Weeks 1, 2

Our mission to Cambodia officially began Monday, May 3 with online MTC training for three humanitarian couples and us, medical initiative.  All went well until Wednesday when we were taught (or tried to be taught) an all day course on CHaS, Church Humanitarian Area Services, the recording site for keeping track of projects and spending for all humanitarian projects.  Dan immediately announced to me that that would be my responsibility.  It is a series of spreadsheets, tons of questions and requests.  Ugh!  Is it too late to bail?! Hopefully I'll be able to learn as we go, and hopefully the Lord will help those on missions to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks.  

"Final Supper" at the Pizza Parlor!

We completed our packing on Friday and took the family out for pizza and a last minute hug for each member.  We are so grateful for WhatsApp and Messenger which will allow us to keep in contact with our precious family.  

Off We Go!

The Jensen's Kids on their delayed Honeymoon

The next morning we arrived at the airport and upon checking in ran into the son and daughter-in-law of a missionary couple currently serving in Cambodia as Public Affairs Specialists (The Jensens).  He recognized our name tags as Cambodian.  How random!  Then we began our 24 hour journey to Cambodia which included a 4 hour layover in Seattle and a 2 hour layover in Korea.  We arrived in Cambodia at 10 PM Sunday night but didn't get to our hotel for another two hours due to extensive paperwork at the airport and Covid testing.  Why would we think we had to hurry to the hotel?  Once ensconced inside of our room we would be prisoners for the next two weeks.  

Our room is quite large and has a king size bed, sofa, coffee table, desk and two long, narrow tables for luggage.  There is a large floor to ceiling window with a door leading out to a small balcony that overlooks a small mall which has a cool fountain in the middle of the courtyard that shoots water up into the air about every 15 minutes.  Unfortunately, there is no furniture on the balcony.  But, if you have to spend two weeks cooped up in a room, this is definitely the one.

We and about a dozen passengers on our flight are all staying on the 8th floor of the Olympia City Hotel in downtown Phnom Penh where we receive our meals three times a day on a table outside of our door.  We have the option of choosing either a Western or an Asian meal.  

We have found that the meals are mostly a variation of the previous meal, although most of them are tasty enough.  Also the meals were quite large so we canceled  so that we can share.  We had to ask for something besides chicken after the first few days.  They seem to think that Americans only eat chicken.  Since then we've had some beef and even a little fish.  We are so glad that we thought to bring a small salt shaker (they don't use salt), some pop tarts, M&Ms (staples) and Ritz crackers, since there are no desserts or treats and no snacking.  Even though our kitchenette has a stove, there are no dishes and no microwaves which means no microwave popcorn, which we also brought.  But who's complaining??

We have had Zoom meetings with the mission president, President John Lewis from Gilbert, Arizona.  They've introduced us via Zoom to the young Elders and Sisters of which we have three connections:  Mel and Linda Reeves grandson, Kory and Diane's fellow ward member and also Sean and Jana Monson's son-in-law's brother.  It was fun to make the connections with them.  We look forward to seeing Spencer Ure from our ward in the next couple of weeks.  Well, after he's out of quarantine!  We've also been made aware of several other missionaries who will be coming in the next few months from acquaintances from home.  One of our Zoom meetings with the mission home was showing a video of the Tabernacle Choir Christmas special with David Archuleta with me standing behind him.  Quite funny!

We've had several Zoom meetings with the other two Medical Initiative missionary couples throughout the week, the Lewis's (not the same as the mission president) who will be going home in in July, and the Warner's who will be going home two days after we're out of quarantine which accounts for our hasty call and departure.  They're trying to get us up to speed as much as possible before we get out of here.  

Daytime view..

Evening view out our Quarantine Room Balcony

We've had several meetings with the Area Office in Hong Kong who we report to.  Tuesday was a very special devotional in which they had a tribute to President David and Mary Evans who will be finishing as Area President next month.  After the Area wide meeting we stayed on the Zoom so that we could chat with the Evans' and with Peter and Maxine Meurs of whom we worked with quite a bit during our Hong Kong Mission.  We're glad to be working with Elder Meurs again.  We were happy to have another Zoom meeting on Wednesday with Elder Meurs and and humanitarian department in Hong Kong so discuss the ongoing Medical Initiative in Cambodia.  

We visited one of the hospitals/clinics via Zoom with the Warners so that we could meet some of the hospital employees that we will be working with and to see one of their ongoing projects.  In a way, it reminded me of some of the hospitals that we worked in on some of our Operation Smile missions.

Since physical activity in our room is at a minimum our morning routine is doing a few sit-ups, then walking back and forth the length of this room for about 45 minutes to an hour.  Then we sit--Dan on the couch and me on the bed to do our 'projects' for the day--Dan to complete his Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery inservice exams, and me to read and figure out how to do a blog.  Is it working?

We have now completed our first week of quarantine and can start counting down.  I assume that the remainder of the week will pretty much be the same as the past week.  I'll check back in!