Rasmey invited us to her niece's wedding. This being the first wedding that we had been to in Cambodia, we were not really sure what we were in for, but we were in for it regardless!
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| Rasmey dressed for the occasion |
First of all, the preparations: Bible class was cancelled so that all the girls would have time to put on their make-up, together with fake eyelashes, fake fingernails, fake hair, and anything else deemed necessary to be make oneself sufficiently beautiful to attend a wedding.
We decided that we would go out on moto as it seemed the easiest way to get to Rasmey's house, out past the Phnom Penh airport. We left with Vitou and Danny but some how we lost them when a big truck pulled out in front of us, so after successfully navigating our way we arrived at the wedding long before anyone else we knew. Mercifully, the wedding marquee was located in the front yard of their house, rather than sprawling across the street as is the normal practice---the street in this case being a major national highway. Rasmey soon spied us, welcomed us with big smiles, and invited us to enter the marquee, where we were greeted by the wedding party, who all had broad smiles permanently engraved on their faces from a day or two's wedding festivities. We were guided to a table with 10 chairs, that were being steadily filled with whoever turned up (no pre-assigned seating here). We eventually deduced that newcomers are directed to the first available table, then when all ten seats are occupied, the food begins to be served. When all the courses have been served and consumed, and sufficient liquid imbibed, the table-load of guests leave, and the table is cleared, ready to be replenished with more guests---very much a rolling meal! We counted enough tables for a little over 200 guests---how many times they were filled we could only guess at, as the wedding had begun sometime the previous day.
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| Him and Theavy |
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| Vitou and Dany |
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| Sokhorn and Davy |
Not knowing anyone there, and not really being able to strike a conversation due to the *extreme* loudness of the music (everything from the table and chairs to my shoes being visibly vibrated by the sound waves being constantly thrust at them), we sat around for a few minutes feeling a touch awkward. So eventually Rasmey, evidently breaking the normal protocol, excused us from our table of awkwardness, and led us back outside to await the arrival of others we knew. When they turned up, we entered the wedding marquee a second time, much to the amusement of the groomsmen. Our crowd filled two tables exactly, so the food began arriving immediately, and the courses came and went in quick succession.
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| Ratana and Milea |
I should explain at this point, that as a remedy for the recent flooding, Rasmey's family had had many many truckloads of sandy soil deposited in their front yard (where the wedding was held) to provide some dry ground above the reach of the floodwater. Unfortunately, the soil hadn't had long to compact down and harden. The result: the folding chairs we were seated on became lower and lower during the course of the meal, their somewhat spindly steel legs gradually sinking into the soft sand under our rapidly increasing body mass. By the time we'd finished the 6 or 8 courses that had to be dealt to, and now feeling like we were reclining on beach chairs, we decided it would be a good time to make our retreat. So we exited the marquee, where we had our photos taken with the long-suffering bride and groom (still stationed on duty at the entrance while all the guests chow down the food and enjoyed the entertainment).
While David got the moto, I said goodbye to the first tuktuk load returning to the dorm... then there was a few spits of rain... that rapidly turned into a downpour, such that we were drowned even before getting our rain coats on. We managed to get underway, and took off back to BEC in the blinding rain. Not even five minutes down the road, the rain had disappeared and we noticed that it hadn't even rained there. So we pulled over, took off our rain jackets that were now only serving to hold the dampness in, and David emptied his shoes, from which water came out like a waterfall. Five minutes away from the BEC it started spitting... then raining... and yes we got wet for a second time as there was no way we could put our raincoats back on!
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