Phnom Penh, finally. After rolling into Detroit, my 747 to Tokyo was grounded by technical difficulties, forcing me to stay a lonely night in one of Michigan’s finer Best Westerns. On my way early the next morning, I was nervous – having missed both my connecting flights and worrying for the safety of my bicycle, which was somewhere in the South-Pacific. In the end I was re-routed through Bangkok, and arrived in Phnom Penh, to find my bicycle – some of it peeking through the packing box, but all in all, no worse for wear.

In what has become BikeMovement Asia tradition, a stop was made at the Phnom Penh International Airport Dairy Queen, and then a tuk-tuk back to MCC headquarters. A night ride downtown along the Mekong river ended with Indian food, before we pedaled back for our first night’s sleep as a complete group.

Six a.m. came early the next morning, but I found no sympathy from the rest, already accustomed to the “early to bed, early to rise” habits of their Cambodian neighbours. Though sleeping with only the cover of a mosquito net, I noticed that I had still managed to sweat for what appeared to have been the entire night.

This was to be the first busy day of a busy week. Stopping only to get me US dollars, we biked bright and early to the Vietnamese embassy to get visas. After a wait in line, and constant reassurance that our passports would indeed be returned to us at 10am, we were on our way to the Laotian embassy. Lunch with Larry and Sherry Groff, MCC Cambodia country reps, was an excellent initiation into the world and workings of NGOs and church organizations alike. That afternoon Nick, Neil, Addie and I went to Toul Sleng, a former elementary school-turned concentration camp-turned war museum. Glass cases of skulls, unearthed in the nearby ‘killing fields’ were contrasted with beautiful palm trees since planted in the courtyard – a sombre reminder of the brutal history of this gorgeous country.

My first full day in Phnom Penh was capped with a group meeting, discussing a number of things – personal expectations to conflict resolution. Admittedly still in the ‘honeymoon’ stages of the trip, group dynamics have been excellent thus far, and if that first meeting was any indication, should continue to stay that way for many kilometres (sorry, miles) to come.

The next morning we met with Dadi, the Cambodian pastor of Phnom Penh Mennonite Church – the first of its kind in this country. I believe others have posted about this meeting, but it was interesting to hear his faith story, and my first encounter with the global Mennonite church. Questions of what it means to be Mennonite in a global context, and more broadly ideas surrounding conversion and missionary work were sparked by this conversation, and I have tried to keep from passing my usual cynical judgement, even if I remain skeptical about them both. It was exciting, and I look forward to continue processing these ideas.

That afternoon we met with Nicole’s host family from SST – and in the typically gracious Cambodian fashion we were cooked lunch, including tradition dessert, without a moment’s notice of our arrival. After an hour of edifying Cambodian soap operas, we returned to MCC, where the group then bike to Darryl and Sharon Caldwell’s home for dinner. This was an interesting departure from the Groff’s, with whom we had dined the previous day. Again, wonderfully gracious hosts, the work the couple was doing in Cambodia was not necessarily work I myself would do, but they owned an obvious passion for their witnessing and sharing the gospel. While I was not always in agreement with their actions or intentions, it was a good night, and again provoked discussion and thought. Post-dinner we headed back to PP Mennonite Church with Darryl, who had requested we speak at a bible study for young students, given a place to stay at the church. For a more thoughts on this, I suggest you read Tim’s recent post about this portion of the night.

Which brings us to today, again busily spent preparing for tomorrow, our first day on the road, en-route to Ho Chi Minh city. This week has been great, inspiring more thinking and discussion than I would have predicted, and as we shift gears towards biking I only grow with excitement!

Jesse Bauman

May 4th

Posted by Jesse Bauman

This entry was posted on Friday, May 4th, 2007 at 8:20 pm and is filed under Asia07. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.