Charles Dittmeier – Page 63 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

Deaf Week Preparation

International Deaf Week for DDP begins next Monday and several afternoons this week some of the staff have been busy preparing materials for games and decorations.

The last couple years the power situation in Phnom Penh improved but recently–in 2022–things have taken a turn for the worse. We have had more and more outages, some of them several hours long. We had one yesterday that lasted about 40 minutes and it turned out it was because of the above snake. He paid the ultimate price for inconveniencing a large part of the city.

Getting Ready

This woman is hanging a bunch of plastic rain ponchos on the outside of her drinks cart because the darkening sky says rain is coming–and there are always plenty of motorcycle people without rain gear.

DK Centre Mass

Recently we started our Saturday evening mass in a new venue. With our smaller crowd now post-Covid, we are able to use the DK Centre on the south side of Phnom Penh where many of our parishioners live. Click here to see how we celebrate there.

Where’s the boss?

Two employees waiting for the shop to open in the morning.

Street Food

Street food is a major part of life in Phnom Penh. Some of the little stands and stalls and carts are available only in the morning, others only at night, some all day long.

Here is a woman making some morning treat out on the street. Notice the charcoal fire, the main way of cooking in Cambodia.

I’m not sure what it is that the woman was steaming. It looks like it’s rice but there must be something special about it, particularly because it’s served in such a small portion.

Like the old days…

Today we had our usual Wednesday meeting of Maryknoll Cambodia followed by a liturgy and dinner together. The meeting was not unusual but for the mass we had five visitors–Marist Brothers in Phnom Penh for a regional meeting–in addition to our usual crowd. The usual crowd when I first arrived in Cambodia was 25-30 persons every Wednesday. “Usual” now is 7 people. It was a delight to have a bigger group gathering together tonight.

What’s up at the wat?

This is a neighborhood pagoda (wat) getting its gates repaired or replaced. These compounds dot the city like Catholic parishes in a US city and are often the same size, taking up much of a full city block.

Author: Charles Dittmeier

Classroom Activity