Day 2

So I'm finally on the ship, and actually the whole trip was pretty comfortable and airconditioned. I arrived in the tiny Phnom Penh airport and went through customs and visa application at a decent pace. There were a number of STEPpers that had been on the same flight and another flight that came in at the same time. We arrived too late in the evening to catch the bus to Sihanoukville so we were put up in a hotel that was probably pretty good by Cambodian standards.

The next day we took the 4 hour bus trip to Sihanoukville and contrary to Josh's warnings it was actually comfy and spacious - it was like a Greyhound bus and, the road must be fairly new because it was in good condition the whole way.





After a quick taxi ride from the bus station we were suddenly on the ship and things have been going 100mph ever since (metaphorically I mean, the ship is still in port of course). Doulos is a wild and crazy place, let me tell you, but in a good way! Cram 350 people from 40+ nationalities all with passion for Jesus on a 95 year old ship and you got a recipe for interestingness.









After some brief orientation, unpacking and dinner, there was weekly prayer night. Apparently everybody on the ship has crazy cheers for each nationality and department and they get pretty exubarant. After some alternating announcements and prayer there was a big object lesson "game" to get us thinking about poverty. We had to cram 7 people each on mats the size of small tents. This represented an average slum family in an average slum home. Then they showed us how to make paper bags out of newspaper and flour-water glue. This is an actual occupation for a lot of poverty stricken people. The game then consisted of trying to make enough paper bags and selling them to shop keepers so that we could buy food and pay rent to our horrible land lords or else we would be sent under a "bridge" with a gang until we could pay back our debt. The goal was to make enough money in the end to be able to send one child from your family to school. Despite stealing from shopkeepers my team failed, maybe because we refused to sell any of our women into prostitution. This whole object lesson was followed by some quiet prayer time around different stations that had information about poverty issues like sanitation, prison, child prostitution etc.









I'm afraid this is already getting way too long and I haven't even mentioned half of what could be said. What about the people I'm meeting? What about my living quarters, schedule, and duty on the ship? How about some introspection? First impressions of Cambodia? I think I will have to spread some of this out to the following days.

Prayer requests:

• That I could process the vast amounts of information and people that my brain is being confronted with.
• That I wouldn't miss opportunities during these early stages