Charles Dittmeier – Page 126 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

Keeping fit…

Most Cambodians are less heavy and more limber than most Americans because of a more active physical lifestyle, but they still want to get exercise.

Two energetic morning walkers…

This weekend was a Diocesan Youth Day for the Church of Phnom Penh. Bishop Olivier generates an endless stream of activities and publications and other events to keep the church active and engaged. For this youth day pastoral centers in the lower half of the state gathered their youth together and then all were united with video hookups. Click here to see some of the happenings.

Tuk-tuk Corral

Many of the tuk-tuk drivers come from the provinces to earn money when not planting or harvesting rice but they have no place to stay and sleep in their tuk-tuks. They often gather the tuk-tuks together at night for protection and at first I thought this was such an encampment. But noticing that all the tuk-tuk seem to be the same, I’m wondering if this finance company has their own fleet for their business?

Sign of the Times

So many motorcyclists don’t wear helmets—and this one is lighting a cigarette–but they’ve got their masks and hand sanitizer.

Cambodian Tinker

You’re heard of the old-time tinkers with the carts full of metalwares. We’ve got carts full of all sorts of useful items here in Cambodia but here they’re made of rattan, not metal

Notable Quotes

Another Farewell from DDP

Last week two young men with multiple disabilities left the hostel at DDP for a new home with another NGO which we hope will be better suited to care for them. I hated to see them go because they have been moved around before but this new situation should be better for them.

Farewell

A rodent problem

This is the dining room in the “new” Maryknoll office we moved into a week ago. This used to be the kitchen (see the water pipe still sticking out of the wall beside the microwave) but for some reason they moved the kitchen through the door and outside, under just a tin roof. We used to keep this window and door open but found rats can enter the outdoor kitchen and then hop through this window and door into the dining room and the rest of the house.

This is the kitchen now, outside. Notice the door with no glass or screen so that cats and rodents can easily come in. There is enough room for them to squeeze under the door if they don’t want to jump through the door.

This is a window on the side wall of the now dining room. We asked the landlord to put screens on the windows and he did. They are plastic screens and as soon as the first rat heard we had moved in, he chewed through the plastic (see the corner) and started going through the food in the dining room. As a consequence we now keep the windows closed and locked.

To try and reduce our rodent problem, I have set a rat trap in the now kitchen, hoping to catch whatever might come under the door in the background.

One half of a bridge

Last year this intersection had each of the four corners sequentially fenced off as these stanchions were created for a major pedestrian overpass to give students safe access to a large secondary school to the right of the photo. Then Covid-19 came. The school is closed but they could have finished the work on the overpass. For some reason, they didn’t.