Pchum Ben Festival

It's been 5 weeks since my last entry! I didn't expect to neglect my blog so quickly. I'll try to recap what's been going on without turning this into a novel.

When it comes to holidays, the people of Cambodia don't mess around. Last week ended the 2-week Pchum Ben holiday and the country shut down Wednesday through Saturday to observe it. Pchum Ben is a festival to honor the dead, so people go to the Buddhist Wats to pray and offer food and goods to the monks and spirits, and visit family members. After being in the city working for a few weeks, I was eager to take advantage of the holiday and head out to Wat Opot to visit my Khmer family members, all 72 of them :)

It was a beautiful week for a holiday... until it downpoured for 3 days straight.

When I arrived on Wednesday, big things had already been happening. The Wat next door was busy with visitors, decorations, and lucky for us, a new sound system. Part of the tradition includes monks chanting ALL. DAY (and night). LONG. At first it was "o that's nice" but it quickly turned into me plotting ways to destroy the provinces electricity so that my ears would stop bleeding. I realize it's not appropriate to say these things, after all they are monks, but when you've heard the same old man screech at nonhuman pitches for 4 solid days through a scratchy but very loud speaker set, you start to think in a different way. So the festival had its one downside, but other than that minor setback, it was a beautiful time. Since it's based on families honoring and setting themselves right with the deceased, the children had a lot of visitors.

Thy (pronounced Tee), is an 11-year old HIV positive boy who has no family, or so he thought. One day during the festival, his father, stepmother, and grandmother showed up at Wat Opot to bring him money and noodles and pay their respects to Thy to honor his mother. Neither Thy nor anyone else at Wat Opot knew that he had any family. I'm still not sure of the details, but it's my understanding that he was tossed between orphanages at such an early age after his mother died that he probably forgot his family. He will stay at Wat Opot, but now he knows that he has family! I'm not sure how he was doing processing it, or if it had really even hit him yet. I also don't think that his family has any intentions of taking him in, as they were most likely just trying to clear the slate with his mother's spirit, but who knows what the future holds for them. Thy's big week continued when he and three other boys got to go on holiday on the coast for a few days with Caroline, a French nurse working in Cambodia who is very involved with the Wat Opot community.

Virak, who I pictured and wrote about in my first Wat Opot entry- the 4 year old HIV positive boy whose grandmother held him for the first two years of his life after his mother died of AIDS- also had a lot of excitement. He had been having a bad day and was throwing temper tantrum after temper tantrum caused by not having a nap and me making him clean up his toy cars (I'm so mean!!). Side note: turns out the whole time I was comforting him and trying to get him to calm down, he was swearing some very colorful words at me that he had learned from the older boys. I've studied up on my Khmer foul language and that mistake won't happen again. Once we found out what he was saying, we all couldn't help but laugh. It's not everyday that little kids get consoled and hugged for calling you, well, nevermind that. Anyway, so there little Virak was, throwing his fit, when his grandmother and older brother pulled up on a moto. He wasn't sure what to think of it at first and was very reserved. His grandmother collected his clothes and medication to take him home for a few days and loaded him up on the moto between herself and his older brother, behind the driver and his child (in Cambodia this 5 person on a moto with 3 of them being small children scenario is nowhere out of the ordinary). It wasn't until they just started to move that I watch a huge smile slowly start to spread on his face. I think he needed to be moving away to know that, yes they love me and they're taking me home for a visit. It was so precious to see and I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a little teary eyed.

Virak pre-temper tantrum

So many other kids had similar experiences, family members that they knew of and didn't know of coming to visit for the holiday. It's sad to see the children that have one or both parents who don't want them home, like Little Nak. Nak is 8 years old, and like his parents has HIV. His mom and dad own a small shop in a nearby village, and the community only knows that he is positive and not his parents. Nobody would come into their shop because he was there, so his parents needed to essentially get rid of him in order to make an income. I guess it's not as easy to pick up and move to a new town or village in Cambodia as it would be if this was taking place in the States, but still. I can't imagine Nak being my child and not wanting to keep him, but I guess were not supposed to understand other cultures, just respect the decisions that people have to make to survive. It's not our place to judge them for their decision, only to be thankful that we don't have to face those kinds of choices.

Little Nak

They all have different backgrounds and stories, but each one ends the same, at Wat Opot. They might have parents, grandparents, brothers, and sisters, but Wat Opot is their home. Little Srey Nith, the 3 year old who I also mentioned in my original Wat Opot blog post, had a visit from her grandmother who took her home as well. She came back so confident and different, like I know that I have some family, but Wat Opot is where I belong. I am so happy that I could be there to share the holiday with the kids (and Wayne and Melinda!).

Srey Nith with a fly on her face and a napping Ty Ming in the background.

Srey Lec, one of the oldest girls at Wat Opot, got a visit from her Grandmother.

The kids had another reason to celebrate, thanks to Billy Bigelow, who mailed me a huge package full of toys and activities! The box was a HUGE success and the kids absolutely loved their new toys. In order to avoid destruction and loss of the items, Melinda and I have put them in a special place on our big screened-in porch. We bring the kids in a few at a time to get some individual attention and play. It works well until a group gathers outside pleading to come in and join. They're starting to understand that they have to take turns playing with the toys and when you're in there, it's your special time. THANK YOU BILLY :) My mom and the Falk family just sent over another big box of toys that I'll add to the collection soon! THANK YOU MOM, LANIE, AND LORIE :)

Ms. Conthea with her baby doll. Conthea is the child with the bad fungal infections I had discussed earlier. Her head is healing up so well and she's even starting to grow hair back. She is so beautiful :)

Wey playing cars with our new puppy, Alfie.

Somnang anxiously waiting for his magic Spiderman towel to open up.

Worth the wait!

Chai and Nak racing cars.

Baby Rotana (18 months) and her sister Cha Ney (8 years) became the two newest members of the Wat Opot family when their mother recently passed away. She spent over an hour putting crayons in and out of the box. She is a very happy and content little girl.

This week wasn't just eventful for the kids, it was also a turning point for me. After doing a lot of thinking about what I want to do with my life, I have decided to pursue international public health. Before I go after this further, I want to have a year abroad under my belt. Since I've already put in 3 months and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Wat Opot, I've decided to come back in the early spring to Wat Opot for an undetermined amount of time. I will be coming home to the US for nursing boards in November, but then I'm coming back to Cambodia. This time, however, I'll have a specific purpose. I am planning a community outreach project that I will implement individually but with the Partners in Compassion organization which Wat Opot is a project of. I have absolutely no money, so I'm selling a bunch of jewelry, electronics, etc. (in case anyone's interested in Tiffany silver or my iMac!) when I get home to support myself. I have never in my life been happier than when I'm at Wat Opot, and I have my whole life to go back to the US and work, so for now I'm just going to ride out my crazy dreams and see what happens. I guess you can't make a living off being a volunteer so I'll have to grow up eventually, but not just yet.

Thanks for checking in and I'll try not to be so tardy on my next posting! Have a lovely week :)