Holidays in Cambodia

Su-sa-day Noel. Merry Christmas :)

Hello everyone! I imagine one of the burning questions on your mind might be 'Do they celebrate Christmas in Cambodia?!?'. We'll ignore the other burning questions (such as, 'why isn't he writing very often?!?') and skip right to this one.

Life in Cambodia is, if nothing else, educational. I've learned a lot being here, and continue to find out new things and see new places all the time. In particular, it is easy to study human nature, and the differences in cultures.

A lunch we held for the church - That's one of our 'Yay's, or grandmothers.

One thing remains constant between all places, it seems, and that is the love of a holiday. Granted, Cambodians seem to take an extraordinary amount of them, but who's counting (somewhere north of 30 if you count American holidays and royal birthdays of the king, king's parents, grandparents, etc.).

So, in short, yes. Cambodians do recognize Christmas. As for us, we celebrate with them... a lot.

As you can see in the above picture, we held a lunch at the church after giving everyone a free t-shirt (they're quite nice, and the Khmer love getting clothes for Christmas, or for any occasion, really). We fed them, and showed them love and appreciation.

What? No, that's not it...

An example of shoebox-like gifts.

For some of the children, we gave away gifts of toys, more clothes (See?), and other odds and ends like pens and paper. The children were excited to open them up and start playing.

The shepherds were keeping their sheep... and prodding them mercilessly whenever the chance arose. ;)

For the children of the village we brought them to the upper room (different day) and had a little party. We gave away bags of snacks and juice, put on a little play, and did a lucky draw. If you read Aidan's post, you'll see just how large the crowd was. We estimate at least 400... probably closer to 6.

Aly and some of the prizes.

I once did security at a concert. It was a lot like that. :)

Intrepid sailors!

For Sak Saum, we traveled to 'the island' (no, not that island). This is a pleasant place near Saang where it's quiet and breezes flow endlessly from the river. You have to take the ferry to get there, which provides a nice moment of relaxation as you bob along.

Follow the yellow brick... er... brown dirt road.

Many of the girls live on the island, so this is where we chose to meet up for a nice dinner.

Srey Neang. One of my English students. :)

We ate with them, and then they launched into some singing and dancing. Eric and Ginny presented them with some gifts (which I'll touch on in a later post), and we basically enjoyed their company before taking a walk back to the ferry.

Strange creatures abound on the island.

So, in a nutshell, there's been a lot of celebrating. There were other events too, such as having dinner with the staff and gift exchanges and such, but frankly, I didn't take any pictures. You'll have to take my word that it was awesome getting to hang out with everyone. :)

Jess did take this one riding around after leaving the restaurant.

What's next you ask? Presents for you, my readers! Hmm? No, I didn't buy anything, but I will be giving you a couple of special posts to look over.

Tomorrow we leave for Malaysia! Family time, good food, and another completely foreign culture to tell you all about!

...or at least as much as i can learn about in 4 days. Until I get back, Merry Christmas, and happy peeper toads! er... New year!