1 school, 2 swings, 1000 smiles... and a whole lot more

There’s quite a story to tell…one that is pretty darn awesome. Maybe many stories that make up the story of our UNION team's experiences over the last week. I don't really know where to start, so I'm just going to give 'er and see where it goes! So...  here goes my attempt to share what it’s been... in little bits and pieces.

What has our second week in Cambodia looked like? It’s looked like a lot of things. For one thing, it looks like a school that’s been built up a whole lot more. With a lot more pillars and walls...

 ... some door frames

...some windows

... and a foundation of rocks waiting to be filled with cement. 

We’ve continued on with our brick laying, cement mixing, rock carrying, mud hauling, and all that goodness...

Devising our own (Jungle Book-inspired) ways to cool down when needed

But, we’ve also been doing other things around the work site – like hucking ropes into trees…

tying some knots…

and singe-ing the ends…

 ... To make a set of rope swings off the big tree in front of the school!

Fun for all ages! 

Whee!! Really! When's the last time you took the time to play on a swing? Definitely conducive to general well-being, I'd say!

Unfortunately our creation wasn't always so perfectly conducive to peacebuilding... but I guess I'll let this one slide ;)

 Fun even for our monkey-friend Sok! :)

and just because this monkey is so funny, haha... 

Needless to say, we’ve been part of building a lot more than just a school… the team has transformed the school from a pretty bare construction work site… into a KID-filled, FUN-filled adventure playground! All of our waking hours (and more than definitely, even after we’ve crawled into bed, and well before we’re up again), the school yard is FULL of kids running around (usually with us, until they tire us out!), swinging on swings, kicking around soccer balls or feather hacky sacks that we brought.

So fun to look out over the once-empty work site, and just see it full 24/7 of laughing, screeching kids (and workers too - I think we might have decreased their productivity with our instigation of constant breaks for fun). But I’ve been so impressed by the initiative of this team. They see needs & opportunities, and mesh those with their initiative & creativity and make things happen. And we’ve built a lot more even than schools and swings… we’ve built some amazing relationships and shared a lot of smiles, laughs, fun and friendships with the workers and kids. We're still barangs but we're definitely no strangers anymore!

Adam's human swing!

My hair salon...

Kat, Poi extraordinaire, teaching the kids the fun & art of swinging tennis balls on the end of a string with colourful ribbons off the end, and making all sorts of designs.

Scottie, getting a Khmer lesson from the kids, with a whole lotta laughs.

(Hmmm.. this video isn't uploading right now. But I'll try it again in the

morning - you should definitely check back and see it!!)

The community threw us a big dance party our last night in the village – very much fun. Very much hilarious. Unfortunately the best videos got deleted off Adam’s camera, and we’re trying to salvage them. Hopefully we will, because they were really so good! I'll put one up for sure if I can get 'em back!
 
Playing catch-up now, with all that's happened. But, definitely, more to come....

xo
Rainbow