Author: Charles Dittmeier

The sun is down, it’s starting to get dark, there’s a light rain falling–and it’s time to start grilling meat at a street stall near Tuol Sleng, the Khmer Rouge torture center.

“We’re still under the wires.  Throw a few more on top!”

In other countries, one would think the guy in the chair is just playing around while his buddy finishes loading the wagon.  In Cambodia, he’s probably telling the buddy “OK, I’m ready.  Let’s go!”

Can you pick out any violations or accidents waiting to happen in this picture?

• None of the motorcyclists are wearing a helmet.
• The little boy is standing in front of his mother on the second motorcycle.
• Two workers are standing on the rail of the motorcycle wagon or on top of the load.
• The far motorcyclist is using the phone while driving.  (But it’s only his left hand, the brake hand, so it doesn’t matter.)

This is 6:00 AM in the morning and everyone knows traffic rules don’t apply early in the morning.  Also the police don’t work on weekends so why worry?

One of the minor anomalies for me in Phnom Penh is the location of a bunch of small shops selling mussels and clams.  They are located on the northern edge of the city, about as far away from the river as you can get, and I’m curious how they established that location for that product.  These mussels pictured are rather big compared to the thumbnail-size ones that are sold from carts pushed around the streets.  The small ones are a favorite snack of the locals.  I’m not tempted by the mussels and clams, partly because they are generally eaten raw and partly because they come from the Mekong River and I don’t want to even put my foot in that much less eat something that lives in it.  Phnom Penh is a city of more than a million people and has almost no sewage treatment.  Guess where the raw sewage goes?

This is a really encouraging happening, a group of young people down on the Phnom Penh riverfront picking up trash.  The littering landscape here is like it was in Kentucky in the 1940s and 50s.  People then threw paper, bottles, cigarettes, etc., out the car window or just dropped trash on the street as they walked along.  Then came the Don’t Be a Litterbug campaign.  Change didn’t happen overnight but anyone throwing trash on a street in the US today knows it’s wrong.  Most people don’t know that here so it’s heartening to see this group setting a good public example by picking up after others.

“The coolers at the top aren’t heavy but they kinda catch the wind….!”

A utility pole in Phnom Penh, outside Mother Teresa’s sisters’ home for infants, complete with a pair of denim shorts hanging at the bottom.   How would you like to be a lineman/woman here?