No War!
Author: Charles Dittmeier
New Church Construction
Married bliss: Not for the neighbors
This is the curse of Cambodia—tents set up in the street, blocking the street–for a funeral or wedding celebration. It’s a carry over from previous generations when everyone lived in the rural areas, and for large gatherings, tents were set up for the ceremony and accompanying meal. Loudspeakers were used to broadcast the goings-on to literally everyone within a half-mile radius.
When the tent was set up in a field next to the rural family home, no problem. But the tent and loudspeaker custom was brought to the city. This morning the neighbor’s dogs started barking at 7:00 AM, continuously. When I left to go to mass at 8:30 AM, I found the dogs were barking at the crew setting up this wedding tent in front of the dogs’ home.
When I got home and ate lunch, the party started. The Buddhist monks were chanting at full volume, continuously. Our Maryknoll office is the building behind the rounded gate, at the front of the tent, so we were able to hear every word even without the speaker system which enabled the whole neighborhood to hear it.
Do I think anyone wanted to hear the monks chanting their prayers? No. It’s just noise. Neighbors here are not neighborly. Our neighbors have never said one word to us. We have no idea who got married. It is extremely rare that any of us at Maryknoll go out our gate when neighbors are coming or going through their gates. The result is amplified noise (holy noise) blasting throughout the afternoon in addition to a tent blocking traffic in increasingly congested streets. Not a good scenario.
[I recorded the Buddhist chanting because it’s so distinctive but my phone hides the audio files–they’re not where the manual says they are–and I could not upload the chant here.]
End of the Shift
This is in front of a furniture factory across the street from the Maryknoll office, early in the morning. The guard is probably finishing his overnight shift and getting ready to head home but some woman vendor comes along and he decides to eat breakfast here instead of on the way. I wonder what it is she has to offer?
Pope Francis: Task for Ash Wednesday
Brainwashed
Lunar New Year…still
Notable Quotes
A truce of sorts
This cat–caught today waiting? resting? stalking? on top of our accounting filing cabinets–and I have a running battle going. Our deaf office building is not “tight” as you might expect a solid concrete building to be. Doors are often just grates; even if solid, they’re mostly open; and the way the tile roof sits on the walls, the cat can always get in and out. I always tried to make sure she was “out” because a previous cat gave birth to a litter of kittens in my office. The cat always makes sure she’s in, and judging from the overturned rubbish bins in the offices, she manages to be “in” a lot, searching for food scraps. I used to chase her out, and then when we were having exasperating rat problems in the Maryknoll office, it occurred to me that maybe we are not having the same problem in the deaf office because of the cat. So now I tolerate her–chasing her out of my office but not getting too exercised when she’s slinking through the second-floor corridors.
Trees: Former Glory
Cambodia has a strong relationship with its trees. Most of the population still cooks using charcoal in open pottery braziers. Heavy wooden stylized furniture is an affirmation of a family’s status or the viability of a company. In the colonial days beautiful tree-lined boulevards graced Phnom Penh. Today much of the urban glory provided by the trees is gone but there are still glimpses in some parts of the city.
