Rays of light in the darkest of places

the past two days have been quite an experience. yesterday was our first days being at Rahabs house and it left some fairly strong first impressions. as we were walking around before we started smashing we looked through all of the rooms and it was absolutely one of the hardest things i have done. All of the beds were still there and all of the posters on the walls and other filth. As we walked through though there was a sound coming from the kitchen. i ignored it in the beginning and just kept walking through the rooms but my curiosity got the best of me and i went to investigate what the sound was. a few members of the team were in there and i looked down at what they were looking at. in one of the corners there was a little kitten who could have not been more then a couple days old. it was meowing and looking for its mother but she was no where to be found. Helen from ARC had taken it and put it in a little hat. she tried to give it some water but the kitten was still so young it didn't know how to take a drink of water. the kitten was then taken to ARC to live. this just reminded me of how the girls at Rahabs house were rescued. They were so helpless and didn't know what to do and were rescued from such a horrible place where who knows what was done to them. We worked until two that day and we were able to destroy a couple of walls and the ceiling upstairs.

Today we were able to destroy the rest of the rooms and half of the kitchen had gone out as well. many of the people in the town are quite happy that we are there because right when we throw the rubble out into the street, there is an army of people running to get the rubble to grind it down and sell it. it is quite a thing to see, seeing something that we would find in Canada to be garbage and useless has such a high value in Cambodia.

the kids have been great too. Many of them are exited to see us and like to help as well. wheeling out the rubble in the wheel barrows the kids always try and help us wheel it out into the street and like to take rides in them on our way back to get more bricks.

so over all it has been a hard but very rewarding first two days working a Rahabs house and i can't wait to keep things going and finish the project