BACK TO PHNOM PEHN: COULDN'T GET ENOUGH

At 7:30am we were on our way to the infamous bus back to Phnom Pehn. The ride was smooth, and we arrived by lunchtime. We called Kris and arranged that we would meet up for dinner before the Friday night worship service at the orphanage. That meant we had 3 hours to do about 600 things. 1) Buy night bus tickets up to Siem Reap - CHECK. 2) Eat lunch at a cool place on the river where they say that Chicken Fingers take 3 min. to prepare when they actually take 30 - CHECK. 3) Tour around Phnom Penh & see Royal Palace - NOT REALLY. 4) Meet up with Katie Davis who works at a local micro-finance office that partners with Kiva - CHECK. 5) Get to "Freebird" bar & grill by 5pm for dinner with Kris - ALMOST CHECK.

THE ROYAL PALACE: SERIOUS ABOUT SLEEVES
Knowing we were in a crazy hurry, Katie and I hired a tuk-tuk driver... who we later discovered spoke no English. He was, however, totally cool. Which more than made up for it. He took us by the Royal Palace, we hopped out, walked up to ticketing, and immediately walked back out- apparently sleeveless shirts are a faux pas in the Phnom Pehn Royal Palace. Either that or the ticketing lady really just didn't like Katie. Our McGyver solution: grab the blanket covering the back seat of the tuk-tuk and cover Katie's shoulders with it. The driver seemed cool with it. We walked back, confident in our new method- only to be, once again, denied. The sleeves must be attached. Who knew?

Bruised, but not beaten, we left and tuk-tuk'd over to meet Katie Davis at her office. Miracuously, we found the place, and were greeted by Katie at her office entrance. She explained the micro-finance process to us: how her company gives small loans (with a $500 limit) to local farmers or small businesses to aid them in their pursuits. It's a great process, that was nice to learn more about.

FREEBIRD: A LITTLE SLICE OF AMERICA IN THE HEART OF CAMBODIA
By the end of our time with Katie the clock struck 5pm. We were supposed to be with Kris then. Crap! I called Kris, and he directed us to simply meet him at the restaurant. No problem. Little did we know, we were entering into the middle of Phnom Penh traffic in the middle of the busiest area in town. Lucky for us, our driver didn't care about traffic. Incredibly, our tuk-tuk managed to push through spaces between buses, cars, and motorbikes that were approximately the width of a pencil, and we arrived in no time.

Dinner was great- I was fortunate enough to eat the first Mexican food I had even seen in 2 weeks. 3 Camb/Mex soft tacos = Not quite on par with Tex/Mex, but not bad. Not bad at all.

WORSHIP SERVICE AT THE ORPHANAGE
After dinner we were off to the orphanage for worship. We arrived and entered the sanctuary to 80 children singing praise songs to "Preya Jesu". It was beautiful. Kids of all ages: from 18 months to 18 years, and even staff and pastors. Up front: a single high school boy on synthesized keyboard with all the drum tracks programmed, and 3 singers with microphones. It was awesome.

The worship was all in Cambodian, and so we just took it all in from the back for a while- until they began singing "Shout To The Lord". I recognized the melody and began singing it to myself along with the rest of the room singing in their native tongue. It was so powerful- the reality of the situation hit me- that we were all praising the same God as one. A picture of heaven. I focused on the words, and they made more sense than ever before. It was a wonderful and emotional experience.

After worship, the pastor preached, and after they split the room into 2 and began praying out loud for specific requests. The kids, though of a wide age range, were very focused and excited to be in worship. It was refreshing. After the service, Katie and I got to meet a number of the children, as many of them ran up to us and wanted to be near us. Once I began picking up a few of the boys and throwing them around the room (not literally, Child Services), many more came up and wanted to be spun around or raised up above my head and dropped back down. It was so fun. My most faithful companion, probably the cutest kid I've ever seen, maybe 4 years old, wanted to be spun around by his arms. So I spun him until we were both dizzy. Immediately, he wanted to go again. Then his friend jumped in. So I spun him. Then the other kid wanted to go again. Then the other one. Repeat this process 10 times. Then, the 2nd kid got tired, but the first one could not get enough. Seriously. We kept agreeing on "Just one more"- which turned into 3 more. I was starting to get nautious. But it was totally worth it to see him laugh. He was a totally hilarious lil' ball of energy.

Katie connected with a bunch of the girls- they all loved her. They were doing girl stuff- like talking. As for me, after about 50,000 spins, it was time to bid the orphanage adieu. We spoke with a few more of the kids, and soon enough we were back in Kris's car.

Kris dropped us off and we said our final goodbyes. What an incredible time it had been with him! So encouraging to see the work that Foursquare Children of Promise is doing in Cambodia- and so glad Kris is being used so faithfully there. It was an enriching time.

NIGHT BUS: SIEM REAP
We packed our bags up and got ready to head out for our night bus to Siem Reap. We decided to just go for it and charter the bus instead of staying in Phnom Pehn and leaving the next morning. Good decision? Bad decision? You decide.

We arrived at the "bus terminal" (a.k.a.) a sidewalk on some barely lit street in some random neighborhood in Phnom Pehn at 11:30pm to wait for the bus. At midnight the pre-WWII assembled bus arrived to sweep us off on our 6-hour journey to Siem Reap.

This bus had all the amenities: seats that leaned back at least 4 degrees, an aisle down the middle, and some windows. It even had a flat tire that we got to wait on the road for an hour while they fixed- and one of the drivers threw all the passenger's bags up onto the 2nd level, right where I was, to get them out of the way for some reason. All of these circumstances, combined with a jarringly bumpy road, contributed to my being awake nearly all night. The good news: I made it the furthest through my "Sleep" playlist on my iPOD I ever have. Normally I'm out by the 2nd song- this time I made it to the 2nd to last. Also good news: Katie got to rest. I don't know how she managed this superhuman task, but she did, and I'm not only glad... I'm impressed.