Kompong Cham Trip

Four of the seven MMAF members in Cambodia took a trip to the province of Kompong Cham in July, 2000. The trip was part of the orientation of the new Maryknollers to Cambodia and an opportunity to see how the church operates in the rural provinces.

This sixth page shows the church service held in the Catholic village on Sunday morning.

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Beginning mass Preaching the homily

Village youth talking with Charlie Rachel Smith and Cori Petro talking to ladies after mass

This Cambodian village is unusual in having its own real church building. Outside it's a traditional Khmer style house although more substantially built than the regular village houses, e.g., it has a solid plank floor instead of split bamboo, and it has a sheet metal roof instead of thatch. The top pictures show Fr. Juan de Jesus--on his last day in the village--beginning mass and preaching. After mass, because of the pouring rain, villagers stayed around to talk with us, but then finally most sent children out to gather banana leaves for umbrellas while one lucky lady got to use Juan's blue poncho. The extensive puddles, frequent rains, lots of mud, and wet clothes were a hallmark of the weekend. We were wet about half the time.

Waiting on the church porch for the rain to end Using banana leaves as umbrellas

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	This Cambodian village is unusual in having its own real church building. Outside it's a traditional Khmer style house although more substantially built than the regular village houses, e.g., it has a solid plank floor instead of split bamboo, and it has a sheet metal roof instead of thatch. The top pictures show Fr. Juan de Jesus--on his last day in the village--beginning mass and preaching. After mass, because of the pouring rain, villagers stayed around to talk with us, but then finally most sent children out to gather banana leaves for umbrellas while one lucky lady got to use Juan's blue poncho. The extensive puddles, frequent rains, lots of mud, and wet clothes were a hallmark of the weekend. We were wet about half the time.