This month has been one of the best months of my life. First
of all, my team finally feels like a real family and we have all been getting
along so well. Secondly, I love Cambodia and completely adore all of the boys
we are working with here. Also…it just so happens that we have been here during
the biggest party month of the year.
As far as I can tell, Khmer New Year is like a week-long
event. I am starting to lose count of all the dance parties we have partaken
in. It all started last Sunday night. Someone came and set up a bunch of huge
speakers outside our house and as the sun set, all the older boys from the
center and some of the neighbors started arriving. They set up a table in the
middle of the yard and the music was cranked up. It was so fun learning Khmer
dances and dancing circles around the table in the center. The Khmer music was
awesome and of course they played a bunch of American covers and hip-hop songs
too. We danced the night away and had the time of our lives. A few of my
teammates love to dance and DJ (one of the boys from the center), is an amazing
dancer, so we were entertaining all the onlookers by making up new funny moves
and dancing around like crazy. This was just the first dance party of many…
It’s tradition around here to go to big festivals at the
Buddhist pagodas during New Years. The first one we went to I don’t even think
I saw the pagoda…I was took busy dodging all the Cambodians who were trying to
throw baby powder on us! Another tradition is for guys and girls to smear baby
powder on each other’s faces. They also throw water and powder on people
driving motorbikes. Since we are foreigners, the Cambodian youth got a kick out
of coming up to us and cover us in powder. At the first place I thought I was
going to escape the powder attacks because I kept my sunglasses on and had a
little Cambodian child (Mouse) riding on my back. As soon as we made it past
all the people though, the Teen Challenge guys bought powder and chased us down
until we were covered. It was a total blast, though I will say your skin starts
burning and it is not pleasant in the eyes!
While at the pagodas, we played tons of different types of
games with the kids. It was so funny because we always drew a crowd. We’d be
playing a spin off of “steal the bacon” and we’d have like 50+ random
Cambodians spectators. When we moved back to the dance floor, there would be a
few guys dancing and as soon as the Americans joined in, the dance floor would
be packed and the crowd around it would get thick. People kept taking videos of
us and at one point the MC had us get on stage and do some of our steps. They
thought we were professional dancers or something (I guess line dancing steps
and such are impressive here…lol) and invited us to come back. It was hilarious
as they handed us (Christina, Danielle, and I) the microphone and had us
introduce ourselves to the crowd. We even tried to wish everyone a Happy New
Year in Khmer over the PA (I’m sure that was quite entertaining). Good thing
I’m not too shy or I think I would have had a hard time dancing with everyone
staring at us. It must have been a strange sight to them having us do all their
traditional dances and make up new “hip” additions to the steps (compliments of
DJ)!
One of my favorite parts of going to the festivals was
riding in the back of this huge truck with like 30 of our boys. Guys were
sitting on top of the cab and hanging over the side rails cheering at every
house, car, motorbike, or pedestrian they passed. They soaked anyone nearby with
water and flung baby powder at them.
Another fun part was taking my “sons” on the rickety ferris
wheel with my buddy Panha. I have never seen anything cuter than Mouse’s face
as it started swinging around and picking up speed. He had never done anything like
it and it was absolutely adorable. Chem loved it too and yelled the whole time.
Overall, this past week has been like a dream. he most
amazing thing is that our relationships with all the guys we are working with
this month grew leaps and bounds just by dancing and celebrating with them.
This morning, the girls and I helped cook a traditional Khmer meal with some of
the local women and we had a big family style lunch on a big bamboo platform.
Later we’re having another big dinner and then the final dance party. I can
hardly believe that there’s any dance left in me, but there’s no doubt I’m
going to take advantage of every last minute of this amazing holiday J T
Happy Khmer New Year!
