Fresh from the Oven

When I was a kid, the Tastee Bread company trucks—emblazoned with the slogan “Baked while you sleep”—rumbled around early-morning Louisville delivering bread to the grocery stores.   This woman’s bread is also probably baked while everyone is sleeping, but she doesn’t have any truck with a logo and has to be content with singing out “Num bung,” the Khmer word for bread, to alert her customers.

And Then There’s Coconuts

Different fruits can mark the change of seasons in Cambodia but not coconuts.  They’re available all year round and just about everywhere.  There are cheap, nutritious, and delicious so they are a favorite with much of the population.  Here are three coconut vendors along Street 63 in Phnom Penh.

From the vendors’ point of view, the downside of coconuts is that they are big, heavy, and bulky and you can’t stack them like you can cases of beer.  The white coconuts have had the green outer hull cut off, mainly for a better-looking product although cutting off the hull also helps the coconuts to chill faster when you throw them into the ubiquitous orange coolers.

Now It’s Pineapples….

Quite a few fruits are in season now.  Today I saw pineapples being sold on the streets.  Vendors like these tend to stay on the outskirts of the city, probably because it’s closer to home in the rural areas and probably because the police hassle them less there for bribes.

This man has diversified a little. In addition to the pineapples, he is selling giant snails in the tubs on the ground.

World Refugee Day: A Wise President

“I esteem foreigners no better than other people–nor any worse.  They are all of the great family of men, and if there is one shackle upon any of them it would be far better to lift the load from them than to pile additional loads upon them.  And inasmuch as the continent of America is comparatively a new country, and the other countries of the world are old countries, there is more room here, comparatively speaking, than there is elsewhere; and if they can better their condition by leaving their old homes, there is nothing in my heart to forbid them coming, and I bid them all God speed.”

Abraham Lincoln                          13 February 1861

World Refugee Day

The world has never before this present decade experienced the plight of so many millions of refugees on the move in so many different parts of the world, all at the same time.

“Refugees are not numbers.  They are people who have faces, names, stories, and need to be treated as such.”                        ~ Pope Francis

The Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns has some excellent materials for this day.  Click here to find interesting and informative resources about refugees.

Topics: Oranges 2

It’s not just the oranges that are in season now.  Pomelos are also plentiful and they are one of my favorite fruits.

This woman has two platforms, enough for a good-sized business, but no oranges. She may be waiting for a delivery or she may have used up all she had since she has orange juice for sale.
These women are selling both oranges and pomelos (on the left).
This stand had some oranges (see the juice on top of the cooler) but now all they are selling are a smaller variety of pomelos, a grapefruit-like fruit that is sweeter than a grapefruit and that has sections that can be eaten by hand, without a spoon.
This stand has the really big pomelos!

Topics: Oranges

I have mentioned before that one of the ways to tell the seasons here is to note which fruits are being offered on the street.  That’s one of the only real indicators since it’s always hot and everything is always blooming.  Now it’s the turn of the oranges to appear.  Most of them are from Battambang, renowned for oranges, and they are all green in color, not orange.  They are good, though, and once in season, many vendors are selling the oranges by the kilo (about $1.75) or as bottles of freshly squeezed orange juice.

This young man is squeezing orange juice right on the street.
Selling oranges is not difficult. All that is needed is the small platform, six or eight inches off the ground, that is widely used. And then if you are selling orange juice, too, you need the squeezer and the cooler to keep the juice cold.
This woman has already been hard at work and has her orange juice out on display.
This man has lots of oranges and lots of empty bottles piled up behind him, and probably the family is inside squeezing the juice.

 

 

Topics: Health #1

Medical practices vary tremendously around the world, depending on the education and literacy levels of a society, the resources available, the level of government attention, etc.  Click here for a glimpse at one medical practice in Cambodia.