Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
This is Street 163, a major north-south thoroughfare running through the Tuol Tum Poung area. This is looking directly south. When I came, there was one building in the country above six floors and only five streets in Phnom Penh were paved. Most are paved now (not very well!) but notice there are no curbs and gutters. That will be a later evolutionary step in Phnom Penh’s transition from a semi-village to a 21st-century capital city.
30 years ago the parish community of the Church of the Child Jesus moved out of a residential house they were worshiping in and erected one of the first post-Khmer Rouge actual church buildings. This past weekend their parish celebrated their anniversary.
In the early afternoon, Father François Hemelsdael and some of the parishioners greeted the first guests to arrive for the 4:00 PM anniversary mass.
Fr. Gianluca and Fr. Oh Chang were two of the priests who came for the celebration.
The parish had set up a wonderful display of information and old photos and it was a good gathering place for the visitors to meet.
Bishop Kike from Battambang was one of the guests.
The displays really were interesting and taught the younger members of the parish a lot about the early days of their community.
After the prayerful opening of the Jubilee Year, Bishop Olivier turned his attention to performances by youth of all ages.
First the older girls presented a classic Khmer dance.
Then younger girls performed another traditional dance with a simpler choreography.
Then about 25 boys, in two groups, presented a classical Khmer myth. All the dancers had really professional dance outfits and costumes.
Lastly, the really young children, some just toddlers, performed more contemporary Christmas music with simple dancing and gestures, and then each received a stuffed animal Christmas gift. Bishop Olivier always insures that cakes are a major part of the celebrations.
Following all the performances, all the representatives from all the parishes enjoyed a catered Chinese dinner in the outside dining area.
In the Catholic tradition, a jubilee year is a year for the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation among adversaries, a time of solidarity, hope, justice, and a commitment to peace with our sisters and brothers. Since the 1300s, jubilee years have been held every 25 or 50 years or for special occasions.
Pope Francis has declared a Jubilee Year 2025 and today Bishop Olivier opened this jubilee year in the diocese of Phnom Penh.
The people gathered outside the parish church at the pastoral center and then process to a gateway erected for the last jubilee. All then processed through the gateway into the church hall where Bishop Olivier led them in prayer and spoke about this jubilee.
Here are fourteen cyclos–old, human-powered three-wheelers with a bench seat for one or two people. The cyclos have mostly disappeared from daily use but still can be seen around some markets, catering to elderly people who have never used anything else. This line of cyclos is about half of a bunch of them going to pick up a group of tourists for a slow tour of an area of Phnom Penh.
Maybe it’s a reality in other markets, but I’ve never seen a potato shop. This Potato Corner sells nothing but potatoes fried/boiled/cooked/served in a multitude of different ways with some different toppings. I can see a shop dedicated to ice cream or smoothies or hotdogs, but potatoes? Let’s see how long it lasts.
You can’t very well have a rollbar on a motorcycle but this configuration has some promise if you go down….
KOMISO is a project of the Korean Mission Society in Cambodia, a Catholic mission group from Korea like Maryknoll is from the United States. KOMISO offers vocational training to poor, under educated young people, offering three skills: motorcycle repair, baking, and beauty salon work. We have been discussing with them the acceptance of deaf students for training.
Our students are interested in the beauty work and baking. Last week I visited the KOMISO training center and met the trainees and the Korean couple (rear) who are teaching the baking.
On that day the training was on creating the different types of figures that are placed on top of cakes. It was amazing to see the craftsmanship that goes into the decorative figures. Three of our deaf graduates are interested in the baking.
All the students live at the training center while they go through the six-month courses. In addition to the technical skills they learn, they also have one hour a day in character development, to teach them good values.
I am anxious for our students to start training there.
When the Maryknoll NGO was here, we met after work each Christmas Day for a meal together. They were always great. The Maryknoll NGO is gone now but some of the former group of lay missioners and others got together for a Christmas lunch today.
Cambodia is 94% Buddhist and Christmas Day is a regular work day, not a holiday. Here are some images from Phnom Penh streets today.
Merry Christmas!