What surprised us … after living here for six months

Our little community sharing honey

Kevin and I, we have now lived here in Cambodia for six months.   We’ve adjusted fairly well with food, our surroundings, our home environment in Sen Monorom.   We still love living along side our little Khmer community practicing our Khmer, getting lost in translation and watching them laughing at our expense.  It’s all in good fun.  

Our 'beautiful' landlady - Savy

The dry season

This is the dry season.  The dry season started at the beginning of November and in five months it hasn’t rained once.  For Kevin, this has been the biggest surprise about living here. Many of the trees in the forests surrounding us have shed their leaves and much of the vegetation has been burnt off. We are not sure why, we are told these are accidental fires but also that it is to allow for the new growth when the rains come in April.  

With the dry season comes wedding season.  There are countless weddings and they are a big deal.

Wedding season

In our local market, tailors are busy sewing dresses galore in a variety of colours!  -adding numerous details to no end; needlepoint, embroidery and much more. Tailors may even sew a number of tailored dresses for one person. And, like back home, each wedding might need a new dress.

These are community events. Loudspeakers blare out wedding announcements, and in the same breath, blare out traditional and contemporary music that continue for one to 3 days, sometimes starting as early as 4 in the morning and continuing to midnight.  On the positive side even the dogs are subdued by the auditory onslaught.   And yes, rituals of a wedding remain a mystery to us.  From what we’ve observed, many people just come to the wedding, pay their money (apparently $10 is the expected donation), eat and leave.

Volley ball anyone? 

On the way to 'dusty' Lamas School

The 'dusty' road to Bousra Commune

'Towlee' the Khmer word for dust: My feet, my hands, and all parts of my body, exposed to the powdery dust when travelling to work on my motor bike, have been permanently stained a saffron red.  Sometimes I feel that I’ve become one of the monks we see roaming the town in their saffron robes.  So once a week, I pamper my feet.  I soak them in warm soapy water for a half hour –in a futile attempt to remove some of that 'lovely' red stain.  Still, I feel good after washing them, and pretend that my feet are sparkling clean.

Presently, we’re in Kempot at a workshop and we’re staying in a neighbouring town celebrating Kevin’s birthday. 

More later ...

Photos of Kevin's birthday will be posted at a later date.