Soo-us-die Ch'nam Tuh-my!!!

And that, my friends, is Khmer for "Happy New Year"!!!! (a loose direct translation of it is "hello year new.") So--welcome to 2009! Hope you were all able to celebrate as last year wrapped up and we head into this one. I have had good intentions of blogging some more about Christmas, but here it is already past New Year's and that hasn't happened, so...we'll see if I can get to it in January. But--might as well spread a little New Year's cheer while I'm still on top of that.

New Year's Eve is not a huge holiday in Cambodia--it gets usurped by the celebration of Chinese New Year and Khmer New Year later in the spring. In fact, New Year's Eve I spent at yet another Cambodian Christmas celebration (think sitting in a chair for a few hours listening to people sing and then eating some kind of fishy Cambodian food) with the extended family of the family that I live with. We also had a big rain storm, unusual for this time of year (the dry season). New Year's Day--a holiday from work, so I spent a lazy day catching up on some reading and heping to clean up the flooded first floor of our house, compliments of the rain storm (Happy New Year!).

So--I've been in Cambodia a month and half and have made it through the celebration of my third major American holiday. In the coming months we can start on some of the Cambodian ones! May you see God's goodness and care in the coming year!