Shopping at the Fresh Food Market

One of the fun things to do in Hong Kong is to shop at the fresh food markets. They have them all over town. Usually they are set up in alleys or side streets. They open up in the morning and close each night. The prices beat the stores prices and the food is fresh. The meat shops are very different from America. The meat hangs from the poles and customers pick out the part of the carcass that they want to buy. Fish are still swimming in water as they are selected and purchased.




It is amazing how many people swarm each market. We think many citizens buy all their fruit, vegetables and meat at these locations. Some of the fruit such as dragon fruit look very strange. Other fruit we are accustomed to.

Young women Indonesian dancers

The Hotel we were staying at put on a program of young performers in their national dress. We thought you would enjoy a few pictures of them.

Clean Water Project in Indonesia (West Java)

Many of the countries we visit have problems getting water to the citizens during the dry season and clean water at anytime. Often the sources of the water are springs and streams that are a considerable distance from the villages. Residents spend a good part of their time carrying and boiling their water. One of the major initiatives the Humanitarian programs of the Church sponsor is clean water. We work with local NGO's that hire contractors to lay the pipe, build the tanks, and monitor the flow. Villages are encouraged to form water committees to install meters, collect money. and initiate a program that will maintain the water system once it is installed. Villagers assist with the construction of the lines so that the project is really theirs. Latter Day Saints Charities (LDSC) provides the funds from the contributions of LDS Church Members around the world

At present there are four different water projects in Indonesia. These pictures are of one project 4 hours SE of Jakarta and involve 5 villages with several thousand villagers. Water is now flowing into one of the villages with remarkable impact on the citizenry. The other four villages are hoping that the 12 km pipe that brings the water down hill from the source, across a river, and up the other side to a big reservoir will indeed work. They show some of the rain forest foilage and some of the terrain the water lines haveto go through. The pipe was buried, often in the midst of a rain storm.

Crops growing on hillside

One of tanks in village

Pressure regulator in bottom of canyon

Pipes across river on top of cement pillars.

40 ft square reservoir 10 feet deep covered with grass


Lunch on top of reservoir.

More Indonesia Pictures

We took over 200 pictures on Indonesia. Many of them were of the farms where clean water was coming into the homes and the overflow was being used on crops. The strawberry plants you see were grown in separate pots. Each one was watered by hand each day with the overflow water. They produced luscious berries. You will some of the steep terrain that the pipe had to traverse and a buried reservoir that we had our lunch on top of. It took a lot of work to get water flowing

.

Visit to Jakarta, Indonesia

Get out your maps and look up Indonesia. It is 4 1/2 hours flight from Hong Kong. If you Google it, you will find out that Jakarta, the capital city, is one of the largest cities in the world, and that Indonesia reaches length-wise as far as from California to New York. We didn't see all of it, but we did get to see quite a bit. We stayed at the Marriott Hotel right in the city, and the Missionary Couple Elder and Sister Millecam from Vernal, Utah, who are in charge of Welfare projects and training for the country had their driver come pick us up and take us to the Indonesia Mission Office where they also have their apartment and office. We did a lot of training there, then spent one day driving to Lembang,Western Java, about 4 hours SE, to see one of the water projects being completed with church humanitarian funds to help take water to the villages. It was amazing to meet the wonderful people, and to see the changes that are happening in the village where the water is now flowing through the pipelines right to the houses. They now have beautiful gardens up and down the hillsides, wonderful strawberry plants in pots next to the house, and healthier people now that they can get clean water. Volunteers from the the other villages are helping with the pipelines up and down the mountainside as they work hard to get the same blessings for their villages. What miracles are happening in the world today. We are grateful to be part of this great work.



Sister Millecam with a grateful village family
for their clean water.



Jakarta has tall buildings too. This was taken from
our hotel window.



On our way to a hike to water projects



We stayed in this lovely hotel

Some of Indonesian in native dress

Strawberry plants growing in pots

Long Canoe Ride on Bangkok River Chao Phraya

We took an afternoon during our visit to take a boat ride into the canals off of the large river that runs through Thailand. The canals were like roads with houses on both sides. The houses were all on stilts and extended back to the banks. Many were older and run down, but others were quite modern. There were also several Buddhist temples along the route. The boat was motor run. Though it would hold a dozen passengers, there were only the Caldwells and us along for the ride. The water was pretty murky, but we still saw children swimming near their homes

This is the type of canoe we were on, but a

little smaller.

One of the Muslem religious centers on river.

(also below)




Looking back in our boat to driver.


Can you see the children swimming in the water ?

The dock where we got off the boat. It was

quite a jump up.

The canal road with houses on both sides.

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Elder and Sister Caldwell showing us the sites.

Great host and hostess.

Trip to Thailand

We have finished our first visit to a country where humanitarian missionaries serve that have been assigned to us as area welfare specialists. Our specialists in Thailand are Elder Ray and Sister Judy Caldwell. They are most recently from Snowflake, Arizona, but have travelled throughout the world when Elder Caldwell worked for the Canadian Government. This is also their third mission for the Church having served in Mozambique (first couple missionaries to that country) and in Tel Aviv, Palestine as the Branch President for the Church. They have been in Thailand since November. They were very gracious hosts as we met with them over a five day period. Our purpose was to help them with the paper work that is required on huminatarian projects. There are two types of projects. (1) Major Initiatives that include Clean Water, Neonatal Resuscitation, Vision, and Wheelchairs, and (2) smaller Area Initiatives that meet local needs to relieve the poor and needy near branchces of the Church. These include projects such as quilts for orphanages and new babies, equipment for disabled training schools, playground equipment for handicapped schools, hygiene and sanitation refurbishing etc. These projects are all partnered with local organizations that help provide sustainability and involve the recipients in activities to better utilize the equipment and materials being furnished and to make them more self reliant. The big project in Thailand is bringing clean water to 29 villages in northeastern Thailand near the Myanmar border. These villages are very remote, but consist of hundreds and sometimes thousands of people. In the dry season, they have little water and in the wet season the water is often polluted. The project will bring the water from streams and springs by gravity-flow pipes into the villages, especially to the schools. Restrooms will also be built at the schools to accompany the clean water. The Royalty of Thailand under the Princess Charities is a partner on these projects. Local contractors and students from an engineering school in the area will do the work.





Thailand was formerly known as Siam, and we all became somewhat acquainted with the country through the movie, "The King and I". 95% of the citizens are Buddists in religion, and thousands of wats, or temples, are found throughout the country. Our trip was limited this time to Bangkok, the capitol. The projects are over a days drive away. There are fewer buses here than in Hong Kong, but lots of taxis and motorcycles. Traffic jams are common. We spent most of our training time at the Church Service Center Building that also houses the Thailand LDS Mission. We stayed at the Amari Watergate Hotel, a very nice hotel in the center of Bangkok. We had a 30-45 minute taxi ride to the center each day.

Taxis of all colors wait for the light to change Beautiful tall buildings in Bangkok

A Bhuddist wat across from the Service Center Lots of motorcycles are used