Sausadi Chanam Themei!Happy Khmer New Year!
It’s the biggest celebration of the year, and the Cambodian’s sure know how to party, there have been street party’s every night for about a month now (this can get slightly annoying when your bed time lullaby is Khmer pop music!).
It’s the biggest celebration of the year, and the Cambodian’s sure know how to party, there have been street party’s every night for about a month now (this can get slightly annoying when your bed time lullaby is Khmer pop music!).
Last week one of my Khmer friends Phana and I set up a mum’s group in a slum area where my friend Drew has opened a community centre. The turnout was impressive, and there were so many babies it was hectic to say the least!
Milly's new vocation as official "baby entertainer" at the mum's group!
This will be an on-going project that we hope will be a helpful resource when the slum faces imminent eviction over the next 2 years. As you can imagine, and see from the picture, health and hygiene are some of the biggest risks in this community, so we have a nurse working with us from New Zealand who is providing training to the women about how to keep their families healthy.
My new housemate Milly and I ha
ve been embracing all that is Cambodian from communist style public aerobics at Olympic Stadium, to Khmer boxing on a Sunday afternoon, and of course dancing, dancing, dancing with the locals. The street party’s are basically a sound system that blares out piercing Khmer hip-hop and the tackiest pop music (which Milly and I have grown to love). The locals are so pleased that we have learned the special dance steps to their favorite songs, and we practiced these last night at our local street party to the most welcoming crowd.
My new housemate Milly and I ha
ve been embracing all that is Cambodian from communist style public aerobics at Olympic Stadium, to Khmer boxing on a Sunday afternoon, and of course dancing, dancing, dancing with the locals. The street party’s are basically a sound system that blares out piercing Khmer hip-hop and the tackiest pop music (which Milly and I have grown to love). The locals are so pleased that we have learned the special dance steps to their favorite songs, and we practiced these last night at our local street party to the most welcoming crowd.Because everything is so different and alien in Cambodia to anything we “barrang” (foreigners) have ever known, I have spent such a long time living here and feeling like an outsider. But when you really start to accept the culture and take part in the things that the locals love, you begin to start closing the void between “us” and “them”. Despite all their troubles, Cambodian’s are some of the warmest, welcoming people in the world, and when I am dancing like a nutter with all the children and the young people, I couldn’t think of any place I would rather be.
Cambodian’s teach me some prof
ound lessons, and I feel so privileged to be able to peak into their world without being jaded by my Western opinions and view points. It has taken a long time to develop a real appreciation for this culture and to understand that no matter what happened in the past, and what is happening now, life must go on, and let’s make sure we have some fun while we live it!
Cambodian’s teach me some prof
ound lessons, and I feel so privileged to be able to peak into their world without being jaded by my Western opinions and view points. It has taken a long time to develop a real appreciation for this culture and to understand that no matter what happened in the past, and what is happening now, life must go on, and let’s make sure we have some fun while we live it! 
