The move, bathrooms, and blessings

Ten months after the first children moved into CFI’s temporary children’s home, it’s time to leave it for the newly renovated children’s home at the community center. A small pick-up truck is all that’s needed to move. We pile a few rattan shelves and bags of clothes on the back of the pick-up, along with kitchen supplies, school books, diapers, a bag of shoes, two bicycles, two dogs (that belong to the housemother and would otherwise have to be abandoned), two housemothers and seven children. The children note that the owner of the house is crying a lot, then they get on the truck, wave to her, and we leave.

We arrive almost at lunchtime, but there’s no time to think of eating. Every child that is old enough to carry something helps bringing bags here and there, sometimes in circles, the two housemothers (Sitha and Siyean) and teacher Genev make sure that the children’s rooms get equipped with the proper clothes, I run around with toothpaste, toothbrushes, sleeping mats and similar things, the boys pile their new blankets and towels and pillows on their arms, more small children than we have living with us seem to be constantly running into us or running away or demanding to be picked up or fed, the dogs bark as soon as no one’s paying attention to them, the boys discover the water hose outside and how to make water come out of it, Chong wants to go out to take a bath and can’t believe that he can wash in this strange small room next to his room, ‘you mean I take a shower inside?’, Srey doesn’t believe that she can go to the bathroom inside either and keeps asking where to go, the floors get mopped even with children running around barefoot, the children do eventually get fed, and somehow in the middle of it all Se, our advisor, prepares the living room for the blessing ceremony that five monks will hold in a very short time. It is a tradition here to have a new house blessed before moving in, and Sitha says that she and the children will be able to sleep much better because the ghosts won’t be there anymore after the blessing ceremony. Several older women from the neighborhood lead the ceremony, along with the five monks sitting in front on their pillows, behind candles and bouquets of flowers. They chant and the women chant and the children return from running around to sit down with their hands folded before their chest, until they get up and run around again in between being blessed. The women from the neighborhood each get a big bottle of coke as a thank you, the monks get especially prepared presents containing soft drinks and hygiene articles.

After that the children actually take over cleaning the entire living room when I have to run off with the humongous bundle of keys to open yet another door, Sitha, Siyean and Genev get the kitchen set up, buy a 60kg bag of rice and pour it into a big bucket, wonder why I didn’t buy anything red (because I don’t like it) and the younger kids take their third shower of the day, complete with their third change of clothes, while the older boys are watering the flowers a second time already. I am relieved at how smoothly the move went and have one more visit to make before it gets too dark.

-Jenny