Author: Charles Dittmeier

Set your sights high

Occasionally in traversing the narrow streets and byways of Phnom Penh, one can see bags of garbage hung on the wall. What would prompt this behavior? Is it a low-tech type of modern art, faster, cheaper, and easier than painting a mural? Is it a gift to the garbage crews, preventing them from bending over and scooping up the trash on the ground?

Probably, it’s just matter of trying to keep things a bit neater. Notice the narrow street runs within ten inches of the wall. Trash bags on the ground would get run over, kicked, and slashed by dogs. Keeping the trash on the wall prevents more of the mess seen here where one bag has been slit open, dumping its contents in the street.

COVID-19 Notes

When the pandemic started and we had the first cases of infection in Cambodia, all the schools (top photo) and the church put sinks in accessible places so people could wash their hands.

Now, because Cambodia hasn’t had a new infection since April 12th–and no deaths–the sinks aren’t used that much. And the bottom photo shows that people are not using masks or maintaining physical distance either.

Cambodia could really be setting itself up for a terrible second wave of infections.

7-11 in Cambodia

A 7-11 in Thailand

Thailand is just about the 7-11 capitol of the world. It has 12,000+ 7-11s in a country about equal in size to Oregon and Wyoming together. The whole United States doesn’t have that many although 7-11 is headquartered in Texas!

Now 7-11s are coming to Cambodia, brought in by the same company that operates the franchises in Thailand. Woohoo! Are we big-time or what? There are already articles in the paper asking that a good portion of the products be of Cambodia origin.

Make-It Technology

I mentioned a couple days ago (May 12) that the microphone for my desktop wasn’t working, so today, on the way back from examining St. Joseph Church to see how many people we can put in church with physical distancing, I stopped at an audio systems shop to have them check the mic. Determining that the mic is good, I asked them to make a cable with a better connector, and in true Cambodian fashion two guys sat on the floor and each attached a connector to a five-meter cable. ….Then I found out the mic will only work with a battery supply in the setup I wanted to utilize. Bummer.

…so long to wait!

[From Phnom Penh Post]

Cambodia has not had a new case of coronavirus in more than a month, and only one of the 122 positive infections is still receiving treatment. There have been no COVID-19 deaths in the kingdom. The government has closed schools (March 16th) and churches and casinos and spas, but otherwise life is almost like normal. People are on the streets. The markets and shops are open. Fewer people wear a mask.

Then today the Minister of Education announced that the plan is to reopen the schools the 1st of November, a decision that surprised many because the attempt at some sort of online education has not gone well.