"Nowadays at Gold 1 Apartments has a lot of insects."

Family and Friends,
Most of the week was routine. It was the last week of the month so we were contacting the last of our PEF students. We also had several students come to the office for their payment requisitions to get their money to start school. I would prefer to say that this was an uneventful week, but I can not. Our personal lives were average, but for some of our acquaintances the week ended tragically. Before I share the sadness of this week I will share with you our daily workout.

 Most days we are out the door by 7:45am. All the usual people are positioned in their usual places along our route. As we walk we are acutely aware of our senses of sight, sound, smell and  touch. We do lots of weaving around muddied puddles and piles of garbage. We do lots of  ducking low hanging wires and tree branches. We step off  curbs and quickly hop back on to the curb to avoid being struck by an "out of my way here I come Moto driver". The sidewalks are about 12" high. At about 5"2" I literally hop up onto the curb as opposed to stepping back onto the curb.We continue this dodge, swerve stop, go,stop, go, head bob, swerve, weaving through the intersections for about 1 Kilometer and then it is a straight shot for about half a block to our building. We see the guard...another head bob "hello" then enter the building, climb two flights of stairs, walk across the gymnasium and then down the hall, open the office door, hit the air conditioner button and plop in our office chairs. Sweat drips off our brow... to be repeated only in reverse at about 4:30pm. Not sure how many calories we burn.

This is outside the guard house at out building. The young man on the left is Chan Van. He is a PEF student. He just graduated in accounting. He wants to continue his education to get his Masters degree.He first needs to apply for work in his field of study.  He needs to see what his Bachelor Degree can do for him.
When we were leaving for home it was pigeon feeding time. We hadn't ever seen pigeons gathered in the parking lot like this before. Now we see them all the time. "If you feed them they will come."


The Sadness of this week.
Event One:
Saturday while walking to work we were stopped by a members of our church. She informed us that two of our PEF students, Lim Sophy and Lam Sovann lost their home. They are siblings. They live in a Vietnamese community of little stilted wooden shacks. Lam Sovann  is a Branch President. I believe their father is deceased. Their mother is under going treatments for cancer in Vietnam at the present time. Friday was a commemoration day for  many people in Cambodia to remember their ancestors. Incense and little pieces of paper are burnt in their memory. Friday a fire broke out on a neighbor's roof . It rapidly spread to other homes. Fire fighters were called to help. The sad thing is that the fire fighters would only service the homes that gave them a monetary bribe. Sophy and Sovann had no money. They had to stand by and watch their  home go up in flames and then smolder and cool to a pile of ash. Their sister also lost her home. Their aunt who lives nearby in a  small shack is allowing her nieces and nephew to stay with her. President and Sister Moon and Elder and Sister Westover,  the Vietnamese branch members and some of the young missionaries helped clean up the debris. Sophy and Sovann lost everything except a few photos and a few pieces of clothing. They received hygiene kits from the Mercy Ship and were given mats, bedding, towels and food commodities to help a little. We will speak to Sophy and Sovann about deferring their loan payments for the next 6 months. After 6 months we will reevaluate their situation. There payments are $5 per month each. That is a lot of money when you have very little and now nothing.

Event Two:
Saturday evening we were notified of another tragedy. The Ellingson's were the Senior Missionary couple serving the PEF department before us. They returned to their home in Canada 6 month ago. They have traveled to see their children and were in the process of repairing their home. Elder Ellingson was on a ladder painting the house.Some how he fell from the ladder. It is believed he died instantly. The announcement of Mark Ellingson's death has shocked us all. There were lots of teary eyed PEF students at church today.

When we return to the states Dale is determined to live life to the fullest. We will do a little remodeling of the house and spruce up the yard. During the down seasons we plan to see more of the United States, explore Canada and  we would like to go to Switzerland to see where Dale's father was born. Dale really wants to go fishing in Alaska. I have my reservations about that one...BEARS...HUNGRY BEARS!

Today we rode in a Tuk Tuk to church. I had no photos to share this week so I snapped a few on our 10 minute ride.Most of them came out blurry. Here is a sampling of what we see every day.

This is why when we are walking along the sidewalk we have to weave into the street. This curb side is not the 12" curbs I spoke of earlier. I really do know what 12" looks like. I do not know what the graffiti says. Hopefully my blog will not need to be censored.

Every morning and evening and in between people sweep  the driveways and walkways in front of their properties. They also sweep standing water away from their home entrances. That is what this lady is doing.

Again, the reason why we walk in the street more than on the sidewalk. The people also use the sidewalks to park their cars, Motos, bikes and of course they choose open sidewalk space to set up their mobile vending carts.Then they set up little stools for people to sit and eat their rice and noodles.

We went to Tuol Tom Pong today. When we attend the Khmer branches it is really hard to understand what is happening. Him Sophy, a PEF student, always helps me. We always end up giggling during class. Unfortunately we sit in the front row. Today in Relief Society we started giggling because Sophy was trying to tell me the story that the teacher was relating. At one point she said, I do not understand what she is saying. I said, "Well you understand a lot more than I do." She just cracked up. Then they passed around the roll. Their roll asks for all sorts of information. Not just your name. One section was for gender. She was telling the different sections. She started giggling again which got me giggling because she said of course everyone in Relief Society would be female.

A khmer experience:
A couple of weeks ago we came home from work and taped on our door was this:
Dear Value Customers,
First of all, we would like to show a hearty thanks for using our service apartment, we are Gold 1 Apartment also pleased to inform you that:
Nowadays at Gold 1 Apartment has a lot of insects. So we want to spray by using sprayer all your unit but this sprayer has bad smell. So we are sorry for any convenience.We will spray today.(11.08.20120).
Sincerely yours,
Gold 1 Apartments

When we entered our apartment the windows were opened.
In the middle of our bed was what I believe was a dirty foot print. I think the sprayer guy stepped in the middle of the bed to spray.

Before they sprayed I saw no bugs. That night ants the size of grains of sand scurried on top the counter top. Now I only see a few ants each day. Hopefully their sprayer job worked.

Needless to say, I was pleased to know that "nowadays at Gold 1 Apartments has a lot of insects."

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog. Knowing you are checking in keeps me disciplined in recording events of our mission. Thanks for helping us.

Until next week...stay healthy and happy and we will too.