We were in the office one Thursday morning and Anna casually asked Vitou what was happening about teaching Savvy, Theung's boyfriend. He has been involved with a church before and has some knowledge of the Bible, but is keen to learn more, and hopefully to be baptised and join our fellowship. Vitou replied that it had completely slipped his mind. So before we knew what was happening, we were volunteering to take a trip to Sihanoukville for the weekend, to meet up with Savvy and spend some time teaching him.
That left us about 24 hours to get everything else in order for the weekend - arranging and briefing teachers to relieve us for our scheduled classes; printing, naming, and signing certificates for all the students who completed the recent seminar course; buying prizes for the top-scoring students; trying to find accomodation in Sihanoukville; farewelling Don and Una, Steve, and Sally as they were to leave for Thailand over the weekend; and oh, we needed to pack somewhere in there too. Finally bursting out the door with some hastily packed bags and a trail of farewells, we hailed the nearest tuktuk and arrived at the bus station in good time for the bus. Five hours, three bottles of water, two books, and a packet of Pringles later, we alighted in downtown Sihanouville, ready to tour the guesthouses, looking for somewhere that would have suitable space for holding lessons with Savvy. We eventually found a cheap room with a table and chairs outside just up the road from the beach, and settled in for the night.
Savvy arrived bright and early Saturday morning, enthusiastic and ready for a day's study. We launched into "seven ones" of Ephesians chapter 4 and spent the morning showing what the "one body" and the "one spirit" were, and began to probe what the "one hope" is. I installed e-sword on Savvy's computer, which he was very chuffed to learn how to use, and liked being able to read from a variety of translations. Ready for a break, we headed down to the beach for lunch, and got ourselves a meal and a shady spot with some beach chairs (not much of an achievement really, considering that the beach is littered with eating establishments, beach chairs and umbrellas for the better part of a kilometre [and littered literally, with huge quantities of trash, for its entire length]).
A little later, back at the guesthouse, Savvy survived admirably through a mid-afternoon endurance lesson, and then as evening approached, we headed out for a ride round the coast on his moto. He took us past Sokha Resort, with its private beach, through a patch of forest populated by a clan of morbidly obese monkeys, past Independence Beach to Hawaii Beach. Here was a stunning contrast to the sickeningly touristy Occheuteal Beach: no overcrowded rows of beach chairs and sun umbrellas; no accumulations of garbage on the sand; no blaring stereos; and best of all, no sunburnt, overexposed, overweight, drunken foreigners - just small groups of Khmer picnicing and swimming on a quiet but pretty beach. We watched the sun turn rosy and finally blood-red before disappearing into a cloudy horizon. Then we jumped back on the moto and went back to Independence Beach where we sat on the sea wall and chatted in the evening breeze until hunger pangs sent us scurrying for the nearest fried-noodle vendor.
Savvy stayed with us at the guesthouse, and Sunday morning had us back on our front porch with Bibles in hand, this time studying the "one Lord" and "one God". Once we'd finished demonstrating the similarities and differences between God and Jesus, Savvy packed up and rode off home to do his washing and prepare for the coming week at work. Meanwhile, we stayed on in Sihanoukville for an extra night, so that we could enjoy some of our Monday on the beach before jumping on the bus back to Phnom Penh. Unfortunately, we had a localised power cut afflict us for the remainder of our stay: as we were readying ourselves for bed on Sunday night the power went out, not across the town, not even along the street, unfortunately not even effecting the high-voltage (if not such high-fidelity) sound systems providing the music for a wedding a block away; no, just in our room and the couple of rooms either side of us. No power turning the fan meant a warm, sticky, mozzie-bitten night, but we got moving early in the morning to make the most of the beach before the hordes of tourist began to come to life. Finding a patch of beach free of people was not so difficult as finding a patch free of trash, but we managed to eventually, a kilometre or two from the developed end of the beach, find a more-or-less clean spot, and went in. While busy turning our fingers into raisins in what is remarkably clear water, we had some diminutive company - a school of tiny fish that seemed to be attracted to our shadows, and didn't even mind too much when we caught a few of them in our hands and lifted them out of the water for a closer look.
Back in Phnom Penh by evening (to another power cut, incidentally), we pass on the baton to Him and Theavy, who are the next to make the trip to visit and teach Savvy. We hope and pray his faith will continue to deepen and mature.
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