For one month we lived and worked in Phnom Pehn (PP). After being on the road for three months in a row it was a nice change to settle into a place and to begin to feel at home. Also it was different to have a place of work. With work comes relationships with people and an external responsibility to get things done which was a change after travelling so independently with the four of us. But it was good. We enjoyed getting into a weekly routine and exploring a city not as a tourist there for a day or two but as someone who has more time to slowly take it all in.

All four of us worked at the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) Cambodia office. You can read more about the details of our volunteering here. The office was about half a kilometer from our guest house so every morning we would rise and liesurely walk to work. On the way we passed by the Russian Market, an interesting place to see the early morning goings on, and pick up a baguette from our favorite vendor for breakfast. On lucky days the bread had just been delivered and was still piping hot.

Once at work we divided into pairs and got started on our work. Deb and Jon were teaching computers and English to the local staff of CRWRC. They had two or three classes a day of English and on Fridays there was a four hour marathon computer class. The staff were more than eager to take advantage of the classes. English and computers are definitely what most people in PP have got their minds set on. Private schools teaching both subjects line every street in the city. These two subjects are definitely seen as the ticket to something better. And so the local staff understood the value of the classes being offered and took full advantage. Deb said she had never had students ignoring the set time limit of class or spending so much time on their homework. It was definitely rewarding to teach such eager students.

Dan and Sarah's job was a little harder to describe. CRWRC Cambodia works with local partners, mostly Cambodian NGOs, but recently they began working with an organization called the Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia (EFC). The EFC is an umbrella group of Cambodian churches. Most basically the EFC serves as a link between the churches and the Cambodian government. The head of the EFC regularly goes to the Ministry of Religion Office to take care of issues related to Christianity in Cambodia.

The EFC is about 10 years old and has a lot of "issues" or problems that arise due to its relatively new status and given the state of the society in Cambodia (Cambodia is just now emerging from the Khmer Rouge and ensuing isolation period when it was part of the Communist block under the thumb of Vietnam). Also the organization is mix of denomintations and perspectives so conflict and a certain foggy vagueness of purpose seem to overhang the organization.

Our instructions were to improve the communication within the organization. Basically we spent a lot of time interviewing people and gathering as much information as we could from as many sources as possible. In the end we prepared a report of our findings to the Board of Directors and gave some suggestions for how we thought the organization could communicate more effectively. Also we helped to set up a homepage for EFC and trained some of the staff in the office how to update it. We hope it will be an effective tool for them. However it still needs some work so we don't want to give out the URL just yet. After returning to the States we will have some free time and we hope that we can keep helping them out.

The best part of our work had to be getting to know the people we came into contact with. Everyone we met was so friendly and so interesting. We definitely thank ServiceLink and CRWRC Cambodia for making our experience a rewarding one.