Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

Changes, for the good

Some changes taking place in Cambodia are subtle and wouldn’t be noticeable to people arrived in the last five years. The picture above would not have been possible when I arrived twenty years ago: workers wearing helmets and safety vest, metal scaffolding. It’s still not the norm here but more and more construction sites are following international safety standards as outside funders and developers take a stake in the development of the kingdom.

Inclusion

This is the toilet at St. Joseph Church in Phnom Penh. Women on the left, men on the right, and urinals in full view. Such an arrangement might seem lacking in privacy in a country like the United States but is perfectly acceptable here in this culture.

Enough already!

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?