The New Year - Khmer Style

My friend's niece

Last week was the Khmer New Year, March 13-15, but it is often celebrated for longer (the middle school where I taught agriculture last year had almost a month off). This holiday is special because it is often the only time of year that people don't have to work (for example, those that sell things at the market) and they get to rest and spend time with their families; otherwise many work seven days a week and on holidays.

It is a tradition during the New Year to throw water or powder on people. It started as a way that you bless someone by asking them if you can pour water on him or her, but nowadays people don't really ask! Sometimes it can be dangerous, especially if you get pelted by plastic bags filled with water (sometimes icy cold) while you are driving a motorbike. Someone told me if I don't want to get hit, I should wear my helmet because that shows I don't want to play. =)

For the New Year, I went up to northern Cambodia with my American friend and 2 Cambodian friends. On way up, we stopped at a ancient ruins, similar to Angkor Wat but all the stones were laying on ground so it's not quite as cool. But there were hundreds of Cambodians climbing over the stones, smearing powder on each other's faces, dancing, eating, etc. It was kind of surreal until someone came up to me and grabbed my face to "bless" me with scented baby powder. Kids asked to put powder on our faces and that was cute, but the drunk guys with grimy hands, not so cute. There was no water throwing at that place, just powder. It was really hot that day and some of the powder had menthol in so it was nice and cooling. =)

At Banteay Srey Chama ruins with Somath and Erica

Kids busy blessings others =)

I was blessed a lot!

Erica and I with our powder beards

We finally arrived in Yan's village after being crammed in a Camry with all our stuff and 4 other people for 2 hours plus. Believe it or not the taxi's (Camry) here have 8 "seats", sometimes more. 4 people in the back, 2 in the passenger seat and one sitting with the driver. Kids don't count so they get squeezed in too, so sometimes 8 passengers is a conservative number. My leg fell asleep at one point because we were so squished my circulation was cut off. The joys of riding in a taxi in Cambodia. =)

On motos with all our stuff going to the taxi - notice the moto driver on his cell phone. Classic.

So, in Yan's village we stayed at her mother's house. Yan has 6 siblings, 5 of which are married and live very close to her mom, and her older sister is not yet married so she lives with their mom. It was a bit confusing when we first arrived because one of her brothers was in the process of getting married but most of her family wasn't at the wedding and people kept coming and going from the house and I couldn't figure out who actually lived there and who was just sleeping there temporarily. Everyone stared at my friend and I (she had been to visit last year so they knew her face) and talked about us (the "white single ladies") while we were sitting there. They have a different accent in that part of the country and use some different words, so at times it was really difficult to understand them even though they were speaking Khmer.

In her village there is no electricty or running water, but thankfully her Aunt had a toilet, a squatty potty, that you pour water down to flush. They have to carry their water from the pond or the well in the village to their houses, so conserving water becomes more important when you have to carry it in on your shoulders (which Yan's sister did for us to take showers, so sweet). They shower outside using a small bucket that is dipped into a large water jar and then you pour the water over your head. For the women, they wear sarongs tied around the chest, so it's kind of like bathing while clothed. Yan's sister put up some grass thatch as walls for us so we could have a little privacy while bathing. I couldn't get over the fact that there were ducks and pigs and chickens running around while I was bathing!

Getting ready for a cold, morning shower

The bathing stall

A pig

Yan wanted to share about Jesus to her family and the people in her village, so one morning we had a small gathering of women and children who listened to Somath (the Cambodian guy that came with us from Battambang and is an assistant pastor) talk about Jesus and the story about Lazarus and the rich man. Then Yan shared her testimony and some of the women cried. We also planned to show the Jesus film that night at the village leader's house so we went to find some electricity to run the projector and computer and speakers.

Life is community there and we walked down the rode and stopped at people's houses (I think Yan is related to half the people in the village) to chat for a few minutes before moving on. We did meet the guy who rents out a generator/electricity and he told us he and his family are believers. As far as we know, he and his family and Yan are the only believers in the village. We worked out how to do the electrical stuff and then spent the afternoon lounging around (it's way too hot to do anything) eating mangoes.

The most essential piece of Cambodian furniture - a wooden table under the house used for sitting, eating and sleeping. You can see the houses of Yan's brothers and sisters in the background.

Yan's nephew, a cutie!

At one point, Somath decided he and I should go on a moto to the next village since our other 2 friends went on a walk and we didn't know where they were. So we hopped on a moto and went about 2km down the main road to the next village. It is pretty dry in that area, though it has more trees than most places in Cambodia. On the way back to Yan's village (which is called Poom Roneam Thom - the Big Cobra Snake Village) there was a truck stopped near a pond and there were people on the truck with a large barrel of water. Somath slowed down and told them to throw water on him and instead they threw it on me! That was my first water throwing experience for this New Year.

That night at 6pm we went out to set up the computer and projector and hang up a white sheet for the Jesus film showing. It tooks us about an hour to get it all set up but praise God that when we plugged everything, it worked! Tons of people started coming (any form of tv is serious stuff here) and I think at one point there were about 200 people, most standing, watching the life of Jesus in their language. After the crucifixtion, Somath explained more about why Jesus came to die, that it was for our sins. He led a prayer and then we finished watching the video. It is a 2 hour video, so by the end people had started to leave, but there were still about 100 that stayed the whole time.

The next day we didn't do a whole lot. It's wierd not being able to check your e-mail or "do things" so it seemed like we didn't do much, but we did go visit more people. One family fed us a meal that consisted of a dish of fish with mangoes, peanuts, chilis and lime juice, a dish of steamed jackfruit, and an omlete (and rice of course). It was really good! The day before, Somath helped Yan kill one of the ducks running around in the yard. The people there live off what is in their yards, whether it's animals or fruit trees, and then they all have a stash of rice from the last season's harvest.

Getting ready to make dinner - duck anyone?

Erica and I returned the next day to Battambang but Yan stayed a few more days with her family. She ended up preaching one night to her family for 2 hours and her sister and her mother decided to follow Christ. There is no church in that village (it is actually really close to Thailand in the area that former Khmer Rouge soliders and their families settled), so please pray for these people to have more opporunities to hear about Jesus and to grow in their faith.

Yan's mother, Yan's sister, Yan and I

I had trouble sleeping there at night because it was so hot and the mosquitoes were biting me (and no one else obviously) and there were a lot of strange noises. One night, there was this really loud sound that startled me and I asked Yan what it was and she said it was a bull. Anyway, this stupid bull had wandered into the yard and then proceeded to make this annoying noise throughout the surrounding vicinity looking for a lady cow and I was about ready to shoot it. All in all, I had a good time, I just didn't get any sleep. =)