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.

Sunrise...Sunset...

Family and friends,
Thanks for all that prayed that we would have fare weather on Monday. We began our Monday with the usual walk to the office. It was a holiday in Cambodia so the building was quiet. The office staff and service center staff of course take holidays off.  Cambodia does not recognize our celebrations but we plan to take Thanksgiving and Christmas off even if everyone else decides to work. In regard to Monday evening let the photos tell the story...

We arrived at the dock about 5:00. Departure time was at 5:15. For $20-$30  tour boats can be rented for up to 18 people. Elder and Sister Henderson hosted this Family Home Evening event. They prepared boxed dinners that had meat and cheese sandwiches, grapes, bananas, Oreo and Pea-nutter  cookies, Hershey Golden Nuggets (heaven in a wrapper) and water.

The Tonle Sap River current is quite swift. Just before we launched I was looking out over the view and it seemed that we were already moving. The land remained stationary but the water and the debris in the water was rushing by. It was a strange illusion.
As we traveled the river we came to a point where four rivers merge. I know three of them, the Mekong River, the Tonle Bassac River and the Tonle Sap.

Let the cruise begin. Sister Henderson setting up the box dinners and Elder Henderson snapping photos as the sun begins to set. Sister Tuck is at the left in this photo. Elder and Sister Rhyne are in the background on the right.

Finding a spot to stand.

Dale on the lower level...let us go up top.

The evening was pleasant. We enjoyed clear air and a cool breeze. We all chose to stay on the top deck to eat, take pictures and visit. As our cruise boat approached land we were ordered to the lower deck. We were warned that if the police caught us up top while docking we would be fined. We all hustled downstairs to avoid paying bribe money to the police.

People including children playing and fishing on the concrete bank along part of the river.

The beginning of the end of the day.

 What a blessing. We have been experiencing the rainy season. This evening was a real blessing.

The sun is setting behind the Royal Palace. 

Let there be peace on earth.

Looking away from the setting sun.

Enjoying that wonderful boxed dinner. Love the lanterns.

Coming into dock.

We docked next to another boat. We actually crashed into it. This photo is of the  people in the boat we were up against. We walked from our boat onto their boat and then onto the dock. 

Too cute. The little guy on the right has really fuzzy hair. The little girl on the left was blowing us kisses. It was a great way to end a perfect evening.

The sun sets and a new day begins. Now we move on with the remainder of the week. Dale has been communicating daily with Salt Lake and Hong Kong in regards to the changes that are taking place with the Perpetual Education Fund Program. He is our student's best advocate to continue to allow them to attend colleges and universities. We are working to target any legitimate vocational schools in this country. Many of the vocational schools are here one day and shut down the next. Trade school choices are limited. Women have the fewest choices. Tailoring and beauty school and culinary school are about it. I personally feel that factory made clothing is having an effect on the local tailor's businesses. 

Wednesday we attended  Zone Conference. I always enjoy the opportunity to meet with the young Elders and Sisters. We were informed that these conferences are not mandatory for us to attend so we will probably not attend them in the future. When we attend these meetings we have to close the office. We thought we were suppose to participate because President and Sister Smedley had asked us to. Sister Moon said it is not necessary. It is differences in leadership. I tend to agree with Sister Moon. It is nice but not necessary.

Friday we attended a Missionary Reunion for all  return missionaries from Cambodia and Vietnam. It was well attended. Touch Sophornn was the oldest return missionary in attendance. He is the Institute Director. His office is next to ours. We travel with him to the provinces.He has been pictured in past blogs. Elder Den who we taught Career Workshop to a couple months ago was the most recent return missionary. We were able to speak with many of our PEF students at the reunion which will cut down on the phone calling I need to do this month. 

Missionary Reunion 2012

Sister Tuck and I registering people for the reunion evening events. We had over 100 return missionaries in attendance. Many traveled from the Provinces to attend. 

 The numbers on the floor were for a cake walk that was the beginning activity for the evening. We did not eat the food but they had crab, and rice and octopus on a stick and bread and some other foods I could not recognize. Dale had a can of pop and some bread. 

Yum!

What would our celebrations be like without balloons and helium?

Quick and easy and effective.

Families were invited. There were party hats for the kids. They loved it. They also loved the balloons.

This is Narom and her husband and children. Narom works in  the service center finance department and is the main person we work with for PEF loan disbursements.

Saturday we were at our building by 6:15 in the morning for our institute class. It is a challenge to get up and out the door that early, but it is well worth it to have our Saturday afternoon free.We just began this new schedule in October. I love it!

Our route to work has been under construction. Because of the construction the main intersection we cross is a challenge. I got across to discover that Dale had not followed me. This gave me an opportunity to snap a photo of Dale crossing the road.

Just behind Dale is the new corner store we are anxiously waiting to shop at. The shelves are still being stocked. Construction did not take long, but we have been waiting weeks for it to open. We hope it will be one more resource to shop for such things as toilet paper, soap, etc. It would be great if they sell bread and some produce.

Because of the road construction the sidewalk is now the detour for all motos. Larger vehicles have to find a different route. We walk along side the motos and bicycles. 

Sand bags or broken cement slabs or boards are placed on the curbs as planks for the motos and bikes. Heck a bunch of trash works well too!!

It is now 6:15 Sunday evening for us and the sun has set. It will soon be sunrise for you. May you each have a wonderful week. We will do the same.

Blue Screen of Death!!!

Hello again dear family and friends,
This past Monday was yet another holiday in Cambodia. We opened our office at 8 in the morning as usual. I suspect the many "rich people" that stayed home for the holiday had their air conditioners, lights, televisions, washer machines and whatever else drains from the power here in Cambodia on. As a result the power in our building would go on and off and on and off. This happened at least six times in less than two hours. Power outage is common here but not in such a chain of hits. What we have experienced suggests that our office computer has taken a lot of abuse during the years the PEF program has been operating in Cambodia. Monday's power failure was "the straw that broke the camel's back". The blue screen of death raised it's ugly head and our surge protector died a sudden death. This event was not a welcomed part of our day or week. Our first thought was that we lost all our information since we had not backed it up. Dale tried his hand at trouble shooting. After a tense morning we called a tuk tuk and transported the computer tower to our "neighborhood" computer fix it shop. Dale purchased a "magical" piece of equipment to assist in retrieving information and within a day the fix it guy was able to get our computer running. In the mean time we relied on my little pink laptop. It does not have all the information that the main computer has but we were able to create a payment requisition for one of our PEF students, Sok Chem. He has come to our office several times in the past month to get his loan processed. Each time the Internet or power has been down. Monday, he showed up just about the time we were face to face with the blue screen of death. He said that Cambodia gets its power from different countries. He showed me on our map where three hydro power plants are being constructed in the countryside. The target date for there availability is 2015. This will be a major change for the people outside of Phnom Penh where there is no electricity.

The end of the week...Saturday we were still dealing with computer glitches from computer memory loss. Salt Lake has changed some passwords, etc. and Dale can't get at some of our much needed information. The time difference between Cambodia and the USA is a problem. There needs to be a 24 hour call line where you could get help when needed. That doesn't mean someone has to be at an office at all times, but like doctors there needs to be someone to contact when emergencies arise. Dale's newest frustration was when he was creating the Priesthood reports. He couldn't get them to print. Two hours later he figured out that Salt Lake had changed the Khmer font. Dale inquired of me as to what other couples without computer knowledge would do if the problems we have been having happened for them. All I could think was that if I were them I would PRAY that someone like Dale would come to the rescue.

Meas Sameth just moved to an upstairs room in our building. He was the Employment Resource Center Manager for Phnom Penh. His position has been changed and he is now manager of the newly created Self Reliance Center. He works directly with us. He will be learning the PEF Program. We are volunteers and he is the paid employee for PEF. He is our boss. We look forward to being team members with him. He is a real blessing for PEF. He is working to discern what the real jobs are in Cambodia. He is also researching the best trade schools and colleges and universities for our students. Having someone to work with that speaks the language and knows the country and its customs is a real plus. We have been working with the Church Seminaries and Institute personnel here in Cambodia. The problem is that PEF is not their top priority and so we had to hope for translation help, etc. but it was not necessarily on our time line. Working with Sameth will be wonderful, because our focus is the same. Sameth is a big positive for this week.

Wednesday South District was in charge of  a Young Single Adult Activity for all the districts in the city and outlying areas. This was for young adults ages 18 to 30. It was a real success. Each branch did a traditional dance or a skit. After the entertainment they had some games and the evening ended with a dance. I really was looking forward to the dance, but by the time the entertainment was over and people were eating their hamburgers we just needed to get home. We had been at work from  sun up and it was close to eight in the evening. The computer drama of Monday and Tuesday had taken its toll.

This gives you an idea of all the people that came. There were lots on the stage and back stage and in the parking lot and throughout the building. It was a real success. The Khmer really enjoy getting together and having fun.

This was one of the skits. Which missionary from the states taught these people this hilarious slap stick skit??? I wish I could understand the language because the audience was roaring with laughter over what was being said. They did a good job with this skit.

These young adults represent one of the Vietnamese branches. In the morning I saw about six young women sewing these outfits.I did not realize until I saw them on stage that they were making costumes for the evening performance. Too stressful for me.

Dale had to go to our office which is down this hall. He took the opportunity to snap a shot of some of the dancers backstage.

This was transfer week and release week for many of our young missionaries. Two young men were going back to the states. Once again we taught Career Work Shop.

Elder Humphrey's on the left was flying home to Utah Friday evening November 2nd. He is planning on returning to the University of Utah. Elder Meier in the center is just an all around good guy not planning to go home for another 296 days. Elder Ott on the right was awaiting his mother, father and grandmother to join him in Cambodia to do some touring before heading home to California. He plans to return to BYU in Provo. It was a real pleasure to work with these young men for the last two days of their missions. Elder Humphrey's served the Vietnamese people in Cambodia and Elder Ott served the Cambodian people.

On our way to church today we saw a fire station. I had recently mentioned that I had seen police cars and ambulances but had not yet seen fire trucks.Dale took this picture just for me. Is he a great guy or what?

Today we attended a baptism at Tuol Tom Pong Branch. The little girl in the center is the adopted sister of one of our PEF students. Her new father is an older man (70's). I imagine Him Sophea (age 24) will eventually be this little girls guardian. Him Sophea's mother died when she was a young girl.

Him Sophea's father, adopted sister, and Him Sophea

Elder and Sister Rhyne had us over for a games and dinner night with some of the young people that work as Family History consultants in the area. Several of them are our PEF students. Sister Rhyne served spaghetti and meatballs as requested from Sister Han. We were also served rice with vegetables, french bread and a tomato salad. Dessert was a pudding parfait  made with coconut milk and layered with bananas and Oreo cookies. The best part...I didn't have to cook!

From left to right: Nen Pichmonyroth, Khlot Chan Pisey, Him Sophea, Chhun Kimlang

The girls love to pose for pictures. We were playing PHASE 10 and Elder Rhyne wanted to take a picture of two of the girls that were sharing a chair. He said look here. Bui Mai instinctively struck a pose using her cards as a fan. In the process she showed all of her cards to all of us.

Right to left: Chhun Kimlang, Khlot Chan Pisey, Bui Mai, Keo Chhorvin,Nen Picmonyroth, Sister Han.

It was craziness as the girls wanted to all help with the dishes. Have you ever seen so many people congregated around one little sink? Too many in the kitchen for me to get involved so I took pictures instead.

Nice plate Dale. Yes, we see it is empty. You will get your turn too. Indeed there was plenty to eat and it was oh so good.

We were on our way home when we saw this little guy hanging out near our neighborhood construction sight. Unfortunately he saw Dale's camera and decided to be really shy. He started hiding in his mother's skirt so we never got a really good picture. 

Nope...

He just won't let us take his picture.Believe me when I tell you that he is really cute.

We will have Family Home Evening Monday with the Senior Couples. We are going to take a sunset cruise on the river. Pray for a sunset and not a thunderstorm.

Have a great week... and remember to do your patriotic duty and vote.