Author: Charles Dittmeier

Right-to-Left???

Writing in Cambodia is distinctive in several ways. For one, just writing anything in an alphabet that has 77 letters can be rather daunting.

But written Khmer is written left to right, like English. So it’s a curiosity why so many businesses and establishments number the sections of their security fences from right to left. It’s not a one-off phenomenon. Most places with fences with numbering do that. (The fence sections are put up every evening to protect the building and then taken down and put away in the morning; but that’s a whole other story.)

Disappointing….

Coming from a German background and a family where Mom baked cakes, cookies, or pies every week, for me the cakes in Cambodia are a real disappointment. They are created for visual effect rather than good eating. Who needs play money, huge candles, and two Spidermen on a cake–and especially when the icing is like whipped lard?

Holiday Activity

Two government holidays fell back to back yesterday and today, and to keep our resident students occupied and interested, they took a ferry across the Mekong River yesterday and today worked together to cook a special holiday dish. Here they are this afternoon grinding, chopping, boiling, frying, and combining all sorts of yummy ingredients.

Still going strong

For thirty years, the Maryknoll community met every Wednesday for a meeting and a liturgy and a dinner together–and for celebrations for special events like birthdays. The Maryknoll NGO is no longer in Cambodia but some of those formed by Maryknoll’s long tradition of weekly meetings continue to gather each Wednesday.

Today was a birthday celebration for those born in May and we honored (L to R) Binh, Cristina, Kila, and Robert.

All part of the job

Last week I was handling English and French correspondence from the prime minister and the king as they sent condolences to our bishop.about the death of Pope Francis.

Today I was overseeing the pumping out of our DDP septic tank.

Height of the Season

If you like mangoes–my favorite fruit!–it’s a great time to be alive. We are at the peak of the mango season and they are everywhere. Mango trees appear on almost every household lot and right now many, many people have many, many mangoes. People are giving them away and dealers like this one above are selling a kilogram (2.2 lbs.) for 75ยข. Love it!

Gaining experience–and confidence

Today I finished a meeting early and stopped in our DDP barbershop to look presentable again. The young deaf man on the left is a new barber trainee and he was a bit terrified to work on me, the boss! The trainer (R) was there, though, so he took on the challenge and did a good job. The worst part of the new barber trainees is that in their fear and caution, they are very slow!