Riikriay Chnam Thmei - Happy New Year

As we got to Cambodia some of the couples told us that we had just missed Chinese New Year, but they also told us not to worry, because Cambodian New Year was still coming.  According to an article, Cambodian New Year is based around the end of the rice harvest and before the rainy season.  They do not just celebrate one day, it is a three day holiday.  Since most Cambodians are Buddhist they base the years from when Buddha was born, so this is year 2559.  The full-time Church employees get eighteen holidays a year.

We were told that as many as can leave the city and most of the businesses close down for the whole week.  Driving to the Stake Center this morning was amazing, we did not have to dodge lots of motos (the little motorcycles or scooters) and there even were very few Tuk-Tuks out today.  After lunch today we went to a grocery store to stock up before everything is closed, again the traffic was real light and the store had less customers than usual.

Phanna and Sameth were at the office today, but Phanna is gone until next Monday and Sameth will be back on Friday.  We received an email from Hong Kong on Friday right at the end of the day asking all of the different Self Reliance Managers and Senior Couple Missionaries to respond concerning a proposal by Wednesday.  With the holiday, that meant we needed to respond today.  Since we saw the email on Friday we had a chance to think and talk about it a little, which gave us a good starting point, but it was truly a joint effort.  The report was submitted and Hong Kong was happy before we left the office today.

We have mentioned in our previous posts about the vehicles that we share the road with here in Phnom Penh.  There are the thousands of motos and then the Tuk-Tuks. Motos also pull almost anything that you can imagine.  But there is another amazing group of vehicles, the very high class and expensive vehicles.  Today's picture is an Audi Dealership that we pass everyday on our way home.  Just from our perspective, there are more Lexus, LandRovers and RangeRovers here than in Salt Lake Valley.  Toyota is the dominant brand of cars here in Cambodia, but you also see BMW, Audis and Mercedes Benz.  There are the haves and the have nots, our Corolla puts us in the have nots.  :-)