"Dogs are forever in the push up postion"

So tonight I go downstairs at my normal time for a shower and I see my host sister, who is in from Phnom Penh with her little boy and husband, is all dressed up. I politely comment that she is looking beautiful and I am not (I’m wearing a sarong and it is not sparkly). My host mom then rushes out and asks if I want to go to a wedding. I say yes, but first I make sure I can shower before I go. I quickly shower then my host mom follows me up the stairs to make sure I put on my fancy sampot and to help me into my wedding shirt (its tricky, trust me). I then awkwardly stand around downstairs trying to understand the male relatives and waiting for my host mom to finish getting ready, I guess I didn’t need to hurry like I did.

We all then pile in the car and head off to the wedding. Once we arrive, I just follow my host mom as she introduces me to all the people we pass. I try to politely greet everyone but my 2 year old host nephew has a tight grip on my hand, so I just smile and nod. My group is lead to a table far in the back, we are a little late, but this gives everyone at the wedding a good chance to stare at the foreigner in Khmer clothes at the event.

As usual the food is wonderful and there is unlimited supply of ice and drinks. I stick to soda since getting cold soda with ice is such a treat here. The men at my table however choose beer and one older gentleman gets quite sloppy. He begins to man handle all the other men around him. While this is going my host mom proceeds to empty the content of her purse into a plastic bag, put that plastic bag in my purse, fill her purse with about 7 cans of soda and beer as well as the party favor pens and tooth picks. She also gets a whole new plate of this cabbage, shrimp, peanut salad dish (sounds odd but is fantastic) puts that in a plastic bag and gives it to my host father to hold and take home.

We are home after about 2 hours of eating and stashing food. Just another fun Tuesday night in Kampuchea!