GRIFFITH GLEANINGS SEPTEMBER 2017

As each month passes we continue to gain more insights into Khmer culture. One of the ways we do this is to go on outings with our language nurturers. Our language nurturers are more than teachers. In some ways they feel like members of our family. Although we are old enough to be parents of a couple of them, it sometimes feels more like we are the young children and they are the parents; helping us with phrases, fostering understanding of stories and caring about minimising some of the ‘accidents’ we may have. We have gone on a couple of whole day events together where we have gone out of Siem Reap to places of cultural significance, or where we can just interact with them to learn more about their culture. A highlight of our recent day trip was sharing breakfast at a country home with the family of one of Rob’s nurturers. As his father had recently had an accident with a cow that broke his hip, we took some fruit and drinks as gifts and used our limited Khmer to talk with the family and learn about what life is like for them. Rob learned about how to throw a fishing net and work on his Khmer names of plants, while Deb had an encounter with one family member who expressed a desire to share her next life together! It is truly a privilege to be growing participators in the Khmer culture here.
This month we have also enjoyed learning more about where Khmer people live, how they get around and explored why they are more likely to get on a motorcycle to go even a short distance rather than walk.