Author: Charles Dittmeier

Fr. Ponchaud Funeral

Fr. François Ponchaud died two weeks ago in France. He first came to Cambodia in 1965 and was the major influence in rebuilding the Catholic Church in the kingdom after the Khmer Rouge.

Today there was a funeral service for Fr. Ponchaud at St. Joseph Church. At the beginning, before the bishop and priests processed in, there was a ten-minute video about his life and work in Cambodia. I was pleased to see the Khmer church using the video system that our English Catholic Community installed. They have not taken advantage of it previously. Each Sunday there are masses at St. Joseph in Khmer at 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM with an English mass at 10:30 AM.

Deaf Awareness at U.S. Embassy

Today a team of young deaf people from the Deaf Leadership Training Project offered a deaf awareness training to some staff of the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh. It took a lot of organization and planning but turned out quite well.

Phones and photos were not permitted inside the embassy but afterwards we took a photo outside the embassy. As mark of appreciation, the embassy staff gave each of the DDP team a cap with an American flag and the words “U.S. Embassy Phnom Penh.”

Lunar New year #9

Today is the second day of the three main Lunar New Year days. Yesterday was a day for visiting parents. Today it’s the sisters and brothers who get visited.

It’s OK to have new year decorations still for sale in the shops–but what happens in a couple days when definitely no one is going to be buying anything like this? Can you pack up and save for a year decorations like the lanterns?

Lunar New Year’s Eve

Today is new year’s eve for the lunar new year and it is a BIG day for the families that celebrate it. Like Americans needing to be home for Thanksgiving, everyone MUST be home for the reunion dinner on new year’s eve. 100+ million Chinese people have been traveling the last couple days to make it home today.

But for those in Phnom Penh who did not need to travel, it was a day for putting out offerings for the spirits of the ancestors.

This machine shop set out a large array of fruits and drinks and bread.
This business’ arrangement wasn’t quite as large but was done with real care.
Here two shops, side-by-side, put out offerings on chairs set on the edge of the street.
Amid all the offerings from family shops, this family just put out a small arrangement with fruit and candles.

Lunar New Year #5

The apartment complex, where a donor is letting me live free so the money I was paying for rent in another place can go to the deaf program, is also getting into the new year spirit with big displays of chrysanthemums. In Asia, the Lunar/Chinese New Year is like Christmas–you don’t have to be Christian or believe in Santa Claus to celebrate the holiday.

Air Quality in Phnom Penh

The past couple days I noticed there was more haze in the sky and distant buildings were harder to see but I didn’t notice any difference in breathing. But now the paper says two days ago Phnom Penh (arrow) was the second most air-polluted city in the world, behind only Dhaka, Bangladesh. Today the visibility is much greater and the air quality number is 84, much lower than the previous 190+. Air pollution is not something Phnom Penh is noted for.

Lunar New Year #4

This Vietnamese restaurant created some distinctive, non-traditional lunar new year decorations to adorn a tree at their establishment. The lunar new year, aka Chinese New Year for many people, is called Tet in Vietnam.