June 12-13, 2017
The team spends a restful two days at Veranda Eco Resort, a densely vegetated hotel that feels like living in the Swiss Family Robinson house. Five team members rent motorbikes for $6/day and explore the area while the rest of us relax at the hotel. We have a great evening of fellowship and fun, playing cards in an outdoor seating area with a few too many gecko friends, and watching the sun set over the ocean. Two days later we are rested and ready to return to the hustle-bustle of the city!
Shortly after our arrival back in Phnom Penh most of the team walks over to the dorm for a short time of fellowship with the students. In the meantime, I’m off to the pharmacy with midwife Bora to
shop for this week’s medical clinic. The team and the dorm students all meet up at Pizza Company for a fun time of conversation, lots of hot-dog-crust-pizza (little wieners embedded in the outer crust, like pizza surrounded by pigs-in-a-blanket), and an exciting televised soccer match between the Cambodia national team and some other country. I’m not a big hot dog eater, but Cambodian hot dogs are ruined for me since some of the kids told me that some Cambodian hot dog are made with cat, and some with rat. It may not even be true, but it’s believable enough.
We don’t account for the collective excitement and energy of that many kids. Even though we have done this retreat for 5-6 years, the kids still get so excited they are awake and running around at 3 am. For the house parents, the sooner they can get the kids on the bus, the better. We find out later that 2 of the buses left at 6, but our bus sat and waited 30 minutes to make our 7:30 meeting time. I think we’ll plan on 7:00 next year.