Dear Cambodia,

Today I’m traveling back to Asia. After a sleepless night, I woke up this morning with a paralyzing thought… “Who does this?” Who in their right mind flies halfway around the world for a job? Who crams their life’s possessions into two suitcases like some kind of high-stakes puzzle game? The answer: me. I do this. And I think I might be a little crazy.

One of the great joys of living and working overseas is the opportunity to build friendships and interact with the local culture. This creates many opportunities to learn and expand your thinking. This is especially important as a foreign English teacher. But what do you do when these friendships are hard to come by because of uncontrollable circumstances? This was the case for one of our teams in Cambodia. Here’s their story:

Her name is Lin.

We know because we asked.

We asked because she walks by our house nearly every day.

She walks by our house every day to collect trash.

Sometimes she’s alone.