Fortune Teller Round #2

This week started with a package from my amazing friends from grade school (yes, we grew up together and still are extremely close, not many people can say that...).  In the package were many inside jokes, as well as Ascension basketball, soccer and volleyball jerseys.  So I took them outside and put them on Chun Lai and Chun Liap.  So now we have two Chargers in Cambodia. 

This week was Chinese New Year, which is the most important holiday in my house.  And, to avoid confusion, although Chinese New Year was from February 3-5, we started to prepare about two weeks ago.  This week, my family (not including me) bought the offerings for the ancestors.  This means anything from food to fake representations of things that the ancestors would need for the afterworld.  This includes, but is not restricted to: fake money (in dollars and yuan), passports, clothes, shoes, credit cards, plane tickets, bank books, razors, alcohol, cell phones, glasses and belts.  When I asked Huck about it, he told me that he had a dream where his dad told him (his dad passed away in 2003) that he doesn’t have much money left.  So, this year, we burnt a lot of fake money.  My friend Lisa, who is another volunteer and came for the festivities, noted on her trip in that she saw someone burning money.  She didn’t realize that the money was fake and assumed that they were really rich and literally had money to burn.

Chinese New Year’s Eve was the big celebration night.  Cooking started early in the morning and the food was presented on a table for the ancestors and in front of the spirit house inside, while my host sisters cooked inside, the men, children and my host mom burned the offerings.  When the ancestors had had their fill, we had a big feast.  Keiko came in to visit, as did Lisa.  The food is always so good and it was a lot of fun.  Everyone napped and Lisa, Keiko and I went into town.  I had a little tire problem- we were riding two people to a bike which was call Khmer style.  Well, my rear tire had a little too much air and popped near the market.  It made a really loud noise, similar to what I image a gunshot sounding like.  It doesn’t help that I am currently watching a lot of the Wire (an HBO show about gangsters in Baltimore and the police officers that try to catch them).  When we came back home, Keiko and I started to prepare our spaghetti for dinner.  We had leftovers from lunch, but I made a huge batch in place of the fried noodles.  There was rice, of course, but Americans and Cambodians alike enjoyed the spaghetti.  I am pretty confident now in cooking Italian food for Cambodians over a wood burning stove.  I can cross that off my list.  Darlene and another volunteer joined us for dinner, so we had a lot of foreigners and Cambodians all together.

Host sister in law making an offering

Host mom and host brother in law enjoying some spaghetti

Keiko watching the dragon competition in China with Lai and Liap (the competition is two people in a dragon costume jumping around)

Chun Lai and Lisa

The offerings being burned

Keiko and Chun Liap

The dinner table

Two number two was similar to the first day at night, but lunch was rather tame because my family went to visit an Angkorian Temple in a nearby district.  But, for dinner, it was a pretty big party.  Although no one knows when my host mother’s birthday is, her daughters decided that Chinese New Year is a good time to celebrate her birthday.  Huck told me that they have only celebrated her birthday once before.  She was so happy to have a day to celebrate her birthday with everyone.  I cannot imagine only celebrating my birthday twice, and she is three times me age.  Because Chun Lai was born on February 14, it was a combined party- Ma and Chun Lai.  Because my host mother is getting older, it is a big deal to turn another year older (if we had a party for Huck, it would just be really weird).  As I have said before, rich children and old people are the only ones who celebrate birthdays, so it was a big day because we had both. 

We sang Happy Birthday for Ma first, then Chun Lai.  It’s really popular in Cambodia to spray silly string and fake snow at the conclusion of the song, for some reason, so that’s what we did.  While we were singing, Ma and Chun Lai were thanking the ancestors and gods and wishing everyone good luck.  We then set up tables for dinner.  I gave Ma her present, which was a jewelry box and Chun Lai money.  Last year for his birthday, I bought him a bunch of toys and was the only idiot there with a present, besides Darlene.  This year I learned my lesson and got some money out of the bank.  It’s tradition to put them in little red envelopes, but I didn’t have any, so I asked Huck for two- one for me and one for Darlene.  I would have felt weird giving my host mom money because I am the only one at the house who gives her money to live there, and I give her money once a month, so I opted for a jewelry box because she doesn’t have one, but she has a lot of jewelry.  It was a fun night, but by the end of the two days of celebration, I was holiday-ed out.  The third day is the day reserved for traveling.  My host mom asked me to go to Pailin, which is the bordering province with Thailand, but I opted out.

Ma's cake

Ma, host sister, her son and Navy, my brother's 

Ma and I in front of the Chinese New Year tree

Fake snow

The reason that I didn’t go to Pailin was because I had set-up another session with a fortune teller, with Darlene and her co-teacher.  This fortune teller was a numerologist and lives very close to my house.  Darlene and I met her co-teacher outside of the numerologist’s house.  I wasn’t quite sure the protocol and hadn’t really prepared much, so I was just flying by the seat of my pants. 

In this compound, there was a big house and a few smaller ones and the numerologist set up inside one of the really small houses, so we all took off our shoes, sat on the grass mats opposite the numerologist, who immediately started chewing his bettle nut and leaves and took out our notebook and pens.  Just like last time, I will try to recreate the conversation, and my thoughts are in italics and all of this was translated by Phanet, Darlene’s co-teacher.

Numerologist: What is your birthday?

Kealan: January 17, 1987. 

N: What is your sign? 

K: Rabbit.

N: What day were you born on?

K: the 17th

N: No, the day of the week.

K: Uh….. I should know this from the family tradition of my Mom telling us about the day that we were born on our birthdays.  Maybe I can figure this out by going backwards. 

*here is the point where I write down the day of the week that my birthday fell on, going backwards.  Anyone who knows me well can attest for how awful I am at math.  I started with “2011- Monday” and tried to work backwards.  I came up with Friday, then I got the idea to use Darlene’s cell phone (I forgot mine at home) and used the calendar “application” on our phones (our phones are from circa 1996) and it said Saturday, January 17, 1987.  I trust a machine over my own math skills, no matter how many times I have dropped this thing.

K: Ok, Saturday, January 17^th, year of the rabbit.

N: Your good fortune started this year, January 2011.  This year and next year will be two good years.  In these two years, you will get a job and get married. 

K: This is the second time that I have heard this.  Pretty much the same as the last fortune teller.

N: In general, you are a good person.  But, you need to consult with your elders before you make a decision and if you follow what they say, you will find what you want. 

K: My parents are going to love this part…

N: Do you have any questions?

K: Yes, I want to know more about these two years.  You can’t just mysteriously say that this year and next will be awesome and not go into details.

N: You will get lots of money.  Darlene has ancestors looking out for her, and you do not. 

K: Oh ok. What?  I have ancestors too! And note to self, ask Phanet what “mein liap” means in Khmer. 

K: I also want to know about this future husband.  Please don’t tell me he is a relative.

N: That will be your choice, but it will happen soon, within two years you will be married.  The best choices for you, as a rabbit, are men born in the year of the ox or year of the rat.

K: Phew! No cousins for me! Note to self, look up years for oxen and rats.

K: Do you see anything else?

N: You will have your own house and when you build it, the house should face northwest and when you sleep, your head should be pointing southeast. 

K: When I build a house? And about children? It still creeps me out talking about my future children, but when I’m told which direction I should sleep, I think all bets are off and it’s ok.

N: You shouldn’t have an odd number of children.  So don’t have 1 child or 3 children, you should have 2 or 4.  Any more questions?

K: What about this job?  This career path?  Will I go back to school or get a job?

N: Don’t worry about the job.  You will get a good job and you will not continue your education.  Don’t worry about the next two years, they will set up the rest of your life, which will be a good life. 

K: Can you tell me about my family?  About my little sister?

N: What is her information?

* after some calculations

K: Saturday, April 22, year of the snake.

N: She has a good future.  She has a better future than you do. 

K: Maura is going to love this. Katie (older sister) and Pat (older brother) already have good fortunes, but Maura and I are the younger ones that are still trying to figure this out.  He doesn’t need to tell me about their good fortunes, because I can see that for myself.

N: She will have an easy life.  But, like you, if she wants a good fortune, she needs to respect your parents.

K: She may have a better future, but she’s in the same boat as I am with the consulting elders thing. What about her health?

N: She will have no accidents and no health problems.  You shouldn’t be concerned about her.  You should be concerned with your own future, not hers.

K: Treated.

K: Ok, back to me.  Do I have any health problems?  Will I be really sick as an old person or will I be active?

N: No big health problems. 

K: Ok, so these two years, why are they so good?  And what happens after these two great years?  50 bad years?

N: No, it doesn’t work that way. It’s nothing bad, but you will be able to create a life for yourself.  While these two years are great, they will continue for the rest of your life.  It’s not like a peak in your life, but more of an increase of fortune that continues on. 

* at this point, I stopped and let Darlene have her turn.  While her fortune was being told, I thought of a few questions. 

K: Can I ask another question?  You said that I don’t have anyone looking out for me, but Darlene does.  Are these ancestors or guardians that are still alive?  And how do I get them to protect me too?  I want a little protection too.

N: You don’t believe in spirits, so therefore they don’t help you.  How can something help you that you don’t believe in or look to for help.  If you start to pray for them, they will help you.  And you cannot just pray every once in a while, or when you think of it and need help, it needs to be everyday, regular praying. 

K: Touché

N: People born on Saturday always have ancestors, we must pray for them and look to them for help.  Also, people born on Saturday tend to get headaches and sore eyes easier than people born on other days. 

K: Thank you teacher.

So, that concluded my second Cambodian fortune teller experience.  He was really laid back and seemed to enjoy doing this.  We found out from Phanet that he has a lot of money and was trained by his father, who also was a numerologist.  He charges a fairly low fee and liked hanging out.  He didn’t really lie to us; if he didn’t know the answer he said so, instead of making something up or guessing. 

Darlene and I then took a trip with Phanet to her farm, about 16k outside of town.  I forgot my camera, but we will be going back because it’s so beautiful.  They have rice paddies, mango trees, banana trees, palm trees, coconut trees and probably a bunch of other trees that I couldn’t identify.  I also asked Phanet about “mein liap” which I thought meant to have make-up because liap is the word to put on make-up, cream, paint or really anything that can be applied to skin, or a wall.  But when I asked her, she said that it means to have things, like material things, such as cars, a house, computers, money, etc.  So what he was saying is that I will have more material wealth, which I hope is the case, because I have a computer that crashes every other day, a phone that pre-dates my college days and a terribly sick ipod. 

All in all, I really enjoy doing these things because it means a lot to Cambodians.  Cambodians tend to get either very into fortune tellers or adamantly don’t believe in them.  I tend to buy into it a little, but this man was really cool, because he kept saying that things were our decision.  Husbands, jobs, children, etc.  He made it clear that the future isn’t determined because I have yet to determine it.  But it is reassuring to hear that I am at the start of the best two years of my life.  I haven’t seen much difference yet.  But I do have a lot to look forward in the next few months.  My 24 years so far have been really great, so these two great years have a lot to live up to. 

The fortune telling journey doesn’t end here, however.  We know of two other fortune tellers that we want to consult before we leave.  Phanet is really into it and is excited to have Americans who are interested in it.  We are also getting better at asking questions and interpreting the interpreters interpretation of the fortune teller’s interpretation (that makes it seem a lot more complicated than it really is…)

Until then, happy year of the rabbit.  As Cambodians say, I wish you good health, good luck and happiness for this year and for the rest of your life.