Four Weeks In Cambodia

Four weeks ago today we landed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia! Really?  It has been four weeks? There has truly been a lifetime go by in that four weeks!

Today started early with another first for us.  We have been asked to teach a Saturday morning Institute class. Elder and Sister Hollenzer had been teaching this group since the Wylers left last fall. Their workload has increased and something needed to give for them. We are grateful for the opportunity to be with these marvelous young adults, even if it means getting up at 5:00 on a Saturday morning.  We had 8 students in attendance this morning. We felt the discussion and lesson went very well. We look forward to teaching them again next week. (In fact, next week we have been asked to substitute for the Friday night class at the PP North Stake Center as well!) One of them had a question for us, though. He asked if we would provide an Easter egg hunt for them, since next week is Easter! We really had not thought that far in advance. We will see what pulls together this week.

After the Institute class we took a few minutes for Skype calls with each of our family. It is always good to visit with them.  Sameth, the Cambodia PEF Manager, was in this morning so we spent a little more time doing some work before we were off to take care of our P-day shopping.  Sameth brought his 6 year old daughter, Yuri, with him. She spent time coloring and entertaining herself. We were blessed with two pictures and a butterfly creation as gifts from her. She is such a cutie! (Too bad I didn't get her picture.)

As we left the office this morning we were privileged to come across a threesome of young Vietnamese missionaries, Elder Lee, a new Elder from Argentina, and Elder Thai, who were waiting for an investigator.  One of these elders, Elder Hall, just arrived this week. He had been at the MTC with the group we met there.

Some of the other senior couples have told us about places to shop around Phnom Penh. We decided to shop at some of them today. First stop: Dan's Meats. Here we found sandwich meats as well as some fresh cuts of meat to put in our freezer, planning ahead for some future meals.  Next stop: Tous les Jour Bakery. Here we found fresh baked breads, pastries, and rolls. Hopefully we have enough to last for a week.  On our way home we stopped at Thai Huot Market.  It is pretty hard to count on getting everything at one shopping stop around here.  There really are not markets quite like the supermarkets back home in the US. Thai Huot has a variety of American products.  With these three stops we were able to check off most of our list. There are still a few items to look for later.

The parking garage at our apartment is always an interesting adventure of its own. With the Institute class starting at 7:00 this morning, we headed out at 6:15.  That was great, except for the red Ferrari parked just inside the entrance, as well as a black Lexus sedan parked directly behind our car. (Both are owned by the landlord).  Unfortunately this meant the garage attendants had to wake the landlord to get cars moved so we could go.  We almost resorted to calling a Tuk Tuk, but cars were moved and we made it to the church by about 6:35.  The return to park after shopping was not too bad, since several of the cars had left the garage.  The parking is tight enough, however, that you can never just pull straight into a parking stall.  Parking requires what I have come to call the parking engineers!  These garage attendants are great at directing us to pull forward with only and inch to spare, then back up (including hand signals for what direction to turn the wheel), then forward again, etc. until we are safely parked in our parking space. Sometimes we have to maneuver past a large Lexus SUV, two Ferraris, and a variety of other very nice vehicles.  All in all there are really only 12 parking spaces, which really has about 10 autos and about a dozen Motos.

One last note of the day:  It is RAINING IN PHNOM PHEN!!! This is the first rain we have seen here. We think it is just a prelude to rainy season, but it left the air smelling nice and clean! We may not be so happy for rain in a few weeks.