Jan. 25

We went to a wedding. One of Marie Ens' team members had a daughter being married and she invited Susan and I and Cheryl ( from Airdrie, teaching English at Marie's ) to go to the reception. Not to be outdone we dressed in our best Cambodian clothes and away we went.  Got slightly lost on the way and arrived at the wrong end of a LONG tent affair on the street where the reception was being held.  SO we didn't come right to the reception line- No, we entered at the other end, plodded through all the people already eating, went through the reception line the wrong way while each one of the wedding party said,  "Au cun, au cun" (thinking we were leaving),  turned around ,re-entered,  the bride and groom and attendants were some puzzled at us white people, but as gracious hosts began to welcome us by sompeahing and saying, "Chum reap sua" the formal welcome, hello.  Once in the eating area you sit at a table for 10 people.  When the table is full you are served the 7 or 8 course meal.  When you are finished up you get and go home.  The table is then cleaned off and 10 more people sit down and the process is repeated. There were probably 60 or so tables at this reception.  Once all the guests are served the wedding party can then come in and eat.  We had a wonderful meal,  found our way home, no problem.
The other day we took a couple from Manitoba to some of the Ratanak projects. First we went to a school for handicapped children. The man in charge introduced us to " Chanda" and said she would show us around. Chanda looked about 14 years old, was a wisp of a thing at about 80 pounds. My first impression of her was that she was one of the handicapped children's little sister. Not so. She was a Khmer jewel. Her sparkling eyes, flawless English and knowledge of the children was amazing. Chanda was a trained physiotherapist and had just returned from additional special training in Singapore. She had been at this facility for several years. This country may be downtrodden and poor but it is has lots of young, smart, hard working people. Meeting and listening to her I thought " maybe there is hope for Cambodia ".

The next project was a drug rehabilitation program. We went out into a low population density area where Ratanak rents a small property. On the property was a small building which had 3 classrooms and a toilet. Out back was another shelter?? where cooking was done. The surrounding area is mainly Muslim. The people who operated the rehabilitation program went into the area and encouraged young people ( mainly boys ) to come and have some literacy training, eat a meal AND play soccer. Most Khmers are small and slightly built. Let me tell you about the Khmer man who did the phys-ed for the project ( mainly soccer ). He was about 6 feet tall, about 200 pounds and all muscle. He spoke excellent English and was SO enthusiastic about helping these boys. Most of the boys turn to drugs because they are constantly hungry and the drugs make them forget their hunger. This small project helps about 80 boys from the surrounding area. Maybe there is hope for Cambodia.

In the afternoon we went to a house operated by Prison Fellowship Cambodia (PFC ), which is funded by Ratanak. This is a house where released prisoners can come to. The staff help them prepare to reintegrate into society. Many of these released prisoners have not had contact with their families for many years. For example, the last time we were in Cambodia we went to a high security prison on the Vietnam border. While there, a prisoner was released. This means he is pushed out the gates with no money, only a krahma to cover himself and no knowledge of where he is. This man had been in prison for 18 years. For these 18 years he has been confined to a small cell except for 1 or 2 hours a week. He has had no contact with anyone he knew before entering prison.  PFC picked him up, took him to Phnom Penh,  helped him find his family, clothed him, gave him some skill training and looked after him until he could function outside of prison. Yiii, what a challenge! Again, the man who showed us around the facility was young, spoke English and was truly devoted to helping these released prisoners.

A short story to end today's posting. The other day Kate ( the lady from Manitaba ) was looking for walnuts in a grocery store. She couldn't find them and stopped one of the young men stocking Kate asked " do you have walnuts?". Well, she might just as well have asked the cow out in the back 40 if it would like to dance. However, Kate is not one to give up easily. After much discussion and much gesturing the young man scurried away and returned with a candy bar that had a picture of a --------------------- walnut!!!!. Kate did several heel clicks, clapped her hands and vigorously nodded her head up and down. The young man rushed away and returned with 1 (ONE ) walnut between his thumb and index finger. Kate was ecstatic-- YES, YES, that's it. The young man said      " no have ".  Kate, frothing at the mouth, says " where did you get that one"? He took her over to the fancy cakes. He had taken one off a cake. Only in Cambodia.  Talk to you in a week or so.