From Nelson Family's blog:
This evening we had the most amazing Cambodian New Year celebration at the school — Chol Chnam Thmay. As we are so close to Cambodian many in the community are ethnically Khmer. The Catalyst community spent the entire day cooking for us and prepared an abundant feast.
It was such a wonderful sense of community as our team and the Catalyst kids gathered together to share some amazing dishes. Grace and I were most fond of the duck curry which had simmered for six hours (and I think the ducks had been wandering the courtyard not long before). Watching the joy of the kids enjoying these special dishes was such a delight.
After dinner there was a ceremony to honor the winners of the Little Red Fairy art contest, for which the 5 top artists received scholarship money, followed by performances by each of the Catalyst teams and then some performances by the Catalyst community. It was a wonderful party, so great to spend some relaxing time with the Catalyst kids. They are so full of joy, smiles and hugs, which made it so very hard to say goodbye.
*Caroline's notes:
This was the second year in a row that we celebrated Khmer Tet. The community loves to say thanks with food and song - and it was fabulous! We had some special VIP's from nearby provinces and the Political Officer & Deputy Consul General of the U.S. Consulate office in HCMC even came to see all the fun! It truly was one big happy family - even though the U.S. team left a little early - the Kien Giang families stayed all night - eating the food, dancing and singing Khmer songs! Each one of our teams also sang some fun songs...we'll post the lyrics soon! Tomorrow morning we all go our separate ways - most of us are going via long bus ride back to Saigon.
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