Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
Maryknoll Lay Missioners work on 3 1/2 year contracts and the end of her contract is approaching for Karen Bortvedt who was assigned to Cambodia and has been working (with great success!) at the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme. This evening the Maryknoll community along with a few friends of Maryknoll had a little social to officially say goodbye to Karen. She will be missed!
Sam Stanton (L) is the executive director of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners. He and his wife Cecilia are long-term members of Maryknoll Lay Missioners and are taking an extended spiritual renewal that took them to India, Sri Lanka, and now Cambodia. They arrived in Phnom Penh today and this evening attended our weekend mass at World Vision. Here they talk with parishioner Tommy Boukhris (blue shirt), Sami Scott, and Russ Brine after mass.
I’ve mentioned before that I can only identify some seasons by the fruits that are available. This vendor has a yellowish fruit just come into season. I don’t know what it is but it’s something like a guava. Just for good measure, she is also carrying a box of apples.
Today it was time to travel back to our mission countries. I got up at 3:40 AM to catch an early flight back to Phnom Penh. Click here for a few final scenes from Bangkok.
We managed to fit the rest of our agenda into an extended morning session, so after finishing our business, I made an unplanned trip to look for some computer-related supplies before coming back for supper and preparing for the return to Cambodia tomorrow. Click here to see the day’s happenings.
Today the ten of us from six countries got down to work at this meeting of Maryknoll’s South Asia grouping. We had a full day of good discussions. Click here to see some of the action.
Every year Maryknoll priests and brothers in South Asia get together. The March, 2017 meeting is in Bangkok, Thailand. Click here for pictures of what was a travel day for those attending the meeting. [This photo is a motorcycle wagon full of furniture, pulled up the sidewalk in early morning Phnom Penh, hoping for some sales.]
Cambodia’s luxury woods end up not only in more common (although unwieldy) furniture such as tables and chairs, but even the odd-shaped stumps and remnants of tree trunks have great value as they are fashioned into all sorts of art objects. Click here to see some and then scroll down to #11. (I think this is enough about wood for a while so I’ll move on to other topics.)
Some of the heavy, culturally-important wooden furniture is sold in shops. A great deal is also sold on the streets of the big cities. Probably produced in rural workshops, it is brought to the city for sale. Click here to see some of the wares on the street, and then scroll down to #9.
