Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
Most shops and stores are open to the elements in Phnom Penh and so shop owners need to consider how prolonged direct sunshine will affect their wares on display–and also their customers. Click here to see some ways the proprietors deal with the sun.
Couples for Christ is quite active in Cambodia—and throughout Asia–and today they had a Christian Life Seminar to encourage believers to live out their faith more fully. I gave the open talk in the two-day program, about Jesus and who he is.
In the eighteen years I have been in Cambodia, I have seen this man numerous times over the years. He is always dressed the same: shorts, no shirt, a hat, and flipflops. He carries a large bag and picks up recyclable trash like cardboard and plastic bottles. He can’t make much given the meager scale of his operations but he seems to get by.
The Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme doesn’t work in isolation. There is very little room to work with the government of Cambodia but DDP is always on the lookout for possibilities of working with other groups. This past week Sokly (R) and I met with representatives (old friends) of the UNDP, the UN Development Program, to look at possible collaboration on projects.
At the end of December, the Maryknoll Seedling of Hope project will close and the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme will move its offices and activities to the present Seedling grounds. Our usage of the property will be quite a bit different from at present so we have been going to Seedling to look at the grounds and buildings to determine how we can best utilize them.
Jim Wallis of Sojourners is a prophet for our time. Here he speaks to the midterm elections:
| “The horrifying, traumatic, and tragic deadly violence against Jews in Pittsburgh and African Americans in Kentucky last week, and the attempted assassinations of national political leaders and private citizens who have been critics of President Trump’s vitriol, have been clarifying. [These] elections are nothing less than a referendum on white nationalism in the United States….
President Donald Trump is deliberately and unashamedly using a political strategy of fear and hate — that can and has turned to violence. Without racial and hateful words of presidential political rhetoric with its anti-immigrant and refugee attacks, the Jews who are gone today might still be with us and their families. Our faith is offended by these assaults that contradict the biblical commands to love and protect our neighbors. Our conscience is seared by the lies and strategies of hateful politics that will lead to more and more violence in this country and put the soul of our nation in jeopardy. Words matter and hateful words do lead to violence. Our commitment to our brothers and sisters under attack will lead us to pray, stand, act, and vote against the politics of fear and hate, because of our faith and patriotism.” |
I was on the road to the airport by 6:00 AM this morning, flew out of Taipei at 8:45, and was back in Phnom Penh at 10:30 AM. Click here to see a few photos from an uneventful trip.
The day started out at the Franciscan retreat center, made a trip up into the mountains to a shrine, and then ended back in Taipei where the Hong Kong pilgrimage ended. Click here to see pictures from the various places.
After breakfast at the retreat center we board the bus for a long, twisting journey up into the mountains where we visited an aboriginal parish and ate with them. Then we came down the mountain, ate supper, and returned to the center for a second night. Click here to see the day’s journey.