Welcome to Cambodia, and….. – Page 120 – Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page

Resuming Parish Masses

This weekend we were able to have our English community masses in person again after a break of many, many months. Click here to see photos of our gatherings.

Not quite a seatbelt, but…

A quick glance at this motorcycle shows a little boy holding onto his mother as they cruise along…

A second glance, though, from a little different angle, shows that there are TWO little boys riding behind their mother, and the bigger boy’s arms are making sure the littler one stays right where he belongs.

No need to rush these things…

There is a large high school behind the trees in the photo above, and more than a year ago the city started to build a pedestrian overpass for the students to get over a really busy intersection. Then came the pandemic and the schools were closed–and the overpass construction stopped. Now the schools are reopening and the construction is resuming. Why they didn’t finish the overpass BEFORE the schools opened? Who knows.

Notable Quotes

You can measure the health of an organization by whether it is seeking converts or trying to find heretics.
PBS commentator Mark Shields, quoting Carr

Time to sing–or at least practice

Part of our Monday staff meeting was preparing the group to sing a song in Cambodian Sign Language. The song will be part of a video about the Deaf Development Programme that is being produced by some of the staff.

Staff meeting (socially distanced)

Next week we are going on an annual all-staff meeting we use for training and explanation of policy and building a sense of community among our staff from the different provinces. Today we had a meeting at our Phnom Penh office to explain what we need to do to prepare for next week.

Topics: Wiring Workmen

I often wonder about being a lineman working in Phnom Penh. How do the workmen ever identify and sort out the wires and cables facing them? Click here to see some of those intrepid souls.

Refreshing but not so profitable.

These are the people who really get hurt by shutting down the local economy to fight Covid-19. These people, all part of the informal economy, only make money when they are on the street and when other people are on the street to buy. How much could this woman make even pre-Covid-19? She has to buy the fruit, buy the block of ice, and rent the cart. And then the price for sliced fresh fruit can’t be too high. The profit margin has to be rather low for a morning or afternoon walking the streets.

What is his story?

This young man is selling bags of various fruits from a modified motorcycle. From here the red fruits look like apples but they are not.

I often wonder if this is one of the “desperation” jobs in the informal economy. It could be that the young man’s family owns some land with fruit trees and the family kids hit the streets with fruit every day. More likely is that he can’t find a steady job so he rents the motorcycle from the fruit orchard and gets a cut of whatever he can sell during the day. How long will he do that? Just one day? One week? One month? Would anyone keep at it for longer than that, earning a dollar or two a day?