A couple weeks after Ly's wedding, Solomon Church invited me to join them for a day trip to the beach. That seems to be typical in Khmer churches and sometimes families - you get up early, drive 3 hours in a rented van or bus, enjoy several hours at the beach, and turn around to head home around dark. It's much cheaper that way: the whole day cost us $10 a person, including lunch.
One purpose in going was to baptize several new Christians, though to my surprise they didn't involve the whole church in the process. While the pastor met with those interested in being baptized...
everyone else was preparing and eating lunch. Some of the women got up at 3 to prepare an amazingly tasty lunch for us. Here they are dishing it into Styrofoam containers that I helped break in half. I’m not sure why, but paper/Styrofoam plates don’t seem to have caught on here, whereas you can find the takeout-style boxes at any market.
The pastor’s super-cute son with his super-cute mom. Note their beach apparel. I was one of the few women who "forgot" to wear a scarf. What was I thinking?
Members of the church-sponsored soccer team chow down. They were all recruited from the Logos catch-up school for neighborhood children that meets every weekday evening.
So fresh and delicious: fried chicken, rice, pickled vegetables, fresh tomato and cucumber
After eating, I decided to go wade in the water, only to realize that the baptism crew was already out there and had just finished! At my church, we always gather around to watch, cheer, and pray for people being baptized, but here only a few adults had gone with them while everyone else ate and socialized.
I'd been afraid I wouldn't know anyone well except Chenda, but many Logos people came, since Chenda invited all the catch-up school teachers. Sara teaches PE during the day, English in the evening, and helps coach the church soccer team. She's pretty amazing. This was *our* beach/swimming apparel: no scarves, but no scandalous swimsuits either.
My friend Sereyroth also teaches English - in my classroom - for the catch-up school. She's an excellent baker and has been a TA for many years but will be helping Chenda coordinate the catch-up school at our campus next year.
The river (which we went to after the beach) was so beautiful…but the rocks underwater were hard to spot and very slippery.
I’d never seen this snack before: bananas and coconut milk, wrapped in banana leaves and roasted over a fire. I enjoyed it.
So much banana leaf, so little that's edible in each piece.
Chenda treats the pastor's son like her own son. It's pretty fun to watch them together.
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