Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
Johnny Ng (R) is a deaf man from Singapore whom I have know for 30+ years. He met Sophors (L) and his wife Sreytin at a Catholic deaf meeting in Indonesia last year and they arranged for Johnny to visit Phnom Penh. Tonight after our mass, we went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant.
When I first started flying to Bangkok in 1980s, the old Don Muang airport was a bit dowdy but served well. Then the new Suvarnabhumi Airport was build, relegating Don Muang to a domestic and no-frills airport.
Coming back from Bangkok last, there is now a no-frills S terminal at Suvarnabhumi and it is top-notch. It’s got all the shops and glitz and gardens. Just no people. It just opened and the carriers haven’t moved all their flights there.
It’s nice but it took almost twenty minutes to get there, even with a train ride, from the main Suvarnabhumi terminal.
I don’t like to cook–and don’t even have a stove in my house, just a microwave. Cambodia has many of these food stalls–simple shops set up on the street where a woman or a family cooks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or more big pots of what the Cambodians call “food,” i.e., something to be eaten with rice which in Cambodian culture is NOT food.
Once every week or so, I go to a food stall near my house and lift the lids of the six pots there to see what has been prepared. I look for things I might like and also look for the chopped red chilies in a pot. Those pots I REALLY avoid.
I tell the cook I want enough food for four people and give her a plastic box to put it in and then I ask for enough rice for four people and give another plastic box for that. Then I go home and each night of the week I eat the same thing fired up in the microwave. Supper for five nights costs me $6.25.
Sami Scott is a Maryknoll Lay Missioner who formerly worked in Venezuela and Cambodia and is now assigned to Haiti. Because of the unrest and violence there, she has had to leave Haiti and is now on a visit to Cambodia.
Then our group, coming from eight different countries, had a pizza dinner.
More engaging and certainly more colorful than my making macaroni and cheese on Sunday was our celebration of Pentecost with the combined Khmer, Vietnam, French, Korean, and English communities.
38 mostly young people received the sacrament of confirmation at the Pentecost mass. It is the tradition here for those being confirmed to wear red and white traditional dress.
Several adults from the Korean community received confirmation, and afterwards all the Koreans present gathered for a photo with Bishop Olivier.
I’m not much of a cook. Going to the seminary at age 14 put a real crimp in my culinary skills. For lunch every day I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an apple. For dinner, once a week I buy four or five servings of some dish at a rice street stall and eat the same thing every night for a week.
Occasionally, though, I might get curious and try something–if it’s simple enough. I love macaroni and cheese and heard that it was simple so I gave it a try this evening. My big problem: I don’t have a stove, just a microwave and a hot water kettle. I just heated some water, dropped the macaroni in for 8 or 9 minutes (not really cooking it like the box calls for), and it all turned out well and added a little fillip to my nightly offering from the rice stall.
Ms. Miwako Fujiwara is a professional pianist, composer, and musical organizer, and last weekend she presented her 12th charity concert at the Sofitel Hotel.
The theme for this concert was Europe Day and each of the selections came from one of the countries of the European Union.
Miwako always invites the staff of DDP to attend the concerts and usually some of our deaf staff are part of our group. They don’t always receive and appreciate the full musical experience but they enjoy meeting others and here they were enjoying some croissants and pastries at the break.
This evening we had a farewell reception for U.S. Ambassador Patrick Murphy and his wife Kathleen. He has been an exceptional ambassador–his terms was extended twice–and the Khmer press is crediting his tenure for real improvements in Khmer-American relations.
After greeting everyone individually, the ambassador gave his prepared remarks and they were one of the best speeches I have heard in my entire life. He was so positive and affirming and came across as so sincere.
Fr. Kevin and I have known the ambassador through our contacts at mass and were invited to the reception. Standing next to me is the Ambassador to Timor Leste who was recently appointed as dean of the ambassadors. He too comes to our weekend masses.
In the past, a must-do on every trip to Bangkok was a visit to Panthip Plaza, a large multi-storey mall filled with computer vendors. Covid basically wiped out Panthip Plaza, though, and like so many other businesses, it has not seen a return of all the former vendors nor the former customers.
Previously five floors of computer, printers, and every imaginable accessory attracted customers like me looking for gadgets. On my trip to Bangkok last week, I made a trip to Panthip Plaza where now the top two floors are partially refilled with computer shops while the bottom three floors are vacant.
Before, many of the shops were just open areas with cardboard boxes full of all sorts of accessories spread over the total floor area. Now more of the shops are more formally arranged and there is not nearly the foot traffic there used to be. I was able to find what I was looking for, though–an extra power supply for an Asus laptop.
This is Street 53BT in Boeung Tum Pun where I live and this is the flood I stepped out of my house into when we got the first rain of the season a few days ago. April and May are the two hottest months in Cambodia and they were REALLY hot this year. This overnight rain helped to bring the temperature under 100ºF.