Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

Musica Felice

Today Miwako Fujiwara and her Musica Felice presented their 13th charity concert at the Sofitel hotel with a full house.
Miwako is very creative and the second half of this concert was an interaction between the Musica Felice singers and a Phnom Penh theater group. There was a story line and instead of scene changes, different rooms and settings were projected for each “act” of the story.
These events bring together a lot of friends and colleagues. L-R: Cristina, a lay missioner from Italy; Cecelia, a lay missioner from Hong Kong; Sreytin, a deaf staff from the Deaf Development Programme;, and Julie, a Maryknoll lay missioner from the United States.

Get it on the street…

Just about everything can be bought from carts on the street in Phnom Penh: clothes, shoes, rain gear, snacks, drinks–you name it. Here a fruit seller offers a variety of in-season fruits. I sometimes am concerned about the hygiene level of sellers who peel, open, slice their fruit but it sure is convenient. I can’t imagine myself cutting up a pineapple at home.

Grab Food Delivery

This is one of the most dangerous people in Phnom Penh. During the Covid epidemic when people couldn’t go out, delivery services proliferated, especially food deliveries from restaurants. Because customers want their food hot and their drinks cold, these drivers are pressured to move fast. And they do. Regardless of laws, safety, traffic, common sense. They are always going too fast and weaving in and out of traffic, going through red lights, etc. They are a real menace on the streets.

Golden 42

This is a view from my new room in Phnom Penh, up on the 12th floor. It’s quite a switch from where I lived before! The golden building is the Golden 42, one of the first tall buildings in Cambodia–and still unfinished. It was started about 12 years ago and has gone through three different owners, none of whom could come up with the money to finish it. It now stands on one of the most commercially valuable corners in Cambodia, unfinished, empty, maybe even abandoned.

Still moving…

Today I got a third–and I hope, final–truckload of stuff moved to my new house. I don’t know where I’m going to put it. I think these boxes–and eleven others–are going to be sitting around the walls of my room–and out on my little balcony–for months as I go through the stuff to see what will go back to Kentucky, what goes to Maryknoll archives, what gets tossed. I wish we had curbs here so I could put stuff out for people to take.

October in Buddhist Cambodia

Every two months I write a column about life and ministry in Cambodia for The Record, the newspaper for the Catholic diocese of Louisville, Kentucky. The latest column mentioned Pchum Ben, the Buddhist festival of the dead that we are experiencing this week.

For some reason one of the paragraphs of the published version of the article appears to be corrupted so rather than give the link to the newspaper, I’m trying to make a link that will send you my original copy I sent to The Record. See if you can click on this link below:

The-Record-Article-32-Sep2024Download

Moving Day

A generous donor who helps the Deaf Development Programme also has several apartments in Phnom Penh as an investment. He told me he has a one-bedroom unit that has been empty for a year because people want more rooms, and he suggested that I move in for free. Then I could use the money I was paying for rent elsewhere to support the deaf program.

I’ve still got a lot of unpacking to after I moved to his apartment today. This place is a definite upgrade! I have never lived in such nice housing!

Now to figure out where to put everything.