Author: Charles Dittmeier

USA Trip — #4

Arrghh…. I finished the Maryknoll Lay Missioners board meeting Saturday at noon and then flew to Louisville, Kentucky to visit my family–leaving my camera with all the photos in my room at Maryknoll. I will try to provide some text for those days and then see if the helpful people at Maryknoll are able to send my camera to me by courier before I leave on Wednesday. More on that to come!

Always room for one more…

The guiding principle in transporting people and things in Cambodia is that if it’s not dragging on the ground, you’re good to go.

This van is headed out of town to the provinces. Apparently a couple riders decided it was worth a couple bucks to “ship” their motorcycles back to the province rather than ride them in horrendous traffic on horrendous roads for many hours.
This young man’s view of the world is rather limited. Actually, he’s big enough that normally he would be sitting in front of his father but today he was displaced by the large bag of something occupying his place.

Notable Quotes

Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge.  It requires no accountability, no understanding.  The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. 

~ Bill Bullard

It’s good for you…

Cambodians have this unshakeable belief that whatever ails you, you need an IV. You can go into a pediatrics ward and every child will be hooked up to an IV. For many Cambodians, if they don’t get an IV when they’re sick, they might as well get nothing. Here two parents ride home on their moto, with their son in between them, and he has an IV in his arm.

Watch your step!

New sewers are being installed in parts of Phnom Penh and in some respects they are literal life-savers. Open pits and holes along the roads like this are quite common, and when the road is flooded with water, you proceed at great peril. Things are better now but I remember walking along flooded roads with a staff, feeling for holes, pits, uncovered sewers, etc.

Sun Dried

When I was a kid I remember seeing “sun dried” on boxes of raisins. Here in Cambodian culture, sun dried takes on a whole different meaning where there are few processed foods. People buy fish, fillet them, and leave them out on the street to dry–and catch dust and street grime.