Seasons and Neighbors

The season changes in Cambodia are not quite the same as back home. There are no brilliant autumn leaves covering the trees, or snow covered mountains and meadows. One thing we have seen in the gradual change in the time the sun rises and sets. Cambodia is close enough to the equator that the variance is fairly small, but our walks recently begin in the dark, and the sun sets just before 6:00.

Christmas season has been helped along by our neighbors, Elder and Sister Thurston. They have decked out their apartment with much more flare than we have done. They knocked on our door last night to invite us to come see their lights. The rest of our apartment building may be dark, but it has become easy to spot the Thurston's apartment from the street. And as a gift they shared a new fruit with us called a wood apple. It is about the size of a small coconut and about as hard. We have yet to crack it open and taste it, but we were warned it might taste about like sawdust.


After spending our day working on our several projects we went out on a few errands. One of those errands was Sister Oveson's final haircut in Cambodia. We couldn't help but notice the extra setting on the back of the moto. Maybe it is their version of a side saddle? We also went past an interesting sign which, when our daughters were here, Marla "translated" for Brenda. Her interpretation was that if they peel away the trash and pollution they can reveal a clean beautiful world.

Our plans for dinner changed when the restaurant we intended to visit was closed for another hour, so we checked with the Thurstons. They were making plans to introduce Elder and Sister Dowd to a restaurant we had been interested in trying, so we tagged along, taking a couple of Tuk Tuks to Mexicana.  It was excellent food and great company.