Author: Charles Dittmeier

Doing what we can

Today the Catholic Alliance for Charity and Development (CACD) had an online meeting to review the church’s outreach in the Covid-19 pandemic. Caritas Cambodia has been organizing the outreach and presented really sad numbers concerning the great needs of the poor people. One group that has been especially hard hit are the inmates in Cambodia’s not-so-good prisons. This photos is of a group of prisoners receiving food aid. [Note the second woman in the middle row has her child with her.]

6-pack?

There are hundreds of garment factories in Cambodia, taking advantage of the vast pool of cheap (because unskilled) labor. Most of the garments go into containers at the factory and head straight for a cargo ship. But then there are the rejects, the overruns, the canceled orders, and all the other pieces that stay in Cambodia. Many of them get sold on the streets. You don’t buy a six-pack but rather a six hundred-pack of whatever it is!

Surprise!

I was rather surprised today to see a collage of photos of priests who are deaf and who work with the Catholic deaf community–and to find my picture in the latter category. I’m not sure who created this.

Priests Retreat 2

Today was Day 3 of the 2021 priests retreat for Phnom Penh. Our retreat leader is the head of the Thai Mission Society in Bangkok and the 40 priests are scattered throughout the southern third of Cambodia.

#2 and Finished

We—the members of Maryknoll Cambodia—were back at the same hospital this morning for our second vaccination injection.
Because Cambodia received only 400,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, it was reserved for the foreigners and the larger population received one of the two Chinese vaccines.

Priests Retreat

Today we started an online retreat for all the priests of the Phnom Penh diocese. Last year, as Covid-19 was developing, it was canceled completely. This year we’re all in our home parishes or workplaces but are attending two online sessions each day.

Maybe it gets better

The tall building in the background is still under construction but it’s mostly finishing work, painting interiors, installing carpets and lights, etc. A couple nights ago they started turning on some outside decorative lights on parts of the building. At this point, they are of various colors, don’t seem to have a coherent pattern, and just aren’t at all attractive. But the workmen are still working on it so we can hope the finished product looks better.