Author: Charles Dittmeier

Water Meter

This is a corner of the front yard of the present Maryknoll office we are renting. It’s an unpaved corner where our guards grow aloe vera, bananas, pineapples, jack fruit, or whatever else strikes their fancy. The circle draws your attention to the water meter for our house, just sticking up out of the ground, a little bit near the fence, but not really trying to be out of the way.

There are no Cambodian wiring and plumbing codes–at least none that are enforced–so everything like installing water to a house is done by your brother-in-law and he puts the meter wherever he feels like it. Or wherever the plastic pipe that he brought extends to.

This is a close-up of the water meter. It’s set and half buried in a mound of concrete, out in the open where anyone can fool with it. Note that, oddly, there is a cut-off valve on either side of the meter!

Christmas 2020

We are having seven Christmas masses spread out over four days, December 24-25-26-27, to give more people a chance to celebrate Christmas with the faith community. For these masses we have reintroduced some liturgical practices we haven’t seen since March. We are saying the Gloria and starting to sing an opening and closing song and also for Christmas we are incensing the nativity set and altar at the beginning of all the masses.

I’m dreaming of a wet Christmas….

The English community had a 6:30 PM Christmas Eve mass, and when we came out at 7:30 PM, it started pouring rain. The Khmer community were supposed to have a 10:30 PM mass on this stage tonight. Will they make it? It’s still raining at 9:00 PM!
This is some of the traffic caught in the rain at 7:45 PM. Most of the moto drivers on the street have cheap plastic ponchos you can buy for 37ยข. But notice all the moto drivers up under the gas station shelter. That’s the custom here…if you’re out and it starts raining, you park under the shelter to wait it out, dozens of such riders effectively shutting down the station because no one can get near the pumps. It’s OK, though…the gas stations don’t complain!

Progress….but a bit slow

Back in October I took this picture of construction of a foundation pillar for an elevated walkway crossing two major streets at an intersection by a large school. I’m sure the ABA bank wasn’t too happy with the obstruction even though their sign says they’re open.
Nine weeks later this is what it looks like with the construction fencing removed. It’s still a long way from completion but now the construction has moved to two of the other corners. A pedestrian overpass is a big deal here. There’s only one other in the kingdom. When it opens, people will crowd on to it to take pictures. And the government will probably give it a name like they have for the three vehicle overpasses they have put up.

When you need a drink,…

When Cambodians want something to quench their thirst, their go-to drink is a fresh coconut. It’s refreshing, not overly sweet, and really healthy–and cheap. Not long ago I posted a photo of a man selling coconuts from his cart. There you can see the big, thick husks of the coconuts as they come from the trees. The one above has been chopped with a machete to remove most of the husk and then rounded off with an electric grinder to make it even more attractive and easier to drink. Not a bad deal!