Cambodia Calls

Weeks 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22

With the groundbreaking ceremony of the Cambodia Temple getting closer, I finished the arrangement I'd been working on of High On the Mountain Top. It turned out well and we have been very excited to perform it. I recorded the piano music, then practiced with the missionary choir for the next three Sundays until time to record. For most of them, this will be the event of a lifetime, and I want them to have a wonderful experience. Because of the 15 person Covid rule, we divided the choir into three groups, identified three areas around Phnom Penh and recorded small groups at each site. I had purchased beautiful Khmer skirts for the women and ties for the men and they looked beautiful at the junction where the Basac River joins the Mekong, the independence monument where Cambodia gained its independence from France and the PP East church building. At each site they sang while a professional camera crew recorded each group separately, putting it all together to make a beautiful presentation to be shown at the groundbreaking ceremony.

The actual ceremony was held on September 18. Because of the two week quarantine rule, none of the church officials could be here; therefore President Neang presided with Vichit Ith and only a handful of others present, including their beautiful wives. However, via Zoom, many saints were able to witness the beginning of a dream for them that will bless their lives for generations to come. After a few talks, President Neang offered a beautiful dedicatory prayer. We had stopped to view the actual site only a couple of weeks before and were very nervous about the filthy condition of the grounds, but crews had it looking great. We now run past sometimes during our early morning jogs and can see the progress being made weekly. I'm secretly hoping to come back someday for the dedication!

When supplies, water, generators, food, etc. are donated, the government and hospitals like to have a handover ceremony. We drove a huge truck full of equipment and medical supplies to Koh Thom Hospital to be given to each of the 12 health centers in the Koh Thom district. We were sure that supplies would be falling off the truck enroute since the road to Takeo has been torn up forever, but the truck made it safely allowing us to offload and store the supplies overnight. The next day we arrived bright and early, designated 12 spots and proceeded to set up for the handover ceremony. At the appointed time the government and hospital administrators, health center directors, Vichit, Jensens and several others were there for a short ceremony as His Excellency Sun Chantal and Dan both said a few words. It was fun to see how excited each representative was to receive their allotted goods. Afterwards Dan left with several officials to tour some of the health centers to try to decide which two would be the best ones to renovate in order to take over the load once the hospital is torn down. The translators and I were invited to Phivan"s (the Pea Reang Hospital Administrator who dropped in on the Handover since he was in Koh Thom with his family anyway) home for a delicious lunch. His family was delightful!

Sadly, the day for Steve ad Vicky Lewis arrived for their departure to Mongolia. They had taken us under their wing since we came, trained us, encouraged us and befriended us. We will miss them immensely, but know that we are only a phone call away. Luckily we had Ted and Audrey Yan, our friends from our Hong Kong mission to help settle into their apartment. We have enjoyed having them here--Ted as the Mission Finance person and Audrey as the Mission Nurse. Both of them are naturals at their assignments.

As I came up the stairs to teach Peter his 5th piano lesson one day, I heard Eric Satie (composer) music coming from the piano. Peter had been listening to YouTube and was teaching himself to play one of the pieces. I was amazed! The next week he was playing Clair d' Lune, and the next Moonlight Sonata, including the 3rd movement--all by ear from watching YouTube! I told his parents that I would move him along as quickly as I could to ensure that he has the basics by the time I leave, then somehow find him an advanced teacher that can give this prodigy what he needs. I do have to prod him, however, to practice his lesson to learn basics because he would rather try to play the 'hard stuff' by ear.

The Yan's convinced Dan that we should be attending a Chinese (mostly Mandarin but some Cantonese) Sacrament meeting on Sunday afternoons as there is a small handful of Chinese Saints in the area, and the missionaries have been working with several of their friends. Therefore, we have been meeting with them, as well as our own meetings in the morning with the missionaries since there still is no in-person church here. One of the Chinese sisters has a keyboard and was happy to have me play for their little meeting. She and her friend are now piano students of mine. I have to say, sitting there is a real challenge not understanding what's going on. It's hard to stay awake, but we're hoping that the dividends pay off for a real Chinese branch someday.

We received one more-our last- senior missionary couple out of Covid quarantine, Bret and Kimea Dandoy, the Area Humanitarian couple. They had been doing their jobs from California and were waiting to go to Hong Kong, but Elder Meurs thought wisely that they should come here since we don't have a humanitarian couple and we work so closely with them. They now live across the hall and we love having them here. We will lose the Jensens in one month, unfortunately. They are Communications Specialists, formerly Public Affairs.

The senior missionaries have been given the assignments of checking missionary apartments before transfers every six weeks. We spent a day going around to our six apartments, giving advice, praise, whatever they deserved. We recommended that two apartments be changed due to safety and low maintenance from landlords. This was a first for most of these missionaries so we encountered everything from A-Z. Since then, I've been given the assignment of procuring cleaning supplies/kits for the missionaries and helping them with what is needed for them to learn how to keep a clean apartment. Not the easiest thing in a place such as this.

Dan has spent immeasurable time working on projects. We are trying to get several projects off the ground but have been met by one obstacle after another at each juncture. The process of getting a project approved has several steps:

1. Identify a project

2. Find local backing for project so it has sustainability

3. Write up a project proposal summary explaining who beneficiaries are, costs, how $ spent, where coming from, how many people and how many members and cost per beneficiary. Explain the sustainability plan.

4. Submit to Area Humanitarian couple. (this step takes several revisions of project summary)

5. Area Welfare Council (7 members) approves project.

6. Project next goes to Area Presidency for approval.

7. Area Presidency may approve projects up to a certain amount. Over that it goes to Church Headquarters where it is evaluated by a screener.

8, If screener approves, it goes to Welfare Finance Committee who can approve projects up to a higher amount.

9. If over that, it must go to the Presiding Bishopric's Office.

10. Over a certain amount, it goes to the next level which is the BAC, Budget Approval Council which consists of people from PBO, Quorum of the 12 and others.

11. Finally, if the value is high enough, it goes to the First Presidency for approval.

We have various projects on the table waiting for its level of approval and are anxious to start working on an actual project. Dan has spent the last couple of months working with an architect on drawing plans for the new Koh Thom Hospital. His Excellency Sun Chantal is funding this particular project but is relying on Dan's expertise to draw up plans which include the necessary rooms and flow plan for a well-functioning hospital. It hasn't been an easy process because they have been thwarted at each step by the builder who wants to build a traditional Cambodian hospital, thinking it's good enough. However, with Dan's latest power point presentation to His Excellency it was decided to go with the plan that Dan and the architect have drawn. They plan to bulldoze the existing hospital in November.

As a stop-gap measure for the hospital, Dan and others have made multiple trips to each of the 12 health centers, measuring, assessing, drawing more plans, etc. to determine how best to spread the load to the health centers. They have identified two health centers which are in the best locations and have the best existing facilities that can offer necessary services in the meantime. These plans are nearly completed; however, we have been struggling with the approval process--nearly finished! It will be so nice to actually have a tangible ongoing project.

Smaller projects have been approved and undertaken such as delivering emergency Covid supplies to the Takeo Hospital, delivering more equipment and supplies to some of the other smaller hospitals and health centers. We recently went to the Baty Hospital to deliver some equipment. Several weeks before, Dan visited to see how the water tower and generator project were coming along. The District Governor had promised to build an outside room and provide a generator. Dan told the hospital personnel to clean up the outside of the hospital before we came back because there was trash and filth everywhere. Well, when we returned last week the grounds were in the same miserable condition, if not worse. When Dan questioned them, one nurse answered, 'this isn't America'. We decided that if they can't even clean up their trash, they do not need our services. There are plenty of places who would love our help.

We have had 14 missionaries in quarantine for the past two weeks who have been joining with us on Zoom for church, missionary meetings, etc. We three missionary couples went to the hotel to pick them up, take them to get their visa pictures taken, then to the mission home. It was total organized chaos! President Neang ordered pizza and fruit not only for them but for all of the missionaries but for their companions who would be taking them home the next morning. Saturday Sister Neang made them all a beautiful lunch and we seniors (what a bad word!) provided them with banana splits. On Sunday we took the three elders who were going to Siem Reap home--a 6 hour trip, meeting up with the other Siem Reap missionaries.

We decided to stay for a couple of days to go to the wats that are so famous in Siem Reap, so Monday we took all the missionaries to the wats, ending with Angkor Was, amazing, then to dinner. The wats are all in a protected area. Each area is different from each other: one of them had trees growing from and around the old walls and ceiling and was featured in the movie 'The Tomb Raider'. Another had large faces carved all around the perimeter of the walls. Each one had intricate carvings of various designs and caricatures all around the walls, door frames and window frames. We met a man who so badly wanted to show us a hidden face and a dinosaur. Sure enough, there is a carving of a Stegosaurus dinosaur on one of the tiles! These buildings were all built in the 12th century! No one can explain the dinosaur.

The next day Dan and I went back to Angkor Wat and spent several hours looking at the intricate carved murals of mythical creatures, some in chariots, carrying all kinds of weaponry. It appeared that no two creatures were the same. We think that the murals must measure about a half mile long. Besides the murals there were so many, many carvings, again around door and window frames, some had completely carved walls and possibly at one time carved floors. There were many statues in this wat, but most were missing their heads. Unfortunately, in the late 1980s and early 90s many art thieves came in from Thailand, lopped off the heads and took them away. So sad to have endured a thousand years only to be destroyed in our lifetime. There was also damage done during the Khmer Rouge in the mid 70s, and bullet holes from some of the fighting can be seen in some of the walls. Still, it is such a fantastic place that I think it deserves its place as one of the wonders of the world.

As part of my new 'cleaning lady' assignment I performed apartment checks on the missionaries here in Siem Reap. There has not been an apartment check here for a long time since there are no senior missionaries here for a long time. The missionaries created lists for me of things lacking in their apartments, mostly cleaning supplies, then we went shopping. After delivering the supplies to them they declared that it felt like Christmas. Sad! The kitchens in most of Cambodia's apartments don't have hot water which makes it difficult to adequately clean stoves, counters, backsplashes. When I exclaimed to one landlord that I was surprised about that, he exclaimed that that is what soap is for. So I have had to explain to the missionaries that they need to boil water AND use soap to get those areas clean. They now know that they clean grease with elbow grease!

We received a message that the church would be supplying food for hard-pressed Covid victims and would we like to stay until Friday to help represent the church at the handover. Well, that was a hard question to answer! (not!) We divided the missionaries up and took one third to each of the handover ceremonies--three today. We were met there by Samnang and Saret from the service center, and President Eng of the PP East Stake and a councilor in the district presidency in Siem Reap. The thing that I noticed as these dear people sat with their rice and noodles next to them was their eyes. Each one of those people looked totally beaten. The government has had Siem Reap shut down--no travel in or out--until this past week. Most of these people today are victims of having their businesses shut down due to the lack of tourists as well as not being able to get supplies in. The devastation is evident by the hotels all around town still closed down because there are no tourists. As part of the church's humanitarian efforts in Cambodia, much emergency food and supplies have been given to provinces that are in the 'red zone', off limits zone. There will be one more handover on Friday after which we will return to Phnom Penh.