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.

Thumbs up to a better week!

Family and friends,
As I was sweeping our little apartment I looked at the handle on my dust pan and thought about what I would report this week in our blog. I would like to report:

"Thumbs up to a better week."
Question: What made it a better week?
Answer: Attitude. We accentuated the positive.





Monday was business as usual at work. That evening we took a ride in a tuk tuk to Family Home Evening at Elder and Sister Westover's home. Elder and Sister Tuck reported on their Temple adventure trip to Manila. Their group consisted of twelve members. At least one family was sealed together. The Tucks reported that the Temple experience itself was great. The difficulties were mainly with passports. The members had all the proper paperwork that the Cambodian government distributes. Apparently there are some people in Vietnam and the Philippines that are prejudice toward the Cambodian people and took joy in harassing them.With the Lord's help no one was left behind and the work that they had gone to do at the temple was accomplished. The Tucks were glad to have had the experience but were relieved when every one was safely home again.

What is Family Home Evening without treats? Sister Westover baked cookie crust and we gathered around the table to assemble fruit pizza. Yummy.

We had whip cream and cream cheese blended together to be used as pizza sauce. Besides the yummy spread we used cherries, kiwi, peaches, bananas, and pineapple.

We were supposed to work as a team with two couples preparing a team crust. I think few of us got in on the groove of the activity. Like the "Little Red Hen" when the pizzas were ready the question was, "Who will help us eat these pizzas?" "I will said Elder and Sister..."I will said Elder and Sister..." And we all did.

This is the creative work of Elder and Sister Kohls.
The other two pizzas were eaten before we got smart and snapped a photo of the finished products. I can tell you that the pizza made by Elder and Sister Johnson was very beautiful. A photo of their pizza would have made it into any cuisine cookbook or magazine. I did not want to take over the job of assembling our pizza by myself so I spread half the pizza spread and called Dale over to also help spread. He added lines to look like a football. We invited Elder James to help us. After he had licked all the whip cream spoons he dumped cherries in the middle of our pizza. ( He likes cherries.) I then added bananas, peaches, pineapple and kiwi around the edges. Our pizza reminded me of some of the cub scout projects my scouts would create. Sister Westover awarded our creations. Ours was claimed as the pizza with the most cherries, Elder and Sister Johnson's team's claimed the most appetizing and the Kohls team was the pizza with a personality.

Standing:
Sister Westover visiting with Elder Tuck.
Seated Center:
Sister James visiting with Sister Capener
Seated Back to Camera:
Elder Capener

The TV is displaying the temple trip.

Standing in Circle to the left of photo:
Elder James, Elder Kohls (back) and Sister Kohls







Tuesday was a normal day. As you know I like to periodically check out what is happening in the community outside our office window. The following photos are taken at the same place. It gives you some more insight into what all takes place in the same section of alleyway. The alley is definitely an extension of the home.

Eating breakfast. Pajamas is a regular outfit that many Khmer wear on the streets and when shopping at the markets. When visiting in the Provinces I have seen the women wear them to church also.

This is the same spot. Food preparation time. And washing dishes.

Cooking fish.

Taking a break to visit with neighbors and enjoy some playtime with the baby.







Wednesday we returned to Room Chang Dental to have Dale's permanent crown put on. We arrived shortly before 8 in the morning. Because we were early we had to wait for the dentist to arrive. While we waited Dale practiced taking pictures. He has found a new interest in photography. As you can see from the above pictures our Automatic option does not take that good of pictures. Dale is discovering he can get clearer photos by taking them manually. Using a tripod even works better.  The next photos will show his practice work.

The view out of the window at the dental office into a school parking lot below. We are on the 7th floor of the building. You are looking at lots and lots of motos.

A different angle.

Yet another view.

Statue in the waiting room of Room Chang.

I'm preparing my Institute lesson for Saturday. We were not going to get any work done on this day. After we finished at the dentist we had Zone Conference to attend. That was from 9-3:30. They always cater lunch for these meetings. They ordered Mexican food from the Viva Restaurant. It was nice for a change.


Thursday and Friday were normal days. We had minimal power outages. Dale spent quite a bit of his time  away from our office helping Sophornn and Kuntheavy with their computer problems.

Friday evening I did our laundry. The experience could have been LOTS worse. I ended up using three machines. Machine A did what it was supposed to do. "Victory!" One load successfully completed.  Machine B washed the clothes but would not complete the spin cycle. That is where I used Machine C. Machine C no longer washes clothes but it can spin clothes. I  transferred our sopping wet clothes from Machine B to Machine C pressed the spin button and hoped for the best. Wow, two "Victory" cries in one night! Load number two successfully completed. I actually got the laundry done much earlier than usual. It was a great feeling.

Saturday I taught Institute at 6:30 in the morning. The early morning walk to work was hot. It was an indication that by noon when we left work it would be scorching. After class we worked in our office for a couple of hours. We walked home and then used a tuk tuk to go to the grocery store. Since we did not have to walk home we stocked up on canned goods. Lucky Store got in a shipment of Magic Time canned vegetables. Magic Time is a good product. A can of  Magic Time vegetables is $1.10 in comparison $2.50 or more for other brands. I use the juices from the canned vegetables in soup to make gravy. Nothing goes to waste and yet everything goes to waist.

Sunday Dale was asked to teach the Gospel Doctrine class at the International Branch. He did a great job.

Today at church we met a group of about 10 students from BYU that are here doing service work through August at some of the local Non Governmental Organizations. It was fun to have them at church. People that speak English we can understand!  Their professor has traveled all through Asia. He spoke in Sacrament Meeting today. He said that when he was in high school he met his first Cambodian. He said that some of the students at his school were not kind to this boy. They called him a racist name. The boy just smiled at these students. The professor said that he approached him and asked him if he knew that these students were calling him a bad name. The boy said it was OK because he was free. He explained how he had crawled on his belly through the jungles of Cambodia and eaten bugs and other such things to escape to Thailand. He told him how he watched his family members being killed. He was in America now and this made him happy to be free. The professor said that later in his own life he was called to serve in a branch that consisted of Cambodians, Vietnamese, Laotians and others. He learned through them of their flights to safety. He has worked and served in the Asian countries for about 35 years. After church Dale had a conversation with him. He described some of his feelings concerning the Asian countries. He said if he wants to eat great food he goes to Thailand, if he wants to see beautiful countrysides he goes to ...Dale couldn't remember where... and if he wants to experience craziness he comes to Cambodia. We can vouch for that comment.

President and Sister Moon's daughter and son in law and two granddaughters and newest grandson are visiting Cambodia through May 26. Their grandson was born at Christmas time. The Moon family attended the International Branch Sunday.  President Moon will not be able to do too much visiting with them because in another week two General Authorities and their wives are coming to tour the mission. We also have more new missionaries coming and others leaving. I guess he counts his blessings on the little bit of time he does get to spend with them.

This week should be fun. Tuesday and Wednesday we will be attending a countrywide YSA activity. We hope to meet with many of our students. The activities committee is planning food and activities for 1,000 people. Maybe there will be that many...maybe not. That is a lot of motos in the parking lot!

Practicing time exposure from the roof of our building.

Practice...

Practice...look in the sky to the left. We were on the roof trying to get photos of the lightning storm.

 More practice.






I have nothing more to report...

Dinner anyone?

Put on a happy face.

Dear family and friends,
I am grateful for my daughter's Face Book entry this week. I wish I had read it before my altercation with the apartment staff Saturday afternoon. They removed my clothes from the washing machines. I was on time to get my clothes but they were more on time. My clothes were put into another machine to spin. I allowed this maddening laundry situation to play on my emotions. Counting to 10 would have been wise. Counting to 10 in Khmer would have been even wiser.

The positive to my explosive reaction is that we may get new washing machines. I told the assistant manager that I would not be able to recommend their apartment to the people that replace us if the laundry situation does not change. Our apartment is the smallest of all the Senior Couple apartments. I like it because although dirt and grit is a daily battle at least I only have a small battle field to work with. Many of the couples have several bedrooms and bathrooms to maintain. Our apartment location is a reasonable walk to work. The negative is that we are the only missionaries including the young Sisters and Elders that do not have a private laundry facility. Our laundry situation has been a huge challenge for me ever since we arrived in Cambodia. I am still working on getting out of my gray cloud after my Saturday afternoon confrontation. When in a slump it can be hard to let go. The following advice that Jenni shared is perfect advice for me.

"Don't be gloomy.Do not dwell on unkind things. Stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. Even if you are not happy, put a smile on you face. 'Accentuate the positive.' Look a little deeper for the good.  Go forward in life with a twinkle in your eye and smile on your face, with great and strong purpose in your heart.  Love life." Gordon B. Hinckley

So I am suppose to TWINKLE...my nose is shiny...does that count for anything?

I will take this opportunity to list the positives of our week.
1. We have experienced some rainstorms but have not had to wear our sewer boots. One of my goals is to NEVER wear them!
2. Another good experience was the chance to interview several of our PEF students. These dedicated students are a joy to meet with. Some of them have sad stories to tell but they remain faithful. They are a great example to us. Their humility and acceptance of their lot in life puts us to shame. We appreciate their examples as it motivates us to do better, be better and be more grateful.
3. We attended an engagement ring ceremony on Friday. This was not an arranged partnership. The bride and groom actually found each other and fell in love. It was refreshing to watch them interact with each other. They were loving and tender. We have a good feeling about their future together.
4. The engagement event was in Ta Khamau. Our ride in a tuk tuk to Ta Khamau takes about forty-five minutes. I took advantage of the ride to snap some photos of the people on route.
5. We are pleased that Dale's asthmatic symptoms are lessening.
6. Dale broke his tooth but the positive is that he did not need a root canal. When we were leaving the dental office Dale begged the receptionists to give him a second Room Chang Nike shirt. The dentist gives a shirt to new patients. Dale already received a shirt when he got his first crown. He pestered the receptionist until she gave in. She emphasized that he could not have any more. He now has a white and a black  Room Chang sports shirt. They are nice shirts.
7. One of our PEF students, Hout Buntry, who worked for Grasshopper Adventures, came by our office to give Dale a Cambodia bicycle shirt. It is a used shirt and the zipper on it has a problem, but the shirt is a cool remembrance of Cambodia.
8. There are many mango trees in Cambodia. Several members of the Church have given us mangoes.  Although mangoes are available year round, this is prime mango season. I liken the abundance of mangoes at this time of the year to the abundance of zucchini during summertime back home. We can only eat so many mangoes before they begin to have a tootie fruity effect on us. We have been "re-gifting" some of our bounty.
9. We also received a bag full of green oranges. Dale said it is strange to call an orange an orange when it is green. Green oranges are sweet, but tough to chew and contain large seeds. I discovered that after thoroughly cleaning them, refrigerating them and slicing them we can suck the juice and toss the pulp, rind and seeds. A orange juice squeezer would be a perfect tool.
10. Sunday it was fun to attend Tuol Tom Pong Branch. We were greeted by several young ladies who we had not seen in several weeks. They brought a different kind of sunshine into our day. The "twinkle' in their eyes was uplifting. It was a change I needed.

Now enjoy some of the photos of the week...

Kroch Pursat ( Green Orange)

Dale's broken tooth.
Dale is taking home some pretty cool souvenirs of Cambodia. Two crowns, two Room Chang sports shirts, one pair of glasses and a Cambodia bicycle shirt. Too Cool!

Getting ready to eat Fish 'n Chips at 'Mama's New York Deli'. Mama is walking towards us in this photo.

Sharing the same path on the way home from work with motos, bicycles and pedestrians.






The gold ornamental house to the right in the above photo is called a Spirit House. Because it is often too difficult and expensive to travel to graveyards, these shrines are often erected outside of businesses and homes. Food, play money and other gifts are placed around the shrine as gifts to the dead. Incense is also burnt. I recently read that many businesses and home owners place these houses outside their buildings so that the ancient spirits of the land have a place to live. This will prevent the spirits from bothering the living. Because of the millions of people in Cambodia who died of genocide in the seventies there are many "Spirit Houses."

I stepped aside so the motos could pass by before I took my turn walking the pathway. There are some very narrow areas along our path.

Moto driver going to market. This photo was taken on our trip to Ta Khamau.

A barrier divides the traffic. It is not uncommon for people to travel the wrong way on either side of the barrier.

       
 All loaded up and ready to board.

We were on the road by seven in the morning. Traffic was fairly light.

These young boys sell air fresheners made from small white flowers to passing motorists. Often times parents will send their very young children (age 4) onto the busy streets to knock on car windows to try to get people to buy their goods. These children are some of many that probably do not attend school. Instead they work throughout the day selling. People usually pay them about 25 cents. What is amazing is how these kids run around on the hot concrete bare footed. The skin on their feet is like leather.

Sam OL our tuk tuk driver. He drove us to Ta Khamau on Friday.

Guests at the engagement ceremony of Samat Kimsroy and Leaphy. Kimsroy is a Branch President and also one of our PEF participants.

Samat Kimsroy and his bride, Leaphy. They are very much in love. A very, very happy couple.

    Road construction gridlock.

Road scum I get to scrape from my shoes upon arriving home from work.







Just for your information. We have 3 Fast Sundays left. It is unbelievable and also believable that we have been here that long.

A new week begins. We will follow President Hinckley's advise and "enjoy more fully the sunlight". There is indeed plenty of sun in Cambodia.

Until next week: "Go forward in life with a twinkle in your eye and smile on your face, with great and strong purpose in your heart.  Love life."