Author: Charles Dittmeier

CACD: 1st quarterly meeting

The Catholic Alliance for Charity and Development (CACD) is the social outreach arm of the Catholic Church of Phnom Penh. Maryknoll participates because of our projects with deafness, mental illness, and education. Today the topic was the role of technology and digitalization in serving the poor, and an amazing presentation was given by Mr. Sok Sopheakmonkol who demonstrated what artificial intelligence can do to assist NGOs like ours.
A second presentation about software and technology in monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning in NGOs was given by Mr. Art Kirby, the director of Catholic Relief Services in Cambodia.

It was quite and interesting and informative afternoon!

International Lay Missioners–March

A group of lay missioners from various countries tries to get together in Phnom Penh almost every month for socializing and talking shop and just being together in a place away from home.

The group that met today had missioners from Italy, the Philippines, Korea, Haiti, Kenya, Honduras, Cambodia, and the United States.
The format and content of the gatherings varies. Today Jesuit Fr. Ingun Kang spoke about his work with interreligious dialogue, especially with Buddhism.
Fr. Ingun is on a Vatican commission promoting interreligious dialogue around the world.
After his presentation the group continued talking and questioning with some snacks.

Why?

An enduring mystery for me about Cambodia is one of their driving quirks: drivers of three- and four-wheel vehicles don’t drive in the middle of the lane as might be expected. Instead it is normal for the driver to straddle the lane marker–not to center the car or tuk-tuk on the white line but rather to make sure one wheel is over the line. In this photo of a three-wheel tuk-tuk on a definitely not-crowded street, the right wheel straddles the lane marker. Why do they do that?

Homegrown

Life is simpler in Cambodia in many ways. Here a group of deaf students and their teacher really celebrate picking a jackfruit from a tree on the DDP grounds and just enjoying it together!

Brown Bag Lunch

This is the equivalent of brown bagging lunch in Cambodia. In a culture where a meal is not a meal without rice these metal section containers are used. Rice wouldn’t fare so well in a paper bag, but these containers have one section for the rice and then two or three other sections for vegetables or whatever to go with the rice.

Farewell to the Barbers

The Deaf Development Programme offers two years of non-formal education and then a year of job training. For the boys our most successful skill to learn is barbering. Today three of our new barbers left DDP after three years with us.

The boys’ parents and some brothers and sisters came to pick them up, and we tried to really welcome them and help them to feel proud of their sons. Too many families with deaf children see their sons and daughters who can’t hear as problems, so today it was good for us to emphasize to these parents that now their sons can set up a barber shop in the provinces and contribute to the support of the family.
These parents rode in a tuk-tuk for three hours to reach Phnom Penh before lunch so we planned to feed them before their return journey.
It was good for the other students to be part of the celebration, too, to encourage them with a recognition of the success and accomplishment that can be theirs in another year or two.
Then it was time to load the barber chairs and mirrors and barber tools into tuk-tuks for the ride home. It was a crowded ride for the families.
This family was able to arrange for a tuk-tuk with a rack on top so they had more room inside for the people.

Sign language class

Today Ms. Korn Maly (with microphone) began a new class teaching Cambodian Sign Language and I was invited to give a welcome to the students. I emphasized how important it is for more people to know sign language so that deaf people can be more included in the day-to-day interactions of life.