Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
Occasionally, just for a lark, the Maryknoll Lay Missioners group in Cambodia goes for a “glam photo,” all of us westerners dressed up in traditional Khmer costumes. The photo shop crew takes individual shots of each person dressed in the color of his or her choice and then takes several group shots. Here a photographer adjusts Sami Scott’s head to get just the right angle while Russ Brine and Hang Tran wait their turn.
Jerry Bell, John Burke, and Joe Graffis are three priests from Louisville, Kentucky and long-time friends and colleagues of Charlie Dittmeier. On their way to Vietnam, they stopped in Cambodia to visit with Charlie and learn more about the church’s work here. Click here to see pictures from the first part of their trip.
At our weekly Wednesday meeting today, Fr. Kevin Conroy showed off a new vestment he was given in gratitude by a family with a mentally ill elder. The man had been acting out, sometimes violently, but when Fr. Kevin–who runs the Maryknoll Mental Health Program–came to see him, Kevin was able to reduce the man’s agitation and help the family find a new peacefulness.
I spent ten hours in Tokyo between flights but was able to take advantage of a free service offering guided tours to international travelers. It was a really wonderful experience. Click here to see where we went.
Yesterday I was returning from Bangkok to Phnom Penh and ended up on the last flight out of Bangkok. I got in really late and then found my e-mail folder was corrupted. The meetings were good but the rest of the day sure didn’t go my way. Today, though, I’m back with a repeat of a too-sad posting.
BBC Headline
There are about 125 killing fields in Cambodia, actual fields where the Khmer Rouge took people to execute and bury them in mass graves. There is a large killing field near Phnom Penh and it is a place that the tour groups all go–and they should.
Many skulls of the victims are stacked in a large memorial stupa on the grounds of the killing fields. Around the stupa are large, weathered pits were the bones were dug up.
Some of the clothing of the victims has also been collected and is displayed on a wooden platform on one level of the stupa. It looks like it was probably washed but is otherwise just in a pile as part of the permanent display. And along the paths among the burial pits, more bones and articles of clothing keep working their way up to the surface.
Only a small portion of the clothing from those executed is on display. Much more is kept in a warehouse and up to now has just remained there untended. Now, though, through a program funded by the US Ambassador, Julia Brennan (R) from Textile Conservation Services, assisted by Jackie, a graduate student from the University of Delaware, will sort, analyze, and preserve the stored clothing for posterity as another reminder of the Khmer Rouge era.
Today Julia and Jackie were part of the weekly Maryknoll Cambodia gathering in Phnom Penh.