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Happy New Year! We have found ourselves back in Australia to experience our first Christmas and New Year back on ‘home’ soil after being in Cambodia for the previous four Christmas and New Years. Living in a country that places far more importance on a lunar calendar rather than the Gregorian one has helped us see these events in different light. Christmas is not celebrated in Cambodia and passes as just an ordinary day. The passing of one calendar year to the next is similar in that not much attention is given to it, especially in the mostly non-urban parts of Cambodia. The Gregorian Calendar makes more sense in parts of the world with distinctly cold and hot seasons. Geographies that are hot all the time like Cambodia have remained more connected to cycles of the moon and wet seasons, will leave their new year celebrations until the right moon cycle in April.
The New Year celebrations and Christmas are literally big business in Australia. Australians empty their wallets and expand their credit card debts while bottle shops and department stores make their largest sales volumes for the year. It all feels a bit strange behaviour to us after our long absence. We found many other strange things returning to Australia such as driving on the opposite side of the road and other drivers speed and techniques that suggest they don’t anticipate anyone else is on the road! We also wondered where all the people were in Tasmania at first until we realised that they were sheltering inside their houses or cars from the cold weather. Khmer people in contrast to Australians drive defensively to survive and tend to live life outside their homes more than they are in them.
We returned to Australia via Tasmania in November. We loved coming together as a family to share in our son Jeremy and new daughter-in-law Alana’s wedding. Sharing in the preparation for the day and packing up together with the expanded family was a gift. Deb’s purple dress was worn to honour the Khmer sewer and was not out of place. We have been based in our eldest daughter’s South Australian country home for much of December and the beginning of January, before we start our first interstate trip and participate in some Global Interaction training in Melbourne over the next month.
We would love to catch up and share some time together with you whilst we are in Australia. We are traveling across four states over the next five months, so please be in touch if you want to see us and we can share locations, venues, events and churches where you might catch us near you. Our calendar is looking quite full, but there are lots of opportunities to meet including the following events for South Australians.
We will also need to increase our support level before our mid-year departure due to a fall in the Aussie dollar value and some increased expenses. If you would like to contribute either a pledge of a regular (monthly/quarterly/yearly) amount or a once off donation please be in touch, or click on the ‘Support Rob & Deb Griffith‘ link or box below.
https://www.globalinteraction.org.au/who-we-are/people-groups/khmer/rob-and-deb
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