Corruption in Cambodia

Transparency International rates the countries of the world according to how people perceive corruption in different areas of business, civic, and social life.  TI is now rating 180 countries and Cambodia is 161 on the list.  That means there is a LOT of corruption in Cambodia.

An example: I was talking to our business manager about filling in a new, long government form about taxes.  He spent hours on it and took it to the tax office and they rejected it and told him to do it over.  He took it back, reworked it, and resubmitted it only to have it rejected again.  When he asked why, the official told him: “You can’t do this.  You have to let me do it.”  In a free translation, that means: You can submit this as many times as you want, but it’s never going to be accepted until you let me do it for you–and you pay me.

Leaving Cambodia

On 14 August, Kaitlynn Himmelreich finished up her two months of research with the deaf community here in Cambodia and got on the plane to return to her student life in the US where classes begin next Monday.  Kaitlynn adjusted well to life in Cambodia and was really able to integrate with and communicate with the deaf people wherever she them.  Here she is presenting to Charlie Dittmeier a thank-you card acknowledging the good experiences she had in Cambodia.

Learn about MKLM!

I know many people have, at one time or another, entertained ideas of serving in mission in another country.  But then school or careers or families intervened and the mission idea was put on the shelf.  At some point, though, you may discover you can take your mission ideas off the shelf to see where the mission call leads you.

Maryknoll Lay Missioners offers orientation, language training, and support in mission placements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to people from their 20s to their 60s–or maybe a little higher?  If you’d like to learn a little more about Maryknoll mission from Karen Bortvedt, the Maryknoll Lay Missioner recruiter, she will offer a webinar (a seminar on the web) on August 15 at 10:00 AM EST.  If you would like to take a peek, send an e-mail to join@MKLM.org for login information.  This webinar–and more to follow–are just to give information.

The Killing Fields

Many people have seen the movie The Killing Field and many have visited the killing field near Phnom Penh, the site most people know of.  There are actually about 300 killing fields, though, spread throughout the country.  There is such a large number of these fields because the number of Cambodians killed by the Khmer Rouge was great.  It is generally thought that the Pol Pot regime was responsible for the deaths of perhaps 1.5 to 2 million people.  The killing field that most tourists visit is the orange dot along the river, immediately south of Phnom Penh (next to the row of three yellow prison dots).

Hosanna Church Visit

DDP has become quite well known in the deaf world since 1997 and many deaf people–individuals and groups–come to see us.  This past week, Hosanna Church in Busan, Korea visited.  They are a deaf congregation and we had a good visit.

After listening to a presentation of the work of DDP and asking questions, the church group sang us a hymn in Korean Sign Language.
Then the Koreans gave gift bags to the staff and the trainees in our DDP barber shop. One Korean wanted to get a haircut but there wasn’t time!

Sign Language Training

Krousar Thmey and the Deaf Development Programme jointly sponsor a sign language committee tasked with researching and promoting Cambodian Sign Language. The committee was supposed to receive training six or seven years ago but it didn’t work out.

Now Aaron Wong, a deaf man from Hong Kong, and Keat Sokly, the co-director of DDP, are offering three weeks of training. Both are trained sign language linguists.The committee members are meeting at DDP and are off to a really good start.

Aaron explains some of the really basic linguistic concepts they will examine in these three weeks.
Heang Samath explains the concept as he understands it.

Happy Sisters

This past Sunday I had a special mass for the Salesian Sisters who were just finishing up their week-long retreat and also celebrating the 146th anniversary of their community.  The retreat must have had a good effect because they were in a joyous mood at breakfast after mass!