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From the graph, it looks like Cambodia is on the road to recovery. Not exactly. The government admitted this week that the sum of new infections in all the provinces is greater than the total for that day announced by the Ministry of Health. Thousands of Cambodian migrant workers have been coming back across the border from Thailand day and night, legally and illegally. Anything after the official announcement time of 6:00 PM just isn’t recorded.
For all the years since we started having a Sunday mass at St. Joseph Church in Phnom Penh, every time Fr. Bob Wynne and I would leave by the back gate of the compound, we would look into this recycling hub where trash collectors would bring in and sell the recyclable rubbish they found while making their rounds. Their open front and the church gate were opposite each other.
Then after an absence caused by Covid-19, I came back and found a difference. The recycling hub–just an area under a large metal roof–was gone and there was a “For Rent” sign on the gate.
Because we have not been able to have masses at the church because of the prohibition on in-person gatherings, it was a while before I again went back to St. Joseph. When I did, I saw that something was afoot: a new metal roof had been put up.
And then a month later we now have a typical Cambodian drink shop. If you look closely, in the back corner inside the shop there is a wooden structure where the new proprietor lives. Around the house part is plenty of space for parking the family motorcycles inside. And up front there are the drinks and snacks for sale. The open area on the right, behind the umbrella, used to be a wall but that was removed to give more access. We’ll have to see how this new establishment develops.
Last week, because the border with Thailand was closed for two weeks, the numbers of daily new infections in Cambodia dropped from 900-1000 per day down to 500-600 per day. But then last Friday the border was reopened and now the numbers are going back up.
But even with new cases coming across the border with returning migrant workers, the number of active cases in Cambodia has gone down slightly, probably the result of more vaccinations in various provinces. Bad news and good news.
This is the rainy season and today was the heaviest rain I have seen here in years. In mid afternoon, it just poured, so much so that I decided to leave my bicycle at the Deaf Development Programme and take a tuk-tuk home because I knew the streets of Boeung Tum Pun would be flooded. They were.
Just about every wire ever strung from the poles of Phnom Penh seems to be still there. The mass of wiring above the streets is remarkable. Click here to see some of it.
Social distancing doesn’t count when your job is washing motorcycles.
Many of the Cambodian fruits are seasonal and only available for a a few months a year. Coconuts, though, are year round and always at hand.
