Cambodia Connection: Beautiful Cambodia

These are pictures from some of our recent travels to the provinces, and show the beautiful Cambodian countryside.

For some reason these remind of "tinker wagons" that you read about in stories. They are loaded up with clay pots and jars from Kampong Chnang, where most of them are made, and then they go thoughout the country selling their wares town to town.

A typical wood home for a farm laborer-- similar to what many of our members in the provinces live in.

This statue makes us laugh every time we pass it. To us it looks like the noble prince is abandoning his princess and leaving her to fend for herself as he rides off into the sunset! I think the fable actually is that she is a wicked demon in disguise who is attempting vanquish him as he fends her off.

We stopped at a place that sells handmade crafts outside of kampong Chnang... they were carving as well as sell clay ceramics.

Their daughter was truly adorable

The sun is hot, school is out, what could be more fun that washing down the family cows?

A little nicer country house on high stilts.

These pictures are from a trip we made to a place 1.5 hours from Phnom Penh with the Minister of Cults and Religions (seated next to me) to donate food and supplies to flood victims in that area. We provided rice and oil and fish sauce to approximately 600 families in that area. They had quite a lot of families displaced by the flooding in their village because the river washed away roads and houses on the side of the river-- whole sections of the river bank collapsed from the high flood waters and were washed away. There were several deaths in this village from it. They make quite a production out of the donating of the assistance-- this happens every time LDSC makes donations. Weird but how it has to happen here. The people seemed very appreciative. We felt bad though-- when we arrived they had already been sitting out in the hot sun next to the food they were receiving, waiting for the government officials and VIP's. Then they had to sit while all the officials made speeches! We tried to keep ours short! Then they had us walk up and down the rows of people shaking their hands while they expressed their appreciation.

Sister Moon with the Minister's wife below-- she is very nice, as is he.

The Minister with Sister Kohls, our LDSC couple.

Elder Uch returned from his mission in Australia-- we greeted him and his family at the mission home and released him, then drove he and his luggage to the family's small home in a very poor area of the city. Pretty tough what these missionaries return home to compared to where they have been in more developed countries.