cycling to lake Barray

Our holiday on Thursday was great! I'm looking back to it fondly after my first day teaching today... Sieam Reap (and from what I can tell, most of Cambodia) is fairly flat. We cycled out for a picnic lunch with a group of our students and staff to a spot on the lake lined with matts and little tents and hammocks. I managed to get pretty sun burned on the ride, but am healing and pretty much done peeling now. It was fun to be with the students on a social level first (before they realize how strict I might be in the classroom).

Although the quality of the water is somewhat questionable, it was quite fun swimming and chasing the kids around. I was surprised that some can't swim and just floated around on intertubes. We went on a boat ride to the island on the middle of the lake, and the students and staff had fun telling us all about the different stories about the small temple there.

What I've pieced together so far was, there was a crocodile that lived there and fell in love with a princess, but she was in love with the king of Thailand, so the crocodile ate him. After that, the king took her away from the crocodile so he wouldn't eat her too, so they used to leave food at his "bed" like a sacrifice? Anyway, his bed is what looks like an outdoor bath made of stone. And I'm not sure if it's the same princess, but anyway, there's some princess that bathes there and became 7 colors.

The island itself is very beautiful, and sadly full of children trying to sell me braclets and postcards. I still had some pamphlets from the last mission trip on the truth about God, and the kids were very interested, since in Buddhism, the concept of "God"is very impersonal and abstracted. Pantheism is heavily practiced here because people are in such need, they are willing to pray to everything/anyone, and do. I hope those kids come to know life as more than selling souveniers... and that there is one God who hears and answers prayers.