Khmer Wedding

This last week we experienced our first Khmer wedding. One of the young Christians, taught in the WEI English program, was getting married and someone suggested she have a Christian wedding a few days before her traditional Khmer wedding. She agreed and the decision was made to hold the ceremony at the Partners in Progress house. Several things were a little different than our usual wedding.

First of all, Lin met her husband to be five days before her wedding day! Her marriage, like many here, was arranged by her parents over the last few years. The young couple seemed to get along fine but their first kiss was after their vows. Wow! Her groom’s parents immigrated to the U.S. in 1975 just before the genocide happened here. He is very much and all American kinda kid with all of our customs and ways. She will have an extreme period of adjustment when she comes to Boston to live all the way from Cambodia! She needs our prayers to not only adjust to a very strange way of life but most of all to keep her faith. Her husband is not a Christian.

On Saturday, her traditional Khmer wedding will be full of Buddhist ceremony and religious implications. One of the teachers here, Teo, is in the wedding and it last from daylight until 9:30 at night. The bride and bridesmaids change into seven different dresses during the day. This is all at great expense even though few here have money for daily life. That is why the average male does not marry until around age 30! He can’t afford to! We learn more each day we are here.