Cambodia's January Retreat

The Cambodian team met on January 11 for their retreat at Kelly's house. Even though the roads were bad and snow was falling, most of the team was able to make it. Kelly was a great host, and we started off the retreat with some food and mingling.
We got to learn about some of our team's local service sites. Sarah W. is working at a school and doing an after school program. Brooke is also working at a school as well as an after school program, and Nate is visiting the elderly in their homes and visit with them.
As we broke into committees, we were able to get a ton accomplished. The medical team discussed possible lesson plan topic like food safety and hygiene. They also brainstormed possible projects like sanitary pads. The cultural committee was planning on participating in the Mondo Art Party on January 14. They also discussed the opening ceremonies and what dances we might do, (i.e Gangnam Style?). The education committee talked about how to help the team make the best lesson plans, and are going to make a list to sign  up for different topics that we can teach.  Micro-enterprise committee talked about having hanging gardens as a possible project. They also planned a lot of research in preparation for the February meeting.  The vocational committee talked about building a playground at the school as a possible project using tires swings or a rock wall.
Our service project got postponed to another day because of the storm. We were going to to the homeless shelter to serve breakfast. We did get to create file folder games that we will be taking with us to Cambodia. During our meeting we discussed possible fund raising ideas for all of our projects. Some of our projects may include: Playground, chicken farm, catfish pond, and bio sand filters in the homes. The chicken farm and the catfish pond would be cared for by the school and all profits would go back to the school as well.
Team Cambodia got a lot done at this meeting, and we are all super excited to do our local service hours, fundraising and read the two books Kelly gave us for home work, " First they Killed my Father" and "When Broken Glass Floats". These two books are about the Killing Fields  the Khmer Rouge, the mass genocide in Cambodia in the 1970's These books will teach us why the people of Cambodia need our help.