More In The Provinces

Down the dirt road, over some drying rice, around a few turns and twists we are at another home.  I am showing this one to tell the wonderfulness of these wells.  Again with the help of LDSC,  lives of people have changed.  This family now has water at their house.   A well has been created and you have to pump the water up.  I tried it, (used every muscle I had).  Then...here comes water !  These families previously have had to go quite a distance to get water from rivers, and carry it back to their homes.  (and not clean water).    As used in the garden previously seen, the water is pumped,  then into a clay pot and used from there,  for all their needs.

This woman was in love with Dad, she thought he was the most handsome ever.  All the Cambodians were laughing and then they told me what she said.  I can't say it on this blog.

  Such a miracle !

Common Sight On Every Street

So yes, this is what the street wiring looks like.  Every corner...

Japanese Bridge or What Was in My Drink

We were invited by a friend during the shutdown of Khmer New Year, to drive out in the province and see a new bridge opened just in time for Khmer New Years.  It is the road to Viet Nam, the bridge was built by the Japanese.  It is an incredible structure.

Anyway, we stopped at a roadside vendor on the way out of town (our friend was driving, her 2 kids with us), and she bought some baguettes of bread... So of course Dad and I have never bought anything at a roadside vendor.  After we crossed the bridge the kids were hungry so she pulled up to another roadside vendor and said let's eat here. She is Cambodian ... I carried the baguettes from the car and she went to the counter and bought a couple of things, and said to grab a drink from the vendors orange crate thing.  Dad said he was fine.  I was really thirsty.
They were can drinks.
That can't be bad...I chose a peach something...So we began to eat.  This really was a stretch for dad to even sit there.  Our friend had bought some pineapple jam and a can of sweetened condensed milk.  MY NEW FAVORITE THING TO EAT NOW is a fresh baguette of bread torn in the middle, filled with sweetened condensed milk.!!!!!  Really, you all need to try it, maybe you all have and I am the one who didn't know... so then I took a sip of my drink.  It tasted great.  Then another...and yikes!!! What came out of the can into my mouth?  It had to be a worm, I instinctively spit it out and choked and gagged, trying not to freak the kids out.  Then I looked in my napkin and in my drink, and it was full of peaches...little slimey peaches.  I know you all would have thought the same thing given these circumstances....So the drink was actually very delicious once I recognized the peaches, haha...And Dad did eat jam on the baguette, even using a knife from the vendor to spread the jam...yes, stressing the whole time.

Walk-A-Thon

The second week we were here, we were invited to participate in this Walk-A-Thon by Minister Phavi, [she is the Minister of Women's Affairs, one of the top 20 government officials directly under The Prime Minister], and her associate Janne Ritskes from the Nokor Tep Women's Hospital.  They are co-partners in building a much needed women's hospital.  Janne took us out to the construction site to see the progress.

Morning of the Walk-A-Thon we rode a ferry across the river to the start.  It was a beautiful rural village, dirt roads only.

Minister Phavi, ( Her Excellency, Dr. ING Kantha Phavi ) and I.

Water station, using the little tin cup they gave us at the start.

Little boys playing along the route

At the finish...Cambodian style
...cup of noodles

Happy Khmer New Year

So this week has been Khmer New Year.  All the people, well not all,  probably 2 million of them have left the city.  They go to their home provinces and gather as families.  So from Monday till Friday everything is closed.  We planned ahead and bought groceries.  All the vendors are gone, restaurants closed, government closed, MY CLEANING GIRL GONE, so weird to see a city like this.  I have even opened my window is the morning and it just smells like air...no food cooking on the street...you can hear the birds sing, It was quite a sight to see the buses, big vans, tuk-tuks, trucks, moto bikes loaded up with people and piled high with suitcases, food, and again lots of smiles as they left the city.  Coming back in today for them was hot. It was 104 degrees when we left Sacrament meeting.  We felt it....

Well, Friday night a french restaurant opened back up.  It is just around the corner from us, so we had a New Years dinner.  Can you guess which is Dad's? I love him...

Also a Khmer friend gave us a Khmer cake for new years.  So it is sticky rice rolled in a banana leaf with I think mango and papaya inside.  It was amazingly sticky!!! Our friend said it is not sweetner that makes it sticky, it is just the rice, real 'sticky rice'!

Out In The Provinces...near Kampong Thon February 2015

We visited Kampong Thon and the garden projects.  I think Dad told you about them with his pictures.  They were amazing.  LDS Charities (LDSC) brought in dirt to raise family gardens so the rainy season doesn't flood them.  This way they can grow crops all year long instead of one planting. It has made such a difference in their lives.  Many now are self-reliant and some with produce to spare to sell at the market.  They work hard but know the rewards.

Here is a family garden that is doing really good.  Dad wanted to try their irrigation system...

The trip to these provinces made me think so much about how life looks so different to these people.

This puts a new light on repairing a broken sprinkler head...

We talked with an old (OLD) grandma who was raising her 2 grandsons, one was 12 yrs and one 14.  I thought they were about 7 or 8 yrs.  She was going to have them stop school and begin working.  They struggle for daily existence.  I thought, 'what is the hope for these 2 boys?'...No education and living on almost nothing out where there is nothing and grandma isn't going to live forever.    They were so small, obviously nutrition is a problem.   Then I asked,  (yes, we had an enterpreter),  if they were able to get to church...she said, "yes, and these boys are both deacons. "
 There is the hope !  Hope in our Savior Jesus Christ.  My heart felt a witness that if they can hang on and go on missions they will be blessed with what our Father knows they need.  This life is not about things, but about gaining the knowledge and living the commandments Father in Heaven has given us for happiness and Eternal life.  Again so many smiles on their faces.  

Local Market

We visited this market a couple of days after we arrived.  There are so many beautiful fruits and vegetables.  The meats...well I had to hurry and run outside...the smell...

Stung Meanchey

We visited "trash mountain' the second day in Cambodia.  (the setting for 'The Rent Collector').  Quite an eye opener to the fact that our brothers and sisters can live in such different conditions than we could ever imagine.  You can read about it, but when you witness it, well, it is hard for me to get my brain around it.  My heart, my mind , my soul, cannot figure out why or how there could be such disparity between Heavenly Fathers ' children.  The people we met were so lovely.  They were all smiles for us.  The little children just gave out love.  Our Church has partnered with CCF, (Cambodian Children's Fund) in helping to build homes for those families who were being evicted.  There were several member families there too and now they have a 10' x 10', or 12'x12'  home on stilts above the ground.  They are so grateful.  They comply with church standards to accept the help, recogizing that rising above previous conditions is more than temporal.  It is an elevation of the spirit also.  We pray for these people with love in our hearts.

The area in this picture is actually after the trash has been covered with layers of sand.So beneath this the trash is about 15 feet deep.

My heart...

Catching Up...Flight and Arriving in Cambodia

Hi Family!
Finally I have found a little time to catch this blog up, or start to anyway... So we left Saturday afternoon to LA, then the 15 + hours to Hong Kong, then 2 1/2 hours more to finish our journey.  Or I should say to begin our journey!
The flights were just fine.  Dad did great!  We slept a little, ate the meals, watched a movie or two, and we were here.  The only real problem was my feet; they were so swollen!  Really, they didn't even look like they belonged on my legs.  They didn't hurt at all, but just so weird looking, and hard to get shoes on.  Dad's actually were swollen too when we landed, he couldn't get his shoes on.  Anyway, it took more than a week to see a vein on my foot.  They still are puffy...I guess that will just be Cambodian feet for me!  When we arrived there were Senior Missionaries to greet us.