Author: Charles Dittmeier

Unexpected Twists and Turns

Yesterday I came back from Bangkok and was planning to post about Day 2 in the city there but when I got home there were a multitude of disruptions that prevented me from getting to this website.

The same happened again today.  I was preparing this evening to start work on a post here and Mother Teresa’s sisters called and asked me to take a mass for them across town early tomorrow morning.  That meant I had to prepare a homily so that shot the website again.

I’ll get something posted tomorrow, though!

Not So Good…

Yesterday I promised a post here, from the guest house in Bangkok, if everything was going OK.  Well, it’s not going OK so I’m going to have to leave it at this short notice and hope the new guest house tomorrow has better wi-fi.

On the Road Again

Tomorrow I have a meeting of all the Phnom Penh priests in the morning and then head from there to the airport for a trip to Bangkok for a medical exam.  If all goes well, I’ll be able to post here tomorrow from the Bangkok Christian Guest House where most Maryknollers stay.

Fresh from the Oven

When I was a kid, the Tastee Bread company trucks—emblazoned with the slogan “Baked while you sleep”—rumbled around early-morning Louisville delivering bread to the grocery stores.   This woman’s bread is also probably baked while everyone is sleeping, but she doesn’t have any truck with a logo and has to be content with singing out “Num bung,” the Khmer word for bread, to alert her customers.

And Then There’s Coconuts

Different fruits can mark the change of seasons in Cambodia but not coconuts.  They’re available all year round and just about everywhere.  There are cheap, nutritious, and delicious so they are a favorite with much of the population.  Here are three coconut vendors along Street 63 in Phnom Penh.

From the vendors’ point of view, the downside of coconuts is that they are big, heavy, and bulky and you can’t stack them like you can cases of beer.  The white coconuts have had the green outer hull cut off, mainly for a better-looking product although cutting off the hull also helps the coconuts to chill faster when you throw them into the ubiquitous orange coolers.

Now It’s Pineapples….

Quite a few fruits are in season now.  Today I saw pineapples being sold on the streets.  Vendors like these tend to stay on the outskirts of the city, probably because it’s closer to home in the rural areas and probably because the police hassle them less there for bribes.

This man has diversified a little. In addition to the pineapples, he is selling giant snails in the tubs on the ground.

World Refugee Day: A Wise President

“I esteem foreigners no better than other people–nor any worse.  They are all of the great family of men, and if there is one shackle upon any of them it would be far better to lift the load from them than to pile additional loads upon them.  And inasmuch as the continent of America is comparatively a new country, and the other countries of the world are old countries, there is more room here, comparatively speaking, than there is elsewhere; and if they can better their condition by leaving their old homes, there is nothing in my heart to forbid them coming, and I bid them all God speed.”

Abraham Lincoln                          13 February 1861