Engagement Party and Lanny leaves

Lanny Partain taught in the school for month. During that month, his sweet wife, living in Houston, had to leave twice for hurricanes. She might not let him leave again. Anyway, it was great getting to meet Lanny and have him with us.
While Lanny was here, one of our students, Sokphea got engaged to Srayneeang. Here, there is an engagement party where the people invited carry food on decorated plates in pairs and walk in a procession to the brides house. There is food while the ceremony goes on upstairs. In the engagement ceremony, the future groom and bride and both sets of parents meet. The groom discussed with the bride's parents what he will give for her. (Of course, this is a formality usually as this has really already been settled) Sokphea and Srayneeang had 2 changes of clothes, both traditional dress. Also, the bride, as you can tell from the pictures, gets quite decorated up. Due to the heat, etc. the Khmers don't typically wear any makeup, but they do for parties and big events. And they typically wear false eyelashes.
When I asked when the wedding date was, I was told by
Sokphea, the future groom, that the parents hadn't worked that out yet - it could be a month or a year. Can you see that happening in the US? A couple days ago I was told that they would get married Feb. 14th.
All during the engagement party, etc. there is no affection shown. I did see a picture of him kissing her hand after he gave her the engagement ring, but that is it. Since Sokphea is one of our students, we see him quite a bit and we had no idea that they were serious at all. Since they don't date, we didn't even know that they liked each other! Different world!
The last picture is one I took at Lanny's going away party. Rich is sitting on the steps singing
with a couple of the kids. Picture isn't great, but it was really sweet to watch. Lemang, the boy, loves to sing and sings with all his heart.
Well, that catches you up a bit. One of the 2 biggest holidays is next week, so all the students will be gone for the week. I always miss when they aren't here. Talk to you later. Much love, Ronda

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