This week I had a FOURTH flat tire! I was close enough to home that I could push the disabled bike back but then I had to take it to the bike shop because replacing a tube on this e-bike is really complicated. It took two guys to get the 62 lbs. bike up on the rack. Then the tech could look for the puncture and put in a new inner tube.
The past ten days I’ve been on the city streets a lot, getting reacquainted with the scenes of Phnom Penh city life.
I’m not sure what they were cooking or whom they were cooking for but these two women were on the street putting something together for lunch today.
Perhaps the majority of Phnom Penh people live in what are called shop houses, a space for the business at ground level and living accommodations above. This example is just on a much larger scale, perhaps with apartments above the construction supplies.
Today was my last day at DDP before my return journey to the U.S. on Thursday and here I got together with staff of the Education Project to say goodbye.
Cambodia is now celebrating the Buddhist new year of 2570. I miss being there for the annual festivities which are a source of real joy for the ordinary people who have gone through so much with the Thailand-Cambodia border war and now the effects of the U.S. war with Iran.
Here is a good article from UCAN (Union of Catholic Asian News) about the current situation.
One of the things I have learned upon returning to the US is that life is really expensive here and much more complex than life in Cambodia. My family bought me an e-bike (pictured above) and I learned that repairing a flat tire on it costs $45+. They also got me an iPhone. I had the iPhone mounted on the bike and when I hit a rough spot in the road, it popped off–and a car ran over it.
I took it to the IFix repair shop and they replaced the display–for $230. The only good news was that the repair took only eleven minutes!
In 1994 Carl Sagan, the brilliant astronomer and science communicator, offered comments which we might apply today to the development of artificial intelligence:
Many of the dangers we face arise indeed from science and technology–but, more fundamentally, because we have become powerful without becoming commensurately wise. The world altering powers that technology has delivered into our hands now require a degree of consideration and foresight that has never before been asked of us.
Bishop Olivier of Phnom Penh is a very active player in the life of the kingdom and always reaches out to the Buddhists to address issues, celebrate events, etc. In the current conflict between the kingdoms of Cambodia and Thailand, Bishop Olivier has gone to the front lines with a Buddhist delegation and has engaged with Buddhist leadership in praying for peace.
The joint prayer events take on a form not so familiar to Christian groups. Literally hundreds of Buddhist monks came together for this joint prayer service.
Here is some information received from the bishop of Phnom Penh about the conflict on the border between Cambodia and Thailand. Caritas Cambodia, the church relief agency, is organizing tent cities, water, food, toilets, and other assistance. They are probably the main positive force in the renewal of this century-old dispute.
Today I had a meeting after lunch and was debating how I could go when I depend on my bicycle for getting around. I went outside at Nazareth Home above and the sidewalks there and the nearby streets look reasonably cleared and usable for a bike.
The temperature, though, was in the high 20ºs and low 30ºs, and I learned over the last weekend my fingers–even with ski gloves–could only take about 15 minutes of that. My earlier rides were REALLY painful, so I was happy to learn today that another priest was going to the same meeting and I could ride with him–in a car. The trip was smooth and warm and I got to see more beautiful scenes from this winter’s first real snow.
I write a column every two months in The Record, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Louisville. It has been about mission with deaf people in Cambodia, but now I have explained my returning to the U.S.
Every year I have asked the liturgy office of the Archdiocese of Louisville to get various liturgical books for the English Catholic Community in Cambodia. We had books for lectors and other ministers that were quite useful. Now that I am back in the U.S., I picked up the books in Louisville and yesterday shipped them to Phnom Penh via DHL. They have already arrived there, an amazing time since last year another service took 3+ weeks. But shipping the books cost 3 1/2 times their purchase price!
