Charles Dittmeier – Page 39 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

Sheesh….

I clicked on some notification from Facebook about someone contacting me and found I had dozens (hundreds?) of comments that people made in response to my Facebook posts. I had no idea they had come in.

If you made a comment on my Facebook page and I didn’t reply, I’m sorry! It was an oversight.

Notable Quote

Many people say that we need the death penalty in order to have “justice for the victims.”

But so many family members of murder victims say over and over that the death penalty is not what they want. It mirrors the evil. It extends the trauma. It does not provide closure. It creates new victims… it is revenge, not justice.

Killing is the problem, not the solution.
Shane Claiborne / Sojourners

Lay Mission Meeting

The lay missioners from mission-sending groups from various countries get together each month in a type of support group. This month they met at the MEP house on the Bassac River.

The session started with a prayer/reflection session in the chapel.

Then there was a break while a projector was set up.

The business part of the meeting was on a large outdoor porch overlooking the Bassac River.

Sr. Pilar, who runs an NGO for women abused and at risk, explained her program.

We concluded our afternoon with a networking activity.

Fruit Stand

A fruit stall at the Sansam Kosal Market.

Well!

I’m embarrassed… I wasn’t able to access the Internet everyday on my trip to the US for the funeral of my sister Ann, but I was taking photos so I could give a summary when I returned. Well….I’ve returned but I’ve lost the photos! I downloaded them from the camera but I don’t know where I put them on my laptop! I’ll find them… Hang on!

On the road…

Greetings… I am on my way to the Phnom Penh airport to head to Louisville, Kentucky for the funeral of my sister Ann Dittmeier who died yesterday. I fly through Seoul, San Francisco, and Houston before getting to Kentucky–about a 35-hour trip. I won’t be able to update the website here until I arrive in Louisville.

Ann Dittmeier

My sister Ann Marie died today in Louisville, Kentucky. It was rather unexpected. Ann was eating lunch and had a seizure and died. I am the oldest of the eight brothers and sisters and Ann was the oldest of the sisters. This picture of Ann and me is from a Christmas probably in the late 1960s.

It’s STILL here!

This is water, more than ankle deep, still along a street in Boeung Tum Pun. It collected there in a monster rain storm on MONDAY. Think we have a drainage problem?

Notable Quotes

“What you are is God’s gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.”
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Swiss theologian

It’s still here…

The day after the big rainstorm, a woman with a broom in the Boeung Tum Pun area attempts the hopeless task of moving flood water in her street. There’s no place for it to go. The sewer systems weren’t designed for it. Note the concrete drainage pipes lined up to be installed, though. Maybe this time next year there won’t be so much flooding.