Khmer New Year does not begin for several weeks - April 13 - 15 this year - but the students here at the Leadership Academy as well as most around the country of Cambodia are excited and happy it will be here soon.  Many of the student had semester tests last week and this week and did not have to go to school for several days.  Some of the students are already back in their "home country" which is their village and will not be back in Phnom Penh until April 19.  It seems very similar to winter break for most Americans.  Today, Jonathan and I were hanging out in the room being bored when upstairs I could hear giggling, laughing, and screaming.  After about 10 minutes, I thought perhaps I should make sure the students weren't doing something that they shouldn't be...after all, I live with kids that range from 14 - 23 years old.  Jon and I discovered that they were so ready for New Years that they were playing some traditional new year's games in the open area on the third floor.  The first game called boss chhoung - I was familiar with because my kids had played it at Cambodian Heritage Camp in Colorado.  It's like dodgeball with a rolled up scarf  - about the size of a softball and tied so the ends can be used for throwing and swinging.  Two sides face off and throw to the other side.  If you catch the scarf, you are fine.  If the scarf touches you and you don't catch it, the students here were putting baby powder on your face.   Jonathan played for over a half an hour (I took pictures).  

Another game they played later in the afternoon was called Boss Ongkunh (Augkunh).  Ongkunh is a vine that has a fruit with large seeds/pits inside.  The students had found a little dirt and each side had three of these seeds sitting upright in the dirt in a triangle shape.  The object of the game was to knock over the other sides seeds by tossing more of the ohnkunh pits.  The losing team got their knees 'tapped' with the seeds by the winning team.  Of course, it was boys verus girls.  I was a bit confused at  first because I thought they were tapping each others knees with the pits to see if they could get a reflex (duh).  But the tapper had two of the pits in their hand and they were trying to make a noise with the pits when they tapped the other person's knee.

One of the students told me that new years is a great time for boys and girls because they don't get to mingle much in the countryside and this gave them time to get together and get to know each other.  I found it very heartwarming to think that in this age where many kids know too much about the opposite sex, that this "old fashioned" approach of playing games together provided a safe way to meet..   Some other games we've played with the students here have involved just sitting/kneeling in a circle and doing various counting/clapping type games.  When you don't have a lot of money to buy toys or games or electronics, people do find fun ways to enjoy each others company.  I look forward to learning more games from the students over the next couple weeks as we approach the Khmer New Year.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_LWGul2UlSaUDZhaWlqcGUtN1U&usp=sharing