A tale of two weddings

I was on my way to catch lunch at the market yesterday (30p for the tastiest noodles ever) when I came across this wedding Marquee - in the middle of a 5 road junction. The custom is to put up the tent for the wedding outside your house... even if it is in the middle of the road.

There was another wedding going on yesterday, right across from my house, complete with uber-large PA system. Cambodian music is not for the faint of heart, and they like it loud. I was woken this morning (party still happening!) to the sound of someone chanting through the PA... or perhaps it was an invading army of daleks... to be honest, I don't think I could tell the difference.

Susan continues to get worse in Bangkok. Please pray some more. Also, Sun Hour, one of the Khmer admin staff at school told us that his young kid fell out of his cradle and bumped his head and keeps vomitting. I'm sure that's not a good thing so remember him too.

Update: I've been told that it's not a wedding opposite us, but a funeral. I feel kinda bad for mocking them now. On the down side, Cambodian funerals can last from 4 days to a week...

Following the food theme... "Waiter, there's an octopus in my soup..."

Yah, so I ordered pork and noodle soup for lunch today and this little fellow was hiding in it! Maybe octopus are a garnish over here like parsley would be in the UK...? Anyway, down the hatch it went.

This was washed down with some sugar cane juice, freshly squeezed from a stall across the street. I'd often wondered what the ladies selling ground up plants were up to, but it tastes really good. Probably contains the same calorific value as a small rhinoceros though, and I'm sure I heard my dentist going apoplectic somewhere in Partick. Ho hum.

The school switches timetable tomorrow, so effectively I start working full time. Looking forward to it, but I think it's going to be busy. Also, Khmer lesson no.2 tomorrow afternoon! Allegedy, my teacher shouts at you if you don't remember all you 'learned' last time - I'd better go and do some revision!

Oh, one of the school staff, a scottish lady called Susan, has been airlifted to Bangkok with Dengue. Prayer for her and her family would be good.

Mom, there's rain on my sausage...

Last night all the staff and their families came to my house for a bbq! It was awesome... someone had made real sausages which were tasty as a very tasty thing. It was a quality eveningm even when the heaven's opened and it rained enough to make Noah quiver in his grave.

The whole street (dirt track) outside the house was flooded so I headed out to see what the locals were up to. Most of the families are trying to stop their houses flooding, but the kids were having a great time playing with polystyrene boats. As usual, everyone was only too happy to have their photo's taken! All the school kids were busy in my back yard (get off my lawn!!!) turning it into a swimming pool / mud bath. Very tempted to join in but my sense of professional responsibility got in the way...

In contrast to these happy times, the plight of some of the beggars here is really hard to deal with. It's difficult when people with horrific conditions are asking for your help and your heart cries out to give and give and give, but your head says that the chances are there's a kingpin type guy hanging out in the background waiting to collect the money. Really difficult. I'd appreciate prayer for wisdom in this. At the moment I'm going for the giving food option and at least if I hang around for a bit I can see who's eating.

Must dash... I'm off to see a Bob Dylan tribute band. Surreal!

The times they are a changing...