The wedding of Heang Samath, a deaf graphics artist at CDPO who illustrates all the sign language books, and Bou Chida, a hearing woman, was the first wedding in the deaf community since I arrived two years ago. About fifteen members of the deaf community traveled to Chida's village, about 25 kilometers outside of Phnom Penh, for the reception in the afternoon. We got lost on the way and ended up going to three other weddings we spotted from the highway before we found the right one. This is a popular time for weddings now because it is the dry season and also because we just began the Year of the Horse, an auspicious year in which to have children.
This is the entranceway to the wedding reception. The actual wedding ceremony took place about 6:30 AM at the bride's house with only the family and a few friends present. But starting at 2:00 PM, the whole village and other family and friends are invited to a meal served outdoors under tents. Here the wedding party, minus the bride who is changing her dress, stand ready to greet the new arrivals.
This is our group from the Cambodian Disabled People's Organization. When we arrived, we were seated at the last two empty tables (of maybe twenty) but already the people who had arrived first were finishing and leaving and those tables being reset for people who would continue to come until perhaps 11:00 PM in the evening.
Now the bride, Chida, is back at her welcoming station after changing her address. Notice this dress is maroon while in the photo above at right she is dressed in gold. She changed dresses every thirty minutes, a normal part of the Khmer wedding culture. The two attendants hold a traditional Khmer plate of artificial flowers which are given to each guest.
Guests are expected to bring a gift of money to the reception, which can be quite expensive, especially for a poor couple. Here guests leave money with cashiers from the two families who duly note each person's gift. The system works well, and the new couple will be repaying others throughout the years as they make offerings at future weddings. And those gifts will be remembered when it is time for others to come to the weddings of Chida's and Samath's children.
Chida is a hearing woman who does not know sign language and I worry about this marriage where the couple have no common language. This picture was taken from the highway and shows the reception back under the trees in front of Chida's family home. In the foreground is a reservoir which stores water in the dry season for family use and irrigation.
Neighborhood children throw rocks at the village dogs while the elders eat under the tents. Weddings are very important parts of traditional Khmer life. Many of the marriages are arranged, as was this one. Samath only found out three weeks ago that his family had arranged his marriage to someone he had never met.
Preparing food for 500 to 1000 people is a major task but one easily handled by these experienced cooks and their crew of setup people and dish washers. The surroundings would not pass a hygiene inspection in the United States, but are right in line with traditional ways here in Cambodia where most of the guests would cook outside at their own homes, on little charcoal burners.
One unique element of this wedding reception was the pig that kept nosing around the tables, looking for his share of the celebration. He didn't seem obtrusive; just a rather surprising element when you'd suddenly hear a snort and grunt down beside you.