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Today Keat Sokly (standing) and I, as co-directors of the Deaf Development Programme, went to Kampot Province to our center there. Our unhappy task was to explain to the staff there that our project in Kampot will be reduced in size in 2019 because of budget cuts by funders and some of the staff will lose their jobs.
Today we celebrated International Deaf Day in Cambodia and many deaf people came to spend the day or part of it with their deaf friends, playing games or just talking and catching up. Click here to see some photos from Deaf Day.
It’s not unusual to see women in Cambodia carrying something on their heads, but usually it’s a tray of peanuts or some snack for sale. This woman looks like she’s moving house.
At the end of this year, Maryknoll’s Seedling of Hope HIV/AIDS project will close and the Deaf Development Programme will move to the Seedling office building and grounds. Today the management of DDP visited Seedling with the landlord of the property to discuss the transition. A large fish pond is one of the notable features of the grounds.
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Cryptocurrency, that supposedly revolutionary and transformative technology: “if its rate of growth continues, by next year Bitcoin alone will account for the same level of carbon output as the entire United States.” ~ James Bridle in The New Yorker (September, 2018) |
Today Ratanak (standing) came back to the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme to talk to our deaf Year 2 students. Ratanak went through our Education Project and Job Training Project and became a barber, and now has a successful barbershop in Kandal Province. He spoke to the students of coming to DDP and getting education and training and how that has changed his life. He was a great inspirational speaker for our students.
They may seem redundant in age in which almost everyone has a smartphone with a camera, but Phnom Penh has street photographers around some tourist attractions who can give a printed picture fast enough for tourists who need to get back on the tour bus. Click here to see some of the operators.
This is the scene every Sunday morning when I cross town to go to St. Joseph Church for the 10:00 AM mass. The police wait at certain intersections and grab people for mostly imagined offenses. The policeman at the SUV is waiting for his payoff and the woman and her child are pulling over so she can come up with some money.