On the Road…

USA Trip #3

Gethsemani Day 2

Mass is at 11:30 AM and lunch is not until 12:30 PM so there was a short time after mass ended before we could go to the dining room and guys gathered in the lobby of the retreat building.

There is only a half hour allotted for each meal. That may not seem like much time but when the meals are simple and are silent, 30 minutes is quite adequate.

People can leave whenever they finish eating. We take the dishes to carts and racks to gather everything and then some of the monks wash the dishes. The food is simple but is quite good.

The retreat for the Louisville priests is being held at the Gethsemane Abbey of the Trappist monks, near Bardstown, Kentucky. Gethsemane is famous as the home monastery for Fr. Thomas Merton, the author and spiritual writer who is buried there.

Many people come to Gethsemane for a time of prayer, and there are many lay people here making their retreat at the same time as we priests. Here a woman reads in an isolated area of the monastery grounds.

A view along the side of the monastery building with part of the cemetery where monks have been buried for more than 150 years.

USA Trip #1

Travel

This trip was not unusual in that it took 37 hours and four flights to get from Phnom Penh to Louisville, Kentucky, but because of the timing of the flights, it was difficult to get much sleep on the way.

The first stop was Singapore’s Changi Airport, always one of the top two or three airports of the world. It has indoor gardens, all sorts of environmental areas, an indoor waterfall, and even a bicycle trail for people on long layovers.

From Singapore, it was eastward to San Francisco and then on to Dulles in Washington, D.C. Dulles is notable for its shuttles (yellow circle) that go back and forth on the airport apron carrying passengers between terminals and concourses.

Dulles is also a major hub on the East Coast for United Airlines.

Well!

I’m embarrassed… I wasn’t able to access the Internet everyday on my trip to the US for the funeral of my sister Ann, but I was taking photos so I could give a summary when I returned. Well….I’ve returned but I’ve lost the photos! I downloaded them from the camera but I don’t know where I put them on my laptop! I’ll find them… Hang on!

Greetings… I am on my way to the Phnom Penh airport to head to Louisville, Kentucky for the funeral of my sister Ann Dittmeier who died yesterday. I fly through Seoul, San Francisco, and Houston before getting to Kentucky–about a 35-hour trip. I won’t be able to update the website here until I arrive in Louisville.

Trip to Kampong Cham #5

Our third and last stop this trip was in Tbong Khmum Province, a good drive from Kampong Cham city. We had another delightful group of young deaf people to work with.

Deaf people seldom get to tell their story or talk about themselves in Cambodia. They cannot speak to their families because the families don’t know sign language–and the deaf people here are themselves just learning sign language. When we get together like this, we have some topic to talk about so that everyone can speak up.

Deaf people around the world are isolated, left out of the flow of ordinary life, and so even a simple gathering like these visits is interesting and engaging.

A group photo with the Tbong Khmum deaf people and the DDP staff from Kampong Cham.

Parents, grandparents, neighbors, and passersby were on the sidelines of our gathering and we included them in another photo. We want them to feel their deaf children are part of the family and are valuable and to be respected.

This young deaf woman has a hair and beauty salon where we had our meeting, and one of our Kampong Cham staff got her hair trimmed before we left.

Trip to Kampong Cham #4

Our day started with breakfast of pork and rice in this little streetside rice shop. Notice almost all cooking in Cambodia is done on charcoal braziers.

Here I am catching up with our host, a deaf man I have not seen for a long time.

Our DDP staff preparing some pictures of vegetables to be used for teaching new sign language.

Getting into the sign language lesson. These deaf people in the rural area have just been learning Cambodian Sign Language for a month or two.

Our classroom–a tarp we brought for sitting under a shelter attached to a stilt house.

After the sign language class, as we prepare to leave. The photocopies are to help the deaf people remember the signs they learned today.

A group shot of the deaf youth, our DDP staff, the deaf youth’s parents, and a few neighbors who wandered in to see what was going on.

Then it was time for a snack of a variety of fruits.

Trip to Kampong Cham #3

It took us about three hours to drive from Phnom Penh to Kampong Cham. When we arrived at the DDP office there, we had a short meeting. Sorphany (L) is interpreting for one of the deaf staff (R).

Then we traveled about a half hour outside of Kampong Cham to a village where thirteen young deaf people had gathered. They come together once a month for education and socialization, a chance to be with other deaf people and communicate. We met under a Khmer house which is in practice the main “room” for a Cambodian dwelling.

I talked with the deaf young people to encourage them to continue to meet and build up the deaf community–one of the goals of DDP–and then the DDP staff had a teaching session with them.

Back in Kampong Cham city, Soknym, our DDP director, and I had dinner by the night market along the Mekong River.

Then Soknym and I walked along the river toward the bridge. When I first started going to Kampong Cham there was no bridge and we would take a ferry to cross the Mekong.

Trip to Kampong Cham #2

I just got back from Kampong Cham and Tbong Khmum a little while ago and it’s late now so I will just show one picture from our first gathering yesterday and start a fuller post tomorrow.

Our first gathering was with thirteen young deaf adults a half hour’s drive from Kampong Cham city. It was delightful to be with them again.

Trip to Kampong Cham #1

Today Sau Soknym and took a van to Kampong Cham to some districts where DDP has set up local deaf groups with funding from the United Nations Development Program. It was quite interesting and I’ll put more about it here in the next day or so.

One interesting feature for me was the Virak Buntham bus company we used. I had never encountered them but they are the best I’ve seen, going everywhere in Cambodia and with really good vehicles and professional staff. I wish I had found them years ago! Here are two of their vans at our first rest stop.

Category: On the Road…