Hope…

Donald Trump won the presidency by fewer than 80,000 votes, spread out across 3 states. But more than 7 million new voters have turned 18 since that election. Make sure your friends and family are registered and get out to vote. (Numbers from Blue Future.)

Lunar New Year 3

Because the lunar year isn’t an actual holiday people won’t take quite as many days off as they will for the Khmer New Year. But they will all celebrate at home and at their work place. Here are some scenes from staff parties at various places of employment before they head home for the new year’s eve reunion dinner, a VERY important occasion.

Lanterns hung at one school.
A family new year’s eve meal in a machine shop.
Another group celebrating in an automobile repair shop.
Staff celebrating the new year at a company office.

Lunar New Year 2

Certain activities have to take place on certain days according to the Lunar New Year calendar. Today was the day for burning offerings for deceased ancestors to provide them with what they need in the afterlife and, more importantly, to keep them happy so they don’t cause problems for the family.

This woman and her daughter got a good fire going.
This man is burning things on a smaller scale and just getting ready to light the match.
This man demonstrates how it’s supposed to be done.
This man cleans the street in front of his house as burns the imitation money and other paper articles for his ancestors.
At this house, the whole family got together to burn their offerings.
This is the man who makes the receptacles for burning offerings but he doesn’t seem to be using any of them for his own ancestors.

Coming and going

When our Cambodia Maryknoll group returned from Hua Hin, Thailand last week, Marj Humphrey (L above) came with us. She is the Director of Mission for the Maryknoll Lay Missioners. Today was her last day with us and after joining us for our Wednesday meeting and mass and supper, she departed for New York.

Also with us tonight, for her first official meeting as a member of the Cambodia Mission Team, was Julie Lawler (R above). Her first meeting was something of an anti-climax since she has already started Khmer language school and is also learning Cambodian Sign Language for working with the deaf community here.

Different celebration of death

Today I went to the funeral of a colleague from the Philippines who died here. There aren’t many funerals in the Catholic churches in Cambodia because there aren’t many Catholics and because the Cambodian Catholics are mostly quite young and the foreign Catholics tend to be younger or robust middle age also. We don’t have a significant population of older foreigners living here. This was only the second or third time in twenty years that I have been at an actual funeral in a church with the body present. Most of the time I have funerals at the Buddhist wats (pagodas) where the body is to be cremated or else there is a simple ceremony at the morgue before a body is shipped to its home country for burial.

Lunar New Year

This coming Saturday is the Lunar New Year celebrated by the chopsticks countries. It’s not an official holiday in Cambodia—but everyone takes off for 3 or 4 days or a week. The stores and shops are already showing off their decorations.

Some commercial establishments take a low-key approach like this cable TV company.
These two hotels add the vertical hangings beside the door and some lanterns.
This electronics store tries to make it a little more festive.

Find My Phone

This is an autorickshaw (as they are called in India, their country of origin) that has become the main mode of public transportation in Phnom Penh now. I used one to go to St. Joseph Church this morning and violated my own rule: Never put my phone down on the seat. I did just that and in the hassle of getting out and collecting my stuff and paying the driver, I walked off and left the phone. The beauty of this online hailing system is that the autoricks are called from a phone, and so the passenger’s phone number, time of pick-up, and destination are all recorded. When I got home I called the company, named Grab, and a very helpful young woman called the driver for me and he had the phone. She then gave me his number and I had our guard call him to explain in Khmer (better than I could!) how to get to the Maryknoll office. Within an hour the man above appeared and I was reunited with my phone, and he went away happy with the remuneration I gave him.

Deaths of Two Sisters

Sr. Myrna Porto worked with Maryknoll Fr. John Barth at the Takeo Eye Hospital, and she became the director of TEH when it was turned over to Caritas. She returned to the Philippines two years ago because of ill health and then died at the beginning of January. Her memorial mass in Phnom Penh was set for yesterday, Friday, 17 January. Then in a sad turn of fortune, another sister of the Daughters of Charity, Sr. Adelfa Siega, died during Thursday night at their house in Takeo, and the memorial mass was changed to include both of the sisters.

Maryknoll in Hua Hin #10

Every year Maryknollers from various parts of Asia travel to southern Thailand for an annual retreat and meeting. Click below for news of each day’s activities.

• Tuesday (7 January 2020) — Travel Day

• Wednesday (8 January 2020) — Retreat Day

• Thursday (9 January 2020) — Retreat Day

• Friday (10 January 2020) — Retreat Day

• Saturday (11 January 2020) — Retreat Day

• Sunday (12 January 2020) — Final Retreat Day

• Monday (13 January 2020) — Maryknoll Mission Gathering

• Monday (13 January 2020) — Evening Talent Show

• Tuesday (14 January 2020) — Charism Meetings

• Wednesday (15 January 2020) — Travel Day