Author: Charles Dittmeier

Cambodia enters new Buddhist year

Cambodia is now celebrating the Buddhist new year of 2570. I miss being there for the annual festivities which are a source of real joy for the ordinary people who have gone through so much with the Thailand-Cambodia border war and now the effects of the U.S. war with Iran.

Here is a good article from UCAN (Union of Catholic Asian News) about the current situation.

Where I go….

One of the things I have learned upon returning to the US is that life is really expensive here and much more complex than life in Cambodia. My family bought me an e-bike (pictured above) and I learned that repairing a flat tire on it costs $45+. They also got me an iPhone. I had the iPhone mounted on the bike and when I hit a rough spot in the road, it popped off–and a car ran over it.

I took it to the IFix repair shop and they replaced the display–for $230. The only good news was that the repair took only eleven minutes!

My first spring back home

Cambodia only has two seasons, hot and wet and hot and dry. Different trees have fruits and flowers at different times but everything is always green, leaves don’t fall off trees like in parts of the U.S.

It’s my first spring time in the U.S. in 40 years and I’m really enjoying it! The cold weather seems to have finally (almost) disappeared and everything is in bloom!

Old Union Station

I have been amazed at the architecture I have rediscovered in Louisville since my return here, partly because it’s common place and I just took it for granted before, and partly because I’m now riding everywhere on a bicycle and see things more closely and from different angles.

Yesterday I went to get a city bus pass and the TARC offices are in the old Union Station where the L&N Railroad was based. It is a beautiful, distinctive building in downtown Louisville.