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And there are the days when you a) forget your poncho, b) left it at work, c) it’s too torn to do any good, or d) you just feel macho and power on. The good thing here is that it’s always warm so you may be wet, but you’re not freezing.
Here is what a large anti-COVID-19 billboard looks like in Cambodia. You can probably recognize what are called here “the three do-s” and “the three don’t-s.” Just the Khmer script is different.
When large areas of Phnom Penh were locked down and restaurants were closed or forbidden to have eat-in diners, the food delivery services bloomed all over the city. And very quickly these drivers developed their own ethos: anything goes. Cambodia has never been a nation to follow the discipline of careful driving and now these delivery people take driving arrogance to a new level. There is no law they do not flout, and since there is no traffic law enforcement, they have established themselves as a dangerous, separate entity in the life of the city–driving too fast, not stopping for lights, driving in the opposite lanes, watching their phones to find the delivery address, cutting through and around normal traffic. There is no limit.
Hundreds of monks are out on the streets every morning to beg alms for themselves and for the poor people they serve. Click here to see their encounters with the devout Buddhists.
During this stage of the pandemic, churches are not allowed to have in-person services so we have started a simple online mass for the English Catholic Community. We use a little makeshift chapel at the Maryknoll office. Here Sr. Regina prepares to proclaim the first reading for this weekend’s mass. Thank goodness it looks much better on the video than in reality!
The shape, the styles, the colors of the headgear almost match. One of them doesn’t give much protection, though.
Monks are a large and prominent part of Cambodian culture. There are many, many wats throughout the country, and there are thousands of monks. There are men who are monks for one week; there are men who are monks for many decades. There are monks who are educated; there are monks who have little school learning. There are elderly monks; there are young boys who are studying to become monks.
Here are some pictures of young boys who are part of the monk society. They live in the wats (pagodas) and go with the monks as they make their rounds begging each day. In this era of concern about the sexual abuse of children, the presence of the young boys living with the adult monks seems strange. There is very little abuse mentioned but it may be that the culture covers it up and does not talk about it if it happens.
