Charles Dittmeier – Page 25 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

“I can do that….”

This is Siphal, office manager for the Maryknoll office which closed two weeks ago. He worked for Maryknoll for more than 30 years. When I moved out of the office ten days ago, I moved into a second house Siphal built ten years ago. It’s more than I need but my stay there should be temporary.

Siphal was so helpful over the years! He knew where places were, how to get there, how much to pay, how much to bribe the officials–and how to fix things. Here he is installing a new water pump for the house. The short vertical connection had 21 valves, connectors, angles, and pieces of pipe. He sketched it on paper, eyeballed it, and then proceeded to cut and assemble everything without ever once making a measurement with a tape or ruler. Quite a valuable man for Maryknoll over the years!

Weather Alert

You know you’re not in Kansas anymore when the weather department issues an alert because the temperature will drop as low as 18ºC. That’s 64.4ºF.

No Sun for Me!

Today the temperature was in the low 90ºs but this young woman was all bundled up, exposing no skin to that evil sun that would darken her complexion.

Wednesday change

For 30-something years, the Maryknoll Cambodia Mission Team met every Wednesday for a business meeting, a liturgy, and then a meal together. Now that the Maryknoll Cambodia NGO has been closed and we no longer have an office to meet in, it was decided that those who are interested could continue to meet and Maria and Kila volunteered their apartment as a venue.

Our liturgy and meal today was special because Tony (standing, L) is leaving on Saturday to return to his teaching in Australia. (L-R: Julie, Cristina, Tony, Regina, Bro. Tony, Brian)

Epiphany 2024

Every year the bishop hosts an Epiphany gathering for lay leaders in the parishes and the sisters and brothers and priests. There are some performances, the bishop’s talk, and then a dinner together. Here are some scenes from this year’s event.

Every Cambodian event starts with a traditional dance. This one was unusual in that the “male” dancers (without skirts) are actually young women.

A second dance featured a man and a woman in elaborate bird costumes.

Bishop Olivier is known for his non-traditional clerical clothes made with Cambodian materials and styling.

Another year gone…

This was the scene after our Saturday night Epiphany mass as some of the parishioners packed up the Christmas crib figures for another year. Next week is the Baptism of Jesus so we are finished with our creche at the DK Meeting Centre where we have our Saturday masses. After our Sunday mass tomorrow morning, at St. Joseph Church, their liturgy people will take care of dismantling that crib.

Lightning

Asian countries seem to have a real problem with lightning. This past year 84 people were killed by lightning in Cambodia, 59 others were injured, and 107 cattle were killed. This compares to an average of about 30 people per year killed by lightning in the United States with a population of 330 million compared to Cambodia’s 16 million. Of course, though, most of Cambodia’s people spend a good part of their life outdoors.

Coffee and Doughnuts

Before Covid, we had coffee and doughnuts once a month at our St. Joseph Church liturgy on Sunday mornings. Covid put an end to that but on Christmas Day our volunteers resurrected the event. It went well for a first time and we’ll have to make it a regular feature.