The 4th

We spent the forth in Phnom Penh. A few other volunteers and I sang the Khmer National Anthem, and one of the volunteers Matt, sang the Star Spangled Banner at an event on the 3rd that the US Embassy was hosting. Everything went off without a hitch and we hope to be invited back next year! Then we also sang for their ‘fun 4th’ on Saturday which went well too. It was a nice little soirée with American food, and probable the most Americans in one place that we’ve all seen since we left the states. They had several different food stalls ranging from KFC, to places where you could get burgers and pulled pork, corn dogs, icecream and cake. They had a live band playing cover songs, circus performers and other random entertainment. They also had a raffle. I’d say there was nearly a thousand people there over the course of the afternoon… and out of the 15 Peace Corps volunteers that were there, we won our fair share of raffle prizes. The prizes ranged from web-cams, to a basket full of beer & nice pilsner glasses, to air-tickets, to gift certificates to blackberry phones. The PCVs scored on a basket of beer, web-cam, and Will and I won a gift certificate for a champagne breakfast at the famous Raffles hotel in Phnom Penh. (It’s the hotel Jacque O stayed at during her visit to Cambodia). Needless to say we were pretty excited about that…

Overall it was a nice weekend, and a nice way to spend the fourth. There weren’t any fireworks, but I guess the embassy was trying to save some money. (Who isn’t these days?)