A Noisy Week.

Family and friends,
Last Sunday I was able to understand what was being taught at Tuol Tom Pong Branch. I  purchased the current Relief Society manual at the Service Center. Now I can follow along in my manual what the teacher is presenting. Between key words I recognize in Khmer and what I am reading I can get the gist of what the gospel discussion is. It has taken me almost a year to figure out the lessons schedule.

Monday the air conditioner repairmen finally came. They were suppose to come last week. We scheduled twice for them to come and they were a no show. We had given up on them coming. Lo and behold they showed up. We were both in the middle of some important work but hey it is Cambodia. So we dropped everything and sat back and relaxed. We are at the mercy of people with sloth blood. The positive outcome of this is that the air conditioner is no longer making puddles on Dale's desk.

Since PEF was made available to older people we have had a wave of new loan applications. It will be interesting to see how this evolves. Many of the trade schools these older people will be attending have no business cards, letter heads or anything to verify their authenticity. All rules in regard to how schools are paid  has gone out the window. Pandora's box has a crack in it. We will be long gone before any of our older PEF participants complete their studies. We will never know "the rest of the story".

I do hope that another Senior Couple will be called to take our place. Monday morning on our PEF Facebook site there was a request to encourage Senior couples to consider serving with PEF. Sometimes couples are asked to extend their missions. I believe if there was a need for us to extend our mission we would have already been asked. If we are asked to extend you all know what we will say. If you need a hint consider this, we are looking forward to clean air, clean water, safe food, family and friends.

Monday was self evaluation day. Dale and I took a survey that helped us see how we are progressing as individuals and as a couple. We set individual goals and goals to do for each other and with each other. The time we spent answering this survey and reviewing our answers together has already strengthened our relationship. As we follow through with our goals we will have increased happiness in the days, weeks, months and years yet to come. We will followup on our progress weekly. Cheers to a happier life!

Tuesday Elder Tuck came to our office. I think he wanted to discuss his dilemma concerning getting support from the priesthood in implementing a solid Family History effort in each branch. He and his wife are overseeing the Family History department while Elder and Sister Rhyne attempt to put order to the membership records. Records have apparently gone as far as a box at the Service Center. It is near impossible to do Family History without correct records. Much of the work the Rhyne's have assisted the members with this past year needs to be redone. Not good.

Tuesday evening we enjoyed a tuk tuk ride to the Titanic restaurant with the Rhynes.  Elder and Sister Blinn who have been serving as the only Senior Couple in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam were flying home. It was their final meal in Asia. They served by themselves in Vietnam with a few younger missionaries. That would have been a real challenge for me. Sister Blinn assured me that I could have done it. I  know  that whatever we are called to do we have the Lord's help. Recognizing that we are His tools and are not relying on ourselves to accomplish His work Sister Blinn is right. We would have done OK.  The Lord knows each of us individually. We are called by Him to go where we can best serve Him and His children. Our assignments from Him offer us experiences that help refine us. Dale and I are learning much about the gospel as we teach Institute and witness the Church grow in Cambodia. A mission not only helps us grow spiritually but we are finding that our marriage is being strengthened. We are learning who we are and what is most important to us. At age 60 we are still working out our salvation and path to happiness. We continue to learn, make changes, set goals and discover more concerning our talents, strengths and weaknesses.

Our dinner at the Titanic was just the opposite of our last experience there. We chose pineapple chicken. The meat was very tender with a mild sweet sauce. The dish also had fresh pineapple chunks, bell peppers and onions. Little flying critters made from cucumbers garnished our plates. They were bugs I could sink my teeth into. This will no doubt be the standard dish we order at the Titanic from now on.

I know cucumber bugs do not count as eating bugs in Cambodia.  Elder Kohl and Sister Kohl recently visited the Provinces to survey the latrine projects. Elder Kohl took the opportunity to sink his teeth into a spicy cricket. He reported that  it tasted sort of like a worm. Yes, apparently he has tasted worms. He led me to believe he would like to try a Tarantula. Our grandchildren would like us to try bugs. They are going to be disappointed because we will leave the bugs to the birds, frogs, snakes, fish and other creatures lower on the food chain to consume. We prefer eating our bugs via fish and chips.

Us at the Titanic restaurant. How romantic.







Wednesday and Thursday there was lots of sawing noises outside our office door. The Church wants all paid employee office doors to have windows. Window holes have been placed in Touch Sophornn and Pen Vibol's doors. Their doors are solid wood. The work crew left before they had added the glass windows. We were joking with Sophornn about which one of us would spend the night sleeping at the base of the doors to prevent burglaries. Fortunately the crew did return to complete their job before closing time. The craftsmanship is Cub Scout day camp quality. Because we are PEF volunteers our door did not need a window. Two noisy days meant only a few phone contacts with students.

 Drilling, sawing, hammering and dust has also been life at our apartment complex. We now have a plastic surgery clinic in our building. There is lots of clean up to do but for the most part it is ready for business.

From past blogs you are aware that the road to our work has been under construction for quite some time. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger. As we walked home Saturday we caught a worker taking a break.

Notice the hammock hanging from this rig.

 

      This guy was pleased to pose for us.

This is what the route to work looks like these days.

We share the sidewalk with motos and bicyclists and other pedestrians. This is me walking ahead of Dale on the way home from church.

Rush hour traffic is really interesting. I love it when motos honk their horns at us. I wish I had a horn to honk back.

This picture was taken about 6:15 AM. We were walking to our building to teach early morning Institute class. When we are walking the streets at this hour people are just getting up. It is no big deal to see rubbish fires like this along the streets.




Living in Cambodia is like camping at a really ugly campsite with few amenities. We see lots of outdoor cooking over fire.

Our air compressor friend was still asleep when we passed by him at 6:15 Saturday morning.

The people have nothing to steal so they are perfectly safe sleeping out in the open. This is life in Cambodia. The people work to earn enough money to eat. There are no government handouts in Cambodia. Any relief such as free rice or medicine comes from outside of Cambodia.

Wednesday and Thursday the air waves were filled with hammering and sawing. Friday we heard loud chanting and Khmer music. We looked out our office window. In the alley below we witnessed a wedding in progress. Everyone was dressed in fancy sparkly clothing. The Cambodia experience.

We were not the only neighbors watching the wedding. Notice the lady looking out her doorway at the left of this photo. The wedding is taking place beyond the two tarps.



In regards to our PEF calling. Loan disbursements have tapered off now that the school year has begun. There will be a surge of loan distributions just before we leave the country. Most schools run from September through June. Keeping people focused on their promises to attend Institute and make regular payments on their loans is an ongoing frustration. When we interview our students we ask them how they are doing with their promises. They say fine. We check with the Institute secretary and things are not fine. If there is one thing we want to teach our students before we leave is that they will not receive renewal loans unless they keep their promises. We have denied several student loans recently because of  this. They need to do what they have contracted to do. We are not going to let things slide.

Our Institute class attendance was low this Saturday. Monday is a holiday( Meak Bochea Day) so possibly several students went to their home provinces. Saturday there was also a teachers training meeting. We were told we did not need to attend. We worked in our office instead. When the training meeting adjourned Sophornn brought us boxed lunches of  chicken wings and drumsticks, rice, cucumbers and some kind of a spicy vegetable. I had not made peanut butter sandwiches so it saved me making lunches. We left work about 1:00. We walked home, dropped off our scriptures and then walked to Lucky Groceries to stock up on cereal and other goods we were running low on. There were several items on my list that I am no longer able to find in the stores.  We arrived here last March. I am hoping in March the products I bought then will resurface. If they do I am definitely stocking up. When I first began shopping in Cambodia I would see something I wanted but there would only be three cans or three boxes on the shelf.  I would only buy one so somebody else could also buy some. I have discovered other people are not that considerate. I now buy what I know we will use. If there are only three boxes or cans and I know I will use them then I'm going to buy them.

Sunday we attended the International Branch. It is always good to go to church there. Everyone speaks a certain degree of English. It is nice to be able to worship God and understand the messages being taught. Tonight we attended a Young Single Adult Church Education fireside. It was weird to hear  President Uchtdorf  speak Khmer. He spoke on What is Truth? We copied his talk from lds.org so we could read along in English. Many of our PEF students were in attendance so we were able to make voice contacts with them. A few less phone calls for this week.

Elder Capener was at the fireside tonight without his wife. We asked why she was not with him. He said that she was washing their car. The two steps that lead to their apartment were wet and she slipped and injured her shoulder. This happened about five days ago. She has not gone to a doctor. Sister James found a chiropractor. Sister Capener wants to go that route. What a bum deal. Serving a mission does not prevent us from having ill health or prevent accidents from happening. Casualties of life happen even to missionaries.

We had a milestone this week. February 22, 2012 we entered the MTC. We have been serving our mission a year now. In a couple of weeks we will have been in the country one year. We are  glad that we chose this time in our lives to serve a mission. These last few months will pass quickly. I'm glad we have this blog for proof that this whole experience actually happened.

Thank you for viewing our blog. Knowing you are reading it keeps me motivated to continue writing.

You are in our prayers. We love you.

Choose your words wisely.

Hello family and friends,
Another week of life on a mission in Cambodia. As a Senior Couple our mission is quite different than the younger Elders and Sisters. As long as we get our "business" done we have more freedom to pick and choose what activities we will do. We are assigned to the Phnom Penh area, however, our stewardship involves Siem Reap, Battambang, Kampong Thom, and Kampong Cham. At the present time we still have couples serving in Battambang and Kampong Thom. With the changes in the staff for the Perpetual Education Fund in Cambodia we now have Meas Sameth working with us. We hope to be able to travel to the Provinces one more time before we depart from Cambodia. Whether that will happen is not clear. Dale would like to visit Sihanoukville before we leave. It is an ocean tourists stop.

The office couple Elder and Sister Westover recently were notified that their son will be traveling to Singapore for work. He has decided to take a side trip to Cambodia. The Westovers are excited to have  him visit. They have received permission to travel to some of the Provinces to "site see". They are excited because as the office couple they do not travel outside of Phnom Penh. They arrived in Cambodia last April and have not seen much beyond it the boundaries of the city. I mentioned to Sister Westover that Dale and I were planning to tour the Royal Palace. She asked if she and Elder Westover could come too. Saturday was the second day that the Palace was opened to the public since the Kings death. We participated in the 2:00 tour. The Westovers drive an office vehicle. I suggested we take a tuk tuk to avoid parking problems. They were excited to do that. They thought the ride was fun and novel. Normally the ride would be routine for us, but because it was a treat for the Westovers it was fun for us too. Dale and I overlook many things in Phnom Penh now because it is just what life is here. The sights and sounds are not as noticeable to us. The smells, dust and heat still attack our senses.

We continue to have problems with the Internet. It was up and down throughout the week. There was a work crew working on it. They never inform us when they will be shutting things down. Dale purchased a USB modem that allows us to have Internet when our hard wired system is down. This works great for him. I am left to read the scriptures or stare at walls. Saturday Dale had to use the USB modem.  Unfortunately, when he tried to sign into our My LDS Mail a notice popped up that Friday night Salt Lake would be doing maintenance on their system from 8-11 PM  mountain time. That is great for everyone that is sleeping in Utah but it does not help us in Cambodia who have "work as usual" during those hours. Between Khmer holidays, power outages, downed Internet service and Salt Lake maintenance schedules we have lots of excuses not to get any work done.

Monday was a happy day. People were still celebrating the Chinese New Year so the streets were quiet. The office was also quiet. One of our PEF students, Tak Rathlida surprised us by coming to our office with a basket of mandarins to wish us a Happy Chinese New Year/ Happy Valentines Day. She visited for quite some time filling us in on how life has been treating her. She recently graduated. She had set a goal to pay off her loan in January. She did this. She is a very capable, intelligent woman. I would classify her as a high achiever. She isn't afraid to set goals and tell people about them. In so doing she makes herself more accountable. The result is that she achieves her goals. We spoke to her about writing her experience as a PEF participant and how it blessed her life. What she writes would be shared on the PEF website for others to read. She said she would be happy to do this and promised us that she would complete this project before we leave Cambodia. We know she will keep her word.

We shared our mandarins with the workers in our building. What was really special was when Brother Dam  came to our office to fill out his application. He is 39 years old and very poor. He is so excited that he will be able to receive a loan to go to moto repair school. His loan is for $400. He is so grateful that PEF is now offered to older members of the Church. He has a wife and children. It would be impossible for him to secure $400 without this loan.  He will instead pay $5 a month and learn a skill that will help him financially.  He plans to teach what he learns to his children so they will also have skills. Brother Dam is a humble, honest man. When we were saying our goodbyes I offered him a mandarin. His eyes lit up and he sort of gasped. At first he was not going to take a mandarin, but I told him it was OK. He was very grateful. When he left we mentioned his reaction to Sameth. He explained that most people do not eat mandarins because they are too expensive. Rathlida's gift to us was passed on to many this week. She told us that the "gold" "yellow" color was for Good Luck. It worked for us this week in putting smiles on peoples faces.

Monday night several of the Senior Couples met together for Family Home Evening. We went to Plae Pakaa ( Fruitful)- Children of Bassac which is sponsored by the Cambodian Living Arts. We enjoyed an hour and half of traditional dance and music.

Plae Pakaa is used to express the idea of  "coming of fruition". It is symbolic not only of inspiring emerging artists who are sharing the fruits of their hard work, but of the revival of traditional arts in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge. After more than a decade of work, from committed teachers, students, and supporters, the traditional arts are living again and the fruits of this investment are seen on stage today.

We did not take too many pictures because they really did not show up well.
 We saw eight different dances.
A few of the dances we saw were:

Sovann Machha or The Golden Mermaid-
This dance is from an episode of the Reamker, the Kmer version of the Indian epic Ramayana.  The White Monkey, Hanuman, falls in love with a mermaid en route to rescue Seda, Rama's wife, from Ravana, king of the ogres.
Aspara or Celestial Women Dancers- This dance was created following the gestures of Aspara images depicted on the Angkor temples.  It is believed that Aspapras are the mothers of Khmer dances and symbols of Khmer culture.

Bok Leak or Crushing Dye- This dance is one of the traditional wedding ceremonies.  The groom and the bride put leak- black dye tasting sweet, sour, bitter and salty- in their mouth to symbolize their entrance to a new life.
It was fun to view some of  the Cambodian traditions.

Prior to viewing Plae Pakaa we walked around the grounds which were recently built for King Sihanouk. This is the building he was cremated in. It is amazing to think that the building of this began after October 17, 2012.  It is incredibly beautiful.

There is ladder that ascends to the top to where the King was cremated.

                 A closer view of the ladder.

Earlier in this blog I mentioned that we toured the Royal Palace with  Elder and Sister Westover. The above photos are to one side of the Royal Palace.

This is the palace. No pictures can be taken of the inside. There are beautiful crystal chandeliers. The ceilings are intricately painted similar to the Sistine Chapel.

The landscaping is really beautiful. The light in color vegetation is usually red, but was planted in the white color for the kings funeral.

One of the buildings we entered was museum of clothing and other royal paraphernalia.  Each mannequin is dressed in a different color. Each day of the week is represented by one of these colors. When special events happen royalty and guests were to wear the color of the day.

The men usually wore white jackets but their pants would be the designated color and they would also have a colored sash.

There are two of these . They house the ashes of past kings.

The ashes of the recently deceased king's four year old daughter are here. He intended that when he died his ashes would be housed with hers. The Royal Family has requested a fortune teller to tell them when they should move his ashes from their present place to here. His daughter died in 1952 from Leukemia.

There are many flowers on the Royal Palace grounds...

                                Roomchang

These men were playing traditional Khmer music. They were directly across from a Buddhist shrine.

Sister Westover, Pani (our tour guide), me.







Our week went well. The washing machines even cooperated!! Our health could be better, but it also could be worse.

Let me share with you a Khmer story told to us today by the District President. You must understand that I was listening to a Khmer translate for me what was being said. It seemed that the topic was dealing with being mindful of the words we use. The parable was about a tiger who attacked someone that had said evil words. The tiger ate the persons feet, his legs, his arms, his body and all of his head but left his mouth.

The moral of the story is if you want to give the tiger the full meal deal you better choose your words wisely.

Khmer water holder.

That's all folks. We love you.

Blog days come quickly.

Family and Friends,
Blog days come quickly.
Last Sunday we visited Tuol Tom Pong Branch. As we left the building we saw this really cool cloud formation.

 Most days are cloudless here. In a couple of months this will change. We have one more season to try to avoid wearing "sewer boots". Only time will tell!






I picked up an Out & About booklet to be used February- April. It states, "As we go to press in late January, the weather is cool and dry and the skies are generally sunny. From late January through April it should stay mainly dry though the temperature will steadily increase until it approaches 38 C (100 F for our American friends) around Khmer New Year in mid April." ( I can hardly bear the anticipation of the mercury rising. They ought to have some kind of a holiday for this.)

Today as we were walking home from church Dale said that it was hotter than the 85 F the weather report had indicated. The mornings continue to have a welcoming breeze. Because the streets heat up under the sun it takes time for the evening air to cool.

Currently Cambodia is celebrating Chinese New Year and Vietnamese New Year (Tet). This year is the year of the Snake. These days follow the lunar calendar and because the new moon changes from year to year the exact dates can fall between late January and mid-February.

A day before the celebration people thoroughly cleanse their house, in order to sweep away any ill fortune and to make way for good incoming luck.Visiting family and friends is part of the celebration. People often visit their local pagodas, pray and pay respect to their grandparents, parents and deceased relatives.

Clothes, cars, gold, money ( US$ in particular) made of paper are burnt and offered to the spirits. People do not work during this celebration.

Several months ago I told you about the $100 I found on the street. When I got home I tried to wash it only to have it crumble in my hands. As we were walking home today we saw a pile of leaves mingled with $100 bills. Obviously they were created to be burnt offerings to the deceased.

Wouldn't it be great if money grew on trees?  It sure would make Fall raking more pleasurable and profitable.





 This blog is not in chronological order. Monday we did not work because Cambodia was still dealing with the loss of  King Sihanouk. We decided to take a walk. It was a very hot day. We met up with some of our PEF students who invited us to walk with them. The goal was to get to the Royal Palace to view the King for the last time. Every road was gated and guarded.  We were stopped at each gate.  There were simply too many people. Those that made it through the gates began early in the morning. We did not get started until  9 AM.  It was fun to walk with the young people and catch up on their lives. We also met a guy and girl from France. They spoke English and had just arrived in Phnom Penh. They asked if they could tag along with us. We said no problem.  Kong Seyha had a friend that worked at one of the gates. He thought he could get us in. It was not meant to be.

We were wearing black and white in respect for the king and those in mourning.

Dale and I feel like giants in comparison to the Khmer. I have never had so many guys that I am  either taller than or the same height as.

How do you like Dale's missionary standard sneakers?

After a full day of walking from gate to gate with no success we decided to go home. We were hot and tired and hungry. We ended up going to The Blue Pumpkin, a restaurant near our home. It just opened about a month ago. Our first experience with The Blue Pumpkin was during our first week on our mission. There is a restaurant near the mission home. The Blue Pumpkin serves reasonably priced good food. They have regular tables to sit at and also places to pull up a pillow and relax. You can see a person in the background doing just that. What I really like is the cold, wash cloths soaked in mint presented on a small porcelain tray. It is a great way  to freshen up when you are hot and tired. We blotted the cool clothes on our faces and washed our hands. We ordered cool fresh fruit bowls made with fresh pineapple, watermelon, banana,and dragon fruit. Yum.

Tuesday it was work as usual. Or we would have liked it to be work as usual.  Due to computer technicians that do not know what they are doing we had no Internet. This has been an on going problem. This week we became loud squeaky wheels.  Nothing was getting done to repair our problem. Tuesday was a loss. Wednesday we had the same problem only worse. A maintenance crew came to clean the air conditioners in  the offices. They use water to clean them. When they were done we had water in our printer, water on the floor , water under the glass on my desk top, and water soaked posters on the wall. That was all fine. We had no Internet but I could use Microsoft Word to work on my talk I was preparing for Sunday.  Dale left the office.  While I was typing there was a big pop. The electricity to our computers shorted out. Water had gotten into the electrical outlet which we share with the adjacent office. The maintenance guy tried to fix the problem. While Dale was trying to get the Internet problem resolved I was left to guard our office and Sophornn's office from theft. It was now lunch time and the maintenance guys were getting hungry. One of them came to me and showed me that all the electricity was fixed. Our power bar was lit. I had Dale come back to check to see if all was good.  Not so good. All the guy did was plug our power bar into the outlet on another wall. When I praised him for fixing it I did not realize what he had done. That made me mad. I could have done that. We needed our electricity fixed.  They went to lunch and we were told that maybe someone would come fix things around 3:00. Dale needed to GET AWAY . The Rhyne's had been trying to do Family History but with no Internet, they were out of business also. We decided to GET AWAY together. We went to Tous les Jours, a French bakery  that the Rhyne's discovered. We purchased REAL bread. It was SO GOOD and we also purchased a few other pastries. The bakery is a distance from our apartment but is a place I would like to return to. We ended the day at the Blue Pumpkin to indulge in chocolate chip mint ice cream cones. When we arrived home Sophornn called us and told us that the electricity was fixed. Yes!

Thursday we had electricity but no Internet. Another wasted day as far as PEF was concerned.

Friday Dale made arrangements again for the guys from the Church Service Center to work on our Internet problem. The Church has contracted with EZ Com. They insisted that the problem was on our end. Dale reported to EZ Com that their repairmen had not checked our office computers. Dale resorted to letting them know that someone was lying. EZ Com finally did what they were supposed to do in the first place. It was indeed their error. After a month of frustration I believe the problem is fixed. We might actually get some work done on Monday.

Dale has been reporting his frustrations to Elder Kelly. We love him and his wife and we will miss them when they are released in April. Elder Kelly suggested that Dale take two Aspirins and call him in the morning. He also sent a few funny photos. I can not put the photos on the blog but I can explain them and you will get the idea.
1. A label inside a shirt:  These T-shirts were tested on animals. They did not fit.

2. A wall sign in a variety store: Open 9 Days A Week

3. Sign for bananas in Ecuador:  Long Yellow Things .78 lb

4. National Park sign:  Bottomless Pit    65 feet deep

 And the sun sets on another week in Phnom Penh.

We plan to have a great week. We hope yours will be great too.

Cambodians covet white skin.

Hello family and friends,

Although we have claimed every day to be Ground Hogs Day in Cambodia, this week broke the cycle. The second official mourning for Father King Norodom Sihanouk began on Friday February 1. We decided to"close shop" Friday, Saturday and Monday.  No one is working at the Church offices here. Why should we? We also figured that our PEF students didn't need us asking about their loan payments when they were in mourning for their king. We really closed out of respect for the Cambodian culture. Friday we decided to join the throng of people mourning the King. People traditionally wear black and white clothing and pin a black ribbon on their shirts. People from all over Cambodia came to Phnom Penh to witness the funeral of their king and mourn his passing. While many came to the city others left the city to avoid the crowds. All streets leading to the river front were not accessible except by foot. Even walking through the crowds was near impossible.
 In a previous blog I wrote that the king had died. He has been lying in state since October 17. Monday February 4 he will be cremated. As part of this mourning process clemency will be granted to more than 500 prisoners. Four hundred and twelve prisoners including two Thai prisoners sentenced for espionage will be released. Eighty-nine prisoners will have their sentences reduced. King Sihamoni, the son of King Sihanouk, and his mother Queen Mother will present the released prisoners with gifts. ( I wonder if this will be a start up kit of a set of clothes, some money and hygiene supplies or perhaps something less practical like a gold Buddha.)

Each night around eight o'clock there is a  fireworks display in remembrance of the king. Friday night we watched this display from the roof of our apartment.

Pictured here is the burial site of Father King Norodom Sihanouk

Photo taken from Face book entry of one of our PEF participants.


This structure was built between October 2012 and January 2013.

Mourners sleeping after choosing a spot along the parade route to pay respect to their beloved king.

Friday before the parade began helicopters circled over head to survey the massive crowd of mourners on the ground.( Notice there is not a cloud in the sky. It was extremely hot. Bottled water and hand fans were given out to the crowds for free.)

Official flags fly at half mast along all the streets. Flags also fly from buildings.

People gathered at Independence Monument. This is about a 10 minute walk from where we live. It is quite a distance from where the king is to be buried. This site was as close as this group of people could get. The area going toward the river was literally a sea of people. We had planned to walk to the river. There were too many people to do this.

These monks are grouped together across the street from Independence Monument.

More people gathering.

Grassy area leading to Independence Monument.

Friday night from the 14th floor of our apartment. Independence Monument is seen in the left hand side of this photo.

We did a few other things this week. We put off house inspections until this week. It wasn't the best week to inspect our assigned missionaries home but it had to be done. It is always an adventure to inspect homes.

We have been assigned House 4 ever since we arrived to Phnom Penh. The red metal door protects the house from trespassers and thieves. Notice also the coiled barbed wire. The missionaries live in the building to the right. They live on the level you can see directly above the gray doors.

This is the Assistant to the President's home and the Office Elders home. This month they have not been home much. They apologized that their place was not as clean as it would've been had they been home more. We also showed up at 7:30 in the morning. They were eating breakfast and there were cereal bowls at various desks where each was eating. The most interesting thing to report this month was the refrigerator door heist. 

Elder Rucker said that when they went into their kitchen they discovered that the doors to their refrigerator were missing. They had no idea when they went missing. No food was taken but the lack of doors did cause things to spoil. They have a refrigerator in another room so they transferred what they could salvage to it. There is a Khmer that does repairs and some cleaning of the apartments. The Elders figure that he took the doors. I understand why he would not worry about the food. Our first refrigerator had a disgusting smell which we complained about. While we were at work the smelly refrigerator was replaced with a  new one. The workers put all our food into the new refrigerator, but neglected to plug it in and turn it on. I guess they think refrigerators are just a nice shelf to put food on.

It's not every day we get to report refrigerator doors mysteriously vanishing. This was one magic trick that went wrong.

Friday in addition to joining the crowds at Independence Monument we also walked away from the crowds. We were happy that there were shops still open. We were able to refill my prescriptions for the remainder of our mission. It is not necessary to present a doctors' written prescription to purchase medications in Cambodia. My doctor in the states would only allow me to have a year supply of medicine. He refused to allow me another prescription without  having the yearly physical. No way do I want a physical here. I figure that I will be OK for 6 months using my current dosages. When I return to the states I will get the proper physical and at that time changes can take place if needed.  Under my circumstances I am  glad Cambodia is  lenient, however, I am leery because my one medicine comes from Korea. I hope there are no impurities in it. Dale was able to get his medicines for considerably less money than in the states. He stocked up and will possibly purchase more before we leave.

Besides drugs we picked up a few food items and went to Lucky Burger for lunch. We got home early enough that I did our laundry in the daylight. Two out of five washing machines sort of work now. The laundry took a good portion of the afternoon and early evening. I also mopped the floors. I have been finding ants scurrying along one of our shelves. By slowly picking through our shelf I found that ants had discovered our Vitamin C candy drops. I had to throw them all away. Hopefully getting the source tossed will solve the ant problem. Only time will tell!

Saturday morning began early. We taught institute at 6:30. We had a good turn out of students considering the events of this week. After class we did a few things at the office. We were home by 9:00. We pretty much just hung out at home. After being on the roof the night before and seeing our pool Dale just had to take a dip. This was his second time swimming on our mission.

Cambodians covet white skin. Cambodian women eat your heart out. This man is mine!

There is a blower that churns the water. Dale said it felt really good on his back. 

About the time three little girls showed up Dale was ready to get out. The girls liked the churning water too.

While Dale was swimming I decided to take a photo of one of the neighboring pools. I was a bit shocked when I looked at this picture later. The young boy on the pool edge was lying down when I snapped the photo- not hovering over the edge. Some things I just don't care to see. When Dale was reviewing the pictures he said, "Hey what's this?" When I saw it I said, "Whoa that isn't what I thought I took a picture of."

If I were to hire someone to do our laundry this is where it would end up before being returned to us.

The thirteenth floor is mostly open air space. There are rows of laundry drying.

Time to go down to the second floor where we live. This is looking down from the 14th floor. The building shown is The Hampton's. It is where many people who work for the various embassies live. To think that all these high rise buildings are pretty much stacked bricks. I do not believe there are any steel beams. I pray there is never an earthquake in Phnom Penh. It would be one huge, horrific disastrous event.

Overall we have had a pretty good week. We went to Tuol Tom Pong again. We like to go there on Fast Sunday because that is the branch we chose to pay our fast offering to. Before the opening hymn and prayer the Branch President read a letter in Khmer. It apparently had something to do with the king of Cambodia because directly after the reading we had a moment of silence for King Siahnouk.  The meeting then proceeded as usual.

We are not planning on going into work tomorrow. I'm not sure what we will do. Whatever it is I hope it has nothing to do with washing clothes or exterminating ants. It should be a good day if we can avoid those two activities.

   

Hope you have a well balanced week. We love you.