Today was a beautiful day jam packed with hope, music, joy, and growth. We started our day off with a brief orientation in which we discussed culture, health and safety, history, geography, and language. Next up in our day was our visit to the royal palace. Our favorite sight at the palace was the Silver Pagoda. Named for its silver floors, the Silver Pagoda features multiple ornate sculptures and art pieces including a life size statue composed of 90 Kilograms of pure gold. The palace had a strict closing time of 11:00 am, and so after we, in a timely manor, vacated the palace, we took a stroll to a nearby shopping street. Soon after, we sat down for a traditional Cambodian lunch at the Connecting Hands Cafe. This cafe is a NGO that works to “change lives for vulnerable young women in Cambodia.” We certainty enjoyed some “great food for a great cause.” After lunch, we piled aboard, our locomotive, a bubble gum pink bus to which we have assigned the quirky nomer Zara, and headed to Cambodian Living Arts. We spent our afternoon learning the ways of traditional Cambodian musicians. We all had the opportunity to try traditional instruments and receive instruction from some of the uber talented performers at CLA. Later that evening, we enjoyed a delightful dinner at Friends, a restaurant devoted to teaching Cambodian youth the skills needed for them to lift themselves from life on the streets in favor of stable jobs. Once our stomachs were full and our hearts happy, we went back to CLA to see a culminating performance that featured the very artists who had previously been teaching us their ways. Today’s luminous collection of events underscored Cambodia’s ability to overcome a time in their history so targeted to prime Cambodian culture for erasure. Our experiences today proved power of community, education, and art in the collective healing process of a nation.
Note from Cynthia: Picture/videos take too long to upload to this blog, so am sharing a link to a Google folder for your viewing pleasure. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-_7TgZb-9R4d6GqD0Wkve80cW8TdGKAr
