Charlie’s House

This is the house I live in St 53BT in the neighborhood called Boeung Tum Pun, in the unit on the far right. It’s four stories, and Christian university students from an indigenous tribe live on the top two floors. They get up there by a metal stairway coming from the right side of the covered entrance yard at ground level.

I have the ground floor and a second or mezzanine floor. Notice the building is one-room wide, what is called a pteah lveng in the local dialect. A building like this is built for one family, with a shop or restaurant or small business on the ground floor, but landlords block the inside stairways to upper floors and add the outside external stairs so they can house two or more families in the building.

Tangkok Pilgrimage

During the Pol Pot era, many Catholics were killed by the Khmer Rouge. Some of them have been proposed to the church as actual modern martyrs. Every year the Church of Cambodia has a celebration at Tangkok where there is a shrine to the martyrs. It has been reported that next year, Pope Francis will officially canonize martyrs from Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.

These photos are from yesterday’s ceremony in Tangkok.

Singapore Visitors

Today a group from the Singapore Wesley deaf program came to DDP for a visit. Half of them have been to DDP before and it was good to see them again, catch up on what’s happening, and do some planning for the future.

The Singapore group with the DDP management team.
The president of the Singapore group leading a prayer at the end.
A final shot as they prepared to leave and head for a workshop in Kampot.

Deaf Leadership Training

Colin Allen is leading a deaf leadership training program at the Deaf Development Programme, with a goal of establishing a national deaf association. Colin is away for two months now but the training continues, led by the team he prepared.

Another Farewell

Today Benjamin Jerome, Sheila, and their son Isaiah left Phnom Penh for a new job and a new home in Laos. They have been a very active part of our English Catholic Community for the past nine years helping with coffee and doughnuts, serving as lector, communion minister, and altar server, and just contributing to the life of our group in so many ways. We will miss them. May God truly bless them in this new stage of their lives.

Priests Retreat–Day 3

Fr. Miguel, the retreat master, and Bishop Kike working on a computer glitch.

The priests of Cambodia gathered for a liturgy in the parish church. (I don’t know why so many of the guys feel the need to dress up in albs and stoles–an indication of clericalism to me.)
Me with a group of Jesuits after one of the talks. The Jesuits have a REALLY good presence here in Cambodia with some REALLY good men.

Priests Retreat–Day 2

The two retreat talks each day are presented in this large hall at the edge of the property. This year the hall has new doors that enclose the room and air conditioning has been added.
Fr. Miguel, a Jesuit priest who has spent the last 50+ years in Thailand, is leading our retreat.
The liturgy on the first full day was organized by the Kampong Cham priests.