Mission Notebook

Random ideas, comments, reflections, and information on mission and life in a mission country.

Christmas Dinner Getting the Maryknoll group together 25 December 2009 Click here for pictures of the Maryknoll Christmas dinner

Fr. Olivier Schmitthaeusler Bishop-designate for Phnom Penh 27 December 2009   On Christmas Eve, during the mass for Christmas, I received a text message that Fr. Olivier Schmitthaeusler has been appointed by Pope Benedict to be the new bishop of Phnom Penh. He is a young man--born six weeks after I was ordained in 1970!--and has been in Cambodia since 1998. He has very good Khmer language, a wealth of experience, and is an accomplished builder. He likes structure and organization. He was born in Strasbourg, France, and is a member of the Paris Foreign Missions society.

Christmas Day +1 26 December 2009     How do you know it's Christmas in the Catholic church?  Charlie Dittmeier is wearing a chasuable (the outer vestment).  Because of the heat, it is normal for priests to wear only an alb (the long white vestment) and a stole, without the outer chasuable, but for solemn celebrations like Christmas the chasuable is used also.

Christmas Day 25 December 2009       How do you know it's Christmas Day in a Buddhist culture? All the mannequins have Santa Claus hats, of course!

Celebrating Christmas in Phnom Penh Don Bosco Vocational Training Center for Girls 24 December 2009 Click here for pictures of the Christmas pageant at the Vocational Training Center for Girls

Farewell for Bong Return to the Philippines 23 December 2009    Arturo "Bong" Ang has been part of the Maryknoll Cambodia Mission Team since 2003 when he arrived in the first group of missioners from the Philippines Catholic Lay Mission group to work in Cambodia. As partners with Maryknoll, the PCLMers have been involved fully in the mission and life of the Cambodia Mission Team. Bong was director of the Bridges of Hope project which found jobs for persons with HIV who are in a stable condition but not strong enough or able for other reasons to go back to their previous jobs. Now after six years, Bong is returning to the Philippines. We will miss him.

21 December 2009 Click here for pictures from the annual decorating party at the Maryknoll Sisters' house in Phnom Penh.

Christmas? "Oh...that fat guy in the red suit!" 19 December 2009         How much Christmas spirit and holiday cheer you think this Buddhist guard has after sitting outside this business all through the night?

Asian Center for Progress of Peoples 19 October 2009   The Asian Center for the Progress of Peoples (ACPP) was founded thirty years ago in Hong Kong to support and serve justice efforts in Asia.  Linda Noche is the coordinator of ACPP which helps to network Asian individuals and groups working for justice and peace and to call attention to and encourage response to situations of gross injustice in various countries through the issuance of Urgent Appeals.  Charlie Dittmeier is on the board of directors of ACPP and today he met with Linda to discuss the human rights situation in Cambodia and possible future meetings and activities to promote greater justice in Asia.

All in the Family Two sisters in mission together 4 October 2009    Carolyn Ouellet (second left) came to Cambodia about six weeks ago to work as a volunteer teacher in the Salesian Sisters Technical School for Girls in Phnom Penh.  She must have liked the experience and spoken highly of it in her letters home because now her younger sister Christine (third left) has come to join her for the year.  Here the two sisters are talking with Bong Ang (left) and Medin Tan, two of the Philippine Catholic Lay Mission group who work as part of Maryknoll Cambodia.

The International Christian Fellowship Commissioning New Pastors 17 September 2009 The International Christian Fellowship is the largest Protestant congregation for English-speaking Christians in Phnom Penh, and on Sunday, 13 September, the had a commissioning ceremony for their two new co-pastors.  Graham Chipps has stepped down as pastor after fourteen years of leading the ICF and replacing him are Peter Warren (left in the middle of the front row) and Richard Waddell (with his wife Carolyn on his left).  Here they are pictured with congregations elders who prayed for them as they begin their new ministry together.

Carolyn Ouellet Salesian Lay Missionary 28 August 2009   In July, Charlie Dittmeier met Carolyn Ouellet (center) in New York at the Maryknoll Lay Missioners headquarters where she participated in an orientation program in preparation for coming as a lay missionary to Cambodia to work with the Salesian Sisters in a technical training school for girls.  Today Charlie met her again, at the school, when he went there for his regular weekly mass with the sisters on Friday mornings.

I'm glad she likes to read, but.... 24 August 2009   On Monday mornings I leave my house before 6:00 AM to go across town on the back of a motorcycle taxi to have mass with the Carmelite sisters.  Most Mondays, this woman is sitting on the edge of Street 360 reading some book outloud to herself. I'd love to know who she is and what she's reading and why.

Something's Not Right Here... 22 August 2009     Everyone is familiar with the molded yellow tiles with raised bumps that are set into sidewalks to guide blind people along sidewalks, keeping them moving in the right direction and alerting them to corners and intersections and steps. Well, the blind people who use this marked path on a sidewalk in Kuala Lumpur, near the YMCA where we stayed, better be REALLY familiar with the path--it leads straight into a utility pole, with no warnings at all!

DDP Staff Wedding Mr. Deth Bunthok and Ms. Thao Linda 29 June 2009   Mr. Deth Bunthok and Ms. Thao Linda are two former members of the DDP staff who were part of our education project until recently when they resigned to marry each other and move to Phnom Penh. Today they celebrated their wedding, and at the banquet tonight Keat Sokly (left), the DDP manager, and Celina Campas, the education project advisor, were among the well-wishers.

Celebrating 28 June 2006 Today when I changed US$100 to Cambodian riel, I received 418,500 riel, benefitting from the highest exchange rate I have ever seen in Cambodia in my nine years here. One never knows the reason why different currencies rise or fall against the riel, but this is good news for people who get paid in US dollars, like the staff of all the Maryknoll projects. They receive their salary in dollars and then when they change it to riel to buy things in the local markets, they get a significant increase over the usual rate which is closer to 4000 riel. This money changer works from his living room, the ground floor of his shophouse. Notice he keeps his car in the living room for safety sake!

So much we're not aware of... 23 June 2009     Have you ever seen red bamboo before? Most people in the United States are familiar with bamboo fishing poles that are a yellowish color, the result of being dried over a long time. But in Kuala Lumpur, on the campus of the University of Malaya where we had a seminar on sign language research, there were stands of bamboo that had colors ranging from the more normal green to yellow to bright red.

Death in a Foreign Country 13 June 2009 Last week I was contacted by a Western embassy to see if I could preside at a funeral for one of their citizens who had died on a trip to Cambodia.  It had been decided not to send his body back for burial so I was asked to have a funeral service at a Buddhist wat where the cremation would take place.  Death is not hidden or covered over here.  The body was brought to the wat in a simple wooden box, there were some prayers and readings with some of his traveling companions who had stayed on for the funeral, and then his body was put into the crematorium. The service was preceded by a series of phone calls to the family overseas and by arrangements with the Buddhist wat for a Catholic service to be conducted there without causing any inter-religious difficulties.

Tourists in Cambodia 12 June 2009 Two tourists in front of the Royal Palace

Preparing for Prayer, Muslim-style 6 June 2006 Last weekend I was at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur for a seminar on sign language. In the main corridor of the linguistics building were two signs pointing to prayer rooms for men and women. In the toilets, there were special sinks like this one, with a wide sloping surface rather than a basin. It was explained to me that Muslim men wash their full arms before prayer and this was a more efficient design for that. Muslims must also wash their feet before prayer and the toilet had this area for foot washing.

Cardinal Thomas McCarrick Visiting Phnom Penh 28 April 2009 Cardinal Thomas McCarrick was Archbishop of Washington, D.C. until 2006 when he submitted his resignation after reaching the mandatory retirement age. He is now 78 and still active in a variety of positions. One of his jobs is with the Board of Directors of Catholic Relief Services, and in that capacity he is now in Cambodia, visiting the CRS office and projects here. He has a special friendship with the Missionaries of Charity and asked to celebrate mass with them. Today was the preferred day, and because Charlie Dittmeier is the normal celebrant with the sisters on Tuesdays, he and Cardinal McCarrick concelebrated. This photo was taken after mass. There are six Missionaries of Charity sisters in this orphanage for mainly abandoned children in Phnom Penh.

Morning Mass in Kampot Fr. Un Son 21 April 2009 Kampot is a small town on the southern coast of Cambodia. There is not much of a Catholic presence there but Fr. Un Son, one of the five Khmer priests in Cambodia, is stationed there for a small community of 30-50 Catholics. Every morning he has mass at 6:30 AM for three or four of those people. You can see why most priests in Cambodia don't wear the full set of vestments. When sitting on the floor, the vestments make movement really difficult.

Dedication of Epic Arts Center A real celebration in Kampot 20 April 2009 Today Epic Arts, a UK-based NGO, formally opened its new performing arts center in the coastal province of Kampot. An idea conceived fourteen years ago, the center finally came to fruition today in a joyful ceremony for hundreds of people who came to show their support for Epic Arts' programs to bring together people with and without disabilities in different art expressions. Here the British Ambassador Andrew Mace gives his comments near the beginning of the ceremony. More to come on this happy day.

Easter Sunday Service Holy Week 2009 12 April 2009   Last night we had the main service for the English-speaking Catholic community, the Easter Vigil ceremony, and this morning, on Easter Sunday itself, we had our second liturgy in the small chapel at the Khmer parish. We were filled to overflowing, partly because we had baptisms of three small children and their godparents and friends were an addition to our normal congregation.  It was not a smooth, easy service: We had a larger crowd than usual, but for some reason someone at the church removed 60 chairs which left about 40 people with no seats; There is no water in the church building and when I went to the next building to get water for the baptisms, the water there was not working; Someone took the song sheets from the service last night so we only had 50 or so for the service this morning; One of the families with an infant to be baptized couldn't find the church and arrived at the end of the service, requiring a second baptism ceremony after the mass.