A Saturday Holiday -- Pchum Ben

Saturday was not our typical schedule today. Pchum Ben, or Ancestor Day, is a big enough holiday to almost empty the city of Phnom Penh as the people travel to their home provinces to gather with family and friends.  As a result, there was no institute today, allowing us to sleep in, at least until 5:30, then we got up for a quiet morning walk.

Our photos show the rare opportunity of seeing empty streets and sidewalks. There were still a few street sweepers and recycle carts around. The morning Tai Chi exercise group only had 2 or 3 instead of 20 or 30.

As we walked we noticed a message on a window, "The World Is What You Make It."  This is such a great message! We see people here with so little, yet they have a happy life.

We enjoyed calls with most of our family, then went out to find our groceries. From our window we could see that Lucky Grocery Store was open, but we found most little shops closed and shuttered. We found that many who stayed in the city had found the Aeon Mall, one more of our stops for the day. This afternoon allowed us the luxury of staying home. Elder Oveson even took a short cat nap.

One item to notice is that today is our 600th post in our blog. We began writing shortly before entering the MTC, and we have written every day since. We have been on our mission 594 days, and in Cambodia 582. Today was one more (very quiet) day of our grand adventure!