House Dedication and Blessing
This morning we were treated to a very
unexpected surprise, since our departure the previous day, our host family had
moved their furniture into the house and laid out floor mats in preparation for
the house dedication and blessing. There were a dozen or so women from the
local village all sitting around preparing a feast of meats, noodles, rice,
fruits and three different types of soup. This food was for the villagers who
would be dropping in through out the day to help the host family celebrate
their house warming. On a separate table an equivalent amount of food was being
prepared for us (Australians), this food was all washed in bottled water and
prepared so that we would not become ill as a result of eating it.
At 9.30 a group of five monks arrived to bless the home, we were
allowed to participate in the ceremony which involved 40 minutes of praying and
chanting in front of the alter and led by the monks. We all feel extremely
privileged to have been allowed to partake in this ceremony. Toward the end of
the ceremony the monks are offered bags of fruit, money and food as a thank you
for the blessing. Carolyn, Sophie, Ali, Chrissy and Phoebe were given the
priviledge of presenting the gifts to the monks and received a blessing on
belhalf of the team in return.
Following the blessing, we had the house
dedication, which involved the home owner, the village chief, community chief,
skilled labourers, Habitat co-ordinators and the build team (us). This involved
representatives from each of the groups, making a speech, this was followed by
the cutting of the red ribbon, which signifies that the house is now officially
handed over to the owners.
The dedication ceremony was followed by a
feast, where we all sat on the floor and enjoyed true Khmer cooking with the
other parties, the photos will give a much better description than I ever
could. The food was cleared away to make room for the 7 foot speakers and the
DJ and traditional (both Khmer and Australian) dancing followed for the next
few hours, it is funny how the Macerana can bond two cultures, without any
knowledge of the language. Late last night we heard that the house warming
party was still in full swing.
The Afternoon
At 1.30 we bid our final goodbyes to the
family and others and went off to visit the local school, we sang for the grade
2 class and they sang for us as well, they were very well behaved. The school
principal gave us a brief history of the school and allowed us to play with the
large group of children who had gathered outside to see what we had brought
with us in the big bag. Jenny and Rita played down ball with one group whilst
Chrissy, Ali and Sophie threw the basketballs around. Brett got them started on
a game of tunnel ball, which was a real hit with the kids.
If we hadn’t had enough already, we had an
appointment at the Childrens hospital to donate blood at 2.30, When we arrived
we were ushered into an area where we were tested to see if our blood was going
to be ok to donate, as it turned out, both Phoebe, Honey and myself were
eliminated from the process, so Carolyn, Brett, Jen and Rita all lined up for
the donation. The shortage of blood product in Cambodia, meant that somewhere in
the hospital there were children waiting for the blood and it was to be used immediately.
A tour of the hospital followed and we were presented with the cold hard fact
that one in twelve Cambodian children will die before the age of five, due to HIV, malnutrition and a
range of hygiene related diseases. Some others become ill, but are unable to
make it to the hospital as they cannot afford the cost to get there from remote
or outlying villages. The hospital tour, gave us a stark insight to the plight
of the medical system and the sheer cultural differences between here and westernised
cultures.
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