Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

This morning I had mass at the Salesian Girls Vocational Training School at 6:15 AM.  There were only four girls with the sisters; the rest had gone home for the Christmas break.  But when I came out, Fr. Luca (standing) was loading his pickup truck with overnight bags for fifteen of the young women who were going to his parish center in Kampong Cham for the weekend.  The bed of the pickup was half full of boxes and belongings and at least ten of the girls also had to sit back there so the rest of their stuff was going up on top of the cab, wrapped in the green tarp and tied with ropes.  Just a normal ride in Cambodia, and not as crowded and difficult as most!

Here’s more–Part 3–about the blue plastic strips used to protect new cars–and old cars in Cambodia. Click here to see what one car dealer said he had never seen anywhere else in the world.  Scroll down to Part 3.

Last night I was at an Advent reconciliation service and I got a call from the DDP co-director who told me that the wiring on the pole across the street from the Deaf Development Programme was burning.  This morning there was no electricity or Internet service because of the fire on the pole.  But much to my surprise, the electricity company came this morning and repaired the wires.  I honestly thought it might be a week before they came, given the way things work in the Kingdom of Wonder.  Another surprise was seeing them using a truck with a power lift.  Always before it’s a couple guys hauling big ladders around on a motorcycle.  Maybe some things are changing here.  Notice the remaining wiring under the street light is all white.  That is the fire retardant powder sprayed from four of the DDP fire extinguishers and four from the apartment building in the background.  You don’t call the fire department in Cambodia.  It would take them forever and then you would have to pay them before they fight the fire.  But now we’ll have to pay to refill our fire extinguishers.

Most of Cambodia is flat as a pancake but there are a few areas with some different topography.  This morning, coming back from Kep Province in the south, we went through an area with a few of these little hills (we would call them “knobs” in Kentucky).  We passed through them for a space of five or ten miles and then all was flat again.  They may be part of a small range of “mountains” near the southern coast on the Gulf of Thailand.  The hills there are small in extent and also in height.  The highest peak in Cambodia is about 3,000 feet.

I have mentioned before that when the weather is always the same, it’s hard to keep track of the seasons without external markers like sports seasons, etc.  One help to identifying seasons in Cambodia is to notice what fruits are being sold on the streets.  Some only bloom at certain times of the year.  Today I passed quite a few people selling these black round fruits, here sitting in tubs of water.  They look like mangosteens but these are black.  I have no idea what they are.

Today I was riding on a motordupe (a motorcycle taxi) and my driver had on this helmet.  Notice the crack that run from front to back of the helmet!  And the wire holding the two sides together.  That’s not a problem in Cambodia.  And notice the label, a bit difficult to read because the crack runs through it:  “Soft and Safety.”  Why would a helmet be advertised as “soft?”  I want mine to be hard and sturdy!

Not too many men in North America would wear a knit hat like this young man does as he rides as a passenger on a motorcycle, but in Cambodia males are often seen with styles or patterns that would be considered female in some other cultures.

 

17 years ago, when I arrived in Phnom Penh, travel options were few.  Many people had bicycles. Some had motorcycles. Very few had cars.  And when you had to go to the market or some shop and had more than you could carry on a motorcycle, you hired a cyclo like the one pictured here.  They aren’t fast but they’re sure and steady and will get you home with all your goods.  But now with the advent of tuk-tuks and even more recently with the introduction of the auto rickshaws from India, the cyclos are disappearing. A few of the older women still use them for their daily trips to the market, and tourists will hire a convoy of cyclos to take them around the neighborhoods, but it seems the days of the cyclo are numbered.

Phnom Penh is a big small town and the majority of the people have not yet left the rural areas although they are living in the city.  Signs of rural life are everywhere, with lots of chickens, a few pigs, quite a few cattle, and even a few goats.

Some food places require the driver to come on to their property and approach the restaurant at the drive-thru window.  These juice shops–only set up in the morning rush hour–take another approach and bring their products to the edge of the road, even into the road.