Fruits and Flowers

A lot of things are different now because of Covid-19. The big wet markets around the city have become hotbeds of infections so they have been shut down. All those selling inside the markets have now moved out onto the street. This woman sells to two different groups, those wanting flowers and those wanting fruits.

Waiting

A woman stands at her cooked meat stall outside a big market in Phnom Penh. Normally this block of food stalls is crowded but with Covid-19 alarming people, the woman probably waits more than she used to for hungry customers.

Multi-tasking

The shophouse–a building one-room wide and four stories tall–is the norm in Phnom Penh. the ground floor opens on to the street and is the locus for the business, whatever it is. The family live behind and above the shop. Here a woman minds her housewares shop while chopping vegetables for dinner.

Chrism Mass

Normally every year a week or two before Easter, the bishop blesses the holy oils used for Catholic sacraments. This year, because of Covid-19, certainly hasn’t been normal and we didn’t have the chrism mass until today–and with just fifteen representative priests rather than the whole presbyterate as is the long established and revered custom. Here three large silver containers filled with the oils wait for the blessing.

No more mud

This is the boys’ hostel at DDP House. Before there was broken pavement, poor drainage, and mud in the yard area. Now there’s new layer of cement.

Lower the ceiling?

On an inspection visit of our hostel for deaf students, a team from the Ministry of Social Affairs didn’t like that there was no ceiling above the dorm rooms but rather open space up to the metal roof twenty feet above. From my understanding, that design allows the hot air to rise well above the living area and also keeps the hot roof above the humans. They wanted a suspended ceiling, though, so now they are getting one. It will be interesting to learn from the students, when they return, if the rooms are now hotter or cooler.

Turn on the lights

Four or five days ago, a couple or three young men started digging a trench
along the south side of Street 320, the location of the Maryknoll office.
They have been digging ever since and today they finally started pulling
three large electrical cables through some PVC pipe they laid in the trench.

Doing what we can

Today the Catholic Alliance for Charity and Development (CACD) had an online meeting to review the church’s outreach in the Covid-19 pandemic. Caritas Cambodia has been organizing the outreach and presented really sad numbers concerning the great needs of the poor people. One group that has been especially hard hit are the inmates in Cambodia’s not-so-good prisons. This photos is of a group of prisoners receiving food aid. [Note the second woman in the middle row has her child with her.]