Day 3 - Orphanage

Back at the orphanage on Tuesday. Again, we started out with field day games, and then spent most of the day doing a big art project. The kids had a good time. There was a little tension among the team members, but we got it all together. The kids had fun, and really that's what makes it a success in my book! Who really cares what the mural looks like? Each kid painted a square, and it did turn out to be really nice art, in my untrained eye. It was a good day to do the art project because the shade was involved - it was much hotter! But I'm getting used to just being completely sweaty. Can't really fight it! The ladies who work the orphanage cook us lunch while we're there, and today I walked up while they were doing it. I was totally amazed. The "kitchen" is outside, with our shrimp being fryed over an open flame, veggies and coconuts and papaya from the garden or from a cabinet that is the pantry. They start cooking in the morning and the food isn't ready until noon. I felt bad that they were doing so much for us, but it seems to be a labor of love. and i mean labor, for real. But the food that we eat at the orphanage is the best we eat here, I think! They pull a coconut down from the tree, chop a hole in the top, chop a slit where they fit a straw, and we drink up. Its pretty awesome. Well, in theory. We have cool pictures, but the coconut milk is not that delicious. The papaya really is though. And I tried lychee and sawmow, both jelly-like fruits with seeds in the middle, and they were really good. The sawmow has spines on the outside.
In the afternoon, we played with some water balloons and then gave the kids the beanie babies. wow. those things have been sitting up in the Pipkin family attic for a while now. But they were treasures to them. Each kid picked their own, and they were running around, showing them off, stashing them away, trading them, etc. The look in their eyes was pure thrill. And after we got done passing them out, they sang us a song, first in Khmer, then English. The words were "Thank you Jesus, in my heart." I cried. One of the girls I have been hanging out with a lot picked the only stuffed animal that actually belonged to me - a Bambi that was not a beanie baby. I can't really explain the feeling of seeing her and the rest of them with their new treasures without sounding super cheesy. Really, words would only cheapen it. I feel so blessed to have been part of it.
Straight from the orphanage, we went to the Russian market, a big street market with tons of food and random stuff to buy. There's so much to see that it's very overwhelming. but very cool, and you can get really good prices. you have to bargain a lot, though, which I have a hard time doing without feeling like I'm stealing food right off their table. Anyone want a Northface backpack?
After we got back to the hotel and ate dinner, me and Kacie and Lindsay went to the spa, where they got massages and I got a facial! I've never gotten a facial before, and it was pretty awesome! and it only cost $13.50. tommorrow we might get $7 mani/pedis. yeah that's $7 total. and I still want to get a massage.
Running out of internet time!