Daily Life in Cambodia – Page 43 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

Fruits and Flowers

A lot of things are different now because of Covid-19. The big wet markets around the city have become hotbeds of infections so they have been shut down. All those selling inside the markets have now moved out onto the street. This woman sells to two different groups, those wanting flowers and those wanting fruits.

Waiting

A woman stands at her cooked meat stall outside a big market in Phnom Penh. Normally this block of food stalls is crowded but with Covid-19 alarming people, the woman probably waits more than she used to for hungry customers.

Multi-tasking

The shophouse–a building one-room wide and four stories tall–is the norm in Phnom Penh. the ground floor opens on to the street and is the locus for the business, whatever it is. The family live behind and above the shop. Here a woman minds her housewares shop while chopping vegetables for dinner.

Turn on the lights

Four or five days ago, a couple or three young men started digging a trench
along the south side of Street 320, the location of the Maryknoll office.
They have been digging ever since and today they finally started pulling
three large electrical cables through some PVC pipe they laid in the trench.

Time for a break

A security guard decides some fresh pineapple
from a street vendor would make a good snack.

6-pack?

There are hundreds of garment factories in Cambodia, taking advantage of the vast pool of cheap (because unskilled) labor. Most of the garments go into containers at the factory and head straight for a cargo ship. But then there are the rejects, the overruns, the canceled orders, and all the other pieces that stay in Cambodia. Many of them get sold on the streets. You don’t buy a six-pack but rather a six hundred-pack of whatever it is!

Candyland

There is a custom in Cambodia of throwing hard candy into the street in front of some shops. Click here to see some examples.

Day and Night

A corner on the north side of the Russian Market during the day.

Maybe it gets better

The tall building in the background is still under construction but it’s mostly finishing work, painting interiors, installing carpets and lights, etc. A couple nights ago they started turning on some outside decorative lights on parts of the building. At this point, they are of various colors, don’t seem to have a coherent pattern, and just aren’t at all attractive. But the workmen are still working on it so we can hope the finished product looks better.

June 7th?

I prepared a photo yesterday and was getting ready to post it when I got a call from the United States that caused me to return to the DDP office at night. Then when I got back home, I had to call the U.S. again and I forgot to post the photo.

And now I forgot what the photo was and what category it is in, so I can’t find it! One of these days I will get back to that category and find it and be able post it then!