Last post in this series of trying to update everyone on what I have been doing! From April 13 to April 16, it was Khmer New Year: បុណ្យចូលឆ្នាំខ្មែរ . Khmer New Year aligns with other Southeast and Eastern Asian new years, and this time is to celebrate the solar new year, but also is celebrated before rainy season starts (which I so badly want right now because it is so hot and all the plants need some water!)
I flew home on the 12th so I could get home on the 13th to join in the Khmer New Year festivities. First thing when I got home everyone said I was “skoem” (which means skinny) and I attribute that to being sick for part of our trip and also not getting lunches some days because we were busy hiking some mountain peak. Once they gave me food to eat, we dove into doing so many things!
The new year is usually 4 days in April, consisting of parties, dancing, festivities, water splashing, and putting baby powder on people’s faces. I put my things down, and then my family first took me to a funeral at a neighbor’s house. I did not know this neighbor, but he died of old age. Khmer people usually gather to celebrate the life of people who have passed away and so we ate food at their house and then went back home, to then later return that night to eat baba- a Khmer dish that is rice porridge. In between going to the house in the afternoon and later at night, we went to the market to buy things for our altar that we set up outside for the new angels to come. This consisted of fruit, candies, and candles, alongside bottles of water and a bowl of water with lotus flowers in it. My sister told me that the new angels came at 10pm, and we went outside to pray then for them to come in the new year.
The next day I woke up and did laundry (much needed after my trip) and then we got dressed to go to some of my students’ houses. As another refresher, I live at an Enfants du Mekong house that is run by my older host sister, which lets kids from rural areas live next to the high school so it is easy for them to go to school. My sister is also close friends with some of these families and so it was just a nice time to visit with them. My family doesn’t have a car (they have motorcycles, but Peace Corps does not let me ride on them) and so usually my family has to find someone who has a car to take me long distances. So in this case, one of the student’s family members came to pick us up and then drive us 45 minutes to their house. Once we went to their houses, I really did realize how far away that some of them live from a high school and I now know the importance of the house my sister has to make sure that kids can keep going to school. I will write more about this in another post about Cambodian education and about the high dropout rates, which are attributed to a lot of things but access to education is one of them. I ate lunch at one of the student’s houses and then we went next door to another student’s house and participated in some Khmer New Year festivities. This included washing the elderly people in the family and wishing them a happy new year and then saying prayers and putting baby powder on each other’s faces and sprayed each other with perfume. After that, at the same house, we sat in two lines and drew from a hat to see how much money we would win (I won 10,000 riel which was the highest, equivalent to $2.50- I’m buying ice cream for the family!)
Then we drove another 30 minutes to even more rural area to see another student and her family. We ate again and then I walked around the town with my student to meet her extended family. In Cambodia, many people call me “barang”. The direct translation means “French” but it also just means foreigner. Usually in my town people call me this less because they know that I live here and work at the school, but in the really rural areas I get a lot of attention because barangs do not usually go that far away from the usual tourist sites (many tourists also pass alongside my town to go to some temples so people see them more)! So while walking around the small town I heard everyone say “barang, barang” but I have learned to embrace it. After walking around, we went back to the first house and then went home. Two different people drove us home in a different car, and when we got home we offered for them to eat dinner with us (which is very Khmer to do) and so we ate together. I love small moments that remind me of home although I am thousands of miles away. It is a very US southern thing to do to offer food to people if they come over to your house, and here in Cambodia it is very common to offer people who are at your house to eat food if you are about to eat.
That night, I had trouble sleeping because it is so hot. I unfortunately got too used to the AC while I was on vacation, and now I am back to my tiny fan and 105 degrees+ weather. I do have a window in my room, but I am worried about ~things~ crawling into my room, so I need to either make a makeshift screen or just worry less (but in the past I have already had to chase down two huge bugs that were flying around my room and I already have the occasional lizard that comes in my room-which are fine they are harmless and crawl around everywhere in Cambodia). I usually close my door to sleep but had to open my door to let some air in. This led to my family coming into my room at 6am saying Alex we go to the pagoda in hometown! (Also 6am is late for my family they, so they were already awake well before this). The hometown is about 5km away from the house, but again no car means it is difficult for me to get there by bike, especially with the heat. I was thinking I would have to bike there because I did not know who would take me, and I was getting nervous because that was going to be one sweaty bike ride. Thank goodness my uncle pulled up in his car and we piled in to go to the hometown. The usual attire for the pagoda is a traditional sampot and a white shirt, so I wore that but was told to bring one change of clothes. We went to the pagoda, the monks blessed the family, and we gave them food to eat before then going to the hometown house to have breakfast. After I changed, we did the same ceremony with the grandma in my family where we washed her shoulders and head with soap and water and wished her good luck and health.
Then I was told we were going to Poipet, which is the border city between Cambodia and Thailand. I guess I missed this part the first time they said “pack a change of clothes” because I only packed day clothes, but failed to pack pajamas, a change of clothes, nor my toothbrush. Luckily because we went to my uncle’s house, I borrowed some pajamas from my niece (who lives with us but this was her house we went to). We took basically a 5 hour nap during the day in Poipet and then the family had a small gathering/party with the neighbors, eating food, drinking, and singing Khmer New Year Karaoke. We also drove around and saw people spraying water at each other and putting baby powder. In classic sleepover style, I slept on the ground with the rest of my family, with the karaoke music still blasting and the lights still on (for those who remember my blog post about the wedding I went to it was in similar fashion, but I actually slept better at the house in Poipet because it wasn’t a massive party). The only times I woke up in the middle of the night was when my little brother barreled rolled next to me and then punched me in the face in his sleep.
We woke up early the next morning and ate breakfast and then went to the Big C grocery store. I usually never get to go to the grocery store because we don’t have one in my town, we buy all of our fruits and vegetables from the market, and so it was strange having so many choices, especially with shampoo and toothpaste, which I needed. We came back to my town/home and I immediately took off to take a shower and change my clothes because I had to rewear the clothes I was wearing the day prior (which wouldn’t be that bad except remember that it is deathly hot here and so most days I am sweating so much). I had a feeling we would leave again soon so after the shower, I packed a bag, including pajamas, toothbrush/toothpaste, and a towel, and before I knew it my family said “Alex we go again”. We went to my older brother’s (the husband of my older host sister) home town and had a party at the house. This party included me befriending an auntie who spoke broken English of “I know” and would say a lot of Khmer which I would understand, but she didn’t understand my response. However, the beautiful aspect of a party is that we still did not talk as much but she would always say “Ok!” and cheers with me. (Also side note one family member is a monk and he was just hanging out in a hammock next to us the whole day). I was asked to dance with everyone and so we sang and danced and then we drove to the main road to play with the water and baby powder. A New year tradition is to spray passing motorcycles and cars with water and put baby powder on each others faces to wish each other a happy new year. We returned home and I changed into dry clothes. The aforementioned monk (who was still hanging out at the house) mentioned that he needed someone to take him to the pagoda, and I said “aw I wish we went to the pagoda too (because there is usually like a fair at the pagoda for new years” and then the monk said “oh don’t worry you will go” and then all of a sudden my family said “ok we are all going to the pagoda”. At the pagoda, it was like a town fair with games to play, people dancing, a band singing, and fair food to buy. My go to thing to buy is tik ampow which is sugar cane juice. We walked around and then I danced a little with some other people at the fair, and then my niece (Lyny) and I stayed a little longer and walked around the fair before walking back home. This time I had my pajamas and I slept outside on an elevated bed with a huge fan blasting on me (which honestly I got cold).
The next day we woke up at 5:45 (although the sounds of monks chanting in the morning started at around 4:30am) and came back home once again. This time we ate breakfast and then went to a fortune teller’s house. I had my fortune read (including that the man said that I am “quick to get angry” this year- but I will attribute that to it being really hot outside). We came back home and I got to do laundry again and finally take a little rest. Then that afternoon another car pulls up, and I am told that we were going back to the hometown to play with more of the water in the street and with the baby powder! We went to another fair at the pagoda (which I got free tik ampow because my aunt was the one running the machine) and then we walked down the street to the house to get ready to spray people with water. We walked through a big crowd of people, and so again I heard “barang barang barang” which also lead to a lot more people wanting to rub baby powder on my face. We played in the street, shot the water, rubbed baby powder and had more fun before going back to the pagoda to dance some more before being driven home before dark.
And now it is back to realty: I have updated my blog posts for now, I helped my family sweep/clean the high school next door, I had to go run errands in town: had to get a new screen protector because mine was super cracked, bought some oranges from my favorite fruit seller, got my nails done before going back to school, got a lime tea from one of the really nice sellers, and got some crunchy donuts for my family. There is still lots to do with lesson planning before going back to school on Monday, but I am excited to see my students! I already saw two in the town today while running errands and they were so sweet to say hello to me.
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