Breakfast to go

The lines are long for Phnom Penh-ers queuing up to buy breakfast at one of the thousands of food carts all over the city. Most homes still cook with charcoal so you can see why eating on the street is so popular. Can you imagine lighting your charcoal grill every time you wanted to eat hot food?
This other cart has customers, too, but the seated woman selling cold drinks isn’t doing much business. Maybe it’s too early.

1st Day of New Year

Today was the first day of the lunar new year, and this was a scene repeated all across Phnom Penh where traditional new year flower arrangements decorated the entranceways of businesses closed for the holiday–even though it’s NOT a holiday in Cambodia!
And across the street from the Home Access business in the first picture, the manager of a nursery ponders what to do with the unsold chrysanthemums in her establishment.

More Musica Felice!

A week ago we had the Musica Felice charity concert which was a great success. 100% of the ticket sales went to the two groups—our Deaf Development Programme was one of them–for whom the concert was organized by Miwako Fujiwara. A reporter contacted me after the concert and we talked a bit but then I didn’t see anything in the paper and thought an editor might have killed the piece he was planning. But today Miwako sent me the following link to the article–and I was quoted!

Take a look to get a “feel” for the concert experience!

Musica Felice Charity Concert makes a big splash on its comeback

New Church Building

There was more substantial progress in evidence this evening when we went to the 5:00 PM mass at St. Joseph Church. Before there was a lot of preparation and clearing the site but now actually construction is taking place. It looks like they are laying a concrete foundation or maybe even the flooring of a basement.

Lunar New Year

Three more days to Lunar New Year’s Eve! More and more signs of the new year are appearing throughout Phnom Penh. Chrysanthemums are one of the most popular flowers for this festival because of their gold color associated with wealth.







Here one of the staff at an office arranges some chrysanthemums and other flowers outside the office door.













Further down the street, more chr ysanthemums are set outside the door of a private house.

Notable Quotes

Shouldn’t we be wondering how it is that we go on arming ourselves to deliver death to unseen enemies while our society is dying in other ways at our own hands as a result?

And now our so-called representatives and senators tell us that those social things are too expensive for them to allow while they have pumped the military budget up and up, over and over, for all the years of our lives?

Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, commenting on Sante Fe Archbishop John Wester’s pastoral letter calling for the abolition of all nuclear weapons.

Year 2 Graduation

The Deaf Development Programme has a two-year non-formal education program for older students who come to us with no language. Today we had a graduation ceremony for the students who–finally–finished Year 2 after the classrooms were closed 1.5 years because of Covid.
Fourteen students graduated today. It is sad that they are able to receive so little education but they are bright and energetic so we hope they will succeed in job training or returning to their families’ farms.
The social communications office of the Vicariate of Phnom Penh was present for the graduation and afterwards interviewed two of the students.