Khmer New Year Sport's Day

Cambodian New Year was on April 14-16th. Pretty much people in the city go back to their homelands and the town is quite empty. It's great driving though. Not much traffic. So one of those days the missionaries clean thoroughly their homes , which by the way they all had such clean homes, the Snyders rewarded all with ice-cream and toppings when they came in on Preparation Day or down from the Provinces.
Another day they do CBR's and update their records and the last day they have a Sport's Day and go out to work at 5:00 to see who possibly has come back from the Provinces. This was held at the North District Center. What you see in the middle picture is the carport or bike port. Those are all the missionary's bikes lined up. I loved that picture. They played Ping pong. soccer, volleyball, basketball, and some kind of Khmer soccer with a plastic ball. Also the Cambodian missionaries all love a game that is played with something similar to a badminton birdie except that it has a weight on it and they get in a circle and start kicking it with their heels to each other and see how long they can keep it going. It's amazing to watch. Oh and the Elders who played hard and got too tired played a card game called speed. Above is Elder Nordgren. He fell and reinjured a torn rotator cuff. I'm not sure how to spell it all, but it hurts. He is tough and works through it all.

I was watching a group play ping pong when the ball flew towards me, I cringed my neck to try to catch it with my hands and it landed exactly where it is in the picture!! I couldn't believe it. Elder Vanfleet sprained his foot and Sister Liggett, our nurse, is administering first aid to it. It was a mild sprain and he is doing well. Elder Nebeker consoles him. Sister Loy poses with Scott and I and our newest sisters, Sisters Sparks and Bayles pose together. They are in the Vietnamese speaking program and are doing really well.

Sisters Erekson and her companion Sister Robertson visit with Scott. Sister Erekson is one tough basketball player. In one contest, she was in the finals for shooting baskets and they wore each other out. Finally she just let him get the last basket in. Okay, that's my viewpoint anyway!Scott tried his hand at the basketball shot game. Some Elders and Sisters rest after playing hard. Those bottom two pictures are blurry for whatever reason, I don't know why!

This is a fast moving sport with the little plastic ball. They run up and down similar to soccer and try to make points on a loosely appointed goal line! They sure had fun with this. Elder Thompson was our only American who dared brave playing with the Cambodians and one Vietnamse Elder above, Elder Son.
They had a great day and were ready to go home for sure at 5:00 p.m.