Well we weren't sure what was going to happen to us the last couple days. We got together with some guy (Som Rasmei) for the last few days. We thought the plan was to go with him out to the farms for an afternoon, or a day and do some work with them. We finished our travel back to Phnom Pehn and his son picked us up from the bus station and started driving. We thought we were going to their house and just going out from there for the next day, but we just kept driving. Finally after an hour of driving we figured out that we were not anywhere where we should be. Was he kidnapping us? Nope, just driving us to a place they have out in a small community an hour and a half away. It was night and dark out, and pouring rain, so we could not follow where we were going. While we were driving he asked us if we heard his story? He told us that Elder Oaks had talked about him in May 2006 general conference. "Only 5 percent of the people in Cambodia are Christians. A family in that country was searching for the truth. While their 11-year-old son was riding his bicycle he saw some men in white shirts and ties showing someone a picture and asking who it was. He felt he should stop. As he watched, he was prompted to say, “That is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and He came to save man.” Then he rode away. It took the missionaries a month to find him and his family. Today, the father is a counselor in the mission presidency." President Som also gave us a story of his life starting with him going through the Khmer Rouge time, and then on to the rest of his conversion story and on to now. Kind of interesting. His wife had all in her family killed by the Khmer rouge except for her and her sister because a friend, who was supposed to get her to go, warned them to not go back to their town like he was supposed to tell them to, or they would be killed.
We got out there and they gave us their bed and pulled out a spare bed and slept in the other room. While we were getting ready for dinner, we walked into the kitchen and there was a HUGE spider sitting on the wall next to Som's wife, she didn't mind it though. I kept my eye on it though, and added on top of that, there was a HUGE spider in the bathroom, that I had to watch as I was in there. So I started getting a little nervous, then I looked in the bedroom. Oh crap I thought as I looked at the holes on the top of the wall to outside. Anything that wants to can come visit us tonight. Som said that the spiders that were in the house weren't dangerous, but the tarantulas were dangerous and they sometimes visit. They said spiders weren't the things to worry about, it was the snakes to worry about. They kill people, not spiders. He told us that snakes often visit the house when they are gone, and also that he killed 2 in the last week out back their house. Well I thought to myself, at least the holes are on the top of the wall, so the snakes can't get in. I thought this until I looked at the doors. They had big cracks on the bottom to outside. Lucky for us they gave us a mosquito net to put over the bed. Dinner was great. Shortly after we went to bed slept soundly, until 6am when their family gets up. So up we got and went out for breakfast. We went to a Muslim restaurant and had some weird beef soup. We then went to a meeting and said hi to the whole organization he was with and told them we were here and wanted to see how things are run here in Cambodia. Then off to his next meeting where they were teaching kids about cleanliness and how they need to wash themselves. I guess the way the girls wash themselves is in the rivers they just pour water over their clothes and call it good, but they were told they need to wash under their clothes too. We also watched a movie of the presentation that Dudley's made while here, about the father being in charge of the family, and the importance of family council. At the end of their meeting, we were told to get up and ask the kids some questions and then give them a shirt as a reward. I asked them "what can you do to stop the spread of bacteria?" I.e wash hands. They could not get it. So I just gave it away. Cleanliness is a thing that really needs to be learned here.
We were soon on our way and off to the field. We stopped at one of the traditional fields and helped them for a couple minutes, or in other words, they let us put some rice into the ground, which they probably redid anyways. Then off to lunch back at President Som's house. We had rice and vegetables, surprised? Then we had a nap for a half hour before heading out to the farms again. We stopped at a farm and the lady took us through it to look at it. The church is funding an organization to teach Cambodian's a better way to farm that produces 2x more than their traditional way. After walking through the fields for a while she brought us back to her house and we sat outside and drank coconut juice right out of coconuts that were just picked for us. Too bad we don't like the taste of coconut juice because. It was a special treat from them so we drank it and acted like we LOVED it until our stomachs were so full of juice that we couldn't even make anymore go down. She wants us back during Mango season, so we can sit around and eat mangos together. She was so nice, and we talked about Canada and how well it is off compared to here. She wanted to live our easy life, because it is so easy to buy things here. We assured her that most people live with dept for most their lives, which makes for a pretty miserable life. So I think she is just content living here and owning nothing except her house, land, and animals, because she had no dept. It sure was fun there and it made us feel kind of part of the whole experience. After that we went back to their place they rent and went out for dinner. We ate from off a fire mountain, kind of same idea as a fondue. We sat on top of a table and ate. We forgot our camera. After that we went back to their place and sat outside and listened to the bugs and geckos, and you name it for a couple hrs till we went to bed and layed in bed and listened to them all, but this time through a mosquito net.
This morning we got up and went to another meeting with a bunch of younger people, that walked around a farm looking at the new way to farm. It was fun, because we felt part of them. Then off to Phnom Pehn for the night. AND we went to heaven for lunch and dinner. At McDonalds, or in their name, Lucky Burger. Mmmmm!!!! Soft and hard ice cream. We almost ate till we were sick of ice cream, were it possible.