Charles Dittmeier – Page 159 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

My Mistake

I usually try to post some more substantial content on Sundays but yesterday was really chaotic. I prepared the photos in the post below this one but then forgot to put them here on the website. Sorry!

A Sad Funeral…continued

Cambodia doesn’t have funeral homes because 94% of the people are Buddhist and are cremated within twenty-four hours after the body stays at the family home overnight. Because Mr. Uchenna was to be buried, we had a funeral at the mortuary in the hospital. Mr. Bede Uwalaka was a lector for the scripture readings.

The cemetery was in the next province and it took us almost two hours to drive there. After the coffin was placed in the shallow grave, the family and friends began to fill the grave with dirt and then the job was finished by this cemetery worker.

After the grave was filled, a worker immediately smoothed out a thin concrete cover the grave.

Mr. Austin Koleyoke (right, with white shirt), the president of the Nigerian association in Cambodia, then spoke to those who had come to the cemetery and thanked them for their presence and their tribute to their deceased brother.

A Sad Funeral

Recently one of our Nigerian parishioners was killed in an auto accident and today we had his funeral outside at the mortuary before driving to a burial site in a neighboring province. He leaves behind his Khmer wife and a five-month old son and a stepson.

Things to come…

This is the small chapel at St. Joseph Church where the English community will move in a week or two. We need to find a way to mount a projector and screen visible for the whole congregation, without destroying the esthetics of the chapel.

Staying alive

This is a mother selling some kind of confection outside the Boeung Keng Kang Market. Neighbors with more money rent a stall inside and pile it with clothes or shoes or backpacks or tools or…. This woman, with less money, gets up early, cooks deep-fried goodies, and sits OUTSIDE the market for free and makes a couple dollars a day for the family.

What Poor Looks Like

I’m always amazed here in Cambodia how many people make a living from trash. A man like this rents the bike and empty bags and then collects cans and cardboard and whatever he can sell to the recycling centers. On a good day he may make $3 to $5.

Motorcycle Loads #271

“See, I told you we didn’t need the truck!”

Telephoto Lenses Are Wonderful!

Much of the construction in Phnom Penh has ground to a halt because of all the difficulties created by COVID-19, and although it’s a Sunday afternoon, these men are still installing glass panels on the 19th floor of new building three blocks away from the Maryknoll office.

Topics: Traffic Rules

Minimum age for driving?

There doesn’t seem to be a minimum age for driving in Cambodia, or if there is one, it’s not observed. Click here to see photos of some of Phnom Penh’s younger drivers.

It’s going to be different!

We are going to have to move from our present hall where we celebrate mass to this small chapel at St. Joseph Church, probably in a couple weeks. We had planned the move at the beginning of the year but that was before social distancing started, so tonight after our 5:30 PM mass, we moved a bunch of chairs over to the chapel so we can arrange them tomorrow in different configurations to see how many people we can accommodate there with our new reality. [Thanks to all the parishioners who helped us move a chair or two!]