No Photo!

I’m at the Phnom Penh airport now, waiting for a 2345 flight to Seoul/Detroit/Louisville. I had to go to a doctor twice today for treatment for my eye problem and that really messed up my schedule. I’ll be back tomorrow–from Kentucky–with more but now it’s on to Gate 8 for boarding.

Trip to Kampong Cham

Today the DDP director, Soknym, and I went to Kampong Cham Province to the DDP office there for a graduation ceremony for a Cambodian Sign Language class. The students were all government civil servants and it was a great pleasure to be part of a ceremony for them.

Bangkok Trip–Friday

I spent the day from 7:50 AM to 3:40 PM at BNH Hospital today, going through all the tests and procedures for a medical check-up program. They are thorough!

In a taxi going to BNH Hospital early in the morning, I saw a familiar scene–the masses of overhead electrical wires on all the streets, just like Phnom Penh.

After a morning of tests, one after the other, I was in Dr. Irene’s office for the actual physical exam and she got called out for a consultation. That gave me a chance to look out her window at the surrounding buildings. They are fortunate to have a lot full of trees next door, on the grounds of an Anglican church.

Dr. Irene and Charlie. She is a fantastic doctor and a really good friend!

Bangkok Trip–Thursday

For almost 25 years I have been having an annual medical check-up at BNH Hospital in Bangkok and today I flew to that city for an appointment tomorrow. Immediately after passing through passport control, the new arrivals encounter this display set up to honor the King of Thailand.

I took a bus from the airport to the Victory Monument and then got a taxi to the Maryknoll house where I am staying. I was trying to keep track of the taxi meter but the driver had so many Buddhist amulets and medallions hanging in front of it that I could almost never see it.

Fr. John Barth is living and working from the Maryknoll office in Bangkok. He and I used to live together in Phnom Penh when he was assigned to Cambodia. Today we had a meal together and caught up on all that is going on in the Maryknoll world.

Right-to-Left???

Writing in Cambodia is distinctive in several ways. For one, just writing anything in an alphabet that has 77 letters can be rather daunting.

But written Khmer is written left to right, like English. So it’s a curiosity why so many businesses and establishments number the sections of their security fences from right to left. It’s not a one-off phenomenon. Most places with fences with numbering do that. (The fence sections are put up every evening to protect the building and then taken down and put away in the morning; but that’s a whole other story.)

Disappointing….

Coming from a German background and a family where Mom baked cakes, cookies, or pies every week, for me the cakes in Cambodia are a real disappointment. They are created for visual effect rather than good eating. Who needs play money, huge candles, and two Spidermen on a cake–and especially when the icing is like whipped lard?