YISS GOES Cambodia

Here's to the most enriching trip of my life:

At first, I hesitated to sign up. I even regretted signing up for YISS GOES Cambodia trip whenever I went to our 7:10 am morning meetings every Friday or as the AP season approached. But I will never regret going.

The idea of a service trip may sound cliché, but it is widely-known for a reason. When you see the smiles of the children, everything just melts away. As my first time going to Cambodia, I was not able to adjust to the heat (even though it was March there) very easily. It was frankly my first time staying at such a rurual area with no access to clean tap water and well-developed facilities.

On the first step towards my room, I screamed at the sight of a gecko and soon heard the room next to us scream at the sight of a cockroach. It was a whole new experience for sure :)

When our gecko refused to leave, we gave it a name and became friends with it. One by one, we ewre getting used to our new home for the next couple of days.

Different from my intial concerns of not being able to enjoy the trip overall, I loved it so much. It was almost my escape from the stress of Korea (especially with the APs coming) and reminded me to breathe. Just inhale and exhale. The nature seemed to whisper to me that everything was going to be alright.

Serving the kids by dancing, performing a skit, playing, and taking them to a water park was more like being served by their love. I reflected on how exhausted I can get with personal relationships, and was empowered by their pure love. Their innocence seemed to wash my concerns away. At that moment, I was just a kid again, giggling at everything that was happening around me.

Indeed, there were hard times when a kid threw up on one of our members or the heat was overtaking us. However, all of us dealt with overall maturity and learned how to adapt to the new environment. Sure, this was the most exhausting trip of my life, but it was the most enriching trip of my life that I know I will never regret going. I already miss my kids...

(the faces of the children were covered because some of them were past victims of human trafficking)

You can find more info about YISS GOES trips in our school's news article about them!