Category: Uncategorized

Apologies

I have been having a terrible time with reports due to New York yesterday and then several other tasks that have kept me away from the keyboard. I hope to get back on track on Saturday.

Sunday, 4 August 2019

Travel to Ho Chi Minh City and then to London.

Sunday morning was just a usual Sunday. Here, on the way to mass at St. Joseph Church, I found workmen renewing a permanent display that features the royal family. I believe the Queen Mother’s photos were there last week, and since they are now removed, it probably means that another of the royal family is having a birthday or special day to remember.
I’ve mentioned before, when you see a woman on a motorcycle with a towel or wrapped in a towel, you can be sure she is holding an infant or toddler, and if you look closely, you can see a small sandaled foot sticking out from under the lower left edge of the pink towel. This family was near the airport as I was riding there.
This worker is open one of the cargo compartments on an Airbus 320 in Phnom Penh that was preparing for a departure shortly before ours.
Our plane to Ho Chi Minh City was a much smaller 64-seat propjet. Here we are deplaning at the Tan Son Nhat airiport in Ho Chi Minh City.
This is one of the best sights I have seen in an airport in many years. Tan Son Nhat airport has discontinued the constant announcements of departures and missing passengers that plague most airports. Now they only announce gate changes. Other airports, take notice!

I arrived a Tan Son Nhat at 6:00 PM but didn’t leave till 1:00 AM the next morning. Luckily the time passed quickly as I ate some pastries I brought with me and caught up on some work and then read more of Les Miserables.

Troubles Galore

I have been trying to finish the posts from the trip to Bangkok but keep encountering difficulties. Now I can’t find the photos! I downloaded them from my camera and put them in a folder on an external drive, but now they’re GONE! I’m trying to recover the originals on the SD chip in the camera that’s been problematic, too. Stay with me a bit longer….

Notable Quotes

We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation.

~ Pope Francis, speaking about refugees

Lower Middle Income Status

According to World Bank statistics, Cambodia was one of the fastest-growing economies in the world between 1998 and 2018. During that twenty-year period, Cambodia’s average growth rate was 7.7%, a really impressive rate of growth–and one that is continuing today even though so much of the economy is informal, like the women above selling on the street who pay no business registration fees or taxes. Results of the rapid growth have been dramatic: Cambodia has moved from a Least Developed Country status to a Lower Middle Income level and during the period of 1998-2013, life expectancy increased by 23%.

On my way…

I am at JFK airport in New York City waiting for my sixteen-hour flight to Guangzhou. I may not be able to update the website before I get back to Phnom Penh—and I don’t arrive there will midnight Friday–so it may be a while before I get back to here.

April Board Meeting–2

I spent most of the morning getting from the airport to Maryknoll, and then in the afternoon I made the rounds of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners and the priests’ seminary building to say hello to people and arrange meetings for the next few days. Click here for some photos from the day.