Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
I’m sorry for the lapse in postings over the last five days. I went to BNH Hospital in Bangkok and thought I would have a lot of time to catch up on work but that turned out to be not true. Now I’m out of the hospital and at the Maryknoll office in Bangkok. I return to Phnom Penh tomorrow.
On my trip to Kentucky last week, I arranged to get new liturgical books that we can use on Wednesdays for the mass we have with lay missioners in Phnom Penh. Here Kila holds the old, taped-up books, and Maria has the new ones.
On Saturday morning I met a donor who has been very generous in supporting the Deaf Development Programme. We met at this coffee shop near the retirement home where I will be living. The bicycle is my cousin’s electric bike that I am riding while in Louisville.
On Sunday morning I bicycled over to St. Margaret Mary Church where two of my priest friends are ministering.
Like many modern parishes, they had two technicians in the back to control the projection and the sound system.
On the morning of our last day together, Brian Reynolds, the vicar general of the archdiocese, spoke to us about the research and planning for a reorganization of the parishes of the diocese.
Some photos from the beautiful St. Meinrad campus
St. Frances of Rome church is across the street from Nazareth Home Clifton and I went to the 8:30 AM mass. Fr. Jerry Eifler, an old friend, was the presider there. After mass I also met some family of a girl I taught at Angela Merici High School in the 1970s.
This the driveway to Nazareth Home Clifton on Payne Street in Louisville. I will live in the building on the right.
One of the things I like about Kentucky and that I miss in Cambodia are the large hardwood trees and forests. This majestic tree is on the grounds of Nazareth Home.
Today is the actual 20th anniversary of King Sihomani’s coronation in 2004.
This is the most frequent face of King Sihomani as seen by the Cambodian populace. He is always smiling the same tight-lipped smile. It is almost as if he had plastic surgery and cannot do anything except smile. But smiling is probably his most important responsibility as king. He has no legislative or jurisdictional power but is a symbol of the royal family and in that role he gives a human–smiling–face to an otherwise dour government.
Today’s Deaf Week activity was making decorative paper bracelets. Most of the students were quite creative! And of course afterwards there were the usual photos!
On the Easter weekend, the new church being constructed at St. Joseph Parish was opened to allow a few people to see the interior.
The main stairway leading up to the front doors opens into back portion of the nave of the church which has a lower ceiling to allow for offices and meeting rooms above.
Then the back half of the nave opens up to a high ceiling. The building is large but the seating will not be much greater than what is presently available in the hall in another building that is currently used for Sunday liturgies.
I think I’ve been away from the US too long…. When I moved to this new place where I am living alone now, I bought a small refrigerator. Refrigerators should be rather simple but I can’t figure this one out.
