Daily Life in Cambodia – Page 29 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

Awareness of Autism

One of the things the Catholic Church can do in a mission context is take the lead when new situations are encountered or society gains a new awareness. Such an area in Cambodia is autism. So much is being written about autism in the US and there are so many programs set up to work with children with autism. It’s a rather new issue in Cambodia—the awareness of autism, not children with autism who have always been there.

Many of the Catholic parishes now have programs to help children with autism and their parents, and today at the quarterly meeting of the Catholic Alliance for Charity and Development, a subgroup working on disabilities discussed an upcoming program to be presented by an experienced practitioner from Australia.

Snack Time

Time for a morning snack from a street vendor.

For your next gala…

Lucky “168”

Cambodians, especially in the rural areas, are a rather superstitious lot. Their world is full of spirits good and bad and there are certain omens and charms to be called upon. Some of these ideas come from the Chinese. Often the number 168 is displayed in shops and situations calling for good luck and good fortune. This practice comes from the Cantonese language. If the numbers one, six, eight are pronounced in Cantonese, they sound like the sentence “One path to prosperity” so the number is posted quite prominently on vehicles, buildings, etc.

Everyday traffic

A typical intersection: everyone does what he/she wants, goes where he/she wants.

The End of the Day

Most of the time my photos of wagons and carts and motos show them full of food to sell or goods to be carried. Here is a guy at the end of the day with just a few cabbages left on his wagon. I hope he sold all the rest and he feels good going home to his family.

Progress?

It used to be quite common to see many motorcycles and bicycles parked outside of shops and other establishments. Not so much now. Twenty years ago, it was a significant achievement to get a motorcycle. Now everyone wants a car. That is a huge problem because there is no place to park them.

One small step…

Now this is something almost never seen in Cambodia, a tuk-tuk driver using a seatbelt! Of course, he’s not wearing it correctly (under his arm instead of over his shoulder) but at least he’s familiar with seatbelts, had one installed in his tuk-tuk, and puts it on!

Mea Culpa!

The photo and item about the Water Problems was meant to be posted yesterday but I got so busy that after I prepared the photo, I forgot to post it here on the website. In posting tonight, I see now that I also missed April 28th! Sorry! It’s been a bad week!

Water problems

Phnom Penh is located at the confluence of the Mekong, Tonle Sap, and Bassac Rivers so it has access to a lot of water. What it doesn’t have is the infrastructure to purify and distribute the water. There has been a massive building boom in the last ten years and water supplies that were inadequate before that started are even more inadequate now. Many of the new boreys (gated communities) go without water for large parts of the day or even for a day at a time because they are located on the outskirts of the city. But even those of us in the city are experiencing more and more shortages of water. The Maryknoll office where I live has maintained its water supply but at the deaf office there is often not enough water to reach the second floor. I keep a bucket of water handy in that bathroom there.