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This morning I was walking back from the Diakonia Center after paying for renting their venue for our Christmas Eve service and I walked past Tuol Sleng, the genocide museum. Along and on the outer wall of the museum, they are building this structure, a simple frame with sheet metal over it. I haven’t any idea what it will be when it’s finished. There is nothing on that northern wall of Tuol Sleng, no gates or anything, and I can’t imagine what this little slanted ledge will do.
The post on Christmas Day had a bad link because I forgot to “publish” the page that the link went to. It’s working now if you want to back to Christmas Day and click there again. Sorry!
Many countries utilize tuk-tuks (motorcycle-pulled wagons or bench seats) for local transportation and Cambodia definitely has its share of them. Click here to see how the styles have started to evolve.
You’ve been reading about the hot spot in the Pacific near New Zealand and the very high temperatures in Australia and the flood waters in Venice. Well, things are pretty bad here, too. In the article above, the government weather bureau is “warning” people that the temperature is going down to 17º to 19ºC. That is 62.5º to 66.2ºF! So there! Things are difficult here, too!
Large-scale storm sewer construction is going on around Phnom Penh and it’s actually starting to show results. Some areas of the city that used to flood two or three times a week during the rainy season now may flood only a couple times in a month. Phnom Penh is not so good at doing road work: the locals don’t know how to notify the community of the work, how to reroute traffic from streets that are dug up, how to finish a job in three or four days instead of three or four months, etc., but at least there is some progress.
Christmas is a work day in Cambodia but at supper time the Maryknoll Cambodia Mission Team got together with several friends who pray with us every Wednesday and we had a delightful dinner together.
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I forgot to arrange for photos at the Christmas morning mass today but click here for photos from traveling across the city on Christmas Day.
Being a Buddhist country and culture, there is very little Cambodian appreciation of Christmas in the religious sense, but as happens with so many Western holidays and celebrations, the commercial aspect comes into play. Few people could identify Christmas as the celebration of the birth of Jesus but those same people would buy red “Santa suits” to dress up their children. They become especially popular for “international” schools which have Christmas programs to prove they are international which is the label that attracts parents. Here are some photos of shops selling the Santa clothes.
Click here for photos from a string of small family-owned bicycle shops along Street 107 in Phnom Penh. (This is where I bought my bicycle.) And the pictures are just of one side of the street!
