Author: Charles Dittmeier

Turn me on!

Today I happened to look up at a second-floor flat while waiting for a light and saw these two chandeliers hanging on someone’s porch. Given that no one sits on their porch at night and most porches don’t even have a small fluorescent lamp, I suspect someone came to possess these two probably old chandeliers and wanted to keep them but didn’t know where to put them so they ended up on the porch.

Minding the store

Running a shop is part of the DNA of Cambodian people and that characteristic is developed by growing up in what are called shophouses, buildings one room wide and three or four stories tall, with the bottom floor open to the street as a shop and the family living behind and above the shop. This young boy takes his turn minding the store during this pandemic time when the schools are closed and he’s home all day.

All systems,go….almost

Yesterday we had the first mass in the “new” chapel using the air conditioners (mounted above the windows) and they worked well. We still need to move some more chairs (to be stored, because what you see above is all we can socially distance) and a big cabinet and we hope to do that this week. Then we need to install some sort of projection system and our setup will be basically complete. It looks–and feels–likes it’s going to be a good venue for us!

Stage 1 (continued)

Just the steps and the platform remain of the large old stage that was next to the C Building at St. Joseph Church where we previously had mass. All the metal framework is gone. Next to go is the large tree on the right. It’s terrible to see such a large old tree removed!

We’re wired!

Maybe some cities are worse for overhead line congestion but I’ve never seen anywhere that compares with Phnom Penh. Such thick bundles of wires and telephone and electric and cable lines crisscross the streets that they often completely obscure the traffic signals.

The chapel door

Today I bicycled the three miles over to St. Joseph Church to return a key to Fr. Chatsirey. While there I checked on the small chapel (above) we will be using for our English Community for the next few years.

Khmer New Year 2.0

This year, because Khmer New Year fell in mid April when COVID-19 was becoming established in Cambodia, the days off for the holiday were postponed until this week, August 17-21. All the formal celebrations at the palace and by the government went ahead in April, without public participation, but everyone was told to go ahead and work those days and they would receive five days off now, instead of the three days off then. Now we are in the middle of the nine days off (counting the weekends). This is a photo of a family waiting to head to the provinces for the holidays. Everyone is wondering what this is going to mean for COVID-19 with millions of people traveling back and forth across the country.

Tree-lined Streets?

A recent article in The Phnom Penh Post spoke of a plan to beautify Phnom Penh with avenues with sidewalks and trees. That is going to be a challenge.

Most of the sidewalks in Phnom Penh don’t exist or are barely visible because of all the parking and other activity taking place on them.

Even on those rare urban streets that still have trees (like the three above) they and the sidewalks have been taken over so that the woman–and all other pedestrians–must walk in the street.