Author: Charles Dittmeier
And another goodbye
For 37 years I worked with the Maryknoll Lay Missioners, especially in Hong Kong and Cambodia. In Cambodia we work with lay missioners from other countries and some of the international group got together for an Italian dinner opportunity to say goodbye to me.
Another goodbye
Today four of the interpreters and staff of DDP invited me to lunch to say goodbye. It was really good to catch up with them–and they also gave me the pictured silk shirt!
DDP Farewell for Charlie
Our DDP students learned a traditional Cambodian dance. It is extra difficult for them to dance without the music.
Then I had a chance speak of my 25 years at DDP.
The deaf people were invited to speak and Samath spoke of the very early days of the Deaf Development Programme.
Saphaek from the UN Human Rights office spoke about working with DDP.
Then it was time to eat.
DDP Farewell for Charlie
As soon as I arrived at the Deaf Development Programme, the picture taking started with different group. Here are our barber students and their trainer.
Some of the young women from our Education Project who performed traditional Cambodian dance for the first time.
Our house parents
Some of our Education Project and Job Training Project students
Then I had to take the first piece of an hors d’oeuvres-type dish.
DDP Farewell for Charlie
We had a super farewell for me today at DDP. About 100 people came, many of them deaf people I hadn’t seen for years after they left our program.
When I first arrived, staff were working preparing lunch for everyone, to be served Khmer style after our program.
Visitors from Japan
Today a family from Japan visited DDP. The Cambodian wife is deaf and was our student until graduation in 2016. Soon after she married her Japanese deaf husband and moved there. Now with two hearing children, they came to visit and it was really heart-warming to see her and her family so happy. A DDP success story!
Collecting and Delivering
Here is a typical Phnom Penh daily scene: the monks are making their morning rounds begging (collecting) food and money for themselves and the poor, and the delivery man is bringing (delivering) a bag of ice for a local shop.
A Little Girl’s Dream
In the United States, many girls’ dream is to be a cheerleader for their school’s sports teams. In Cambodian culture, where there are no school sports teams, the girls want to be apsara dancers.
Every Sunday adult volunteers work with really young girls to get them started in the classical dancing.
St. Vincent de Paul Meeting
Today the St. Vincent de Paul Society of our English Catholic Community met with the national leadership of the SVDP group in Cambodia to talk about our experiences and to get our English group more closely aligned to the SVDP worldwide model. It was a good meeting!
SVDP is a lay organization, i.e., it is not run by priests but by lay people. Priests are not supposed to be regular members. I’m still involved because I started SVDP with our English community and am helping with formation.
Two things are really important in the Catholic Church:
• the eucharist: at the Last Supper, Jesus said “Do this in remembrance of me.”
• serving the poor: again at the Last Supper, washing the feet of the disciples, Jesus said “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
Those were Jesus’ explicit commands. He never said build hospitals, run Catholic universities, protect the environment. Those are all good things and we must do them. But when it came down to the essentials, he wanted us to gather and support each other in the eucharist and then go out and serve the poor.
[More tomorrow…]