English!

I climbed the tree and sat on the platform with some of the boys waiting for my turn, the view was beautiful!!! We talked about what we want out of life, because thats what you do when you're about to jump from a tree.

One of the boys, Rachana found it hilarious that Annie and any sound the same. And he kept asking me, you want any? Yes yes! Rachana you want any? Oh yes. Let me tell you, some jokes don't get old.

We sang a lot of songs during the week, a lot of songs we sing at school. But during some down time one of the boys started playing on the guitar, I lay my life down at your feet, 'cause you're the only one I need... And I stopped taken back to camp, singing! So wonderful!

Some of the seniors aren't so young. In fact a chunk of them are older than me. And at one point I made a joke about how my job was to watch the kmee kmee! [children] and not climb trees, that yelled, what?! You're just as much kmee kmee as we are!!

Because of my age and the fact that I am not actually their teacher it was easier to become their friend. There were two times I used my authority, once to take away a cell phone, and once to get everyone to go to bed because it was 12:30 and they showed no signs of stopping.

But there is just something about a week in the forest that can make you fall in love...

Before I knew it, it was Friday morning and we were packing up. I thought about Sunday mornings at camp. And how no matter how happy I was to not have a cabin full of girls anymore, I was always sad to see them go.

We rode the bus home. Almost forgot Travis at a stop... I guess he didn't know rule number five... When we arrived back at the school we were greeted by the dorm kids, running and hugging us. Joshua is too cool for running and hugging, he stood back and waited for me to come to him and then he told me, I miss you. Oh my goodness, I'm just in love.

As I type this the 12th graders are sitting in my classroom. When they came in they were loud as usual, but I got to be loud with them. There is something good about being involved and included. Even if it's only for fifteen minutes a day. It's nice to talk to kids that speak English, it's nice to love a new set of people. It makes five months in not so, regular.

I remember at camp when I had to leave for Cambodia I was so sad. I wasn't ready, I needed more time! I was sure I wasn't going to find that kind of happiness anywhere else. And I haven't. But I have found happiness, a different kind, I have found people to love, reasons to laugh. I know when I leave here in four months it's going to be hard. So incredibly hard. But I know that waiting for me on the other side of Cambodia is Sunset Lake. Camp deserves a blog of it's own and maybe I will write one. I sometimes think that I'm not sure I can be this happy outside of Cambodia. But being in the jungle for a week was a nice reminder of how happy I was before I came here, and though leaving is going to be just awful, but I will be going back to another place I love.

Blessed does not even begin to cover what I am.