Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
In the United States your mother or father would jump all over you for leaving your shoes in the middle of the walkway and doorway; in a public place you’d be threatened with a lawsuit. Here it’s just normal–if you can’t wear your shoes in church–to just step out of them in the doorway–and leave them for everyone else to worry about and step over.
I never understood the appeal of eating sunflower seeds. Too much work for a nebulous (imaginary?) reward. I have the same feeling about eating these little mussels dredged up from the bottom of riverine waterways near Phnom Penh. Discounting the risks of eating anything found in those polluted waters, I don’t understand the payoff of eating tiny bits of clams. But there’s obviously an attraction for them. Notice this woman’s mussel cart has three different varieties of tiny clams for sale.
In some parts of the world, few people are wearing masks for protection from Covid but in Cambodia they are still part of the normal daily routine. The government campaign speaks of the three “DOs” and the three “DON’Ts”. This vendor, set up on a roadside where the traffic backs up every day, supports two of the three DOs: wearing masks and using hand sanitzer. (The third DO is to practice social distancing.)
Today I was in a PassApp (a motorized three-wheeler tuk-tuk) going to a meeting of all the Catholic social service agencies and it started to rain. That’s the second or third shower we have had recently and it made me think I had better start carrying my plastic rain poncho in my backpack again.
As the rains started, many moto riders stopped to pull on their ponchos:
Others chose to tough it out:
And then there was the classy couple with designer rain ponchos! I never saw that before!
Most of the stately old trees of Phnom Penh boulevards are gone now. But there are still many tortured remnants of what used to be. Click here for photos.
You want decorations for a party? Filipino Christmas stars? Burners for Buddhist offerings? Decorative fish traps? Fun hats? Paper offerings? We got it. (Motorcycle not included.)
“If you’ve got it, flaunt it!” is an axiom known around the world. Here in Cambodia, there are not as many opportunities for flaunting as in some other countries, but one possibility is getting a street named after you. Rich people, for a $300,000 “investment” to the prime minister’s party, get a title that identifies them as a rich supporter of the ruling party and gets their name placed on the street sign.
It can get a bit ridiculous. In the U.S., you might see “Jefferson Street” or some such on the corner sign, but take a look at this Phnom Penh street sign: “Samdech” is the first of the titles and honorifics the man has bought and of course they ALL have to be on the sign. It makes the lettering too small to be read but so what? This isn’t about helpful signage!
