Wednesday 24^th December

               It really hard to believe it is Christmas Eve!! I did not have any classes today, I have now finished teaching and will probably not do any more after Christmas as I am going to be away some of the time, so better to finish now. On a more reflective moment I was challenged to think about Christmas and what it means to me without all the trimmings, without the music and carols that I love and without a traditional meal with my brother, it made me wonder what I actually believe about it. In the end I decided that the Lord was born in Bethlehem and shared our humanity, whatever the weather or the way we celebrate, and His birth changes everything.





I wondered round to the Church in the late morning to encourage those doing flowers and have a chat with them, while there I met a few visitors coming to check the time of Mass for Christmas, more or less as I would at home.

I stayed for lunch at the Church and then came home and had a rest. I packed my parcels, such as they are, and then got ready to go to Mass.

The church was very full, there were six priests at the altar, Fr Panus, Fr Jupp and Fr Simon, who are all regulars, but also Fr Frederick from the Philippines and Fr Michael from Korea. During Mass the children did a mime of the story, from Annunciation and visitation to Elizabeth through to arrival of Wise Men, it was lovely and they all do their parts with such dignity and poise.






Angel Gabriel appears to Mary and asks her to be the mother of the child Jesus.

Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth

The shepherds with their sheep, they came on and did a very lively dance to much laughter.

The heavenly choir sing to the shepherds.

The shepherds were great and their sheep.

The wise men before King Herod with their story about the birth of a  new king of Israel.








The final hymn was Jingle bells accompanied by 8 children in red santa outfits dancing, it was hilarious and very enjoyable. The children all want to see snow, but they think it will be warm, they do not realise that it is cold!

The Jingle Bells were very good value.

After Mass we went to the Triangle for dinner with Pharoth and had a wonder round Pub Street.

Christmas Day

               Mass this morning was at 8.00 am, so quite a lie in! the same mime was done again and the Jingle Bells, but in addition this morning we had 5 of the children doing the traditional Khmer blessing dance, throwing petals as the blessing, very dignified and moving.




















Traditional Khmer dancers at the end of Mass.

There were also 5 members of one family baptised at the Mass, two of whom also made their First Communion. In all it took just under two hours!! After Mass I popped round to the Golden Orange to give a small gift the girls of my English class and to invite them to join all my students for fried rice on Friday evening, they were delighted, I got the impression, through Ratana, that they had never been invited out for a meal before.

     



I went with Fr Panus to Prek Toal, floating church for Mass. It is a long way, 2 hours, mostly on the boat, so it was relaxing. We were joined by a lovely couple from Belgium who are friends of Bernadette, they have lived in a Christian community of 7 families for the last 30 years and have a very simple lifestyle, they were fascinating.


This is the crib at Prek Toal.







Mass was rather chaotic, too many children chatting and not taking any notice, just there for rice soup. Anyway the children there did the same story and danced, it all took much too long really for the 200 or so children.

The angel brings the message to Mary.









They could not find a boy for Joseph, so he is the girl with the red scarf, it was charming and again such poise and dignity.









Then we served rice soup, but there was not enough, so some went away hungry, Fr Panus also gave out gifts, tee shirts and pants, books and pens, it was a bit of a scrum and some fairly serious fighting broke out briefly.



The Church there is now in need of serious repair and is tilting somewhat, they will repair it at the end of the dry season sometime in March and put plastic drums under it to replace the rotting bamboo poles, it is a big job, about $15,000, but it has to be done.








Children and adults received some new shirts.









We got back around 5.30, it was a long day. I came home and had a shower and a G and T and then Ratana and I went out for dinner.





Ratana with her first ever Christmas presents, it is not part of their culture, so this was new. Many thanks to those who sent her small gifts from England and cards as well, very much appreciated.











She had chosen a very nice French restaurant, Barrri’s, the food was lovely, pate de champagne, confit de canard and a crème broulee, with a carafe of South African red. It was lovely. She is very good company and we had a lovely meal, we each had a starter, but shared the canard and broulee.

Friday 26^th December

I missed my lie in today as I went with Fr Panus to Ta Om, it is the last time I can get there, we left at 8.00 am. Mass was much as at Siem Reap, short mime, dancing at the end and traditional dance too, it was very nice. 

Children waiting for Mass near the crib at Ta Om.

Angel Gabriel appears to Mary.

Traditional dancing at the end of Mass at Ta Om, some of the girls had gone with us from Siem Reap.













Some little ones also did some dancing, it was lovely.










I was not feeling too good so I went to lie down while the others had lunch, a touch of food poisoning from something, I was violently sick and feverish and not at all good. Anyway, I made it home safely and went to bed, but I had to say Mass in the evening as the others went on to a meeting and are not here. After a rest, a couple of paracetemol and immodium I felt well enough to go to Mass, and I was OK, I came home and had some bread and an early night. We had cancelled the party with the English students and postponed it to tomorrow.

Saturday 27^th December

I had arranged morning Mass today as it is the patronal feast of the Church, St John, the Evangelist, I was feeling much better and went off to Mass and had a light breakfast. I had a quiet day, wrote a homily for evening Mass and took it gently, ate a little and kept the fluids up. After evening Mass I was well enough to go out with all my students and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening with them.

My English students

They even gave me some gifts which was very naughty of them, but a lovely thought

It was a lovely evening, it has been a privilege to teach them, they are so keen to learn and so dedicated at getting to the classes, I have also really enjoyed the company of such lovely young people. 

I wish you all a very happy new year and many blessings for 2015, I shall be in Pub Street for the new year moment and enjoying whatever goes on there, a little like Trafalgar Square, I think. I return to the UK on 13th January and move to my new home on 20th and begin work in the parish on Sunday 25th, I hope to see you soon, let me know when you are in Yarmouth and come to visit.