Author: Charles Dittmeier

Service Area

You know those service areas on the Interstate highways in the United States, the areas where you can get gas, get something to eat, take a break? Well, right here in Phnom Penh….look at this–gasoline in soft drink bottles on the left, rice and some topping in the pan on the right. No bathroom, though….

Do Not Enter

In the first officially recorded community transmission of the COVID-19 virus in Cambodia, 40 infected persons have been identified by contact tracing. Two or three new infections are discovered every day during the past two weeks, and that has frightened Phnom Penh-ers. More people are wearing masks now and more shops have blocked access to their establishments.

Monks in Cambodia

Monk with begging bowl

One of the permanent features of Cambodia life and society is the presence of the Buddhist monks on the street, on the ferry boats, wherever. Every morning they make their rounds begging food and money for the people they care for and for their own meals. Click here to see some of the monks of the streets….

Remnant of Another Age

Probably most people passing by at street level don’t even know this tree exists. Its lower trunk is gnashed and scarred, its lower branches cut away, and it stands silently as a witness to humanity’s indifference to nature and beauty. Only its leafy crown proclaims its former glory and the long-gone stateliness of the colonial avenue that predated this now commercial strip.

More Goodbyes

Today at DDP we said goodbye to two of our staff, our social worker (left) and one of our houseparents. It is difficult to see good staff move on. And it is difficult to replace them!

Wired for Sight

Partly because we want to be able to use visuals in our liturgy and partly because we cannot use paper missals and song books during the pandemic, we installed a video system in the chapel that we are now using for our English community masses.

There are now three 55″ monitors on each wall with another monitor facing the sanctuary so the presider can see what is being shown.
Here three technicians set up a control point where we will have a laptop computer for feeding the visuals into the video system. Fr. Chatsirey at the lectern helped to make sure the arrangements would work for our liturgies.
Here is what it looks like from the rear of the church after all the ladders and other equipment have been removed.