Author: Charles Dittmeier

Recreating what he grew up with

Most of Phnom Penh’s population has been transplanted from the rural provinces to the capital city. The saying goes: “You can take the person out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the person.” There are many illustrations of that adage around Phnom Penh where the now city dwellers try to recreate the fields, the plants, the flowers the way it was “back then.”

Why do they do it?

This is a shot driving in a tuk-tuk to St. Joseph Church this morning. Notice the two cars in front of us. One has his wheels on the left lane line and other has his wheels on the right lane line. They refuse to drive in the middle of the lane unless forced to by traffic. Why do they do that? My tuk-tuk driver is trying get his wheels on the left lane marker.

Women’s Day

Today we celebrated Women’s Day at DDP. I was there for the first hour before heading out to prepare for this afternoon’s mass for the English Catholic Community.

Some of the first arrivals just enjoying the opportunity to be together and use sign language.
Narith and Mano began preparing for lunch yesterday but then began the hard work this morning.
The first event is always singing the national anthem in sign language.
The emcee started things off with a recognition of those who had contributed their efforts to this day’s celebration.

Women’s Day Preparation

Saturday is DDP’s celebration of Women’s Day and our staff has been busy making preparations. Here Mano checks the wording on a display.
Sophy asks about the meaning of the words on this display which will be photo backdrop.
Some students get into the act also, putting together another display in their classroom.

Ash Wednesday 2025

Today we had our first Ash Wednesday service at the St. Jude Thaddeus School site. It was something of a test run to see how many people wanted to come, could find St. Jude School, and would brave the heat after a 97ºF afternoon. They came. We used basically every chair the school had and people were still standing.

In previous years we had two Ash Wednesday services, on opposite sides of town, but this year just the one gathering and it was crowded.

I told the priest to keep the homily short and he did.

Around the world, Ash Wednesday is one of the most well attended religious services and we certainly had an outpouring for our English Catholic Community.

Just follow the….?

None of these options are very good, but it seems the workmen who put down the yellow tactile tiles to guide blind people:
• had no idea what the yellow tiles are used for, OR,
• they knew the purpose of the special tiles but no one told them to go around the trees, OR,
• they just didn’t care that they were making life worse for blind people.

A surprise…

My birthday was last Saturday, a week ago, when I was in Bangkok to get a new visa. I didn’t think much about my birthday then and certainly not much since then, but today at the end of mass some of the parishioners surprised me with a cake!