Laying Out and Remembering the Buddha

After a lovely evening spent with my family friends, Marcy and Jerry, who are visiting Cambodia with the Lindblad National Geographic Expedition group, I traveled down to Phnom Penh for the weekend to participant in the 5th annual Big Phat Phnom Penh Hat - a two-day Ultimate Frisbee tournament where you register as an individual and get assigned to mixed teams. I roped one other PCV, Vicki, into playing too. My team Maroon ended up winning the "B pool" and having an absolute blast. It was great making new friends from all across Southeast Asia! (That's the thing about sports, and especially Ultimate; it's all about bringing people together.) The tourney ended with a slip-n-slide layout contest (you dive for the disc onto a slip-n-slide). Needless to say after 7 games of Ultimate over less than 48 hours, I am exhausted, sore, have blisters and am dangerously close to losing both big toenails. But all in all, totally worth it!

spirit shown after the B-championship and before a shirt-less T-Rex arms point!

Me and Vicki post-tourney!

Slip-N-Slide!

I have a day to recover from the weekend as today is Meak Bochea, a Buddhist holiday celebrated on the full moon day of the third lunar month to commemorate the Buddha and his teachings. It is said that on this day more than 2250 years ago the first 1250 of Buddha's disciplines were ordained and listened as the Buddha predicted (correctly) his death three months in the future. That day in late May is now marked as Visakha Bochea, also the same day as Buddha's birth and day of enlightenment. At most temples in Cambodia this evening there will be a candle processional called wien tien were Buddhists walk 3 times around the temple with candles, incense, and lotus flowers to venerate the Buddha, the Dharma (Buddha's teaching), and the Sangha (the monastic life). Should be a beautiful display.

The Year of the Snake

While my tutor told me that not many Khmer people celebrate the Chinese New Year or those that do do it for business reasons (your guess is as good as mine as to what that actually means...) this weekend I witnessed parties and fireworks and sparklers and that general cheer that comes with bringing in a new year. And that year is the year of the snake - or my year.

About a month ago I asked a pregnant woman at the health center what year she was born. The response was chnaam say which translates to year of the horse. I was confused when one of the midwives did the math and wrote down 1991 because I knew myself to be a horse (born 20 January 1990). So of course I did so investigative work and found out that for all my life I had thought I was a horse when in actuality I am a snake. (The Chinese Zodiac follows the Chinese New Year of course, so February to February.) And now life makes sense.

Although some might say that this past year was one of my finest - accepting my invitation to serve in Cambodia exactly a year to the day, graduating from Kenyon, and now 7 months in country to the day - I am excited to say that there is much more ahead. Because yesterday was the first day of the year of the snake - my year. Cheers.

Cremated King and Kenyon in Cambodia

As January came to a close, I found myself in Siem Reap with my friend and fellow volunteer, Neysa, attending an agronomy training conducted by USAID. After four days on everything from soil preparation to irrigation techniques we were rewarded with a four-day weekend. The occasion: the King Father's cremation.

Three months after the King Father passed away and his body was on display outside the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, he was cremated yesterday in front of millions. Here is a link to BBC's coverage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21318842. I watched the events (the processional of the body started on Friday the 1st) on the TV from Siem Reap because PCVs were not allowed to travel to the capital (i.e. safety reasons). Although Siem Reap was not quite Phnom Penh, there was a processional, plenty of flags at half-mast, and billboards to commemorate the King Father.

 

While millions State-side poured over their TV's wondering if the 49ers would pull off a post-power outage comeback, millions in Cambodia were saying a final good-bye to their beloved leader. My friends, Neysa and Trophie, and I might have been able to catch the game from our guesthouse room at 7am Monday morning...

Oh Neysa.

So February started with quite a lot of excitement, but to add to it all I also spent the weekend at the 2nd Angkor Wat International Film Festival (http://www.angkorwatfilmfestival.com/index.html) and reminiscing about college and catching up with Leigha and Madli (my Kenyon classmates) who were traveling from southern China where they are spending the year teaching English. Here we are at the entrance of one of the many night markets in Siem Reap on Sunday.

Leigha, Madli, and me!

And now I am back at site where I am cursing the Punxsutawney Phil for not seeing his shadow. I was really hoping for 6 more weeks of "cold" season (70s), but alas as my host mom said over dinner, "the heat has begun." And when the locals are saying it is hot, you better believe that it is boiling, and I am melting. My sweat glands are getting a serious workout.