Author: Charles Dittmeier

Apologies

Ugh… For the post immediately below this one, I was trying a new feature in WordPress that called for media and text together. In the editing stage, it looked NOTHING like the final published result with such large type! That’s the last time I’ll use that!

New Wheels

For many years the mainstay of local transportation was walking. Then wheeled vehicles appeared on the scene. Some day I’ll do a spread on the stages of development in transportation in Cambodia, but today I want to show the most recent transport mode: What in India is called an autorickshaw or an autorick.

They first appeared in Cambodia three or four years ago. imported from India, and immediately became very popular. One reason is that most of them run on LPG (liquid propane gas), not gasoline, and LPG is about half the price of gasoline. What that meant is that everyone who used to ride on the back of a motorcycle taxi can now ride in a motor tuk-tuk with more comfort, protection from the sun and rain, and no need to carry a helmet.

The Bajaj brand tuk-tuk was probably the first to be imported from India and remains the most common model in use in Phnom Penh.

The TVS model may be the second-most popular one on the streets. The models are all basically the same.

Piaggio may be the next most commonly seen model of the three-wheelers. Notice the more elaborate tail lights.

The Atul is the fourth of the original brands seen on the streets. Notice there isn’t the great need, as in car models, to be different and distinctive.

Dittmeier’s Own…

These Dittmeier’s Own postings are a series of photos of places I frequent and utilize here in Cambodia.

This is Jack, owner of Jack Repair Bicycle shop in Phnom Penh. He’s holding my bicycle on which he just put a new rear wheel after the rim somehow got bent. Jack’s shop is on my way to the Deaf Development Programme so it makes it very convenient to have repairs done. And he speaks excellent English which really helps when I’m trying to explain some bicycle quirk. (I don’t know where he got the name Jack. Maybe some customer called him that? It certainly isn’t a Cambodian name).

Moving in…

Most of the staff were off from work today, making use of their remaining days of annual leave, but students from our barber shop came to help the maintenance man in our new building. Probably a whiteboard is going on that wall.

Not so fast….

We moved a lot of office furniture and boxes to our new building but we have been slow in unpacking and setting up the new office configurations. Mostly that is due to moving at the end of the year when a lot of staff are taking days off, using their annual leave.

Mass on Christmas Day

For mass on Christmas morning, we moved from the small chapel (where we can seat only 100 persons) to the large upstairs church used by the Khmer community. We had to bring in chairs because they sit on mats on the floor and we had to take off our shoes as they do, but it was a very comfortable worship space that enabled us to welcome more people.

The Khmer community had copiously decorated the sanctuary for their own liturgy before ours.
In Khmer masses where the people sit on the floor, the priest presides from a sitting position instead of the usual standing position.
The sanctuary area of this church is very “busy” visually.
The Christmas crib or creche was a bit different. Made from 25-lb bags of rice, it looked something like a military bunker.

Preparing to move

We are moving our office from one building on our compound to another building and it has been a slow and complicated process. There have been delays getting the new building ready and it has taken a lot of time to empty cabinets and pack materials for the short journey.

Here the sign language department prepares materials for the move which is planned by the end of the month.