Life in foreign land moulds her faith
At the end of Women’s Month, Review spoke to a woman who decided to spread her wings and explore venues past her boundaries.
POLOKWANE – Mariëtte Diedericks felt the need to do missionary work in Cambodia and in May 2016 she left her friends and family for her new adventure.
“The hardest adjustment I had to make was to adopt a foreign culture and lifestyle in order to connect and make friends,” she explained.
The most challenging part of her mission work in Cambodia, however, was the communication. “I could not speak, write or understand the Khmer or Pnong languages. This influenced everything and ordinary chores were challenging to complete. I had to adjust by using mainly hand gestures and fortunately certain things are universal like a friendly, polite smile and Christ-like courtesy. This opened many doors for me in Cambodia.”
During a journey like this, she explained, one has to learn something about yourself as a woman. “Living in a third world country with access to only primitive means allowed my character strengths to surface. By the grace of God, the missionary experience changed my character in all aspects. I learnt to appreciate and value people as serving others was my main concern and to reflect God’s love in our daily lives was my main objective. Being a woman in Cambodia gave me easy access to people’s humble homes and they accepted me in their lives and invited me into their family circle.”
The village where she lived, SenMonorom, is rich in natural wildlife and picturesque mountains, valleys and forests. The well-known majestic Boosra waterfalls situated in the heart of the Mondulkiri mountains, she said, was the highlight of things she saw.
“The most surprising thing I saw was the contrast between extremely wealthy groups of people and very poor groups of people. One would step out of the royal palace of the king of Cambodia in Phnom Pehn in all its splendour and two steps further one would stumble over hungry, blind beggars, children and street hawkers trying to make a living from selling food and other handmade items.
“The most surprising thing I did would be to, in an attempt to connect with strangers, go out of my comfort zone and approach strangers who do not speak English and offering to help them labour in their rice fields, harvesting food such as peanuts, rice, pepper and beans. Or I would visit people at their homes in the mountain and observe their lifestyle and how they perform their daily chores, for example, collecting water and wood or making a fire in their homes to boil water and cook rice for the day.”
Adjusting to the new food was another challenge she had to overcome.
“Keeping in mind that the nearest medical help was eight hours away from the village where I lived, I tried not to eat too many strange things while at the same time doing my best not to offend anyone by not eating whatever they offered me. To compromise I ate every vegetable or fruit they offered, but kindly declined to eat any meat. The reason being that the local village people were very poor and would eat all kinds of meat such as dog, cat, rat and even insects.”
Some of the interesting foods they ate included Jack fruit, Dragonfruit, Durian fruit and Mangostine. The vegetables she ate were mainly different kinds of local roots and things like “morning glory-grass” and pumpkin leaves and pumpkin flowers.
When asked what she would do differently if she had to go again, she said she would learn the language and surprise them by having an actual conversation with them instead of getting by with one or two words and acting out the rest of the conversation.
“Seeing that Cambodia experiences monsoon showers, which is nonstop rain for at least four to eight months, I would take more things to keep children occupied indoors such as arts and crafts, puzzles and so on. The children do not have access to luxuries such as these.”
When she first told people she planned to do missionary work in Cambodia she was urged to take safety precautions as she would be a woman alone.
“Despite what I heard, when I arrived at the village where I lived I found that if you are kind to people they return the favour three-fold. If you are helpful and friendly they make an effort to show their gratitude, usually in the form of a gift such as a bunch of bananas from their field or some home-cooked rice.”
She explained although being a woman alone in Cambodia was difficult, especially with the language barrier, it was the best experience of her life. She had to act as a principal of a Khmer school and was tasked to organise and administrate projects. If a toilet was broken, she had to fix it and if there was no electricity at the school, she had to find someone to help her which was a great challenge due to the language barrier.
“I asked for and received God’s protection everywhere I went. The experience changed me as a woman in all aspects of my being; in the spiritual aspect, I connected with our Creator in a very special way.
I realised my total dependency upon our Heavenly Father. God moulded me like a potter would mould the clay to make a beautiful and useful clay pot. To be moulded is not an easy experience as many unnecessary and ‘ugly’ parts need to be cut off by the Creator. But in the end He moulds you and makes you into something that can be of value for the Kingdom of God. We need to trust our Father’s heart and claim the promise in Jeremiah 29:11 ‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ I have come to realise each and every woman can make a difference in the lives of others. We as women play an important role in society and even more importantly in our family, friends and neighbours lives. We offer strength and support in times of trouble to those around us and at the same time we bring kindness and sensitivity to the home that contributes to stability in our society in the long run.”
