2022 Traditional Khmer Photoshoot

As has become tradition, two weekends ago we joined the ‘GSL’ team for a photoshoot in traditional Khmer clothing. GSL stands for Global Service Learning; it’s the department that our YAMEN and SALT exchange program fits under. There are a number of shops in Phnom Penh where you can inexpensively rent traditional Khmer outfits and have your…

5 Khmer Words that get a bit lost in translation

As auto-translation and speech recognition technology advances rapidly, one might start to wonder if there’s any reason to learn another language any more? Why not just pull out our smartphone, speak into it, and then tap ‘play’ on the translated text? There’s some risk of mistranslation but we read that that auto-translation has incorporated machine…

2021 Traditional Khmer Photoshoot

It’s becoming a tradition for us to join the ‘GSL’ team for a photoshoot in traditional Khmer clothing. GSL stands for Global Service Learning; it’s the department that our YAMEN and SALT exchange program fits under. Simeon Ndagijimana (YAMEN participant from Rwanda), Clivia Avila (Connecting Peoples Coordinator from Honduras), and Andrew Neufeld (SALT participant from…

Visal Wedding – Traditional Dance

Visal’s wedding had many morning ceremonies. Charlotte’s favorite was, no surprise, the traditional dance. This style of dancing is named Apsara and dates back to the 7th century. It is a slow, intentional dance with a lot of focus on stretching and turning at certain angles. Each movement is deliberate and has a meaning, but…

Visal Wedding – Rice Porridge

Guests to the morning ceremonies at a Cambodian wedding are often fed a hearty breakfast of rice porridge. This traditional breakfast food is inexpensive and simple to make, just cook rice longer than normal in four times as much liquid as normal. Rice & Pork and Kuy Teav are more common breakfasts for sale, while…

Visal Wedding – Introduction

Our newest work colleague, Pou Sokvisal, got married on Saturday. He has been with MCC since early October as our new Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Coordinator. Instead of writing one long post about his wedding I’m going to break it up into a series of smaller posts each focused on an aspect of the ceremonies….

Monitoring and Evaluation of Cooperation with NGOs

Last week I attended my first government function since returning to Cambodia. This was a Ministry of Rural Development workshop on Monitoring and Evaluation of Cooperation with NGOs. Both of my primary partners from my first term were government entities – the Prey Veng Provincial Office of Irrigation and the Angkearhdei Primary School. I also…

Catherine saying a few words in Khmer

Hello everyone. Catherine is going to say a few words in Khmer for you. Please look forward to our next post in this series, Charlotte counts to 10 in Khmer.

អក្ខរក្រមខ្មែរ

On Friday I’m going to do a short presentation about Cambodia at Charlotte’s preschool and I’ve been brushing up on my Khmer alphabet facts. Did you know that the Khmer language has the largest alphabet* in the world? 74 letters! That’s according to the Guinness Book of World Records. *Japanese and Chinese are pictographs rather…

National Scarf of Cambodia

I’ve had a few people ask me about the scarf that I’ve been wearing lately… It’s a Krama! Pronounced Krah-mah. The Krama is the national scarf of Cambodia and the second most prominent symbol of the Khmer people. (The most prominent being the temple complex of Angkor Wat.) The krama is a highly durable and…