Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Do the hustle


Oh so corny but I couldn't resist using this title for this blog. I feel like I am doing the Cambodian hustle; the race around Phnom Penh to pick up stuff, drop off stuff and tie up those straggling ends of my life here.

Right now, I am running around but it still feels so surreal. As I flag down a moto driver to take me to the market, negotiate the price, put on my helmet and hop on for the ride, I am reminded that I won't be doing this again any time soon. The basic details and tasks of life are changing. How frightening, but hopefully fantastic as well.

Overall, in my tired, emotional daze, I feel richly blessed by this year, in a way I can't describe right now. In relationships, experiences, travel and work, I have been welcomed and taught by amazing people and places. For all that, I am grateful. What comes next I am not sure of but I suspect this experience will continue to unfold even after I have left Cambodia. Let's hope so.

So we close with another favorite quote by Rainer Maria Rilke. It kind of perfectly sums up everything.

"Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

The more I see, the more I wonder, the less I know. What a mystery and blessing that is. Thank God!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

A village

This sign says you are in Kroviek village. Its a tiny community at the base of a few small mountains, way way off the main roads. I visited Kroviek in March to talk with villagers about their history and experiences with LWF Cambodia.

One of the things I love about LWF Cambodia is the way it approaches development. It isn't one project, a school or a road. It is everything, farms, finance, food security, health, sanitation, education and more. To see it first hand over the past 10 months has been humbling and hopeful. This little project paints a picture of how it all works.