Day trips to the countryside: #1 - Ly's wedding

I took two recent day trips to Kampot province, which is two or three hours from Phnom Penh, along the coast.  The first was for the wedding of Mr. Ly, our highly talented IT guy who's been at Logos even longer than I have.  The second was for a beach trip with my Cambodian church.  I always enjoy chances to get a break from Phnom Penh and see a different part of the country, and it was fun to do so with friends.

Lots of our Cambodian staff and a decent number of the foreign staff traveled out together one recent Saturday to Ly's wedding at his wife's parents' house.  It was reeeally remote: one Khmer guy teased Ly that he wouldn't have proposed to her if he'd known her home village was so far into the boonies.  In fact, we had to walk for about 10 minutes when we arrived, because the path between the rice fields was too narrow for a car.  We also arrived so late that we missed the ceremony.  In Buddhist weddings not everyone is even invited to the ceremony, and the reception is what you need to come for, but since Ly and his wife are Christian they wanted us there but couldn't wait the hour and a half till we finally arrived.  :)

 I'd never been to a wedding that was literally in a rice paddy, and apparently neither had many of them.  It was pretty neat!

It still had the traditional tent next to the house...

but the great thing is that not everyone fit at the tables in the tent, and Ly sent his guests to sit at the outdoor tables, away from the speakers.  If you think Phnom Penh residents love their amps at parties, wait till you hear the speakers in the countryside!  They had rented a huge generator for basically that sole purpose.  The woman in green is one of the Logos cleaners; the one in light blue is my good friend Sorphorn, a teaching assistant.

Neakru Chantorn is an original staff member of Logos.  She's like the textbook definition of resilience - she lost her husband and all but one child during the Khmer Rouge, but she's so sweet and joyful.

The bride and groom

A neighbor lady continues her journey past the festivities.

A tiny puppy nibbles my friend Lisa's feet.

Belonging, Part 1: Multi-Genre Project

Every spring since arriving in Cambodia, I've assigned a Multi-Genre writing project to my grade 9 students.  They pick a topic - from fairy tales to food to faith - and express a theme about it using a variety of genres: collage, short stories, poems, persuasive essays, interviews, and so on.  At the end, each student compiles his or her work into a small book.  

I always enjoy reading their thoughts on a topic they're passionate about.  Last year I even featured a student's poem from this project in a blog post.

This year, as we were discussing possible topics, one of my students asked me, "What would you write yours about, Ms. Cooper?"  I had to admit I had no idea.  And that's when I realized: This is the year that I'm writing my own Multi-Genre project.  I know it's so good for them when I write alongside them, and I enjoy writing, but I never felt before that I could take the time to complete this whole project.  But since I might not teach English 9 next year (a new teacher is likely taking it over), this could be my last chance.  

I'm not even one step ahead of them, just trying to keep up with the due dates I'm assigning them.  I have a rough idea of where I'm going, but I'm curious to see how my project will unfold...and hoping not to let perfectionism take over.  I'd really like to let them see how I too have to wrestle with each part.  Even picking a topic took me days of reflecting, though I knew right away when I'd found the right one.  

An authentic audience is always a good motivator, so in addition to sharing my writing with my students, I'm going to be posting each piece on here.  The topic that unites them all is Belonging.