Pioneer Day

One morning as we headed out of our guesthouse, the front desk handed us a note from the LDS boy who works next door. He invited us to attend the pioneer day celebration at his branch. Pioneer day in Cambodia is more like pioneer week celebration. Each of the branches in Phnom Penh has their celebration on a different day, so the members can go to each of the celebrations. Our friend came by to pick us up on his family moto. On our way we met up with another moto that was headed to the celebration. The drivers went and the same pace so we could converse with each other. Whitney and I felt a little out of place in our dirty shorts and t-shirts when all the boys were in their perfectly ironed church slacks and shirts and the girls were wearing nice dresses. When we arrived all the members came out to greet us. They took our hands and led us into the building and were so excited to have us there. It was fun to watch Cambodians dressed up as pioneers and dancing the Virginia Reel. We were leaving to head back to our guesthouse, when some of them members literally pulled us back into the building so we could eat. They served us some traditional Cambodian dishes (fresh spring rolls, rice noodles, peanut sauce, and various meat and lettuce items) I was excited to see how Whitney try some of everything. She is really getting adventurous.