Chapter 1
No Problem Too Big!
The scope of the world’s problems lead many to shrug in frustration, thinking that the little they could do, would be too little to matter. For Matt and Allyson Smith and their six children, the opposite attitude led them to a remarkable around-the-world adventure in service. They seem to have left home in Idaho believing that no problem was too big for eight Smiths (and a few friends) working together.
Smith Family, (left to right) Sam, Allyson, Brandon, Ashton, Charlotte, Matt (behind), Tyler (front) and Olivia. Photo by Tiffany Smith.
Their 15-week journey began in January 2012 with a visit to Cambodia (where I met them). There, they spent time working with the CICFO (easier than the mouthful “Cambodia and International Children Friend Organization”) orphanage. Their first big project was to take almost 40 orphans across the country from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap for an excursion.
The Angkor ruins in Siem Reap are a UNESCO World Heritage site that, despite being just four hours away, none of the children had ever seen. The children stayed in a budget hotel funded by the Smiths that the children described as the nicest place they’d ever been. After returning to the orphanage, the Smiths built a chicken coop and then supplied chickens to provide a sustainable source of protein for the kids and for an income opportunity to help support the orphanage.
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