Daily Life in Cambodia – Page 52 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

Have a good day!

Here’s a happy wave from a seller of sugar cane juice!

Bread Ladies

These three ladies are all within shouting distance on the same block of a Phnom Penh street. Their baguettes, one of the last traces of Cambodia’ French history, are much in demand.

COVID-19 has affected people all over the world and in many different ways. Last week I had a funeral in Phnom Penh and afterwards met a young couple, the man from the United States and the woman from Malaysia. They were married in March and came to Cambodia for a honeymoon–and are still here. Because of travel restrictions due to the pandemic, he cannot go to Malaysia and she cannot go to the United States. Seven months now….how long is too long?

Maybe they don’t understand?

In most countries it is common practice to protect the identities of those who are minors or vulnerable children or who are only alleged to have committed a crime. In such cases the faces of the people are pixelated or otherwise obscured in photos in the newspapers and their real names are not used so that they cannot be identified. Here in Cambodia it is the common practice to pixelate the face or place a black stripe over it, but then they also put the person’s name with the photo! So why obscure the face?

Fading Tradition

You often don’t notice them as your ride by on modern Phnom Penh’s busy streets, but there are still quite a few old traditional wooden houses around. Often a shopfront has been added to turn what used to be just a family house into a family business so that from the street only a concrete facade is visible. As the city develops, though, these house are doomed.

A landscaping business almost hides this old house near the Maryknoll office

In the old traditional style, each room has its own peaked roof.

Here is a concrete room added to the front of the wooden house to create a business.

This used to be a neighborhood of wooden houses, but now all the adjoining traditional houses have become multistory apartment blocks.

How long will this little wooden house last on this corner?

Trouble mounting up

Recently the rubbish collectors went on strike in Phnom Penh and the resulting mounds of trash are indicative that it was a long work stoppage. The problem was compounded by the fact that in Phnom Penh people just use plastic bags for throwing out trash, and there are no ordinances or rules for putting out garbage so the streets become the natural receptacles.