HAPPY PCHUM BAN EVERYONE!

Hello everyone!

This past weekend was one of the biggest holidays in Cambodia called Pchum Ban. Similar to the Obon festival in Japan, it celebrates the spirits of your ancestors. According to this holiday, the spirits of your deceased friends and relatives come back to their home town pagodas to visit their families. So this is a time where people from all over Cambodia travel to visit their hometowns to pay respect to their ancestors and have a huge celebration. Typically people go to their pagodas at around 4am (you go when it is dark because the spirits are scared of the light and probably have no clothes on) then you pray and throw rice balls in the air as an offering to the spirits. My host family didn't go until about 6am, but when we did we walked around, bought balloons for the children, ate shaved ice, gave offerings of food and money to the monks, and chit-chatted with the neighbors, teachers, students and pretty much anyone else in town.

In the afternoon we just sat around with the family and hung out- eating tons of fruits and snacks and playing games. Since everyone seems to be related in some way in my village, people were walking around the neighborhood saying hello and sharing food and playing with babies.

Later in the evening we had a ceremony at my house. They filled one of the rooms with a shine decorated with incense, snacks and surrounded by a feast of about 10 plates. I struck up a conversation with an 80 something year old man that told me that he has been a soldier of Buddism since 1956 and hasn't had any teeth since 1975 (that was literally our entire conversation) Then, the whole family(about 25 people) piled into the small room with the shine and feast while the man with no teeth led us in a prayer. There was plenty of commotion in the room with babies crying and people adjusting and great-great grandparents unable to hear or wanting to tell everyone in the room the right way to do this and that....finally we had everyone quieted down and a peaceful rain had started to fall the man with no teeth started the prayer. the second that the group seemed to be ready for this special religious moment ...my host grandma (or the lady who probably isn't related to me, but told me to call her grandma) barged into the room and said "YOUR BLANKET IS ALL WET AGAIN! "(in khmer of course) since i had left my laundry out to dry that afternoon. this resulted in everyone getting up in arms and chatting and arguing over where the best place was for my blanket. it was pretty funny! finally we were able to quiet everyone down and have a proper ceremony for the spirits which ended with a giant dinner.

In a few days I will be leaving my training site and heading off to Phnom Pehn for our swearing in ceremony when we officially transition from the title of "peace corps trainees" to "peace corps volunteers." although i am ready to be done with training...i will be very sad to leave my host training family! They are already trying to get me to promise them I will spend Khmer New Year with them..but I think it's a little early to make promises. =)

How is everyone back home? I was super stoked to learn that the HUSKIES BEAT USC!!!! GO DAWGS!