Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
Things were really busy tonight when we were setting up for the Easter Vigil at the DK Meeting Centre in Phnom Penh. I didn’t get a chance to arrange for someone to take photos but after the service was over, we got this photo of Julie Lawler and me and Regina Pellicore getting ready to leave after her last Easter Vigil in Cambodia.
In Holy Week, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are known as the Triduum (“three days” in Latin). These ceremonies tell the story of our salvation and are the high point of the church’s liturgical year.
Sr. Regina came to DDP this morning to say goodbye to the staff she has worked with over the years.
We stopped our Wednesday gatherings of Maryknoll Cambodia when we closed the NGO, but many of us decided to continue to meet and tonight we had a gathering of nine of us who try to meet every week. Most of us were part of Maryknoll but we have others who are lay missioners on their own or with another group.
When students come to DDP for two years of education and a year of job training, we become responsible for almost everything. Most of them are from poor families with no disposable income so we help with even getting them clothing.
Yesterday I went to St. Joseph Church to pick up the palms we would need for our Saturday evening Palm Sunday service. I found Fr. Chatsirey, the pastor, seated outside with a group of parishioners weaving elaborate crosses from palm.
1. This week I lost Wednesday. I got on a plane in New York at 8:00 PM Tuesday night and flew to San Francisco to change to a plane to Taiwan. I left San Fran at 00:25, a little after midnight, the beginning of Wednesday, and when I got off the plane in Taipei it was Thursday morning at 5:36 AM. I was on terra firma for 25 minutes on Wednesday. Due to 550 MPH ground speeds and crossing ten time zones, the rest of that day was in the air.
2. I had an impressive visit to the 9/11 Memorial in New York City the day before I left and want to feature that here but somehow in transferring the photos from my laptop to the desktop, they disappeared. I have hopes of recovering them for you to see.
Most of the time I travel around New York City by subway but occasionally I’m in a bus where you get a whole different perspective. These are some photos from a bus as I was leaving Tuesday afternoon.
