Category: On the Road…

Priests Retreat — Day 1

Today about 60 priests from Cambodia gathered at the Catholic center in Sihanoukville on the coast for a week of retreat.

Four of us drove down together but before we left Phnom Penh we had lunch at an NGO restaurant where we ran into some lay missioners.
Arriving at the center at St. Michael Church, our group checked the room list to see which building they would sleep in.
At 5:30 PM we had a short opening ceremony which featured a musical group composed of quite young children who played traditional instruments and danced.
The three bishops and retreat leader and our host priests sat at a head table for the music and dancing and introductions.
The young women in black and white are students from the food and beverage training program at the Salesian school where I have mass on Monday mornings. They are getting practical experience working this retreat.

Still growing….

When I first started flying to Bangkok in 1980s, the old Don Muang airport was a bit dowdy but served well. Then the new Suvarnabhumi Airport was build, relegating Don Muang to a domestic and no-frills airport.

Coming back from Bangkok last, there is now a no-frills S terminal at Suvarnabhumi and it is top-notch. It’s got all the shops and glitz and gardens. Just no people. It just opened and the carriers haven’t moved all their flights there.

It’s nice but it took almost twenty minutes to get there, even with a train ride, from the main Suvarnabhumi terminal.

Panthip Plaza

In the past, a must-do on every trip to Bangkok was a visit to Panthip Plaza, a large multi-storey mall filled with computer vendors. Covid basically wiped out Panthip Plaza, though, and like so many other businesses, it has not seen a return of all the former vendors nor the former customers.

Previously five floors of computer, printers, and every imaginable accessory attracted customers like me looking for gadgets. On my trip to Bangkok last week, I made a trip to Panthip Plaza where now the top two floors are partially refilled with computer shops while the bottom three floors are vacant.

Before, many of the shops were just open areas with cardboard boxes full of all sorts of accessories spread over the total floor area. Now more of the shops are more formally arranged and there is not nearly the foot traffic there used to be. I was able to find what I was looking for, though–an extra power supply for an Asus laptop.

Back in Bangkok

I’m sorry for the week-long hiatus! The first part of this month has been crazy. Last Sunday I flew to Bangkok for my annual physical exam on Monday. They saw a spot on my lung and that required going back for more tests on Tuesday, but in the end the lung specialist said it’s probably an old infection and just check on it in a year.

Adding more complexity to the week was my seeming to have the flu while there and feeling miserable. That finally started turning around Wednesday morning and today (Thursday) I feel just about normal.

At BNH Hospital, I had to take the elevator to the 4th floor several times and noticed this admonishment on the elevator button panel, telling people not to bring durian fruit into the hospital. For those who don’t know, durian is a large Asian fruit with a thick prickly hull. It is noted for “Tastes like heaven, smells like hell,” and is also banned from all Asian airlines because of the sharp pungent odor.

Lost Things

1. This week I lost Wednesday. I got on a plane in New York at 8:00 PM Tuesday night and flew to San Francisco to change to a plane to Taiwan. I left San Fran at 00:25, a little after midnight, the beginning of Wednesday, and when I got off the plane in Taipei it was Thursday morning at 5:36 AM. I was on terra firma for 25 minutes on Wednesday. Due to 550 MPH ground speeds and crossing ten time zones, the rest of that day was in the air.

2. I had an impressive visit to the 9/11 Memorial in New York City the day before I left and want to feature that here but somehow in transferring the photos from my laptop to the desktop, they disappeared. I have hopes of recovering them for you to see.

New York #7

Most of the time I travel around New York City by subway but occasionally I’m in a bus where you get a whole different perspective. These are some photos from a bus as I was leaving Tuesday afternoon.

A typical Manhattan street corner with typical people.
And very typical of New York are the street vendor carts like this one.
The blue bicycles you pick up in heavy pedestrian areas and they’re good for getting around town, charging them to your credit card. The middle bike is a delivery man with a big-tire ebike.
Ordinary people coming and going on a work day.

New York #6

St. Patrick’s Day
Lunch on St. Patrick’s Day was with the sisters at the Sisters Center in Ossining. Sr. Luise celebrated with green ice cream and a green cookie.
Dinner on St. Patrick’s Day was with Maryknoll priests at their house in Manhattan. Here Fr. Frank McGourn, the cook for the meal, explains how the main dishes match the colors of the Irish flag.

New York #5

More New york friends

Sr. Helen Graham is a scripture scholar who specializes in the Torah and our Old Testament scriptures.
Sunday morning I went to mass at the old seminary building and afterwards had a chance to reconnect with Tom Dunleavy (L), John Barth, and Bill McIntire (R).
Then I came to the Maryknoll house in Manhattan and enjoyed being again with Lionel, one of the staff of the house.

New York #4

Here are some more Maryknoll friends I met with the next day.

Sr. Luise Ahrens told me about an exhibit of famous women from Ossining (where Maryknoll is) and we walked over to an arts center that has taken over the Bethany building which used to be a retirement home for the Maryknoll Sisters and then the headquarters for the Maryknoll Lay Missioners.
For lunch that day I met Adel ORegan, a former Maryknoll lay missioner in Cambodia, and we caught up on what has been happening for us.
Then I went to the Maryknoll seminary building and met with Fr. Tom Dunleavy who was assigned to mission in Thailand and then moved with returning refugees to Cambodia and started Maryknoll’s presence there.

New York #3

These last couple days in New York were devoted to catching up with friends. Some of them I had seen in Cambodia just two months ago.

Sr. Mary Little returned to the Sisters Center from Cambodia a month ago. Here she is meeting me at 7:00 AM to guide me through the breakfast line.
Then I went to the Walsh Building used by the Maryknoll Lay Missioners and met with a longtime good friend, Richard Gatjens of the development department. Richard is known for his outrageous ties.
At lunch back at the Sisters Center, I met up with Sr. Ann Sherman (L), recently returned from Cambodia, and Sr. Juana Encalada who also served in Cambodia.
The last of the recent returnees from Cambodia is Sr. Helene O’Sullivan who was also at lunch that day.