While so many people have cared for me, taught me, listened to me, and comforted me here, no one has been as supportive in Cambodia as my two friends Heather and Gilbert. Fortunately, Gilbert lives only 16 kilometers away in a smaller village, and today he made the trip into the “big city” for a visit. We spent the day riding our bikes through the countryside, taking pictures with dusty children, chatting about the past and coming years, eating noodles and Pringles, and playfully perturbing each other with our slightly unparallel personalities and senses of humor.
While Gilbert is a Latino-American Baptist urbanite and I’m
a bucolic Methodist of European descent, we get along well together and are
comfortable sharing our thoughts, difficulties, successes, and indulgences with
each other. An affirming listener and a fun playmate, he makes my life in
Cambodia tolerable on the hardest days and especially delightful on the best.
Few volunteers are as lucky to have a friend as near (literally) and dear as Gilbert
is to me.
Gilbert forging through the water with three stunned onlookers. (Who wouldn't stare at those legs?)
Some boys I've seen a few times on my bike rides who never speak to me but who clearly enjoy taking pictures.
Gilbert & that sign are priceless. I was lucky enough to experience separate language groups with you both; each side-splitting fun.
ReplyDeleteI think my service would have been very different had I had a close friend nearby (30k or less, someone you could get on your bike and see frequently, a friend and neighbor).
Glad you have that and appreciate it.
<3