Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
For most of the past 25 years I have had morning masses once a week for the Salesian Sisters in Tuol Kork and twice a week for the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa’s sisters) at their orphanage. Now this week I have renewed those contacts. First I went to the Salesians and, blessed with an abundance of fruit from their mango trees, I went home with a box of sliced mango (my favorite fruit). Then the next day I had mass for the MC Sisters and they noted the occasion on their mass board.
Today was a great day of engaging with colleagues and friends! The morning started off with a breakfast meeting with Colin Allen, the former president of the World Federation of the Deaf, who is now training DDP staff for the Deaf Leadership Training Project.
Today, Monday, was my first full work day in Phnom Penh and I spent most of it at DDP, the Deaf Development Programme. It was wonderful to see the students and staff again and we all had a grand reunion.
Then we just talked for a while as we were catching up on each other’s lives. We were lucky we could be in the open dining area because the temperature was 101 degrees,
I arrived in Phnom Penh from the U.S. on Friday afternoon, and Saturday evening I was the priest presider for the English Catholic Community.
It was a joyful reunion with the community. Much has changed in the seven months I have been away,
It’s 4:30 AM and I just arrived in Taipei after a 14-hour flight from San Francisco. The good news is that the plane wasn’t full and I had a whole four-seat row to myself and could lie flat to sleep for much of the flight. The bad news is that as I was at the gate in San Francisco, trying to get a Taiwan visa online, my iPhone stopped responding to any touches on the screen. All the buttons work and the display is there, I just can’t do anything by touching the screen. I’m guessing I’m going to have to find a repair shop in Phnom Penh because I use the phone for so much.
When I left Cambodia last August, I was discussing with Caritas Cambodia, our new parent NGO, about funding for the Deaf Development Programme. But then the border war between Thailand and Cambodia erupted, and Caritas Cambodia went to the border to set up tent housing for displaced people and provide them with food, water, toilets, and other supplies. Our discussions with Caritas were suspended. Now I am heading back to Phnom Penh to resume our discussions. I just flew from Louisville and am in Denver, my first stop on the way. Here at the Denver airport you can see the Rocky Mountains rising on the horizon. It takes about 35 hours to fly from Louisville to Phnom Penh.
The Archdiocese of Louisville has a podcast every month about people and activities in the local church. It’s a half hour program that is also televised. Yesterday Sr. Susan Gatz, a Sister of Charity of Nazareth, and I were interviewed by Dr. Brian Reynolds, the chancellor of the diocese. He asked us about our ministry experiences as missionaries outside of the United States. Our program was taped yesterday but will be broadcast in May.
Today I was at Costco to get some items I need for my trip this week to Cambodia and I was struck by how polite and respectful most Americans are. People greeted me, waved me in line ahead of them, apologized for brushing my arm, paused their cart to let me go first. I am not used to that. Cambodian people are some of the most courteous people in the world but culturally they don’t express it the way we do here. There is seldom acknowledgement of the other person, no eye contact, no greeting spoken, no disarming smiles. They are wonderful people but they just don’t interact the way we do. Coming back to OUR way has been a really positive experience for me and an opportunity for reflection on who we are and how we meet each other.
