A New Beginning - Project Little Dream 2010

Sunset in Takeo, Cambodia

As many of you knew, I went on a 22-day trip to Cambodia with a Hong Kong organization called Project Little Dream (PLD http://www.littledream.org/). There were two main focuses of this trip: 1) to build bathrooms for the school that PLD constructed in Prey Run Village in 2009 Christmas; 2) to construct a new school in Kh'na Rong Village.

During these 22 days, I was placed in Kh'na Rong Village to construct the new school with other volunteers. For more details, you can refer to my Facebook albums:
Period 1 (Dec 17-Dec 28) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=1629180039&aid=58329
Period 2 (Dec 28-Jan7) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=1629180039&aid=58356

The aim of this note is not to recall what I did in Cambodia but to share with you my heartfelt feelings.

My first very deep feeling hit me on Dec 22 when I was teaching in the school in Prey Run Village. At the end of class, Tim, the local teacher, asked the students to sing "You Are My Sunshine" to us, the volunteer teachers. Listening to and looking at 175 Cambodian children sitting in a wooden school and singing in front of you was overwhelming. It was a humbling experience to me. My instant thought was: who am I that I deserve all these children singing "You Are My Sunshine" to me? The truth is, I have done nothing to these children. I did not know who they were, not even their names. But they made me flowers, gave me hand drawings, made me rings and crowns, and helped me in many ways. The more they showed me my importance, the more undeserving I felt.

This feeling was similar to how I felt when I went to S21 and Killing Field in Phnom Penh on our Free Day. (Every volunteer got one day off during the 11-day volunteering period. Most of us chose to go to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, for sightseeing.) All the pictures showed the brutality and indifference during Khmer Rouge (for more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge). Millions of lives were put to torture and death during that time. I couldn't help but kept echoing the question when I was looking at the exhibition: Why? Why? Why? Why? I guess my deepest question was: Why do we have a complete different life than those who lived in Cambodia during the 70s? What spared us from all these torture? Is it just pure fortune? And of course, there is no answer to these questions. But I've learned that each person bears a personal story for life. Every one of us has to live our own story. And the only thing we can do is not to be crushed by obstacles and trials but to live out our personal story beautifully.

Another important thing that I did during the trip was that I finally articulated what my dream is. As a Christian, I've always believed that apart from the ultimate purpose of life which is to have an intimate relationship with God, God placed me on Earth for a purpose. This purpose is personal to me and is specific to me. I'm aware that I'm always concerned for people who lost love, faith, and hope or people who think that life is pointless. In this trip, during a photo sharing session when everyone was sharing his/her dream, I also articulated what my dream is. My dream is to encourage and help other people to make their dreams come true. This is my driving force for life. I find this in line with many of the causes that I am concerned about as well as the kinds of people that I feel like I am called to serve.

The last thing I want to share with you is that I'm so grateful that I met a lot of inspiring good friends who have similar values in life. I treasure all the time that I spent talking about life, happiness, views on money, relationships, and many other topics with them. They will be my friends for life and I am so grateful that we shared all these wonderful memories in Cambodia.

All the things that I shared above happened so unexpectedly to me. To be honest, I did not know what I should expect before I went on the trip. But this 22-day experience certainly gave me more than what I expected. I also challenge you to find a period of time during which you give up your iPhone, Internet, and many others to find out more about another community and a little bit more about yourself.

Last but not least, thank you very much for your support! Your input has been helpful along the way! :-)

Cheers,
Shirley