Things are different in the Kingdom of Wonder. This used car lot doesn’t look much like used car lots in the U.S. And probably in the U.S. the whole family wouldn’t come to buy what is most likely their first four-wheel vehicle. This family may have come on the motorcycle in the foreground. Now they’re negotiating a price for an SUV.
Category: Daily Life in Cambodia
Nothing stays the same
The foreign population of Phnom Penh is constantly turning over. We see that in our parish community where we need to recruit new ministers every four or five months because so many are rotated out or reassigned. And it’s the same with the buildings here. Places that I pass often have been family homes, a restaurant, a crocodile farm, a bar and brothel in quick succession. One group moves out and the other moves in with the least bit of disruption.
An illustration is the house in these pictures. Just a year and a half ago, it was a residence for high-ranking US Embassy personnel. I was often there for meetings, dinners, birthdays, etc., with the family with four children who lived there. Yesterday it opened as some sort of high-end coffee shop!
Going to church….
Heavy rains–it’s the rainy season–plus extra water from a collapsed dam in Laos have raised the river levels quite high in Phnom Penh. Bishop Olivier experienced a bit more difficulty than usual in making visits to the parishes along the river. Click here for more.
Motorcycle Loads #253
She must have as much stuff in front of her as behind her, judging from the angle of her legs! Not fun!
Daily Life for a Little Boy
“I’m not PLAYING in the street, I’m DRAWING!!!”
Motorcycle Loads #252
“I’m just glad I’m only delivering this stuff and don’t have to cook it!”
Motorcycle Loads #251
Chickens don’t get no respect in Cambodia!
Topics: Sun–Drying Food
People in Cambodia want to keep the sun off themselves–it’s hot and makes their skin dark–but foods are left out in the sun to dry throughout Cambodia, in the city as well as the countryside. Click here for some examples in Phnom Penh.
Hey, Why Can’t We??!!
Today in a ceremony turning over new China-donated fire trucks to local fire stations, the Interior Minister asked the firemen (and women?) not to demand payments and bribes when they arrive at the scene of a fire. How novel!
But his plea could be counter-productive. Who the heck wants to be a fireman if you can’t rip off people and make money for yourself! Not to worry, though. Probably not much will change in the behavior of the fire department personnel (a division of the police in Cambodia) because my guess is a good percentage of the money they extort from fire victims gets passed up the line to superiors.
What’s in YOUR Front Yard?
This is a picture of the front yard of the Maryknoll office in Phnom Penh. Our guards–who are basically bored silly all day and night–grow different things throughout the year. At present we have growing there a pineapple (yellow circle) and orchids (pink circle)—and the guard’s laundry on the rack on the right. How many of you have orchids and pineapples growing in your yards?