Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
This is the hottest part of the year in Cambodia. Temperatures are routinely in the high 90ºs and low 100ºs F. The AccuWeather RealFeel is daily from 100º to 115º. And then you have the young women who cover up as completely as possible to avoid any sun reaching–and darkening–their skin.
Today we basically just had mass and breakfast and then everyone took off for points north. Click here for the final retreat pictures.
This was the last full day of the priests retreat and it involved some concluding activities. Click here to view the day.
This third full day of retreat followed the same pattern as the first two except that we had a little less rain. Just as much good food! Click here for pictures of the day.
Today was the second day of retreat for the priests, made different by the rains–sometimes heavy–that fell during the night and day. Click here for pictures from the day.
Today was the first full day of retreat after the travel day yesterday to Kampong Som Province on the Gulf of Thailand. Click here for pictures from the day as the retreat started.
Monday was a day for traveling from all over Cambodia (about the size of Wyoming) to Sihanoukville down on the southern coast of the kingdom. The distances are not actually that great but for some of the priests it is a two-day trip because of the difficulty of travel in Cambodia. This is Archbishop Sebastian Francis, our retreat leader. Click here to see pictures from Monday.
Today was the beginning of the annual retreat for all the priests of Cambodia. It is held at the Catholic center in Sihanoukville and for most of us it was a travel day to this southernmost province in the kingdom. In the picture, Bishop Olivier welcomes everyone to the gathering
The Internet doesn’t reach to my room and I have to go to another building to make these posts so I probably will only get to post things here once a day. On Tuesday I will set up a main page for the retreat which will link to the individual days.
We are in the middle of a three-day holiday for the birthday of King Norodom Sihamoni seen here visiting a family in the provinces. The king is a really nice person–the only smiling, human face in the government—but why three days for a birthday? That is why Cambodia has twenty-five public government holidays. The US has eleven. How do you rebuild a country when no one works?
How much gasoline can you carry in the back of an SUV? Quite a bit, quite a bit.