Monday, February 20, 2012

My Teacher at Rapha House


While sitting in the air conditioning of our finance office, I strike up a conversation with Dailyn. She's a Rapha House girl who has been with us for years and is now interning as an Assistant Bookkeeper.

I remark about how far she has come. And in true Khmer form, she says without pride, "I know." Then she adds completely out of left field, "But my father hates me."

I pull my chair alongside her desk. We chat briefly about her family. Then I ask her, "Since you are a good girl, and your father hates you, who has the problem?" Without a moment's hesitation, she replies, "He does."

She then adds, "My teacher here at Rapha House taught me that every night before I go to bed to give all my troubles to God. So that's what I do." In that moment I realize she has just become my teacher at Rapha House.

That's the way things go here. Right when I think I'm the one teaching these children, they turn the tables on me and remind me of how much I've yet to learn.