Ordinary People, Extraordinary Opportunites

Phnom Penh, Cambodia: a city approximately 8,500 miles away from my home in Vail, Colorado. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: a city, a hope, and a dream. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: a reality.

My name is Cate Maslan. I am 13 years old and I am in 8th grade. I have an older sister in 11th grade and an older brother in his freshman year of college. I love to play basketball, dance, ski, sing, and act. My typical day looks like this:
1) go to school
2) do homework
3) basketball, dance, and/or voice lessons
4) more homework
5) sleep
On weekends it looks more like this:
1) wake up
2) homework
3) theater and/or ski
4) sleep

If there's one thing that should tell you about me, it's that I'm your typical thirteen-year-old girl. I go to school, I have extra curricular activities, and I argue with my siblings. In April of 2015 I traveled to Rivas, Nicaragua where I spent my spring break working at a school for children with disabilities. I was twelve at the time. A ordinary twelve-year-old girl, getting an extraordinary opportunity.

On October 11, 2015, at 6:28 pm, I got a phone call. One glance at the caller ID was enough to make my heart skip a beat. I answered the phone with a dry throat and sweaty palms. A short three minutes later I was squealing as I hung up the phone and already planning my first fundraiser. Six moths I had been dreaming, hoping, and praying that I would get the opportunity to travel to Cambodia. All of those dreams, hopes, and prayers became a sudden reality, all within that 3 minute phone call. I am going to Cambodia. It is no longer a hope or a dream. I am now an ordinary thirteen-year-old girl, getting another extraordinary opportunity.

Nicaragua taught me lessons I will never forget. I learned that it's the little things in life that matter most, I learned how it feels to fall in love, and most of all, I learned that the way to change the world is not all at once, but one smile, one hug, and one person at a time. That is what I hope to accomplish over the course of my three weeks in Cambodia.

While in Cambodia I will have the wonderful opportunity to work with children at the Cooperation of Peace Orphanage as well as make improvements to the orphanage's property. I will also get to teach English at two local schools: a preschool and an elementary school. In order to participate on this trip I will be responsible for fundraising $2,500, attending group meetings, learning the Cambodian language (Khmer), collecting supplies for the kids I will be working with, completing 5 hours of community service, and writing more blogs.

Words cannot describe how thrilled I am to embark on my second journey with Children's Global Alliance. Children's Global Alliance, or CGA, is a non-profit organization that takes kids ages 12-17 on service trips to Tanzania, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Cambodia. While in these countries the selected students serve, teach, and support the poor, disabled, and orphaned children living in these developing countries. Spending a week in Nicaragua was enough to teach me many things about myself and the world around me, I can't wait to see what I discover when I get to spend three weeks in Cambodia.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia: my reality.