Church and First Trip to the Village

Yesterday being Sunday we had church at the house. Many of the Christian English students want to practice their fledgling English skills outside of class. The Khmai church in town has grown significantly over the past two years. It is a fully Cambodian church now, and most of the Americans have decided to let the congregation continue to be Khmai and to hold services elsewhere for English-speakers. On Sunday and Wednesday nights, a group gathers at the Partners in Progress house where services are held in English and Khmer. Though we do sing many English songs with Khmer translations, every week they practice new Khmai songs, too. One of the Christians is a local surgeon who has taken on the role of song leader and tries to teach everyone the new songs. Turns out, Khmer is not a particularly musical language, at least not to western ears! But, they do sing with enthusiasm. I have some delightful video of the teaching session, but can’t post it right now. Ask to see it when I get back.

Today we had our first trip out to the village to revisit the nutrition program. We started at TNT (Tum Nup Thom), which we’ve seen change dramatically over the past five years. They were talking about starting an orphanage and had just adopted their first orphan when I was here last. Now the orphanage is finished and houses about 20 kids. The orphanage is run by KimSom and Sokal and is supported by the church in TNT. A privately run, community based orphanage is unheard of in Cambodia. Under the direction of the Khmer Rouge, society was disassembled. Families were fractured. Trust was destroyed. Orphans abounded. Everyone was struggling to survive and to care for himself, and then maybe his family. No one had the time, resources, or emotional strength to care for a non-relative. After the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese left, no one knew he was supposed to care for anyone except himself. A whole generation has grown up without knowing how to be part of a community. The Christians in TNT recognized the need for an orphanage for their community several years ago. PIP helped them start it up, but it is really the dedication of the church there that has turned the dream into food, clothing, and shelter for these 20 kids.

We did do some remeasuring of kids today. There were a ton of them waiting for the nutrition truck when we showed up. Unfortunately, shortly after we arrived, so did the truck. All the kids lined up to eat, and then someone told them to go home, which they did. As a result, we were only able to measure 30 kids today, most of them the ones living at the orphanage and most of them too old to really be able to collect data. Pisey, our translator, did learn the joys of trying to figure out how old these kids really are. They’re all born one year old, and all have a birthday in April, during Khmai New Year. So, it’s entirely possible for a baby born in December to be two the next May, when we’re examining her. They do use a 12-year circular calendar here, much like the Chinese. If a child knows which animal year he is (I’m goat year, Jon’s pig year), it’s possible to count back and get to their true age, within 6 months or so. It’s not ideal, but it’s the best we’re going to get in a culture largely independent of clocks or calendars. It’ll be an interesting three weeks.