A walk through the Market and A beehive and fruit

This is kind of a stroll through the market.  We go there every P day to buy fruit and veggies, but we don't dare buy much else.  It is really a site.  The place is just packed and they have really good produce, but the fish and meat are scary because of the sanitation and they have no clue any thing is wrong.

                                                                                         

 These are mangos and they are alot like peaches.  I like them green because they taste like green apples.  Ilene loves them when they are ripe.  They grow all over the place and are bigger than my big hand.

These are called jack fruit.  They are huge and have big spines on them.  Ilene really likes it.  I can't stand it.  Some people can smell it and others can't   Guess who can smell it and who can't.  It smells like wet stinky feet to me and tastes like that too.

 Here is what it looks like after being picked.  The big ones are about the size of 2 basketballs held together

 This is what it looks like on the inside and if can't smell it you eat the lining around the holes.  It just comes right out.  You don't have to worry about me eating anymore.

 This is a beehive that just showed up on a members jack fruit tree.  It is a solid mass of bees on both side.  They have been there about 3 years.  In about 3 weeks he will build a fire underneath them and smoke them and then peel the bees off.  He says he gets about 5 liters of honey 2 times per year.  I hope I get to try some.


We are doing really well, but I still don't have much of a clue about blogging.  I can't get anything lined up, but am too lazy to try to learn how.  Thanks to everyone.

More Stuff from the last few weeks

I don't know if you can read this or not, but it is in downtown Phnom Penh and the name of the place is Steve's Steak House. Pretty odd. We had a dinner with all the mission couples there this week. It kind of made me home sick until I tried the steak. It was just one of those old tough, boney, brahamas.

 Here is how cashew nuts grow.  Dr. Henrie told me they grew on a flower and I said yeh right.  Well it turns out that he was right.  There is fruit that grows inside the flower and the nut is on the end.  Both nut and fruit are really good.

Well here they are on the hoof.  There was a whole box of them and they would cook them up fresh if you liked.  It just cost a little bit more money, 7 cents alive and 12 cents deep fried.  I don't think I can work up the courage.  I bought one for Ilene and all she did was look at it and scream.  That is real gratitude

  Here they are after going through the deep fryer.  They love the juice poured over them.  It is really creepy to think about.  It is against the mission rules to eat them.  They had an elder eat one about 7 months ago and he got sick and had to be in the mission home for almost 3 months.  Not really why we are here, plus they look alot worse looking down on them trying to put them in your mouth.

This is a counselor in the district presidency and his wife and daughter.  The daughter is a returned missionary.  Ilene is by Malika.  You won't believe it but she is 22 years old.  She loves to go teaching with us and speaks good english so we enjoy talking to her.  I can tell I need to get a longer and fatter tie to hide the belly hanging over my belt.  The meals Ilene cooks are too good

Me and a nice Khmer guy who was next to a members house planting pineapple.  He had that hoe contraption thing and was really digging in the dirt.  He is in the army and had a physical and the Dr. told him he was too fat and had too much fat in his blood and needed to exercise more so he was out digging and sweating a lot.  He said it was really bad during the Pol Pot years, but thanks to Ronald Reagan the US got NATO there and helped get rid of him.  He was in the army with Pol Pot in charge and then changed to fight against him.  One of the lucky few who survived the whole thing.  They call it the Civil War over here.
                                                                                                                                                                     This is the pineapples and papya trees he was planting.  He was really proud of his work

We went to a Khmer funeral today for a 92 year old father in law of a member.  They just took him out in a field and dug a hole and buried his casket.  They built the headstone while we were there and then cover the grave before we left.  I helped cover the grave.  They dug the grave with a shovel and covered it up with a shovel  It was pretty hot, close to 100 while we were shoveling.  Once the grave was covered they put cement all over the headstone made out of bricks and wrote his name, birth and death date with their finger in the wet cement.  They chanted a lot before they left to go to where he was buried.  It was a Chinese funeral and their was not one thing said about him or his family.  Buddists believe that the spirits go to a nice place where they don't have much to do, and the family will never see them again.  If the family does not remember them they will come back to haunt them.  They do all this chanting while they burn incense and leave food for the spirit, then the buddist monk shows up and blesses the house so the spirits will not harm them and takes the food and they have to pay him money.  They just chanted and burned incense and carried the casket around the grave about 6 times before they lowered it in.  They don't embalm and with this heat you can imagine what is going on.  ( Gary and Alma would have plenty of work over here, but I don't think they would get paid for it)  He died last night at 10 pm and was in the ground by 2pm the next day.

Well all for now.  We sure enjoy the emails and prayers and all of you for staying in touch and supporting us in this incredible adventure.  We are really enjoying this blessing in our lives and love and appreciate all who have made it possible.  Thanks again to all of you, Love Elder and Sister Thalman

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Finally had some time to post a little

This a big buck that we walk by nearly every day. There is one that has a lot more horn growth, but he will never come close. There are a whole herd of deer in this place where I think is some military thing. I'm not sure what the purpose of the deer are, but they are always there trying to find something to eat.












You can count the ribs on these two cows and all of the cows are that way. I have never seen a fat animal over here. They just wander all over town and try to find someting to eat and then go home at night. No one herds them very often and no one bothers them either.





This is a cow bridle. They punch a hole through the inside of the cows nose when it is just born and put a rope through it and just increase the size of the rope as the calf grows and it is never taken off. They are all brahma cattle, but they are really gentle and docile. You can see when they pull on the rope it tightens up in their nose and they come right too you. They are not afraid of humans at all. They are also the skinniest things I have ever seen. They do not have any milk cows at all they raise them for beef and it is pretty tough. The milk we get is from Australia and is heat treated and does not have to be refrigerated until you open it. They sell by the case and it just sets on the store shelves and it is surprisingly good.






This is medicine that they use for everything. The cut up small tree limbs and put this in water and boil it and then drink the water and is cures everything that is wrong. That is about the best they have









More food under the table. Every place we teach on the ground, and I mean on the ground there are chickens and ducks running all over. It is just a matter of time until they end up on the dinner plate. I don't think they feed them at all, they just have to scrounge for themselves


This is the meal they fixed for us. They killed a duck so we would have some meat. I really wanted to try it, but didn't dare.
A little boy dressed up and ready to go to school. He is the number one student in his class and is so friendly and fun to be around, His family cooked us a big meal while we were there. We didn't dare eat any of it even though it looks pretty good
A really great family that lives out in a place called Chup. They joined the church about 8 months ago and have not missed church one time since the very first time they came. He is now a couselor in the branch presidency. They ride about 25 kilometers on a one moto. He speaks pretty good english and you can just see the light of the gospel in their eyes and they are so happy. He works out in the rubber plantation and it is really nice and somewhat clean out there.



Sister Thalman and Thida. She has been a member for a few months and has a lot of struggles in her life. She is taking care of her 95 year old father-in-law and that is a challenge for her as you can imagine. She has a very successful business and sells ice cream and water and other things. She is a sweet person and comes to church every Sunday and is so fun to visit with. We visit her often and she is so fun. She has a great personality.

More Pictures of this Wonderfully Different World

A cute Khmer member who cannot come to church now because she is going to school and has to take exams on the weekend. Her goal is to go to Los Angeles where her sister lives. She is trying to pass and exam that shows she has a skill in sewing so she can have a skill when she gets to the USA.


The members house where we did the service project. They are the sweetest kindest people, but they don't have a dang thing. Shopping at DI for them would be like shopping at Sax 5th avenue for us.




We did a service project for a member and moved Mt. Nebo from one side of her yard to the other. The crazy basket looking thing is how we moved the dirt. We would rake it into the basket and then carry the basket and dump in to where she needed it. It would have been great to have Tom's bobcat for about 20 minutes, but then there would go all the service hours.



This is the scaffolding they use. It is just tied together with ropes, string, wire or whatever they have. They just have a huge pile of bamboo sticks lying around the construction sites and they just throw it together and climb on it and go to work. I have never seen a backhoe or forklift of any kind. They just have a pulley and rope to lift everything up to the guys working on the house. It takes about 6 guys to lift a bag of bricks up to them or a bucket of cement.





This is the house and it is all cement structure with very little rebar in the cement and what they do use is about 1/4 inch. If there were ever an earth quake here the whole country would be flat, but the interesting thing is you can really feel the Lord's spirit here. They have never had a major natural disaster in Cambodia, only war after war.

This is the bricks that they make and they are all over the place. They just stack them randomly in the wall and don't use any rebar or a level of any kind and do not strike the joints either.