We found ourselves side by side with the mud oozing between our toes as we harvested a small corner of a rice field nearby to our Siem Reap home. On the land where we stood, we could recall the seasons shared with the landowners. On this land we have celebrated a family wedding, a number of Khmer festivals and mourned at a funeral. We seek to see life through the eyes of our neighbours as we experience together seasons of planting, growing and harvesting; seasons of change, hope, challenges and love.

After three months of the rice growing, we were invited to participate as a team in the experience of rice harvesting, threshing and preparation of flattened rice. One of the parts of a Khmer end of wet season festival (Bon Om Touk) that normally involves boat racing, releasing prayer floats and even the full moon remembrance of a story of a pre-incarnation of Buddha that concludes with an apparent image of a rabbit on the moon!

As language nurturers and participants, we all are learning about Khmer culture and gaining new skills together. A few of our language nurturers had never done these activities before; having fewer connection to their cultural traditions like rice farming through transitions to city living. A significant lesson is that many hands make light work.

The important rice crop in Cambodia provides lessons for life. Harvest of rice is something that is changing with modern machinery in parts of Cambodia, but is still harvested by hand in many areas and involves anyone in the family who can use a custom-made curve bladed knife. It is a season of joy and abundance. A healthy thriving rice crop is a good illustration of what we see ourselves partnering in through our engagement in intercultural work. We aspire to see Khmer people thriving with increasing levels of wholeness, completeness and wellbeing in their community and homes.

As we share together with you and you encourage and partner with us, we hope you can sense the feeling of mud oozing between your toes too!

We are convinced that any intercultural engagement is limited without prayer. In this video, intercultural workers from across the globe share about the extraordinary difference prayer makes as they serve among the communities that they love. They have an invitation for you. You can watch the video here: https://vimeo.com/467666744.

Here’s a yarn or two with this new “missioning” podcast episode with Deb Thyda sharing stories from her life among her Khmer neighbours. Listen to be encouraged that God is at work… in Cambodia and in your local community. Just click the link here and then click on Episode 7. http://www.globalinteraction.org.au/Missioning

The space that the vegetable garden occupies is undergoing an expansion at the request of the new school principal, who also wants the school to become more attractive than just a space of concrete, bricks and grass. To support her cause, she has brought flower bulbs and seeds from her home to create an attractive border around the fruit and vegetable space beside the school front gate.

At this time ‘what are you growing?’ does not have a straightforward answer. The wet season in Cambodia is soon coming to an end, but typically September and October are the wettest months.

The school garden for some of this year has resembled a tangled rainforest jungle when the wet season arrived during the school COVID-19 closure. With the help of a community of school children returning and team mate Luke, the garden has been transformed, but with the exception of vegetables. A few hardy lemongrass plants and a pineapple survived, but not enough dry days has allowed sowing seeds in the often-saturated raised beds.

‘What are you growing?’ is a fascinating conversation starter. Children and the rest of the school community offer their suggested favourite vegetables and the discussion generates a sense of mystery around what we might soon see growing.

What is growing in the muddy school soil isn’t really the purpose of a school garden anyway (even if some fresh long beans and corn may be more nutritious than the high sugar snacks and drinks that are sold outside the school). Much more important is the relationships that are formed throughout the surrounding village. Since returning to Cambodia we have seen more of the effects of alcoholism, family breakdown and financial hardship present. Seeing the fruit of wholeness, wellbeing and peace is at the heart of what motivates us to be ‘gardening’ here in this part of the province of Siem Reap, Cambodia.

“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone” is the line of a popular 1970’s song, ‘Big Yellow Taxi’. This season of COVID-19 has visited many with a realisation of this human condition of failing to value what we have taken for granted.

As we write this update we read about protest and arrests of people in parts of Australia that have gathered illegally to protest about restrictions of movement. Freedom to gather with friends and family when desired is something many people in the world take for granted. The freedom to gather hasn’t always been a reality for Khmer people in past decades, but as a communal society it is an important part of life for our Khmer friends.

Pchum Ben is the Khmer festival that has begun to be celebrated here in Cambodia that literally means to gather together and eat rice. It is also an opportunity for Khmer families to honour their parents and ancestors before them.

To date in Cambodia there have been no deaths linked to the COVID-19 virus and no community transmission. There have certainly been some precautions put in place to reduce the risk of COVID-19 being spread. Schools have stayed closed since March and tourist visas are not being issued to foreigners.

Just this month there are signs that restrictions are easing. Some schools have started to physically open with restricted class sizes and temperature checks of every person arriving. With many public schools like the local public school where Rob volunteers, it is hard to see how class size restrictions and hygiene requirements will be met. 50 to 60 students in the past would pack into small classrooms, with insufficient teaching staff numbers and infrequent running water or soap.

Last month the government symbolically gave a holiday to government works and some businesses that compensated for the Khmer New Year holiday being cancelled in April. The current Pchum Ben festival is the other occasion in the year when Khmer families travel from wherever they now live, to return to their place of birth and family to celebrate and gather together.

While there are still formally restrictions in place about certain types of gathering and restrictions at certain public events to hand sanitise and wear a face mask, very few restrictions are expected for families gathering and attending the temple together this festive season.

We don’t remember seeing any ‘big yellow taxi’ in Cambodia. There are less Tuk Tuks, on the streets of Siem Reap since the COVID-19 pandemic and livelihoods connected to tourists have been hit hard here in Cambodia, but gathering together this month will not be something Khmer people take for granted, it will be celebrated. Gathering is one characteristic of a communal culture that Western culture could learn from. We count it a privilege to be gathered here during this season.

Requests:
For schools to meet COVID-19 requirements to reopen for both International schools (where our team families children attend) as well as the standard Khmer public schools where meeting challenges of hygiene and physical distancing in classrooms will be difficult to meet.
For wisdom for Khmer families as they move through this season of change and challenges.
For the Cambodian Global Interaction team strategy development while two team families remain back in Australia.