Meeting my sister-in-law’s mother

Because it takes took long to keep saying my sister-in-law’s mother, I am just going to say my mother-in-law. As I mentioned before, my sister-in-law is from Cambodia. She and her sister have been in the US for about 5 years, and she and my brother have been married for 4 years. I can’t believe they have been married for that long! Her mother still lives in Cambodia. Those are her only two daughters, and she hasn’t seen them since they left. Monica and Jamie (my sister-in-law and brother) want to come over, but haven’t been able to yet. When they do, they are going to have the fancy Cambodian wedding ceremony. I hope I am able to come then to see it!!! Anyway, fate is strange, and I ended up coming to Cambodia before they did.

I have had her mother’s contact information since I got here, but I haven’t had time to actually get in touch with her until now. She doesn’t speak any English, and my Khmer is pretty much limited to saying my name and asking people how they are, so one of the girls (Dany, my roommate) called for me on Friday and we arranged to go visit her on Sunday evening after the lecture. When we got there, she was so excited! I am sure she was mostly excited because I am the closest she has come to seeing her daughters in 5 years (I cannot even imagine what that would be like), and she cried a little bit. She and Monica look so much alike! They are both so tiny and have such similarly shaped faces. I also met one of Monica’s aunts (her mom’s sister who lives with her) and an uncle (and his wife and some of their kids). Not long after we got there, the electricity went out though! Still, she showed me some pictures that her daughters have sent. They have been really good about mailing pictures to their mom, and she really enjoys them. She also showed me some pictures of Monica growing up, which were a lot of fun to see (and pretty hilarious!!).

Me with Monica's mom (her name is Chanravy):



Here is a picture of all of the family that was there.



Before I left, she gave me a wood carving of the faces at Bayon temple in Siem Reap that one of her brothers who lives in Battambang made. It is so nice! She also sent us away with a huge bag of fruit! It was so nice of her to give all of that to me, but I felt bad because I didn’t have anything for her. I tried to buy some fruit on the way there, but it was late on the Sunday and everything was closed.

Sreyhak preparing all the fruit.



Look at all of this fruit! The girls opened up one of each kind of that it would look pretty for the picture.



Let the eating begin...



The devastation that was wrought on all that innocent fruit :) This picture was taken about 15 minutes after we started! Isn't it amazing how the fruit leaves as much trash as there was fruit to start with??



I am going back on Saturday because she wants to make some food (something was said of a party but I hope it is just more of small gathering with food!). I will head over in the morning and watch her cook – learn a few things. Monica said that her mom is a really good cook, so I need to learn from her. Hopefully Dany will come with me again because otherwise we will have no idea how to communicate! I also have gone through the pictures on my computer and pulled at ones that have Monica on them and some others that I think she will find interesting that I don’t think she has. I am going to get them printed and will take them to her. I think she will like that, and I will be able to bring something, which will make me feel better, too. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures and let you know how it goes!