Wednesday, April 13, 2011

people from Cambodia

Thank you for checking out the Cambodian New Year pictures. Since we are celebrating and all, I thought I'd pull out a couple of pictures from my past trips to Cambodia for you to see. Really this is just an excuse for me to look at them. I do miss the sights, sounds, smells, and people.. especially the people from Cambodia. It's driving me a little mad, but then I won't get into all that.

I know what you are thinking, "Oh no the poor cat!" 
This little thing was such a trooper.
He is the quintessential little boy with bugs in his pockets 
and a mischievious grin. 
 
They call her grandmother even though she's only in her fifties. 
She works at a coffee shop and always has a big pair of galoshes on.
 
Met him on Silk Island where they make many of the famous Khmer scarves. 
Some people just have naturalstyle.
 
This is a very sad one. She is the mother of at least six children. 
They live at the city's landfill. This was her newborn. 
I told her the baby was beautiful. She told me I should take it.
 
This little imp is trouble, but in a good way. 
Before she was living on the streets, so she's tough. Not an ounce of fear.
 
This is just for fun. You may or may not recognize the one in yellow. ha! 
They worked for hours to do make-up and hair. The only extentions they had were black - so they had to make my brown hair look like highlights. By the end all of the women thought I was half-Cambodian. Amazing what a little make-up can do.

It was like an alternate dimension. Looking in the mirror, I was horrified. I thought two things: who is this crazy person, and I will be ridiculed when I go downstairs to this party. I was so wrong. Our ideas of beauty are so different. It's really fascinating. Everywhere I went at the wedding people stopped me and told me how beautiful I looked. And not just, "You look pretty." They gawked, "Oh My Gosh, You are SO Beautiful. So Beautiful. I can't believe it." They would just stand there and hold my hand. It was the trippiest, funniest thing ever.  

3 comments:

Jennifer Chong said...

look at you! you need to be holding a purse...

kimbirdy said...

wow, these photos and your stories are amazing - beautiful in both joyous and heartbreaking ways. that's how i felt about the people i met in thailand as well, but i love it over there. i hope i get to explore cambodia and malaysia and well, everywhere in southeast asia, someday soon.

Kaylia Payne said...

These photos and stories are so amazing and sad. I love reading these posts.
When we were there we went to our guides village for the day. Most didn't have houses and many were sick, but they were the bravest, happiest, most inspiring people I have ever met.