Charles Dittmeier – Page 37 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

Supper is ready…

A large percentage of the Cambodian population gets supper from the street, partly because it’s cheap and convenient, and partly because it avoids lighting a charcoal fire in a clay pot which is the way most people cook at home. Here this food stall offers grilled fish.

New Church: It’s coming….

The detail work inside the new church is continuing but they are also getting serious now about the landscaping and drainage.

Steamed Snails

When you’re hankering for steamed snails in the U.S., you probably have to look around a bit before you find a shop that sells them. Not so in Phnom Penh! And at this shop, you don’t even have to get off your motorcycle to buy them!

A really big sewer…

Look at the size of these storm drain sewer pipe sections being laid on the street by the Deaf Development Programme! The channel is more than 7 feet tall! It takes a lot of these sections to drain a block of street but they can really remove the water!

Job Coaching 3

Today was the final day of the job coaching training. Kevin Cook presented a lot of good material in these three days. Now the challenge for all the Caritas Cambodia projects is to utilize that information in strengthening our support of appropriate employment for people with disabilities.

The group discussions throughout the training were short and focused and everyone participated.

Many, the director of a large autism school, reflected on how they could implement Kevin’s ideas.

At the end of this third day, Kim Ratana, the Caritas Cambodia director, presented certificates to all who participated.

Job Coaching 2

Kim Ratana, the director of Caritas Cambodia, offers some comments on the training the Caritas projects are undergoing.

Job Coaching

Caritas Cambodia has organized a training on job coaching for this week, inviting all the Caritas projects that involve people with disabilities. Mr. Kevin Cook, an American now resident in Thailand, is teaching the theory and practice of successfully finding appropriate employment for people with physical and intellectual disabilities.

The training was originally scheduled for five days but then the government threw a wrench in the works by declaring yesterday a holiday on three days’ notice which necessitated shortening the time with Kevin to three days.

The style of the training involves a lot of interaction and discussion in the table groups and then quick summaries of their thought and ideas.

A commitment

Today Sr. Bernadette Pheng Sreymom professed her perpetual vows as a Salesian sister. The ceremony was in Kampong Cham, her home province, and many people from Phnom Penh and other provinces came to show their support and appreciation.

For the ceremony large tents were set up to accommodate the hundreds of sister colleagues and friends from the north and south of Cambodia.

I believe Sr. Bernadette is the second Cambodian young woman to become a Salesian sister. She is assigned to the Tuol Kork community so I have known her there where I go for mass on Monday mornings.

A very joyous group gathered to be with Sr. Bernadette as she took her final vows.

Bishop Suon Hangly, the prefect of the Kampong Cham diocese, received Sr. Bernadette’s vows for the church.

Progress, but slow….

The construction at the new St. Joseph Church is continuing but there isn’t much dramatic change from week to week. There is some landscaping of the plot around the church going on but the real work is inside now.

One Window Service

A much-publicized initiative of the Cambodian government a couple years ago was to start what they call “one window service,” that is, being able to accomplish one of the many bureaucratic tasks the citizens endure in one trip to one window rather than being shunted from office to office for one or many days.

This woman embraces the same principle in getting her coffee in front of the one window office: she doesn’t even need to get off her motorcycle