3 Days to the End of the World... Oh Wait that's Not Right...

So in 3 days time the world will come to an end and I spent today making paper snowflakes to put on my door in the hottest holiday season that I have ever experienced and biking around to 7 different villages in my commune on outreach to promote IUDs. (Needless to say I can tell you A LOT about birth spacing methods!) But what is the point of telling women about a device that can prevent them from having children for up to 10 years if the world as we know it is fleeting? Well because the Mayan calendar got it wrong... instead it looks like we are just going to have a worldwide blackout. (And I am not talking about something like the Kenyon College blackout of fall 2008...)

According to my host family, people in my village, Cambodian pop culture magazines, and other such reliable sources, starting on Sunday December 23rd the sun will not rise for 3 straight days. That's right folks, the saying "the sun still rises if the rooster doesn't crow..." will be proved dead wrong. When I first heard about this phenomenon, I thought that it was just not understanding the Khmer and that they were telling me that an eclipse was scheduled to occur. But after more of the same conversations and some investigative research, I found that my ears did not deceive me: the sun would be taking a vacation. It gets better. My 12 year old host sister explained to me that I should, in essence, hibernate for 3 days. I was planning to visit fellow PCV friends to celebrate Christmas, but my sister logically pointed out that I will not be able to see anything and was thus adamant about me not leaving the house (despite that electricity and flashlights will still function...). 

So buckle up folks. Start hoarding food and enjoy the sunlight while we have it (sorry to those in the polar regions who don't have much anyway right now... then again you are probably better prepared than the rest of us...), because our stamina, survival skills, and tolerance for adversity will be tested in 3 days time. I will report back after the 3 day blackout, when the sun has risen again and we can all go about our lives. Good luck to all. Happy holidays and happy hibernation!