Maryknoll Immersion Trip

For the past week, Maryknoll Cambodia has hosted what we call an immersion trip, bringing a group from usually the United States and exposing them to the language and culture and people of Cambodia to help them get an idea of mission in this country.

On one of their first days in Cambodia, the group of fourteen men and women came to the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme to learn about what we are doing with the deaf people of Cambodia.
Today the group came to join Maryknoll Cambodia for a liturgy and for a dinner together, just to give everyone more chance to talk.
Most of the immersion tour group will be returning to the United States tomorrow so this was a low-key, not stressful way to spend their last evening in Cambodia.

Oops! Sorry!

Mr. Jan Frey in Germany, a long-time friend and reader of this website, sent me an e-mail noting that the link to Maryknoll Bangkok Meetings–3 (scroll down to 13 November) wasn’t working. I checked it out and found that I had prepared the page the link connects to, but had neglected to “Publish” the page after I completed it. It should be working now, Thanks, Jan!

Unusual Vehicles

Topics: Traffic Rules

In a country like Cambodia where there is little regulation or even a sense of discipline, anything goes. In terms of personal style like clothing, hair color, etc., it doesn’t much affect society, but the same easy-going style influences things like traffic where just about any kind of vehicle, with or without standard safety features, is fit for the road. Here are a few unusual vehicles that appear around Phnom Penh.

Rest Stop….I’ll pass

I had to return by myself to Phnom Penh from the DDP annual staff meeting rather than with the group. I took a bus service and we made a stop halfway through the trip. Each company has an arrangement with the restaurant or shop where they stop, to allow the drivers to eat for free, etc.

The place where our bus stopped for a rest break was a real dive. It is out in the middle of nowhere and has nothing attractive. It was late evening when we arrived and the bus driver left the headlights on to shine into the eating area so we could see. (The picture looks lighter but it was really dark inside.
Most such rest stops allow passengers to choose food from a menu, to be cooked on the spot. This place had five or six large pots of food probably cooked early in the morning.
This is the little “convenience store” which all these places have. It was stacked with trash and covered with a layer of dust. The toilets were to the left of this shack and were unlit and absolutely dark when we were there.
There was no selection in this “store” that would entice anyone. Everything there looked like it had been there for months. I had some cookies with me so I just bought a Coke from the orange coolers on the left, figuring that would be safe.