What to do when mum is not feeling well, then the boys
go out and play. But we had a kind of a disastrous run this morning on
Sunday. 5 min from home poor old Rickedy Dickedy broke. Fixed it in no time. 10
min later, a flat tire. Show the boys how to change an inner tube. They had to
man-up and kept the bike in the air. Shame they suffered but that’s all in the “How
to ride bikes for dummies.” 10min later the back wheel seized up completely and
that was the end of my ride. Once again the manual came out and the boys had to
ride home on their own and got mum with the truck for a rescue. Done and done,
mum asked:” why did you not phone me?” Hmmmm I forgot I had a cellphone with
me. ?? The boys did great this morning, proud of them. Now I feel like a real bike
mechanic to fix 2 bikes while my neighbor, who is a real mechanic, fix 2 as
well. Our last trip into the jungle proofed to be fatal for my already
overworked bike. I am learning a lot about how to fix these machines.
You will most properly say:”” O these missionaries
only complain in their letters.”” Well, Toinette is still not 100% and struggles
now with other problems. After Chikungunya one can expect to not have such a
good immune system and she is very susceptible to any illness that comes her
way. I am home to check on her. Gideon is taking very good care of his mum
while doing school as Twans go and lie on his bed while he is doing his school
work. He is so sweet. Anton is very busy with his online school. Some schools
opened already but slowly they will do it.
Pchum Ben is a unique Cambodian Buddhist festival that
is held for two straight weeks from the first till the fifteenth of the Khmer the month of Potrbotr. Pchum Ben is a public holiday in Cambodia
that follows the period called “Vassa,” a kind of “Buddhist Lent,” and has been
kept with great devotion by the Khmer people for longer than anyone can
remember.
In essence, Pchum Ben is a time to remember, venerate,
and present food offerings to one’s deceased relatives. Ancestors are honored
going back as far as seven generations, and offerings are also brought for
those without living descendants or in place of those who could not attend the
ceremonies. Celebrants rise early in the morning to cook rice balls and other
food items, which they bring to the monks at temples and pagodas. The monks
chant suttas (Buddhist scriptures) all night without sleeping, then conduct the
colorful and complex food offering ceremonies. Some Khmer give the food to the
priests, while others leave it at pagodas for their deceased relatives to eat
or cast it into a field for them to find. The first fourteen days see many
offerings made, but it is the final, fifteenth day, that is the grand
culmination of the whole period.
Pchum Ben is also the time when the “gates of hell”
are supposed to open and let out those imprisoned there to travel to the land
of the living to receive food from their relatives. Some are let out only
temporarily, while others are thought to gain permanent relief. Offerers believe
they receive merits by helping the dead and blessings from them but curses if
they fail in their familial duty.
Cambodians all over the country will travel to their
home provinces for Pchum Ben, and there are services in many towns and
villages. Most ceremonies involve processions around temples and crowds that
wait outside with lit incense in hand as the monks perform rituals inside.
There are also symbolic events where five mounds of sand or rice are formed and
decorated in an effort to point to Mount Meru, where various Buddhist gods are
thought to reside. https://publicholidays.asia/cambodia/pchum-ben/
We thank you all for praying once again for us all. We
are praying over the world as things are not what it’s supposed to be. We pray
that things will come to “” normal”” again.
Love
Rossouw-clan
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