Cambodia Adventures 2021-2023: October 2022

I cannot believe I did not write for two months! Here is a recap of what had happened:

Beginning of many visits from the Area Office:

Covid had shut down all the travels from Hong Kong so all the normal support were done over zoom or Teams. Now that Cambodia has fully opened and without covid test or quarantine requirement, we had visitors coming from Hong Kong weekly during the month of October.

The first group that came were Christ Ng and Marco Lok. We know from our service in Hong Kong Area Office back in 2016-2018. It was so good to catch up on what they are doing now; both have been promoted to their current jobs. They are in charge of facility so they have to visit all the buildings in Cambodia. They took us to dinner at Mara and we shared a Tomahawk Steak. Marco has a passion of eating Tarantulas and will be bringing some home for his children to try. I am not as brave as he is! They brought along Darin one of their new co-worker, we were glad to make a new friend!

Marco Lok, Darin Gardner, Christ Ng

$100 worth of Tomahawk Steak, it was 1/2 price

First time trying bake Bone Marrow, good but bad for your waistline!

Garden Harvest:

Ted has been growing a small garden on our patio but nothing seems to grow, except one day we saw string beans growing on the vine! Finally we got a few long bean growing and we were able to have a few picked. It was pretty lean, but nevertheless, it is home grown. I am so proud of him for giving up!

Garden on the 7th floor

So many of them!

We missed this one, so it is too old to eat!

Can you spot how many string we have?

We attended our first Cambodia wedding tonight of Jarom Jones and Sengkheang Sok. It was a party, dinner and celebration all rolled into one!

Jarom Jones served here in the Cambodia Phnom Penh mission 3 years ago under President and Sister John Lewis, toward the end of his mission, Sister Sok started her mission under the Lewis and finished in August this year. The two corresponded after Jarom left and he decide Sister Sok is the one for him, he came back from the US for a Summer internship and the rest is history! He proposed a few weeks after she finished her mission.

Usually in Cambodia, there is a process for a couple to get marry, each party will need to go to the village and get a statement from elders in his/her home town to prove that they are single, once each got their prove of being single, they then are able to get married by the local civil registry. Most Khmer family will have a big celebration with parents of both bride and groom each giving blessings to their children.

We enjoyed music, singing, dancing and scrumptious food! It reminds me of traditional Chinese wedding. It is wonderful to see even though it is a different county, we all shared something common!