I'm in Cambodia!
We arrived like 2 or 3 days ago. On the first day, or maybe it was the second day...I don't remember, I went with Ngou Bet, my dad, Hian Hok, Hian Hong, and Soi Dion to get a haircut, which consisted of a trim, a shampoo massage, a rinse of my whole head -_-..., a shave, aftershave massage x4, and then they put some cool tar (it looked like tar) on my face. The lady then cleaned my ears, which was painful at some parts, but euphoric at others, lol, and then peeled the tar skin off my face.
Yesterday and the day before was part of A Ma's funeral ceremony. It was the third year ritual. I sat through a bunch of rites being read, which they called "niam geng" and you sit with both your legs pointing to one side and your knees pointing forward, like kneeling, but flattened and skewed to the left or right. At first, it wasn't bad, and everyone was having a little laugh at the fact that I was doing it (I obviously didn't know what I was doing, and was actually just following the crowd). Je Ling said tht it was a more polite way to honor the dead, so I did it, although people told me I could just cross my legs, like my dad and a bunch of other older people were doing. It was pretty excrutiating how long the niam geng lasted...
Last night, we went to someone's "Chuk Hue Heung", which I think means "exit the flower garden", and is kind of a local equivalent of the quincea~nera or sweet sixteen. It's for fifteen year olds and both boys and girls have it. This one was for one of Dua Bet's grandchildren.
I hope to start a photo family tree for my family soon, but I first have to get their names right. This time in Cambodia, I still have a lot of Je's and Hian's, but I'm also Gu, Jek, or Bet to a lot of kids, since a bunch of my cousins are parents. I think last time I came, Je Mue wasn't yet married with a baby, and I don't think I had met Hian Neung, who's Je Ling's husband. She's nine months now and could go into labor at any second. In fact, she's now 2 or 3 days overdue, lol. Surprise! I hope I'm not in Vietnam when it happens, since my dad wants to take me, cuz I want to be around.