Author: Charles Dittmeier

The students suffer

[From the Khmer Times}

Education is Cambodia in normal times is generally uneven and inadequate, and Covid made the situation worse. The schools were closed a year and a half and an attempt at online learning was not effective. A good number of students don’t have electricity much less a computer or smartphone or wi-fi connection.

The current school year began late, in January, 2023, and it was anticipated that the new year would start in January, 2024. Schools were preparing for that schedule. Suddenly the government announces this school year will end three weeks into November and the new school year starts December 1st.

This throws the planning of NGOs and groups supporting education really out of whack. Maryknoll has a month-long program to help older students catch up and adjust to the curriculum after missing so much school but now that has to be dropped. The kids suffer….

Sambo

When I first came to Phnom Penh, one of the institutions of the capital city was Sambo the elephant who spent the day at Wat Phnom giving rides for tourists. That was his life until he was retired in 2014 to an elephant refuge in the mountains where he spent the last nine years of his life in peace until he died this past week.

Sambo would daily trek along the busy streets from the park where he stayed to the wat.
One Sunday I was at Wat Phnom for some event and Sambo came by. I was talking with the Australian Ambassador and some colleague offered her a ride on Sambo. I don’t like the idea of using animals that way but she needed someone to accompany her so I had my only elephant ride that day.

CACD meeting

Today we had the quarterly meeting of the Catholic Alliance for Charity and Development, the organization of the Cambodian Catholic Church’s social service agencies.

There were two main topics on the agenda today. Here Joseph from Caritas Australia presents the context of the strategic planning for CACD that is now taking place. That was followed by a reporting by Rozet on research on autism in Cambodia that has been done by CCAMH.

It’s different…

One of the quirky things about Cambodia is the placement of wall plugs. Probably the majority of wall plugs are located at eye level as part of the light switch beside the doorway. This fan plug is located above desktop level (maybe so a desk computer could be connected to it?). Most people, though, I think would prefer to have their wires under the desk rather than hanging from the wall in front of them. But Cambodia thinking is different in many ways.

Too much water…

For these two kids wading through water that was up their knees further back was fun. This was after a twenty-minute rain. That’s Boeung Tum Pun….
For this man, the water starting to submerge his engine block was too much, and he started turning around to back toward the white truck. I had been planning to bicycle through the water until I saw him turning around and realized how deep it was.

Getting Around

Here is a hybrid vehicle that is efficient and not too expensive for getting mom and dad around town. It’s not a tuk-tuk and not a golf cart but something in between. It wouldn’t be street legal in the United States but, hey, this is Cambodia.