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Weddings in Stung Treng 2011 and some good news!

Phnom Penh, Cambodia



On the 29th was the Royal Wedding in the UK and although I don't have a telly, I heard all about it from the other volunteers because it was in the media non stop for weeks.
The Phnom Penh VSO volunteers sent an e-mail around to invite to a Royal Wedding party and it said they even invited the British Ambassador (which was a joke I found out later).
Us in Stung Treng then thought, we also should have a Royal Wedding party as it is such a big event! So Linda prepared her House, Anthony prepared a special Royal Wedding Pup Quiz and I provided the prize. Everyone brought snacks and beer and then we dressed all up for the special occasion and hung in front of the telly, admiring the brides dress and getting an English atmosphere here in Stung Treng.
I heard that all the other provinces also did Royal Wedding parties.

The other good news is, that I had a successful Skype-interview with Oxford Brookes University and they accepted me for doing the short midwifery course starting in September. I was overwhelmed with joy! I am going to become a midwife!!!

At the same weekend, Abi asked me to come to Kratie to help her to take pictures of the 'Kratie Dolphin Boys' as she was allocated to be the official Dolphin-Boy calendar 2012 photographer. Of course I didn't say no! What an opportunity! It was fantastic!
First of all I love to stay with Abi as she is a great friend of me and it's always like holiday being with her. Then she has Rock Lobster, who was born in my room in Stung Treng!

All the photos we took I can't show now and they will be released in the next years calender which will be available at the end of this year. But I can show some impressions from the great afternoon we had at Kampi with the very fit and hot Kratie Dolphin Boys.


And finally, on the 7th of May was the day, my Cambodian family had waited for a long long time for. It was the wedding day of my oldest Cambodian sister Peach.

It was an arranged wedding and the deal was made shortly after her birth. She was going to marry Andy, a man her same age (21), who grew up in America after his parents managed to flew from Cambodia before the Pol Pot invasion in 1975.
He can hardly speak any Cambodian and everything was very strange for him here. His family felt pity with my family but somehow on the actual wedding day everybody was very happy.

Everything started very early of course, that is the annoying thing about Cambodian weddings. At 4 am the monks start chanting through loudspeakers so that the whole town can hear it. The happy couple then gives promises back and forth over the microphone that everyone can hear it. Then everyone gets ready for the first ceremony outside.
Both families walking towards each other and they exchange flower necklaces.
They were wearing traditional costumes for each procedure. All day was into the clothes, out of them, in, out, in, out... Fascinating.
Then the first official photo shoot and the present exchanging with the parents.

Until we finally had BorBor (Rice soup) at around 9am.

Then we witnessed the haircutting ceremony where hair got cut off symbolically and then given to the good spirits.

Then came the procedure where the bride washes the feet of her husband.

Then something like a knife dance was performed.

And then the morning was finished and everyone had a rest. In the afternoon, we were all busy to get ready for the fun part of the wedding, the party in the evening!

And finally at around 7pm, my friends arrived and we all sat around one table and ate and drank and talked and danced as well.

After the food, the happy couple went to the fruit table to do one last ceremony - feeding each other and the parents fruit, before the party exploded!

Ich hoffe es geht Euch allen gut! Viele Kuesse und Umarmungen von Eurer Katja!



permalink written by  katja-horsch on May 7, 2011 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Weddings in Stung Treng 2011
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