Hey guys! Its been such a long time since i posted anything here.. I"m so ashamed of myself! Anyway its great to be back! But i have to say that the three weeks spent in cambodia was an experience of a lifetime! I can't say i've come back with new year resolutions to save the world and rid the world of evil or whatever... all i can say is that i'm ready for more such trips. I'm ready for whatever may come in my path for the years to come and i strongly encourage all the ESSR peeps to just give yourself and those people out there a chance by going for one of such trips.

I made alot of friends and i almost made myself a boyfriend haha... but well things happened a little too quickly and things changed drastically when we came back. So i've been through a little rough patch but its nothing our god cannot fix right?? And going to cambodia has made me realise how small our problems can be as compared to the others out there. Like a kid in the village whose parents left them with 5000 Reals(which is equivalent to 1.25 US dollars) and then headed out to work in the city. He has to worry about where his next meal is coming from for him and his two sisters and on the second day... he had already spent 2000 reals. God knows when his parents will finally be coming back! But what amazed me was the innocence of this young boy.... he willingly gave his little sister 500 Reals to buy ice balls! WHen that 500 reals could just be what he needs to keep the family going for one more day!

And we met a 19 year old prostitute who came from the village in search of a job in the city. She couldn't find one and hence ended up being a sex slave earning a fixed salary of 25 Us dollars a month and tips that might come with each customer. The money she earns now goes to putting her younger brother through school and her parents have no idea that she is in this line of profession. Her dream is to save up 200 US dollars and set up a small business somewhere back home. She has been working for 2 years and up till now she has zero savings... because she says that whenever someone falls ill at home... that's where the money goes. Imagine living a life wondering when you'll ever be able to accumulate 200 US dollars. FOr many of us... 200 US dollars is the cost of our ipod... or in my case... my MD player.

On my last day in Siem Reap i also visited a massage parlour(that was highly indecent). I walked in and i found myself in a room with a "fishbowl". A "fishbowl" is basically a part of the room that is partitioned of by a glass pane. And behind this glass pane sits prostitutes with number tags on them in neat rows.... I couldn't stop my jaw from falling and did nothing to pull it back up. FYI my jaw dropped not because they were pretty or anything but because i've never seen anything like that before... WOmen as commodities. All made up and wearing skimpy clothes and definitely not looking very cheerful....

ANd you know over there i had an entire afternoon to slack in this posh cafe called Blue pumpkin that has a long sofa which you can just sleep on.... I spent my afternoon thinking through what i want my life to revolve around. Still got so many doubts in life that i need god to intervene in.. and its just so hard to put a finger on how i'm going to do that. But maybe you all can do what i did... Just think about God as the centre of your life and how the other things link up to this... For me it was mainly CHurch, Studies, Love. HAha... but many others as well! SO hmmm.. maybe some of you can share? haha.. alrite... super late now... Gotta sleep! Nitey nites!