Defenses against the sun: the umbrella for the stock and customers, a leopard-skin cloth for a motorcycle, and a piece of paper for the shop proprietor.
More Sun Stress
“Here comes the sun….”
Cambodia’s close to the equator with a strong, direct sun that is very much part of daily life. Here in the early morning as businesses open up, they prepare for the day covering their stock, their cars, and their motorcycles to protect them from the sun.
Welding Crew
A couple welders heading off for their work site early in the morning. Notice the safety equipment(?). Do you think OSHA would approve? At least they’re wearing helmets.
Health and Spirituality
Today at a priests meeting, Bishop Olivier showed us a new gym or exercise room he has set up at the pastoral center. It will be useful for the seminarians living there and also for all the guests who come for retreats and meetings.
The real thing…
Earlier this month I posted this picture to talk about the wooden shrine in the back on the right. Today I want to point out the wooden stools for customers to sit on when trying on shoes. Heavy, bulky wooden furniture is a sign that a family or a business has “arrived,” that they have made it. The wooden stools and other pieces appear in any and every kind of business. (See it in gas stations.) This shoe shop has to have the wood also and, actually, it makes more sense here where it doesn’t need to be moved much and is out of the weather.
You never know…
I had a new experience yesterday, riding in the motorized tuk-tuks that have become popular the last three or four years. This one had a seatbelt for the driver! Granted it wasn’t being used–and probably never has been, unless they use it for tying down cargo–but I never expected to see one in a conveyance like these tuk-tuks.
Reopening the English church
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This weekend we had three masses, two on Saturday and one Sunday morning, each with less than twenty people, the first time our English community has met in more than three months. Click here to see some photos from the start of our gathering again.
How about a trade?
An hour’s difference….
Imagine doing that every day…
Close to home…
Buildings in Cambodia are not “tight,” that is, they are open to air flowing through, don’t have glass on many windows, etc. This picture is in my bathroom where a long horizontal “window”—actually a vent–is located in the wall above my bathtub. On the inside there is a screen to keep out bugs and birds and bats, but on the outside it’s a type of hollow-block design, something like small concrete blocks.
Some sparrows have built a nest in the block in the corner of this long vent opening. You can see straws and grasses from the nest protruding through the screen. A couple days ago their eggs hatched and now there are several baby sparrows whose silhouettes I can see jumping around behind the dirty screen.
I’ve started covering up my toothbrush and glass in case my guests are carrying any sort of bird flu or some such.
For another part of Cambodian trivia, notice the electrical wires coming out of the wall and not capped or sealed off in any way. Apparently some previous tenant had a hot water heater for the shower and took the heater with him when he left.