Charles Dittmeier – Page 80 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

Cleaning Day

DDP has moved its Phnom Penh office from a larger office building to a smaller new building in the same compound, a cost-cutting move. But before leaving the old grounds, we had a general cleanup of the yard and the old building with all the staff participating.

Some broken and unusable tables and other pieces of furniture were gathered to be hauled away to a dump.

We found some old student desks behind a building at the rear of the property. Why the old desks were saved in the first place really isn’t clear but they’re gone now.

After a couple hours work, it was time for a break.

Although we had separated items to be disposed of into two piles, one pile for the landfill and the other to be recycled, plans were changed when the landlord unexpectedly showed up and asked us to throw all the landfill-destined materials into the fish pond which he wants to fill up.

A close family….

Children growing up in Cambodia experience a certain closeness to their parents not found in many cultures

What’s Cambodia like? #2

No need to worry about checks and balances and separation of powers and messy things like the rule of law in Cambodia. Everyone should just do what the prime minister says.

What’s Cambodia Like?

People and cattle are routinely killed by lightning every year in Cambodia. That is about one person every five or six days. And thousands of home are destroyed by the thunderstorms. You don’t see numbers like that in more developed countries.

Christmas is over…

The church’s Christmas season officially ended last Sunday but we at Maryknoll just took down our decorations today, before our weekly Wednesday meeting. Here (L-R) are Sr. Helene, Hang Tran, Julie Lawler, and Sr. Mary.

Human Trafficking Awareness Day

An interesting perspective

People see former Pope Benedict XVI in various ways, some having a positive appreciation of his work and writings, others having a negative view of his time as pope. Fr. Bill Grimm, a Maryknoll priest based in Japan, has an interesting perspective:

The End of an Era

Epiphany 2023

There is a tradition in Phnom Penh of the bishop inviting pastoral workers and parish representatives to a gathering at the pastoral center on Epiphany Sunday. In the past it was a time for the pastoral workers to catch up with each other and for the bishop to disseminate news but now it has become an occasion more for socializing and recognizing different offices in the diocese.

All the Maryknollers arrived in the Maryknoll Mental Health van.

Every Cambodia event features at least one traditional dance.

One of the diocesan agency groups receiving the bishop’s thanks and appreciation.

A choir of teenage youth sang twice during the evening.

The younger set participated, too. Here children dance and sing to Jingle Bells.

At the end of the program, Santa Claus arrived and distributed gifts of rice and cookies and booklets to all who had come.

Kitchen Furniture

This is a picture of a corner of our kitchen at the Maryknoll office. It’s rather basic. Notice the wooden stool at the bottom. The lady who cooks twice a week sits on that while cutting and slicing all the vegetables and meats on the floor. There is a counter she could stand at but Cambodian women normally sit on the floor–or a stool–while working in the kitchen.

It’s the way we do it….

Cambodia has been too much focused on survival for the last half century, and discipline, order, and the rule of law sidelined. That is seen in the increasingly problematic traffic where there is no order. If you can do it, you have right of way.