Happy Khmer New Year!

At Wat Phnom, those who didn’t go to the countryside to visit their families congregated for a festival. Kids ran around, throwing baby powder and water on one another (and on any stranger they could reach), while twentysomethings stood in a circle playing flirty games that involved pairing with strangers and switching partners. Everyone wore their new New Year’s clothes, and teens circled the wat, eating numba’chuk and drinking sugar cane juice, hair shellacked into Elvis bouffants or crimped into long waves. There was live music, steamed corn, and a lot of socializing – the party of the year!

The PEPY interns scattered for the new year, heading to Singapore, Thailand, the countryside, the coast, or – as in Daniela and Maryann’s case – the office, where they spent time hammering out more PEPY program plans and enjoying the traffic-free city. But we’re all back safe and sound and refreshed, ready to PEPY-fy the new year!

So sok sapbai ch’num t’mai to you all, and have a happy, healthy Year of the Rat!