Days 21-26: Saskatchewan and into Alberta.

Okay, let's get caught up.

To start, I have to apologize to the congregation of Rosthern Alliance Church, as I was not present to document the performance. My father, Blaine, had finished up with his brief business that took him away from the team, so it was up to me to pick him up, which coincided with the night's performance. From what Sarah, who hails from the Rosthern-Waldheim area, told me, the performance was another hit, but the kids were strangely stoic at times. Sarah later told the children she would reward them if they made sure to smile more during their next performance. I will hopefully get some photos and videos from the Rosthern performance from some of the other team members, which I would then post on a future blog entry. Thank you for your patience.

The next day, Blaine and I met up with the team in Saskatoon, at the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park & Zoo. The real appeal of the location was not the animals but the crab-apple trees which were easily accessible for the children. The kids have been strangely obsessed with the tart fruit, previously asking if they were available to pick at different locations. Now that they finally came across them, they began picking away, acquiring an entire cooler's worth. If this is something that is not allowed at the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park & Zoo and you are a representative of the establishment, we will pay you back 1000 Cambodian Riel.

We then made our way to Pleasant Hill Church in Saskatoon. This would be a meaningful performance for my mother, Shelly, as several members of her extended family (my once-removed cousins and great-aunt) would be present for the performance. It was great to see family again. The children also remembered Sarah's promise of a reward for smiling, so they were practically beaming during their dances. I tried to be a little more careful with getting footage for this performance, as I realized that I might be distracting away from the dances if I get too close to the stage.

The next day saw Sarah follow through on her promise of a reward: her old manager at Village Green Thrift Shop allowed all of the kids to pick a toy for free from the store's inventory. It was an extremely generous gesture that went a long way. I was nervous that there would be issues over who gets what, but all of the kids each picked their own unique toy with nobody wanting the same item. Gabriel had me laughing at how excited he was to have a stretchy Batman toy, which he made sure to show everybody. (Photos of the thrift store visit can be seen on the Rescue Cambodia facebook page).

Our next stop was Luseland, where we would be performing inside their local theatre. Luseland is a very small town, with a population that floats around 600 people. We had no idea how many people would show up, so we set up chairs for what we thought would be a reasonable turnout. What happened next was my favourite moment of the tour so far, as we had far more people show up than expected, resulting in us having to quickly add additional rows as people came in. We ended up having about 90 people show up, which means the people of Luseland set a new record: while we have had a few performances with more people, Luseland had a higher percentage of its population attend our performance than anywhere else, with about 15% of the population attending.

After leaving from our billets, we made the drive to Camrose. We had lots of time before we needed to be at Resurrection Lutheran Brethren Church, so we had lunch and played at a playground for a bit. My dad and I chased several kids around, often cornering them so that we could subject them to tickling. After we were finished eating and playing, we made a stop at the local Dollarstore, where we gave each child $25 to spend on items to bring back home for their houses. The experience was ... stressful. The kids were extremely hard to keep track of and often stood in the way of other customers until shooed away. We got through it, but us chaperones were left exhausted by the ordeal.

The performance at Resurrection Luthern Brethren Church went well, although the children were more mischievous than usual. Sarah and I gave them multiple reprimands about their volume levels while they were in the foyer, with them seemingly forgetting how to be quiet between each performance. Thankfully their rowdiness did not interfere with the dances, as they became focused each time the music played.

We had a day off from dancing after our visit to Camrose, which would be used for setting up at Daysland Alliance Church. Before we did that, we paid a visit to another playground, this time with one that had workout equipment. I began to notice that my usual routine of grabbing the kids and picking them up when they least expect it was starting to return groans and sighs when it used to be giggles, so I focused instead on asking what they want me to do. We then went to another bowling alley, where we engaged in some fierce 5-pin action. Blaine could not read his own handwriting when giving out the names, so Moses became Meng, which got lots of laughs. What was also funny was that the teams were made in order of the names given, meaning one team was three adults and Sreyda. We played the teams as they were, having a lot of fun.

After we set up the stage and our marketplace at Daysland Alliance Church, the kids had some free time before going with their billets. As the kids were horsing around, a major scare occurred when Theera, who was chasing two girls around the basement, ran full speed into a door that was shut at the last moment. I was not present when the accident occurred, but those who were said that Theera's cries made them think his arm may have been broken. Blaine and Tong took him to the hospital for an x-ray, and according to Tong, Theera began to laugh it off as they waited. While still in pain, Theera only suffered major bruising, a far cry from a broken arm.

While his arm was not broken, Theera sat out of most of the dances the next morning for safety concerns. We performed at Daysland Alliance' Church's Sunday service, doing the entire program instead of a shortened one. The congregation greatly enjoyed the program, and were treated to a rare blooper: the children were nowhere in sight when it came time for the 'Praying Mantis dance', leading Blaine to stand up and tell us that "sometimes

this happens". Nobody got in trouble, as it appeared to be a mix-up as to where the kids would be entering from. Afterwards, the kids became very excited as they saw light snow coming down outside the church windows.

Supper for the day was special, as we visited my brother's family: James, his wife, Elena, their two-year-old son, Sam, and the old family dog, Wrigley. It was great to have a small family get-together in the middle of this tour, and it was awesome to see the Cambodians dote on Sam and cuddle up with Wrigley. I was surprised at how much the kids wanted to play outside in the freezing cold weather. Thankfully, there was spare winter clothing for all of the kids, allowing them some comfort from the cold.

Once we said our goodbyes, we set off to Camp Little Red, a Christian summer camp just outside of Innisfail. This is to be our home for the next week, as we will be going to various towns around the area. The kids are very excited to be spending so much time at the campground, and it does make for a welcome break for the team, as we don't have to keep packing up our suitcases each day.

The blog is now all caught up (for now)! The next entry will cover our Thanksgiving experience and our performance at Innisfail Alliance Church.

See you later!

My mom had her makeup and haird done by Sreyleng for our Daysland performance.