Mr. Toads Wild Ride!

Hello family and friends,
We are so grateful to be alive. We were subjected to a wild ride to and from the provinces this week.We visited our PEF participants in Kampong Cham, Kampong Thom, Siem Reap and Battambang. In each of these areas we held firesides to introduce PEF to interested church members ages 18+.  Among all four areas we were able to share information with 120 people. That is actually pretty good. We had many older people that traveled a considerable distance to learn if PEF could help them. Unfortunately several people did not connect Perpetual Education Fund with gaining knowledge and skills. We had requests for  loans to purchase pigs, farm tools, moto repair tools, and laptops to name some examples. We even had one guy ask if he could borrow money to buy a bride. Dale kept repeating we loan money to get an education as the loan name states the Perpetual EDUCATION Fund. Touch Sophornn and Meas Sameth traveled with us. Sameth said the people know that it is an education fund but they try to get money anyway.

The title of our blog this week is Mr. Toads Wild Ride. Touch Sophornn booked a car for us to rent from a friend. He did all the driving. The car rental and gas cost came from our PEF budget. We also used our budget for food and housing for ourselves and for Meas Sameth. We are the PEF team in Cambodia. Touch Sophornn is the Church Education Director for Cambodia. While we visited with our PEF participants and ran our firesides, Sophornn trained his Seminary and Institute teachers that live in the provinces. He was able to keep his budget down because we paid for transportation. His part was booking our hotels and securing a vehicle and driving. The two times we have traveled in the past with him he has driven. He has always been an aggressive driver, but this trip was an exceptionally wild ride.

Roads under construction were all along our route. This trip we traveled at a high speed peddle to the metal pace. The roads are bumpy, gravely, dusty and have drop offs. The road is two way and frequently it is a game of chicken as to who is going to move over. As I have explained in past blogs people drive on both sides of the road and often head right at each other. Our trip this time was non stop honking of the horn, swerving around motos, bicycles, trucks, buses, cows, people and ruts. Dale and I sat in the back seat. We did not have seat belts that worked. The front seats did. A couple times I went flying forward. It was a white knuckle experience. We had a few hair raising moments when we were face to face with a bus. Passing was anything but smooth. We would begin to pass and then jerk back to where we had been, then we would jerk out into oncoming traffic and quickly go around the vehicle or vehicles we were passing. I particularly hated when we passed more than one vehicle at a time. My most white knuckle moments were when passing on curves and hills not knowing what was coming in our direction. We saw two very bad accidents.

 We were going way too fast. A Camry was going even faster. It passed us and about 3 minutes later we looked over the bank and there it was. The picture doesn't show the hole in the wind shield on the passenger side of the car. We are pretty sure the driver did not make it. The car smashed into the concrete pole.
We drove about four more minutes and there was another car crashed in the field. It appeared not to have been as serious. They missed hitting a pole. Both situations were because of traveling too fast for the road conditions.This could have easily been us. Glad it wasn't.

Our first stop was Kampong Cham. Meas Sameth's in- laws live there. As we were approaching town he announced that his mother in- law had prepared lunch for us. We were not too happy about that. It was nice to visit their home and they were very hospitable, but we have been trying to eat safely. Sameth's in- laws raise their own chickens. His mother-in-law prepared boiled chicken soup and baked chicken. She also served white rice. We politely ate a little of the baked chicken and rice. Sophornn and Sameth chowed down.

Sameth gave us a tour of  his in- laws property. They have a large flower garden with a variety of flowers. They have a buyer who purchases their flowers in quantity for resale.

More of their flowers

They own some acreage. Their son is planning to marry soon. It is an arranged marriage, but  we believe the couple actually will be happy together. They hope to build a guest house and restaurant on this property.

This is an eel pond. They raise eels to eat. Hidden among the green plants is water with eels swimming in it.

Sameths' in- laws are one of the few families that were privileged to receive a latrine from the Church.

There are two different rooms. This latrine is similar to our sit down toilet but there is a green pot that is used to dip water to flush the toilet. They do not  flush toilet paper.

This second room has a squat toilet. In this photo you can see the green pot to dip water with.
These bathrooms are considered very nice.

Their home is very clean for the circumstances. We leave our shoes at the door.

Looking into their home. This is the family room. If you walked through the door straight ahead you would be in their kitchen. Their bedrooms are upstairs. The downstairs floor is made of white tile. The bedroom floor upstairs is covered with contact paper. Curtains divide the rooms. This is a very nice home. There is only an outside stairway access to the bedrooms. I'm not sure where their shower was?

This photo shows more of the family room. It is just to the left of the kitchen doorway.

Another part of the family room. The moto is parked inside so no one steals it. It is common to park motos in the house or place of business.

This is the outside eating area. We were going to eat here but Sameth's mother in law decided it would be better to serve us our meal indoors. She kept the three dogs and a cat outside while we ate. She also turned on a fan to keep us cool. The doorway seen in this photo leads into the kitchen. The fenced area off to the right is the chicken coupe. Notice the hammocks. These are a very common place to sleep. They make great baby swings too!



We left Sameths' in- laws home and went to the church. We were able to meet with some of our PEF participants. Elder and Sister Dilworth met with us. After the fireside we went out to dinner. We were happy to have a "clean" meal. After dinner we went to the Dilworth's home and Dale set up their scanner. Having the Dilworth's serving in  Kampong Cham is a blessing. They are loved by the members and are helping in many ways.

In Kamong Cham we stayed at the 7 Makara Hotel and Restaurant.

The next day we traveled to Kampong Thom where we checked in at the Heng Sophea Guest House.

I really liked this place. It is family run. When we entered the house children were helping their mother with the chores. It was clean for Cambodia.  All went well for us until it was time to shower and go to bed. The power went out. We lay in our room in complete darkness dripping with sweat. We had no windows in our room. Dale had a light on his key chain which he turned on so we could see. He eventually turned on my lap top to use as light. We were beginning to die so we got dressed and  left our room. There was a balcony where we sat for a time. Within an hour the power was restored. We returned to our room to get some rest.

Backing up a bit. The travel to Kampong Thom did not go well for Dale. We believe he experienced repercussions from the chicken we ate the day before. We had to make a stop at a Service station for Dale to try out a squat toilet. Having just experienced a case of the runs the next suggestion by Sophornn was not appreciated.

After we dropped off our suit cases at the Guest House we met in the lobby to go to lunch. We thought we would go to a restaurant. Not so lucky.  Sophornn announced that the Branch President's daughter was getting married. Everyone was at their home celebrating. Sophornn insisted that we go to the wedding. We ended up at the Branch Presidents home under a canopy filled with flies, beer cans, unsafe food and women with scary faces due to make up applied with trowels.

We arrived at the same time the young missionaries did. A table was cleared for us. We actually arrived near the end of the celebration. As we were sitting at our table the catering crew were in the process of disassembling the canopy. The mother of the bride greeted us in her party dress. The next time I saw her she had changed into a pair of pajamas which is normal daytime clothes in Cambodia. She had removed her false eyelashes and wiped the make up off her face. She was walking around with a purse over her arm. I assume she was collecting money. Food was delivered to our table. It was apparent it had been sitting out in the heat for some time. Flies were everywhere. Sameth has an iron stomach. He was very excited to eat the feast before him. Sophornn was a bit more cautious. Dale and I sipped on a can of  warm pop.

The young missionaries are often sick. Gee, I wonder why?

Sophal is the girl in the center. She is a translator for the Senior Couples who come to serve in Kampong Thom. She also cooks for them. She is famous for making the Khmer ties that everyone wears in the mission field. She also sews scripture covers and now has produced a recipe book. These two girls do not look scary like the wedding party did. The girl next to Sophal was just called to serve a mission in Korea. She reports in August to the Provo MTC.

The food does not look too bad in the photo. Just know that there are flies every where and the food has been sitting out for a long time. This is a whole chicken including head wrapped to mound on the plate. There isn't much of any part of a chicken, pig, cow, or fish that the Khmer do not prepare for consumption.

This is a sauce with ants in it. The ants are used as a flavoring. We were told they give the sauce a sour flavor. They are not the ants that crawl on the ground. These form nests in mango trees.

Ant sauce on greens. YUMMY! Anyone have a toothpick?  I have ant legs between my teeth.

I raised the camera over my head and took a shot. This is what was happening behind us. We were glad when Sophornn announced we could leave.






After the wedding we went to the church and met with our PEF students. Our fireside began at 5:00. The attendance of interested people was low. After the fireside we walked to a nearby restaurant, Arunras Thmey. The sanitation was questionable but there are very few choices in Kampong Thom. This is considered one of their better restaurants. Most tourists traveling through Kampong Thom stop here.

We walked back to the Guest House to call it a day. The next morning we were up early. We returned to the Arunras Thmey to eat breakfast. This was an eye opening experience. As we completed our meals I watched as our table was cleared.  One of the waiters took Sophornn's roll plate.  Sophornn was served two rolls. He ate one. He also had been picking stuff he didn't want out of his soup and putting it on the roll plate. As the waiter walked away from our table he flicked the gunk that Sophornn had rejected onto the floor and then served the roll to another customer...for yuck!!

After witnessing the "flick and serve" maneuver we traveled to Siem Reap. We checked in at the  Phoun Khmer Boutique Hotel. We were actually going to stay somewhere else but the place we thought we had reservations at could not find any reservation record for us. The hotel was not crowded but they wanted to put us in more expensive rooms than we had reserved.  Probably because they saw white people. After Sophornn had a run around with the receptionist we left. The place we ended up staying at was nice but you must understand we are in Cambodia. My first experience with our room was as I was about to lay down on the bed.  Seeing a fresh gecko poop on my sheet by my pillow was not cool. I know that the room had been cleaned. Hey,when a gecko has to go it has to go. Our sheets seemed a good place at the time. We never actually saw the gecko, but we could hear it. They make a barking sort of chirping sound.  Next I went to wash my hands at the bathroom sink. A big spider scurried out of the drain and down into a crack. Fortunately before the evening was over the spider and I encountered each other again. This time he did not survive my adrenaline rush. When it was time to retire for the night our air conditioner did not function well. We had reported the problem before we left for our evening meeting. When we returned they said the problem was fixed. This was not true. Dale ended up requesting a fan. When they said they didn't have one he took the lobby fan.  It was big and worked well. Ahhh...it felt great however the receptionist was probably a little sweaty.

Reception Desk

The bed the gecko pooed on. See it looks really nice. The gecko thought so too.







The highlight of our trip to Siem Reap was when we received a surprise phone call from Elder and Sister Kohls. They were also in town on business. We made arrangements to go out to dinner with them after our fireside. We went to a buffet restaurant that we had gone to last year. They provide live entertainment. It was good to visit and enjoy the Kohls company.

This dancer dressed as a peacock was part of the evening entertainment.







After dinner we said our farewells and went to our hotel to get a good nights rest. And you now how that went. Good after we got the fan.

Once again we were up the next morning and ready to leave by 7:30.Our final stop was Battambang. This is one of two provinces that still has a full time Senior Couple offering member leader support. Elder and Sister Yeates were great in making contact with all of our PEF students. We were able to interview with most of them. The fireside was great. There were close to forty people in attendance which is an impressive number.  After the fireside we went with the Yeates to my most favorite restaurant in Cambodia. Would you believe, The Gecko? The owners I believe are American. They opened this restaurant to help provide job training for young girls to keep them out of the sex traffic trade. The quality of food is beyond excellent. The atmosphere is great. I have only good things to say about this place. The owner is spunky and really fun. The young  waitresses are charming. Love it, love it, love it!

The Yeates leave in July. They chose to serve 23 months. I think Elder Yeates would love to resubmit papers and return to Cambodia. Sister Yeates probably would too but she does miss her family. They will arrive home to bid their grandson good bye as he is leaving on a mission. They sold their home before they left so they are returning to the USA homeless. Sort of a funny feeling.

We spent the night in Battambang at the President Battambang City Hotel. The accommodations were excellent. We were on the 5th floor and the elevator was out of order, but that was OK. We had been sitting a lot anyway.  The next morning we ate at the hotel's restaurant. Dale had an "All American Breakfast". It was a fried egg, non crispy bacon, a chicken hot dog (Cambodia's understanding of sausage), two small pieces of  ham and two pieces of warm bread. I had toast with jam. It was actually toast with jam. After breakfast we went back to our room and studied the scriptures, checked our E-mail and looked at the news on Yahoo. Sophornn had training with his Battambang teachers until 10:00. We met him in the lobby. We packed the car and headed home. It was suppose to be a five hour drive. It took about 3 hours. That is why it was Mr. Toads Wild Ride.

The road would get dusty in spots. Do you think that slowed anyone down? Think again.

This is my kind of traveling. Clip- clop, clip- clop.







Until next week be safe. We plan to walk.

We're going to crash!

Hello Family and Friends,
We began our week with a Skype session with each of our kids. It was wonderful to speak with each of them. Everyone seems to be doing well which is a great blessing. We anxiously are waiting for the announcement of our newest grandson. He may come before the end of May. We received word that his delivery estimation date has changed to June 5. We know he will come when he is supposed to come. We are grateful that at this point in this pregnancy our baby should be well developed.

It is coming to the middle of the month and so we have been trying to make contact with our high priority PEF participants. This is not an easy task to accomplish. There are too many cell phones that have been turned off. We can not make contact with an "unawailable" phone number.

The highlight of our week was a two day country wide Young Single Adult conference. Elder and Sister James, the public relations Senior couple planned,organized and carried out this conference with the assistance of several of the District Presidents and their counselors here in Cambodia. The event cost around $10,000. The Cambodian saints thought it was the best activity ever. It was pretty "over the top".

Day one began with the arrival of chartered buses from the Provinces. Some of the Relief Society sisters from the Phnom Penh branches prepared a lunch for everyone. They prepared food for 1,000 people. I do not believe we had that many people but that is what was planned for. Dale believes there were about 600 people. Lunch was a soft drink, rice and chicken. Dale and I had safe PBJ sandwiches.

Cooking meat over an open fire. The pots and pans they use are huge. They cook with what looks like small shovels. Mix the noon day sun with fire and you have EXTREME HEAT.





After lunch all participants received either a number 1, 2 or 3 tag. We all gathered in the chapel and gym area for a talk by a guest speaker. Elder and Sister James' son, Josh James spoke on "Believing in Yourself". If you are interested in knowing about Josh you can Google his name. He is a very successful American entrepreneur. After his talk all participants were directed to different classes to be uplifted and enlightened. After the classes everyone met outdoors to enjoy a catered dinner.

While the classes were in session Dale and I walked around the church and enjoyed the "behind the scenes" activities.

What we have noticed is that although the people are poor in Cambodia they like "fancy" stuff. This is one of the chartered buses the Province members rode in. At the end of the day everyone from out of town stayed at a Guest House. The Church budget paid for everything.






Dinner was catered. Dale and I and a few of the other Senior couples walked around the parking lot to observe the dinner preparations.

The caterers set up their cooking equipment. This is the same type of cooking that takes place for Khmer weddings. Most of the caterers were wearing look alike red shirts.

Whether it is cooking for a group, at a restaurant or for a family this is the cooking method that is most common.

On the orange table in the foreground is some kind of a salad. We watched them mix in a lot of oil and sugar. On the tables in the distance are dishes that were eventually filled with a lumpy green broth. It was kept warm by a candle.

We are not sure how these fish were prepared, but they sat in these baskets in the hot shade for a good portion of the day. At this point I believe they are ready to be served.

The caterers provided the tables, plastic chairs, table clothes and dishes. We were told there were 80 tables set up.

We are watching from the church balcony at everyone chooses a place to sit for dinner. We were keeping a low profile.

More people are gathering to find their table.

People were really enjoying the meal.






After staying out of sight during the eating portion of the evening we thought we were spared having to eat. To our dismay when the dancing began and things were getting cleaned up one of the District Presidents told us that a table was reserved for the Senior Couples and our food was waiting for us. Oh great! Now the food was really out of the safe temperature zone. What to do...

Oh yum...fish...scary fish! Pictured here is Elder and Sister Dilworth. They came down from Kampong Cham to join with their young single adults from their branches. What good sports they are.

Elder Dilworth is so brave. Sister Dilworth is the mission nurse. I suppose she figures the food has been blessed. We each took small portions. Everyone knows that "elderly" people do not eat much. Our pot bellies are due to the lack of food we all eat.

Elder and Sister Tuck are "vegetarians" including not eating fish. Most of us figured the rice would be safe. Dale and I ate rice with soy sauce. I actually tasted the rice with soy sauce. One tablespoon was all I had room for.




We did not get a picture of Elder and Sister Capener. They are more willing to try new things. Sister Capener raved about the fish. Being the thoughtful person that I am, I sacrificed my fish portion so she could have more. The orange pop was good. It was canned in New York, USA. "God bless America!"

The evening ended with a dance. It was hot and we were hungry so we left the festivities about 7:00. It is always fun walking home in the dark. The real challenge is crossing the busy intersection, Mao Tse Tung Boulevard. It is one street that we can not avoid.We were to be back at the church building in the morning about 7:00 for the second day of activities.

Elder and Sister James resurrected a controversial youth activity that was put to rest many years ago. Some of our "ancient friends" will recall an airplane flight scenario activity where the participants are seated in an airplane.  During "the flight" the airplane loses an engine and the plane must return to its starting point. As the plane begins the return flight it crashes.Everyone"dies". The participants are led to different rooms and the degrees of glory are explained to them. All of the participants move to each of the glories ending in the celestial kingdom. The activity concludes with a testimony meeting.

Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission has now experienced this activity. Elder and Sister James and their committee put forth an astronomical amount of work to prepare for this event. Sister James ordered  honey roasted peanut packets that the flight attendants distributed to all the passengers. She ordered flight attendant hats and scarves for the girls to wear.  Making HUGE banners is a BIG business in Cambodia. The Cultural Hall was transformed into the interior of a passenger plane with the use of banners. The James' found photos on line of the inside of plane windows. The walls were lined with these window banners at eye level. It really did give the illusion of being in a plane.Yards and yards of blue fabric created a false ceiling which covered the entire Cultural Hall ceiling area.

Elder James is a professional pilot and wore his uniform. Authentic airplane sounds were piped  through the sound system. When the plane began to have difficulties the lights flickered.The passengers were told that they were to presume a crash position. They did. A grand explosive sound filled the air. After the crash everyone was informed that   they had died. They were escorted to a room that represented the Telestial glory.




From there they returned to the Cultural Hall where mammoth banners of nature had transformed the airplane into a room representing the Terestial glory.

After the lecture in this room everyone was escorted to one more destination. They entered the Chapel where it was very angelical. Four missionaries sang Families Can Be Together Forever and the congregation was invited to join with them. President Moon spoke to everyone about the Celestial glory. He spoke to them in Khmer. That was cool. The meeting was then opened for testimony bearing.

We sat in the back of the room. Sophornn translated for us. There were some moving testimonies but their was also some funny things that were said also. Our friend, Sophornn translated for us. One young man began by saying that the pilot should have checked the plane engines before they took off. Had he done that no one would have died. Several people retold different detailed account of what had happened and how scary the air plane crash was. No one wanted to stay in the first glory. One girl talked about how the room was  hot and then cold and then hot.  She was very dramatic as she spoke about the uncomfortable feeling she experienced. Elder James was sitting with us and told us why the room was hot-cold-dark-light. He said that he kept going to the different rooms turning the lights and air conditioner off  because people kept turning them on. The rooms were suppose to be hot and dark only. The testimony meeting lasted 1 1/2 hours! Near the end of the testimonies Sophornn was not translating for us anymore. We asked him what was being said. His comment, "Oh just more of the same."

Face book entries among the church members in Cambodia has gone crazy with photos of this major country activity.  Dale and I had approached this activity cautiously. We knew a little of "the air plane" activities history. But it was approved and so we kept quiet. For Cambodia it was a positive event. We just hope that it was not a spiritually confusing event. Sister James is writing an article for the Liahona magazine. Only time will tell if it is accepted for publication.

Two of the flight attendants are PEF students.

Sreypheap Noeur and Sayon Bun Ang

Sreypheap Noeur is engaged to an American.

Sayon Bun Ang has been called to serve a mission at
Temple Square. She reports in August. One of her sisters also served at Temple Square and another one of her sisters served somewhere else in the USA.

After the testimony meeting the Relief Society served everyone lunch. Once again they had rice and chicken. When lunch was over all the out of town people boarded their buses for the long trip home.

We spent the second half of the day hard at work in the office.

 What luck! What a blessing! The conference ended at noon. The rain began around three. It rained enough to flood the streets. If it had rained the day before, the big dinner would have been very damp indeed. Those morbid fish would have swam away. I really did not want to wear my sewer boots. We looked out the window and we decided we could make it home without boots. We got half way home. The water at this point was deep enough that it would have splashed into our boots defeating the purpose to wear them. A tuk tuk driver came by and asked if we needed a ride. Dale said no and then had second thoughts. He thought if we could make it to the corner where you see the parked moto to the right in the above picture, we could take side streets home. We walked to the corner on the high level and found that the road was flooded there too. The tuk tuk driver backed up to where the street was not flooded and we boarded.

Making our way down the street in our tuk tuk.

This was the shortest tuk tuk ride ever. When we got to our apartment the tuk tuk driver giggled a bit because he knew we were so close to home that if we could have we would've walked. The least amount of money we have spent on a tuk tuk ride. Dear family and friends that water is nasty stuff. I would have paid a tuk tuk to take me 5 feet!

This week was the Kings Birthday. It is a three day holiday in Cambodia. For three nights fireworks were set off in honor of the king.






This next week should be fun. We will be traveling to the Provinces. We are looking forward to seeing the green of the countryside. We are also looking forward to leaving the city for four days. Last time we were in the Provinces we had a grand daughter born. Who knows....maybe our trip will bring us another bundle from heaven. We hope so.