Special Projects and Halloween Fun

Being on the other side of the world has some advantages. Our phone is still connected to our service back home but we only make calls using FaceTime with wifi service. Occasionally there are random missed calls that come through, which we do not answer. We realize they are likely political solicitation calls and we are soooo happy we don't have to answer them. We hear enough news from home to realize missing all the campaigning is not a bad thing at all.

This morning we had some special projects which HQ had requested information from the area Self-Reliance team. They wanted to know the approximate number of active members who are illiterate. We found out that in Cambodia 77% of the population are considered literate. We are not sure how they define being literate. Cambodia is definitely in the bottom 1/3 of the nations of the world for literacy.

Tonight we were invited to join the other senior couples for dinner to say farewell to Sambor, the executive assistant of the mission office. He has worked for the mission for several years but has accepted a job with another company.  Since tonight was Halloween night Fox restaurant included a few fun additions to the meals. They brought out "Finger" food as appetizers, and most of the entrees included spiders (the large tarantulas one can find on the food carts throughout Cambodia). We had a lot of fun! We even had the neighbors come Trick-Or-Treat at our door. Elder and Sister Thurston appreciated that we had the "good treats" thanks to our family. (Thanks Marla, Brenda, and Becky!)

The bottom photo was from our morning walk where we observed how to use a helmet as a pillow when sleeping on the sidewalk.