Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

It’s common practice for friends of the ruling political party to donate $300,000 (the minimum) or more to the party and then be named as an okhna (aka rich-person-sucking-up-to-the-government). You can prefix the title whenever you write your name so everyone will know you’re rich.

Mr. KONG SOM OL went a bit further (probably gave more money) and got Blvd 2004 named after himself. After paying all that money, you don’t want to waste any of the glory so he had his whole title prefixed to his name. It makes for a useless street sign in English but this whole thing isn’t about being useful.

Almost a month ago, after spotting a rat in our kitchen I put out some poison and eliminated one rat that took the bait. Then last week two times I saw two different mice on the kitchen counter. This time I tried the glue trap which will hold a smaller and weaker mouse but maybe not a rat. I put the trap on the kitchen floor last night and this morning I found FIVE mice in the trap! I’m going to wait a day and then put another trap out. There’s never just one mouse and even after catching five, there is probably still a large nest full of them.

This woman is one of the staff from a local dentist’s office. One of her early morning tasks after she opens the doors in the morning is to make an offering of incense in the little shrine high up on the door frame. This is to keep all the spirits happy.

• 

• 

Probably most contracts and agreements in Cambodia are signed with thumbprints rather than written signatures although the latter are becoming more popular. Today I had to “sign” a rental agreement and our director had this handy little pocket ink pad for making thumb prints.

Today the members of Maryknoll Cambodia NGO received their fifth injection of the anti-Covid vaccine. It was booster shot #3. Our first three injections were AstraZeneca vaccine and the last two were Pfizer. Will they offer protection against the B5 variant that is spreading?

Street food is very much a part of Cambodian life. Probably most of the people eat breakfast either on the road, at stalls like this one, or at work or school having picked up something to eat on the way.

Cambodia has done a really credible job of handling Covid-19. The government pushed full vaccination for everyone and people complied, making Cambodia one of the most fully vaccinated countries in the world. And in May and June and July, 2022, Cambodia went 52 days without a new infection. That ended several days ago, though, as PCR testing detected 5 to 15 new infections each day. The continuing new infections are a concern but not unduly alarming because of the high vaccination rate which makes the Covid experience generally a mild one. The handful of new infections each day is only the tip of the iceberg, however. Those are just the people sent for testing by a doctor. Many, many other people are using rapid tests and discovering they are infected, but those are not included in the government statistics.

Today is the summer solstice, the longest day and shortest night of the year in the northern hemisphere. The weather is really hot in many countries this year because of climate change, and it’s certainly hot here in Phnom Penh. One enterprising vendor is taking advantage of that, offering all sizes, shapes, and colors of inflatable pools. From what I have seen around town, business has been good for him!