spoiled

I still haven't finished blogging about my trip to Cambodia earlier this summer. I don't know what my mental road block was but I just kept putting it off. It was such an amazing trip and I know I can't adequately put my thoughts into words so I guess I just filed it away in my brain. Until today. I grabbed what I thought was an empty memory card tonight to take pics of the kids real quickly. It wasn't empty. Out of the 800+ pictures I took on the trip, there was ONE picture that I never saw when I was scrolling through them all when I was home. I looked several times over the next month and then accepted that I wasn't going to find that picture. Until tonight! There were 6 pictures already on this card when I grabbed it and this picture was one of them:

Seems so simple yet brought back a ton of memories. This precious lady was visiting the center while we were there. One (maybe more?) of her children live there. She was thanking me, I think, and kept shaking and rubbing my hands. Now, after a week there, I picked up about 3 words in Khmer so honestly had no idea what she was saying, but it "seemed" like she was telling me my hands were very white and soft. She kept comparing our hands. Her's...dark, rough, calloused. Mine...pale, soft, smooth. We called a translator over to help us out and she was, indeed, amazed by the paleness and softness of my hands. It hit me (and seeing this picture again reminded me) that pretty much every thing she does in her normal daily life, we have machines to do. Really. Dishes - check. Laundry - check. Heck, even transportation - check! Our days here have been hotter temperature-wise than when we were in Cambodia...but we have A/C and just come inside when it is hot out. They try to find shade. There is no nice way to say this...Americans are spoiled. We are white and soft and spoiled.

We asked someone to take a picture of us and they did (I don't even remember who it was - just figured I would get it when I got back home). She found me later and asked me to take one with MY camera. You see, while we were there, my camera=prints. We brought two printers and I took pictures of all 800 kids and a lot of parents too and we printed them on the spot for them. This sweet lady wanted a picture of us to keep. Someone else taking it didn't get her that. I would say that I wonder if she still has it but I'm pretty sure I know the answer to that. I'm printing this up now for myself so I can remember to pray for her now that I'm back in my spoiled lifestyle, and so I will not forget.