Culture Shock (to say the least)

Well, I am officially having culture shock. Some of the poverty that I see is sadder than sad. A couple of days ago Chantelle and I went for a walk around a big grassy, rectangular "park". Mom and dad had gone earlier in the morning, so we thought it would be fun to go exercise while being out in the thick of things. I have to say though, getting to the park was frightening. I thought I was going to die! We had to cross a big round-a-bout (kind of like the one in France) where there are absolutely no traffic laws and people are zooming around on their motos. Dad told us before though to just walk out in the road and walk confidently across at the same speed and they won't hit you. Simple as that. So, we tried it and obviously I am still alive! 

 The park had these big golden monuments on either end of it that were gorgeous. Sorry my eyes are closed, but I wanted to show you the up close picture of the monument.

 Just a pretty thing in the park.

 Your first glance at this picture looks like these cars are driving in the street. Nope. These cars are parked! There was like 4 or 5 rows of these parked cars clear out in the middle of the road. It was crazy!

 Some of these next pictures are out of order, sorry! So on Tuesday afternoon I got dreadfully bored. Mom and dad had a lot of meetings so I didn't really see them hardly at all. I finally got so restless that I felt like I was going to explode! So, Chantelle and I decided to go see the Central Market. We were such brave girls and got ourself a tuk tuk there and back all by ourself! Oh, and it was also pouring rain.    I mean pouring! There is no such thing as a sprinkle here. This Central Market we went to was huge! It's a lot like the markets in Peru. When you walk to the entrance there are lots of food booths lining the sides. This is a basket of live crabs! Ahh! It was so cool!

 That is all raw meat. It was nasty.

 This is the inside of the market with all of the shopping. It was packed and sweaty and stinky. The aisles are so packed with people and merchandise that you can barely walk through.

 This is a video of our way home. Like I said, it was pouring.

 That night we went to dinner together to spend some special time together. We went to a really nice, fancy restaurant (clearly meant for tourists). It was beautiful and had pretty good food. We ate outside which was kind of fun.

Again, this is out of order, but it's more food at the market.

Our food at the restaurant. It was very fancy, upscale Cambodian food.

 This is the center of the market. It's this huge dome where there is nothing but jewelry being sold.

It was fun to get out for a little bit and see more of the town. On Wednesday we started the Meet the President meetings. Chantelle and I do a small presentation of the family with pictures. Mom and dad each speak and whatnot. We are having these meetings about everyday until Tuesday when we finish seeing all of the missionaries in all of the branches. It's fun to meet and get to know all of the missionaries. We've already kind of made friends with some of the sister missionaries. They were so sweet yesterday and saved us a seat at their table for lunch. We were really glad they did! There are a lot of Khmae sisters but most of them can speak English pretty well.
           Last night we all went to visit with one of the branch presidents. He lives in a very rural part of Phnom Phen. The reason I said I was having culture shock is mostly because of this experience. As we were driving in our tuk tuk I was shocked at the poverty. It was just astounding to me. These people have little garages basically for homes. Most of them try to cook and sell food so they have little carts outside their house. A lot of them just sit outside watching people go by as they hope someone will by their stuff. One of the missionaries said making $7 or $8 a week is good, $10 is wealthy, but most people live off $2 or $3 a week. That's barely enough to survive on. It just makes me want to cry seeing these people and the condition there in. Today we went to a province on the outskirts of the big city. These people were living in basically boxes made with rusting tin and a couple of floor boards. The houses are raised on stilts because underneath is filthy, gray, thick water filled with garbage. It was devastating to me, but also a good experience.