Holidays

As my last post may have hinted, cross-cultural interactions have their fair share of frustrations. I am working hard to understand Cambodia so that I can do good work here and, I must admit, it’s a slow process. While all cultures are complex, I have found that Cambodian culture to be particularly enigmatic and filled with contradictions. For example, Cambodian people are extremely friendly and kind, but, historically, they have a propensity towards violence (particularly the Khmer Rouge period). This can be seen when their eyes light up when violence comes on TV (and by TV, I mean dubbed Thai soap opera DVDs that make the WWF look authentic). Other complexities include: Buddhism, Eastern communal culture (including indirectness and saving face), post-communism, what many consider to be an authoritarian government and poverty, among others.

Learning about Cambodian culture is a continual process. I try to include explanations throughout my blog for why things are how they are. If you want me to elaborate on the cultural background of something please let me know. This is helpful because part of my mission as a Peace Corps Volunteer is to share Cambodia with Americans. It is also possible that I have not considered your question and it will help me understand Cambodian culture better. I also want this blog to be entertaining so you continue to read it, so if culture interests you, I want to write about it.

So, onto the past two weeks.

Cambodia is believed to have the most holidays in the world. The past two weeks included the King’s birthday, the Water Festival and the Moon Festival. As a result, I had off from school on Thursday, then school Friday and Saturday (but Peace Corps Volunteers don’t teach on Saturdays), then no school until the following Thursday. And, this Monday we have off for Cambodian Independence Day (Though I will use the day to help one of my co-teachers train other young teachers).

On the King’s Birthday, I relaxed and spent time with my host-family and talked to various people at the market. In the afternoon, I went to a few gatherings with my host-brother. First, we went to a dinner the school director was hosting. Basically, people show up, eat and give money that goes to a poor pagoda. Then, my host-brother had to stop at another pagoda to drop off more money. There are a lot of donations to pagodas because so many were destroyed in Khmer Rouge times. Of course, in typical Cambodia spur-of-the-moment fashion, he told me that his brothers/cousins (there is little distinction in Cambodia) were having a dinner party and wanted me to come. So, even though I had already eaten and was not informed prior, I had to go. They all really wanted me to drink a lot, and it was hard to explain to them that I had to teach the next day, so I did not want to. I never realized how exposed one is when they stand in front of a class every day. I feel like if I am the slightest bit tired, or have a small cold, the students all notice.

After my classes were finished on Friday, I went to Pray Vang Town to meet up with the other volunteers from Svay Rieng and Pray Vang Provinces. It was a lot of fun. Pray Vang Town is beautiful and the hotel we stayed at had two movie channels (yes, that is a big deal for me now). It was great to catch up with other volunteers and we had a little Halloween party too at another development worker’s house.

I returned to my district on Monday because I wanted to see how the other festivals were celebrated in my village. Other than watching the boat races that were going on in Phnom Penh on TV, the Water Festival was uneventful. Next year, I will go into Phnom Penh and see it for myself.

I did get to experience the Moon Festival though. The teacher I worked with on the health projects invited me to celebrate it in his commune. Not everyone celebrates the festival every year, but when I told Khmer people that I was going to, they were very happy for me. I still do not completely understand the festival, but it involves predicting the following year in terms of harvests and rain. I intend to read more about it, but it was difficult for me to get an explanation because of the language barrier and so many monks were killed during Khmer Rouge regime, so the background of many religious customs is not widely known.

The festival was a lot of fun. There was praying, then singing, dancing and some skits. I had trouble understanding the skit though. My language skills right now are at the point where I’m decent and speaking with people because I can figure out the context, but I cannot follow other people’s fast-paced conversations and presentations. After the skit, there was more praying, some candle-lighting and then the aw amboke which means “finish the amboke.” Amboke was described to me as “plated rice,” but it reminds me of oatmeal before water is added. You eat it with bananas and it’s delicious. The bananas are soft, so they provide moisture.

I know amboke doesn’t sound that appetizing, but keep in mind I have not had western food in about six weeks. My food standards are definitely lowering and my tolerance for stinky fish is going up (I still don’t think I can handle prohap though). The volunteers who have been here for a year say they don’t even know what’s good anymore. Don’t get me wrong, Khmer food is usually delicious, but my palate is altering subtly.

That’s all about the holidays for now. Knowing Cambodia, there will be another bunch soon enough.