Well its finally hear my last new years of 2011 3 out of 3 down whoo hoo its nice to re celebrate over and over keeps the year fun! Well I got back from my vacation to not really start work but to party with a however many day festival that’s the fun of Cambodia you never know when a party will start or end im told new years last about 3 weeks so the actual party is like 4 days though like I said who really knows. Well in Cambodia new years is supper big deal to say the least no one has birthdays etc so its one big birthday party and just a renewal of everything and of course on big events like this they have to included the dead appease the ancestors. Because it khmer new years no one stays in the city all big events people that are Cambodian that is leave the city and go to the small villages where they most likely have family this makes taxi rides a bit more expensive. Due to the fact im a barong I was excepting the worst doubling the price but lucky the taxi I go into had some lady who informed me she was my aunt this is a common occurrence in Cambodia people always telling you they are some how related to your family im pretty sure everyone in my village is my family seriously its that crazy! Well this aunt of mine deff hooked me up cuz I did not get ripped off yay I did not call my sister to tell her I was coming home I thought surprise would be better in hand I had some gifts from my trip and at the request before I left bought some whiskey so knew they would all be excited to see me. My host mom was so excited she was telling me how scared she was o yea I dunno if I mentioned but I was told numerous times that when I was going to bali I would die because of the title waves that she was happy that I was alive and all I could say was yes I am happy I am alive to. Well the front of my house was one big alters with massive amounts of fruit and food everywhere!!! Incense this of course was for the dead. My host mom asked me if this was what Americans did in new years and I was like no and we don’t celebrate in April they find it hard to believe we are not scared of ghost. So the next day is when the fun begins so that day around noon you start to stand on the side of the rd and throw water and people passing bye especially the big groups of kids in the rigshaws there sort of like hey rides but a bit smaller anyways water gets thrown in their version of water balloons and with just regular cups. At first I thought humm this is sort of tame bc I was thinking of Halloween in American how at first its just silly string and then it gets pretty out of control with eggs and nair etc that Cambodia’s are good they don’t throw eggs. However at a second glance it gets pretty crazy you know that game chicken that you play in the pool where there are teams of two one person goes on top of someone shoulders and u try to knock the other team off well the water fighting sort of reminded me of that because there would be two people on a motto some even standing while the other drove throwing water at other mottos or people on the side of the rd and no one seemed to be scared of the dying while standing riding a motto while people are throwing things at you. The first day I did most of the throwing of water but my host sister jentee deiced that she wanted to get me wet so she wanted to take me on a motto ride except it back fired bc people get to excited to see an American to bother to throw things at me and even when she asked them to they told her no lmao this cracked me up! That night the whiskey bottle got open and things got a wee bit crazy okay so I like to refer to jentee as the mom of the family bc she never lets things get to crazy however she went to bed after one drink leaving me and jenta the youngest girl in the family who is I think about 27 and some random neighbor girls haha so with the cat gone the mice come out to play hehe as the saying goes. Jenta set out that we kill the whole bottle, which I can say we did. Mean while this is all going on my host mom does not sleep inside ever she always sleeps random places outside so she could deff hear all the craziness going on but she is not an uptight person so she let it all happen. Every time jenta got up they would fill her glass with more whiskey o yea I should note that its customary to never let someone’s glass not be full like they just keep going around and fill it and fill it again if you don’t want it you have to be pretty forceful. So knowing this I was like I have to go pee but if I leave my glass I know ill have like 9 more shots in my drinks so I think humm ill just carry it and put it down on a table where they cant see well this did not fly so jenta ends up bursting in the bathroom aka my squatting toilet being like where is the whiskey I am like dude its outside (I am still making fun of her for that). Well the night does end with the bottle being killed this was a big bottle to but with jenta throwing up everywhere and the two girls running home and me cleaning up with water while I can barely stand its not like in college were I could drink I never drink any more so I cant handle anywhere near the amount I used to be able to put away anyways she wanted to sleep out side on this table with me so I agreed feeling if she throws up again better be there so she doest choke in her sleep. The next morning my host mom was laughing at both me and her for like the 2 hours but she was saying like she is surprised the American can drink so much whiskey side note to Americans most countries think were weak or something bc there always scared that something bad will happen to us or like we have never worked manual labor a day in our life its sort of weird. My host mom gets really excited that I do stuff with the whole family so it could be something crazy but she would think it’s a great idea. Another traditional thing to do is to buy the family fruit and give them money so I did this and my host mom was soooo excited bc I think they knew I might forget or not really know which I didt really but I talked with my coworker who explained it to me better so I got it right on the first try! After you give the mone and fruit whish she was so surprised to find the money they have to wish you good luck for the rest of the year. Side not I joked around told them if I don’t have good luck this year I am holding their family personally responsible jkjkj Well once again the water throwing began but this time this man in the village who knows me and has a crush on my sister jentee even though she is married drives his own rigshaw he actual only has one leg land mine I think but he is a really nice random villager and me and him started to become friends bc I walk so far out into the middle of nowhere he will see me however the first few times when ever someone offers me a ride I say no I have no money but then he was like no you no give me money I am friends with your family etc. anyways he stops on the side of the rd to offer to take me around which ended up being to the wat where there was a big party and dancing lots of fun and on this ride I got soaked people got so excited to be able to get a barong wet they went crazy. It was more funny to see the people inside the wat like what is this American doing hear omg it also got him a lot of attention gave him good face as the saying goes in Khmer so we both made out on the deal this whole festival thing has made people think of me more as one of them which has been the best part. Now that I told you all the good things about khmer new years let me tell you about the things I am not getting okay so there has been this orphan boy who is mental challenged running around the village and spents lots of time at my house he actually told my host sister he knows me from when I had a peace corps meeting in Battabong. Well I have been trying to figure out why there are kids with no parents running around with out any one watching them at first I thought maybe bc he is slow he has family they just cant take care of him so I ask my host mom she is like no he has no family he is an orphan. Then I ask my host mom okay I get that he doest live in the village and has no family but how did he get to the village where is he staying etc. my host mom o he came on a watermelon truck and he has no home in the village me where does he sleep host mom don’t know. Now im starting to think this kid ran away or the orphanage kicked him out or something crazy bc he is 9 years old mentally challenged boy with no money my host sister has been giving him 500 real to go play and people have been giving him food. If he was the only one I would think run away but there has been like 5 of them running around so im not sure for Khmer new years do they let them lose with no money I just cant seem to figure it out. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world!!!
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