Waterfall Fall

August 23, 2009. The biggest adventure of the day yesterday was an hour and a half drive to the top of a mountain, the most jungle-like country we've seen. We climbed to the highest point; a big rock that had been carved into a Buddha Nirvana (lying on its side). Next, we hiked to a beautiful waterfall where Don took a fall, dropped Ben's camera into the water, and dove in after it. Yeehaw! He tossed the camera up to where Ben could catch it. The camera no longer works, but the memory card is still good (thankfully, since it has the 12 days of pictures from our trip thus far), and Don came out with only his knees and shins bleeding. Could have been much, much worse. So, that's the story of the waterfall fall.

Daniel and I enjoyed a one hour full body massage for only $6 each while Don and Ben went to visit a family. We then joined them and enjoyed a relaxing evening making home-squeezed orange juice (from oranges with green skins), visiting, doing some brain teasers, looking at picture. Sophany massaged my feet, Daniel got get a second massage from a friend of the family, and we were given yet more gifts. Don, Ben, and Daniel were each given more ties so that they each had all of the same designs as the other. Then, I was given a small woven box; I opened it to find a beautiful, hand-crocheted white shawl to wear when I visit the temple. Sophany had made it for me, and she crocheted three of the beautifully designed flowers each day--and there are 135 flowers in total. What a generous, beautiful gift!

On Sunday, we enjoyed church at the Siem Reap branch. There must have been 130 or so members present; Ben says attendance has doubled what it was when he attended there a year ago before leaving the area. Two ladies spoke in sacrament meeting and then both Elder Parker and Elder Baird were invited to speak. Ben used scriptures from Alma 32 about faith and knowledge and how we need to nourish the seed of faith for it to grow. His delivery included humor and good organization. . . very well received, even though we couldn't understand the Khmer. When he came to sit back down beside us after speaking, a guy in the row in front of us turned and said to Ben, "You're the man."

Chetana taught our Sunday School lesson about the Book of Mormon. Don calls her Miss Cambodia--she is beautiful--and she's so easy to talk to. Her English is probably the best of any other Cambodian we've spoken to. After Relief Society, the sister who gave the closing prayer held onto Sister Baird's left hand and my right hand and told us that even though we're different nationalities that we are still sisters and she loves us. Her sincere words and eyes and hug brought tears to our eyes.

The second lady who spoke in sacrament meeting then had me come sit beside her. She invited us to come sit beside her. She invited us to come each rice with her and her daughter, which I told her we would do on our next visit to Cambodia.

After church, we rode in Loy's van with Bunseak, Sophany, Chetana, Oliza, Inja, Somath, and Seha to the floating villages. We all rode on a boat and saw some humble homes on the water. The average income in those villages is $100 per year, the literacy rate is only 47 percent, and 50 percent of the children are malnourished. Although there are schools, it's difficult to get teachers because the salary is so low. We stopped at a floating restaurant when Ben, Daniel, and Chetana all let us take their pictures with pythons around their necks. We also saw some big catfish and even several alligators. Nice Sunday outing!