Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
Before a Catholic church is used for worship, the building is blessed and the altar is consecrated for sacred use. On May 2nd the new church at St. Joseph Church was consecrated with a long ceremony.
For most of the past 25 years I have had morning masses once a week for the Salesian Sisters in Tuol Kork and twice a week for the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa’s sisters) at their orphanage. Now this week I have renewed those contacts. First I went to the Salesians and, blessed with an abundance of fruit from their mango trees, I went home with a box of sliced mango (my favorite fruit). Then the next day I had mass for the MC Sisters and they noted the occasion on their mass board.
Today was a great day of engaging with colleagues and friends! The morning started off with a breakfast meeting with Colin Allen, the former president of the World Federation of the Deaf, who is now training DDP staff for the Deaf Leadership Training Project.
Today, Monday, was my first full work day in Phnom Penh and I spent most of it at DDP, the Deaf Development Programme. It was wonderful to see the students and staff again and we all had a grand reunion.
Then we just talked for a while as we were catching up on each other’s lives. We were lucky we could be in the open dining area because the temperature was 101 degrees,
I arrived in Phnom Penh from the U.S. on Friday afternoon, and Saturday evening I was the priest presider for the English Catholic Community.
It was a joyful reunion with the community. Much has changed in the seven months I have been away,
It’s 4:30 AM and I just arrived in Taipei after a 14-hour flight from San Francisco. The good news is that the plane wasn’t full and I had a whole four-seat row to myself and could lie flat to sleep for much of the flight. The bad news is that as I was at the gate in San Francisco, trying to get a Taiwan visa online, my iPhone stopped responding to any touches on the screen. All the buttons work and the display is there, I just can’t do anything by touching the screen. I’m guessing I’m going to have to find a repair shop in Phnom Penh because I use the phone for so much.
When I left Cambodia last August, I was discussing with Caritas Cambodia, our new parent NGO, about funding for the Deaf Development Programme. But then the border war between Thailand and Cambodia erupted, and Caritas Cambodia went to the border to set up tent housing for displaced people and provide them with food, water, toilets, and other supplies. Our discussions with Caritas were suspended. Now I am heading back to Phnom Penh to resume our discussions. I just flew from Louisville and am in Denver, my first stop on the way. Here at the Denver airport you can see the Rocky Mountains rising on the horizon. It takes about 35 hours to fly from Louisville to Phnom Penh.
This afternoon I took my bicycle out for a short ride to Kroger’s and had my first flat tire. I’ve been anticipating it and wondering about the timing and where I would be. Fortunately it was only two or three miles from my home. I called my super biker brother-in-law who also has a truck and he picked me up and we took the bike to the shop where I bought it because I have never changed a tire on a bike with a motor in the hub. It’s going to be expensive to let them fix the flat but I’ll learn what needs to be done. Mike’s wife, my sister, has a twin bike like mine and Mike called her and she agreed I could borrow her bike till mine is fixed so we went to their house in the truck and picked it up and brought it to Nazareth Home. That’s it above, some funny shade of pink–or is it purple? Or is it….? Whatever the color, it rolls so I’m fixed for a few days. Thanks, Mary!
When my brothers and sisters and cousins decided to buy me an e-bike for commuting around Louisville, they chose a brand-name, high-end model for me. I became more aware of that when I received a recall notice from the manufacturer about a defective part, just like what happens for cars. The notice said that a bolt holding the back wheel can fracture because of a faulty casting process for the bolt and that I need to bring in the bike for a replacement bolt. It turns out they have to order the replacement bolt but won’t do it until I bring in the bike and leave it for the three days required for the bolt to arrive. I asked them to order the bolt and let me know when it arrives but they said they had to have the bike first. For legal liability reasons, they don’t want to appear to be supporting my continuing riding of the bike while there is risk of the back wheel falling off.