Author: Charles Dittmeier

Water Festival

Today is the second day of the Water Festival, a three-day holiday extravaganza. More than a million people come from the provinces to Phnom Penh to watch the annual boat races.

350 boats representing towns and villages all over Cambodia are brought to Phnom Penh to race against each other. More than 20,000 men–with a few women–paddle the boats along a 2-kilometer course.
Lots and lots of people crowd the waterfront for the races. Pigeons, too!

UNDP Validation Workshop

The United Nations Development Programme has been conducting an analysis of the situation of deaf people in Cambodia. Today there was a workshop to review the initial findings and offer comments and corrections.

Mr. Sit Song, a director at UNDP, welcomed all the participants from the deaf community, NGOs, and government offices.
Nino, an external consultant hired to conduct the analysis, presented the preliminary findings.
Charlie offered an observation about the role of government after part of the presentation.

Too Early

One of the disadvantages of not having our own church and needing to borrow a hall from a school is that we cannot control the environment and the factors that can support good liturgy. Last Saturday I cringed when I walked into the hall and saw they had already erected a Christmas tree, six weeks before Christmas and even before Thanksgiving and Advent!

Listening to Isaiah

Today Couples for Christ, a lay group that tries to put its Christian faith into action, had a conference with a theme suggested by the prophet Isaiah–being a servant in service of God and being a light for others through our service.

First the group had some song of praise and worship together, then Fr. Charlie gave a talk on Isaiah 49:6, and then there was a “boodle fight,” a Filipino creation–eating a line of food (vegetables, rice, fish, meats, spring rolls, etc.) without plates or utensils. Everyone wears two plastic gloves and eats with their hands. An interesting experience for this Kentucky boy!

Power Cut at DDP

We have intensive Deaf Leadership Training going on at DDP but it was interrupted Friday by a power cut.

The leadership training couldn’t continue with their agenda that required a projector but Soknym, our director, met with the group outside.
The Year 1 and Year 2 classes also moved outdoors. The power was off about an hour.

Raymond Leos Funeral

Last Friday, Dr. Raymond Leos, vice president of American University of Phnom Penh, died suddenly. Today at the school there was a funeral service in English. Tomorrow there will be a Buddhist ceremony at the pagoda. Raymond was a member of our Sunday English Catholic Community.