Dear Kiddos: July 2015

This past weekend we took a little trip to Kampot. It was absolutely beautiful. I'm disappointed that the pictures don't even come close to doing this place justice. We stayed in little bungalows that were right on the bank of the river. Our first day we went to some rapids and ran into a group of Australians tubing down the river. They told us it was only $5 so of course we had to do it. We went to their little hostel that they owned and it was a total party house! Everyone there was totally wasted and high out of their minds. It wasn't until we were in the truck on our way to the top of this river that we began to realize how sketchy this was. We were just trusting these two drunk Australian guys to bring us safely down the river. I was so out of my element, I'm really not a spontaneous person... at all. But I'm so glad we did it! It was so much fun and the view from the river was incredible! Again, I'm so disappointed that the pictures don't do it justice. I'm also so so so disappointed that I left the GoPro in Phnom Pehn. Duh.

The second day we went to the beach which was just as fun and just as beautiful. I've really only been to the beach about three or four times in my life. Dillon was laughing at me because I guess I was acting like a little kid. I felt like the waves were pretty big but everyone else kept telling me how tiny they were haha.

I made a short video of our weekend but unfortunately didn't get any videos from the river or the beach.

Kampot Trip from Marlies Hill on Vimeo.

Our hotel/bungalow

The river before we found our Australian friends

Me realizing how stupid of an idea this was

Next stop: Thailand

As promised I thought I would do a quick post explaining what we are doing in Cambodia!

Last year Dillon got a job as a student facilitator for the BYU South East Asian public health study abroad/internship program. The Kennedy Center made changes to the program this year so although the student facilitators (and their wives) in the past were able to go with the students they told Dillon when he got the job that it wasn't in the budget this year for us to go. We were disappointed but Dillon accepted the job anyway and was excited to contribute to the program. A few months later Dillon called me after a meeting with his boss and told me that they shortened the program to only summer semester (instead of spring and summer semester) and that it was now in the budget for us to go to Cambodia! To say we were excited would be an understatement. Dillon served his mission in Cambodia and we were really wanting to make it back there before we started having kids. However, it just didn't make a lot of sense with us trying to save up for medical school to spend that kind of money on a trip. So when we found out Dillon would have a scholarship that would be paying for us both to go, we were obviously beyond thrilled!

We spent the next nine months preparing for Cambodia. During winter semester Dillon taught a prep class to nine students where he presented on basic Khmer language, culture, and a little bit about Cambodia's history and recent genocide.

We are now finally here in Cambodia! It seemed like this summer would never come and now we are already a month in. All of the students are doing different (public health related) internships. Dillon and I (as well as another student Amy) are working for an NGO (non-profit) called CEDAW. Dillon has been translating legal documents as well as teaching English classes to the staff here. I found out when we got here that I would be teaching two design classes a day, I've been teaching basic Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. It's been very interesting due to the language barrier, but I feel like over the last few weeks the classes have been going a lot smoother.

It has been so fun for me to be here in Cambodia and experience for myself the country Dillon fell in love with. It has definitely been an experience we will never forget.