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This is a scene that wasn’t possible when I first came to Cambodia. In 2000 there was one “tall” building and that was ten stories. Now we have this bank building and others that are 40+ stories tall and others are under construction to surpass that.
Today we had another of our bi-monthly priests meeting for all the clergy of the Phnom Penh vicariate (another name for a diocese in a mission country). We had a report on the trip to Myanmar by 126 people from the vicariate to see the pope there and then some time for prayer and then some business items. Then it was time for lunch together and Bishop Olivier (back to us) gave special recognition to the priests who have birthdays or ordination anniversaries this month.
This evening we had a blessing for the new Flavors of Saffron restaurant opened by a Pakistani refugee family who just recently arrived in Cambodia after fleeing religious persecution in their home country. I have worked with quite a few refugees in my years in Cambodia but have never seen a family work so hard and so fast to get themselves established and in control of their own lives.
The bishop’s house on the Mekong River, where we had our lay missioner meeting, offered a viewing point for fishing activity on the river. Click here for some photos of the people fishing and their boats.
Lay missioners in Cambodia from a variety of mission groups like Maryknoll and from a variety of countries meet regularly and today was the meeting for December. Click here for pictures of the Mekong River site and the activities.
“I never thought I’d say it, but rearview mirrors really can be useful!”
A couple days ago we had a photo of a woman with a scale she carried around, weighing people for a few cents each. Not far above her on the economic scale is this woman with a stack of khramas (scarves) and other cloths that she is selling. She probably pays a deposit for the cloths in the morning (and maybe rents the bicycle along with them) and then walks all day to sell a few items. Will she make two, three, four dollars in day? How much of that can she keep?
People working in the home-shop houses or working in different parts of the informal economy spend a lot of time waiting for customers. Earlier we saw pictures of those just staring or sleeping to pass the time. Here is another way some shopkeepers wait.
Cambodia is trying to get its economic ranking raised from low-income country to middle-income country, and by some standards, progress is being made. But then you see people like this woman. She rents a scale and then walks the streets all day hoping to weigh people who may give her 3¢ to 5¢ for the weighing. Here she is counting her money. Will she have enough to buy food at the end of the day?
We don’t get Christmas carols on the radio starting with Halloween (we don’t get ANY Christmas carols on the radio!) but we do get some decorations around the city. Today I was at St. Joseph Church in Phnom Penh and found workmen setting up a LARGE artificial tree and a grotto/ manger on the church grounds. I’m glad they do big, bold expressions of our Christian Christmas practice but, hey, it’s not even Advent yet. Couldn’t we wait a couple weeks to set all this up?
