Happy Thanksgiving

Family and friends,
 Our week began with a farewell dinner to Elder and Sister Spencer. They served 23 months as member leader support. The members that know them in Cambodia will forever hold a place for them in their hearts. Elder and Sister Johnson have been assigned to continue the work in the branches the Spencer's served. Sister Johnson loves to bake. She and her husband have moved into the Spencer's apartment. The Spencer's lived in style and were the only couple with a dishwasher and really nice stove and oven. As a result Sister Johnson has already baked fantastic rolls to share. The branches they serve are in for some great treats. At our last potluck we also benefited from Sister Johnson's baking expertise. So far, Dale and I have bought our contributions to potluck meals. I have discovered a Bisquick sugar cookie recipe which is pretty good. The trick is to remove the cookies from the toaster oven before they burn. I am getting better.

The farewell dinner for the Spencer's was held at the Tell Restaurant. Their menu offers a variety of dishes... Khmer, German, Italian, Western, etc. It is probably my most favorite restaurant. Of course it is...we were told they will soon be closing!! We have only eaten there when the Senior couples get together. I suppose we need to find a new favorite restaurant.

In regards to the PEF program, Dale has been communicating closely with our leaders in Hong Kong and Salt Lake City. With the new policies we have been told that each loan request will be scrutinized more before a confirmation of acceptance is declared.  Dale has been told to write exception letters explaining each unique students story who seeks a college degree. We need to come up with convincing  reasons to allow them to receive a loan.  Below is a sample of the types of letters Dale has been writing recently:

"I have a pretty incredible story to tell you about a young man who would like a loan. It has a lot of twists and turns so I will do my best to explain it to you.

This young man started medical school in September 2010. He wants to become a pediatrician which is an 8 year program. His father was paying the full tuition of $2500 per year. In October 2011 this young man joined the church. His birthday is 07Feb1987 which makes him 25 years old. This coming February he will turn 26 (and be age eligible for a loan). His father has gotten very sick and can't afford to pay for his medical school anymore. So he came to us seeking a loan for his 3rd thru 8th year of school. His 3rd year of school begins in Feb 2013, the same time he turns 26. He did not serve a mission because once you are in medical school, if he was to leave school to go on a mission he would have to start all over.

He is currently making $100-$200 a month working as a nurse for a doctor. The doctor pays him either the $100 or $200 depending on what he feels like paying him. This young man told me he can pay $1000 per year toward his medical degree. Including $2500 for tuition and $100 for books that leaves him short $1600. There is an educational fund called the Cambodian Education Fund which has supported doctors education. They usually pay half of what PEF is willing to pay. That would mean if we agree to pay half of the $1600 which is $800 the Cambodian Education Fund would pay the other $800. He has to apply for the scholarship and it isn't guaranteed that he would get it.

Would we even consider this given the new requirements concerning PEF loans?
My heart goes out to him. He has gone to school for 2 years already and his father has paid $5000 toward his education. If we are unable to help him that is the end of his education to become a doctor. He told me there aren't any other resources that he knows of. If we can't help him to become a doctor we could direct him toward nursing and he may only have 2 years left to finish it. I haven't explored that with him yet."

As you can see this can be very time consuming. Pretty much every student who is applying for loans in Cambodia needs some sort of exception letter. Dale has taken upon himself the brunt of the work with PEF. I do phone calling and recording of the conversations. Dale has about 9 months to get Sameth, our new boss, oriented to the ins and outs of this program. The next two weeks nothing as far as training will occur for Sameth. He and his wife and little daughter will be sealed in the Manila Temple this week. Going to the Temple is a major expense and so they will stay for a couple of days. When they return it will be the start of a three day holiday here. It will be close to the end of November when further training can happen.

Sameth has helped us quite a bit in the past week. He called several of the trade schools in Phnom Penh and found that they no longer exist. At this time colleges and universities still seem the best choice for our younger people. PEF is now available for students ages 18-60. Older individuals would do best to attend short course trade school training probably, the tailors, auto mechanics, some health care choices, etc. These people need a quick fix. Many have some skills but need that certificate to secure a better paycheck.

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week. At a recent gathering President Moon asked if any of us would feed some of the missionaries for Thanksgiving. Our place is pretty small but we said we could feed a few. Apparently they decided not to have us do that. We have  heard that some of the couples that have larger accommodations will be preparing meals. The Tucks live in a large house. They will have 14 guests. The mission home is serving 40 guests and I haven't heard what other assignments are. Dale and I will probably have Lucky Burgers...I really have no clue what we will do. Why worry, it is four days away. I do know we are going to take the day off. Or at least that is what Dale said.

As you have probably heard Obama is coming to Phnom Penh.  Google, Obama Cambodia, if you are interested to read about what is happening here as the country has been anticipating Obama's arrival. Many of our roads are blocked to clear the way for dignitaries traveling to their meetings. The police and military are in full force.

The last week in November President Moon has scheduled a major house inspection day. The  young missionaries are being given a whole day to deep clean. We are to inspect our assigned houses at 3:00 on Tuesday November 27th. If the homes pass inspection the missionaries will be allowed to participate in Wednesday's "Sports Day". We will travel to Kean Svay for our first inspection stop and then travel back to Phnom Penh to do our second inspection. Because we are dependent on tuk tuk transportation this assignment will take a couple of hours to complete. We are scheduled to attend church in Kean Svay on Sunday. This will mean two trips in one week there. Pray that Dale's asthma does not flare up.

 Apparently we will be doing service projects on Christmas Eve and  having training meetings on Christmas day ending with a testimony meeting. Since we are almost a day ahead of  the USA our young missionaries will have time on the morning of December 26 to call home. That will be Christmas evening in the USA. The remainder of their day will be a preparation day. They will resume proselyting that evening. These plans are hot off the press. The young missionaries have not been told of the plan yet.

Great News!! The local store on our route to and from work finally opened Friday. We stopped in. They said they had been watching us watch them. It is a pretty good little store. It doesn't carry everything, but it does carry enough to fill in on days we do not want to do a major shopping trip to Luckys. So exciting.

We attended church at Tuol Tom Pong today. We had someone "sort of" translate for us in Sunday School  and Sacrament meeting. There was no one in Relief Society to help. Fortunately I had my manual with me. I just read while the teacher talked. I tried to catch words or phrases but my brain hurt at the end of the hour. The Sister's would ask if I was understanding what they were saying and I had to say "not really".

We love these little bananas. They are two to three bites. I wish they sold them in the states. The perfect treat for kids...adults too.

Hello!...Hello!...Hello! This is what we hear from these little guys whenever they see us walk by their alley way.  They live next door to the South District building where we work. They often play in the church parking lot. It is spacious, gated and safe. We spoke to their father and he said that his childen like playing there. We said it was a good place to play. They can ride their bikes, and play with their balls without worrying about getting hit by motos or cars from the busy street they live near.

Often we see these types of trucks loaded with people. We like to wave at them and they like to wave back.

The workers are not present, but this is another photo of the construction site and "home" just down the block from our apartment. You can see that the laundry is drying inside the doorway.

There were three boys on roller blades, but I was only able to get a picture of one skater as our tuk tuk was moving down the road.

Kids everywhere love playing in the dirt. Who knows what they are imagining as they create or simply let the dirt sift through their fingers. This is a typical area that the children find to play in. 

Typical street side cafe. It is about 11:30 am.

Laundry is always on display. Today I saw a lady washing her clothes in a huge stainless steel bowl. I was a ashamed of my complaint Friday night with my own laundry challenges. Our machines are falling apart. They are like green monsters that rumble and shake and spew water. I never know truly when the cycle will end. I think the clothes get fairly clean. At least I do not have to wash them by hand. I have had to wring them out by hand when the spin cycle refused to function. We got rid of our washer and dryer at home before we came on our mission. I look forward to purchasing and using machines with instruction books and function panels in English. All machines here are written in Korean. Most of the people here can't read them.  The only reason I even know how to work our machines is because the Tuck's who lived in our apartment for about a month shared their experience with trying to figure out the machines. Sister Tuck told me that on and off were the first two buttons. In deed they are. There are about six other button choices, but when I use them they just make dinging sounds and put another hour on the wash cycle. At least they wash...or do they?

Family and friends we are so blessed to be citizens of the United States of America. We have much to be grateful for. May we each  take time to reflect on our many blessings and thank God for them. Have a wonderful week and Happy Thanksgiving.