A Familiar Shop

The foreigners in Cambodia (and probably in other countries) often get into patterns of going to the same stores, interacting with the same people, etc., as one way of acclimating to the different cultural settings we find ourselves in. This is Shop No. 41 in the Russian Market, with the proprietor and her daughter. I have been going there for maybe seventeen years to buy Cambodian goods to take to the US or other places as gifts or souvenirs. She knows me and gives me a good deal and I keep coming back and leading my visitors to her place. I was there this afternoon to buy some gifts to take to England on Sunday when I fly there for my nephew’s wedding.

Official’s Respect….Not

Recently I went to a graduation for a school for children with disabilities. Near the end the graduating students presented small gifts to officials who had come, as a little thank-you. When these two students with disabilities approached this official, he stood and at the same time his phone rang. He pulled out the phone and talked for three to four minutes while the two students–and the whole assembly–waited for him to accept his gift.

Now maybe it was his wife and she was calling with a special ring that they only use for real emergencies–but I suspect that was not the case. I suspect it was another example of the lack of respect and courtesy many government officials show toward the people they are supposed to serve.

Several years ago, we had a similar incident on Deaf Day. The main speaker and honored guest was a high official in a ministry. Right in the middle of her main talk, her phone rang–and she answered it! She talked for three or four minutes and we could hear every word from the microphone on the podium. She said she was busy at the time and then proceeded to set up a lunch date on another day. This is the disrespect and patronizing attitude so many in the government exhibit here.

Salesian Girls Graduation

Every year I attend the graduation of the Salesian Sisters’ girls schools: two of them in Phnom Penh and one in Battambang Province. I have mass every Friday morning at one of the schools so the students and the sisters know me.

Crowding together for a last round of selfies.
Finally it’s time to process into the auditorium for the last time.
There always must be a blessing dance to begin the ceremony.
The underclassmen sing a song for their graduating sisters.

This is getting corny….

Here is another load of corn on the cob to be sold on the street, but this is the first time I’ve seen it on a motorcycle. He’s probably taking it to a distribution point where he will transfer it to some poor woman’s bicycle and she will walk it around the city. This man’s wife was probably up at 3:00 AM boiling corn. I can imagine it takes a long time to cook this much corn on the cob!

Russian Market

Today I went to the Russian Market to get a replacement suitcase for one of mine that has lost its wheels. Actually it’s the Tuol Tum Poung Market, but it acquired the Russian Market name during the period when the Soviet bloc was keeping Cambodia afloat. You can get just about anything there, from hot food to a motorcycle carburetor, although you can no longer find the AK-47s and box of grenades that the older residents here remember.

These pictures make the stifling hot market look almost spacious, but maybe that’s because there were fewer people because of the downpour outside. That’s rainwater, coming through the roof, on the floor in the first picture. The aisles, as in the bottom photo, are just wide enough for two people to carefully squeeze past each other.

This post is also a trial of a new gallery function in WordPress that allows several photos to be automatically arranged by the software. I don’t find it all that impressive.

Wish I Were There…

This is our DDP co-director, Keat Sokly, at the World Federation of the Deaf conference in Paris, France today. He and I had planned to go together but I found the trip would cost me $2,500-$3,000 and I just couldn’t afford that. Sokly was able to be included in a budget with one of our partner groups. These WFD conferences are every four years and are really valuable for the ideas shared there and the people you meet.

Urban Commerce

Here is a snapshot of life and work in Phnom Penh in 2019. The established shops in the background, left to right, are one shop selling LED signs; a small restaurant in the middle; and on the right a shop making and selling stainless steel things. And then in the middle, someone attempting to make an extra buck, has set up a little coffee stand. That may be part of the restaurant operation, bring their services right out to the curb. Note the two offering burners on the motorcycle. Usually those are just steel buckets or a cheap burner set on the curb for burning offerings on the Chinese holidays, but these are a different style and I’ve never seen them made out of polished metals like this. They must be for some special family or some special occasion.