It’s going to be different!

We are going to have to move from our present hall where we celebrate mass to this small chapel at St. Joseph Church, probably in a couple weeks. We had planned the move at the beginning of the year but that was before social distancing started, so tonight after our 5:30 PM mass, we moved a bunch of chairs over to the chapel so we can arrange them tomorrow in different configurations to see how many people we can accommodate there with our new reality. [Thanks to all the parishioners who helped us move a chair or two!]

If the shoe fits,….

I’m not sure what I’m seeing here. This man has set up a little stand on the sidewalk beside the wall of a wat and it looks like he’s selling used sport shoes. But what are the black oblong things stacked up? Are they new soles that he can glue or stitch to a pair of shoes? They look awfully long, but then maybe he cuts them down to the shoe size. I’ll have to go by there again and see if he is still there and what he has on his stand.

To be avoided

One of my least favorite activities in Cambodia is going to a bank. Cambodian people don’t see anything wrong with their bank procedures because that is all they know, but to people who have gone to banks in other countries, it’s enough to make you scream. I was in a bank for about fifteen minutes this afternoon, to make a simple cash deposit. There were eight bank employees behind the counter (some moved as I took the picture), waiting on one person at a time. Notice the woman sitting at the left. These are the only banks I’ve been in where you go to the counter and present your cash, deposit slip, and bankbook–and then have to go sit down. The cashier signs several papers, presents them to her manager who signs them, and then they return to the cashier who signs and stamps them again. But it doesn’t all happen in a quick sequence. There are big gaps as the papers are handed back and forth. Thus they encourage you to sit. Grrrr…..

“It’s only paint….”

A wealthy neighbor of the Deaf Development Programme office just had some metal gates and barriers made. The workmen cut and welded all the metal out in the street. And then they spray painted it all black and green, leaning it up against a neighbor’s wall or laying it flat in the street. You can see the mess it left. Only it’s not a mess for the Cambodians. They would never think the paint all over everything is a problem.