Svay Rieng Thanksgiving

This past weekend all of us Svay Riengers (Kristin, Kellee, Jeremy, Dillon, Alan, Andrea and myself) celebrated Thanksgiving together. Yes, we are a few weeks early, but our schedules didn't align to have it during actual Thanksgiving and we thought it was more important to have everyone together. Besides, this was the most non-traditional Thanksgiving we could have possibly had, so it's only fitting that we didn't celebrate at the traditional time.

My host siblings

We decided to have it at my house, since my kitchen is pretty spacious and we have more than enough space to accommodate everyone. Little did we know we would be invading the kitchen for practically the whole day, but my family is amazing and was more than willing to watch us sweat it out in the kitchen making our weird foreign food. We decided to make Mexican food, since all of the ingredients are readily available at the market and it's pretty easy to throw together (little did we know...). Friday morning, Kristin and I went to Bavet to visit the hyper-market, the Vietnamese version of Sam's club. I honestly don't know why I don't venture out there more often- it's so close and they have everything I could possibly want. Crossing the border is a little tricky without a Vietnamese visa, but that's where our language skills come in to play. Kristin and I befriended the border guards and told them we needed to go to the market to buy a few ingredients to make our special food for an American holiday. They were SHOCKED that we could speak Kmai and had us sit down for a good 10 minutes before they waved us on through. After getting over the sheer vastness of the store, we settled on our items for our upcoming feast and a few treats for ourselves. We even found Starbuck's ready-made frappacino's, which we obviously couldn't pass up!

Kristin and Starbuck's!

Upon crossing back over the border, our new friends called us over and introduced us to some other guards. We were talking for a while and they told us they were very interested in learning English (as every other Kmai person tells me); perhaps I could come teach them? They kept us asking us questions like "Say get on the bus or get in the bus?" We answered a few of their questions when one of the guards asks us if we've arranged transportation back yet. We tell him no and he tells us to follow him, which we do right after we give all the guards our numbers (I'm just waiting to get the traditional series of stalker calls that begins after I give out my number here). Bora, the guard who asked us to follow him, starts talking to a tour bus driver (the main highway transporting tourists from Ho Chi Minh to PP runs through my town) and tells him that we are volunteers in Cambodia and we speak Kmai. He says that because we are helping his country, they need to give back to us. So the driver agrees to drop us off in Svay Rieng for FREE! Bora tells us to call him anytime we go to Bavet again and need help arranging complimentary rides to and from. Oh the perks of being a Peace Corps volunteer.

Our American breakfast

So yesterday was a day of cooking, eating, cooking, eating, and more cooking. I have a newfound respect for my host mother who cooks for a family of 6 (7 including me) and does it with such effortlessness, always serving up a delicious meal. First we made a delicious breakfast, which consisted of banana pancakes and maple syrup, fruit, veggie omelettes, fresh bread, juice and coffee. Kristin manned the pancakes, while I prepared the huge omelette. My host mother stood by and watched us make everything and was quite perplexed by all of this mystery food. After devouring our very American breakfast, we started prepping for lunch. Kristin and I volunteered to make the tortillas, which we had no idea would take as long as they did. If there's one thing Cambodia teaches you, it's how to improvise and be creative. My job was to flatten the tortillas out, but we were lacking rolling pins. So my family had the brilliant idea of using Angkor beer bottles, which worked perfectly! We underestimated how long it would take to make 50+ tortillas and we ended up spending hours making them. My family even joined in to help; talk about a cross-cultural experience. American PCVs teaching Cambodians how to make Mexican food in Cambodia. Meanwhile, salsa was being prepared, as was seasoned ground beef (thanks to Alan's fine chopping skills), black beans, and a fajita stir fry. I gave my host family some cheddar cheese to try, which they thought was absolutely disgusting! It was the same expression I had on my face when I first tried the Cambodian cheese, prahok, which is basically fermented fish paste. I can see why Kmai-Americans have a very difficult time adjusting to the food when they immigrate to the states.

Kristin and I making tortillas

I invited some of the VSA volunteers (from New Zealand, or 'kiwis' as they are commonly referred to) in my town to join in the delicious feast. I especially loved watching my host family eat the food. I asked my mom what she liked the most and she said the black beans. Of course. The most basic thing that is already occasionally part of their diet. After cleaning up, Alan and Kristin teamed up to make pecan pies and brownies. Alan used a recipe all the way from his native Georgia, and Kristin, being the baking pro that she is, whipped up some brownies basically from scratch. How did we bake these, one might ask? My neighbors down the road have the one oven in Svay Rieng (I am pretty sure it's the only one), which they use to supply the market with fresh, delicious bread. Kellee went over in the morning and asked them if we could use their oven to bake some stuff in the afternoon and they happily agreed. Despite the fact that the oven is probably not the most sanitary of ovens, it did the trick and we were able to have delicious pecan pies (with crusts made from scratch) and chocolate brownies! We shared them with my host family and the kids that were at the house where the oven was, and everyone seemed to love them! Note to self- sweets are a universal delicacy. I've never had a meal that was (a) so hard to prepare and (b) so enjoyable.

My neighbor's oven

Our pecan pie and brownies

As it's around Thanksgiving, here are a few things that I am thankful for:

*My health
*My amazing 2 families- My incredibly kind and loving host family in Cambodia, to which I largely accredit my happiness/sanity in this constant journey and my real family back home, who have been incredibly supportive and inquistive about all the things I see, learn and feel.
*My wonderful friends, both in and out of Peace Corps.
*Coming from a country where I am not only taught to critically think, but have the leisure to ponder more abstract ideas.
*The Economist
*My Svay Rieng PCV's (fam). We are lucky we have such a good vibe.
*My french press.
*Speaking English as a first language.
*Obama as our president.
*Being sent to Cambodia for Peace Corps. I couldn't have picked a more amazing place to serve.

Svay Rieng volunteers

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home! The next time I celebrate it, I'll be back home with family and friends!