Gung Hay Fat Choi!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! It has been a bit of a slow week since everyone is celebrating... even people who are in no way Chinese... I asked one of my students why she celebrates Chinese New Year if she is not Chinese and she said her parents went to an astrologer, who told them her father might be a little Chinese. Therefore, if they do not appropriately pay homage to the ancestors they won't have any money. First of all, this girl does not look Chinese AT ALL. She is extremely Khmer. Second, her family doesn't have any money anyway. 

I think this is one of the big differences between American and Khmer culture. Americans are very "pull yourself up by your bootstraps," believing if you want to succeed you just have to work hard. Cambodians are much more fatalistic. Even students who know really value hard work can't escape the idea that your destiny determines your life's outcome, and you have to pay homage to the ancestors or you will be poor forever. I've wondered over this difference a lot, and I think part of is that there are so many fewer opportunities to change one's situation here its easier to blame it on fate than society, or any fault of your own. But this is just one idea. I have no idea if its the right one. 

I often have a hard time understanding aspects of Cambodian culture, or why Cambodians do things the way they do because my mindset is so wildly different from that of most Cambodians. I guess that's part of the value of this experience: recognizing and experiencing the differences in societies and ideas around the world. Sometimes when I get frustrated, and I know I'm not alone here, I will chalk it up to Cambodians just not thinking, or being uneducated, but the truth is more complicated than that. 

My landlord invited me to celebrate Chinese New Year with her (also, not even a little Chinese) so we had Cambodian noodles and curry for lunch yesterday. It was delicious, of course. Everyone else was pounding the whiskey or ABC stout beer, but I explained I had to teach later in the afternoon, and thought it would be wrong to show up to work drunk. That didn't stop the people who work at Acleda bank from throwing a few back before getting on their motos and heading back to work... nor did it stop the doctor who lives next door from having a few beers before he went back to work. I really hope I can make it the next 5 1/2 months (!) without needing urgent medical care in town, especially on a holiday.

All in all, it has been a boring week, just sitting around waiting to go to work. I've been trying to prepare for a bunch of things I have going on next week, but since everyone I need is in their "homeland" (aka their hometown, but for some reason they all say homeland) and not at school I haven't been able to get anything done. Hopefully things will go smoothly next week, and I'll have exciting things to write about.

Happy Chinese New Year!!!