Rich and Ronda Dolan

I thought you might enjoy seeing what we see out on the streets. This picture is of a couple carts.  The closest one has all kinds of drinks - iced coffee, iced teas, milo, etc.  and all kinds of flavors.  This isn't the coffee cart that I usually use.  My iced coffee is excellent and cost me 50 cents a cup.  Can't beat that!   The people behind are having an afternoon snack off the cart.  They cook from the cart, and sometime have a small table with a few chairs that you can sit and eat. This is one of the many chicken carts.  These are really good.  There is charcoal in the bottom of the carts.  These come out and park on the side of the street in the evening time and set up in front of other shops that close for the night.  The chicken is rotisseried (is that a word?).  And the chicken comes complete with head and feet.  This isn't a great picture, but these are other carts with pork as well as noodles. ...

This week, Rich and I have been enjoying a week off from school.  It is the Pchum Ben Holiday here in Cambodia. Pchum Ben is a Buddhist holiday.  And, although, we don't take many of the Buddhists holidays (we do take the national holidays), we do take this one.  It would somewhat compare to our Christmastime.  It is a holiday where most people go back to their home villages to meet with their families. It is technically a 3 day holiday, but stretches to a week for travel time.  For the Buddhist, there are certain things that you do each day during this holiday. The first day is preparing a lot of food.  This is for your ancestors to eat first.  A candle is lit when all the food is out on the table.  When the candle goes out, this signifies that the ancestors are finished eating, and they have taken the nutrients out of the food.  After this, the family might eat the food, or they might give it to the area temple for the monks to eat, ...