CACD meeting

Today we had the quarterly meeting of the Catholic Alliance for Charity and Development, the organization of the Cambodian Catholic Church’s social service agencies.

There were two main topics on the agenda today. Here Joseph from Caritas Australia presents the context of the strategic planning for CACD that is now taking place. That was followed by a reporting by Rozet on research on autism in Cambodia that has been done by CCAMH.

It’s different…

One of the quirky things about Cambodia is the placement of wall plugs. Probably the majority of wall plugs are located at eye level as part of the light switch beside the doorway. This fan plug is located above desktop level (maybe so a desk computer could be connected to it?). Most people, though, I think would prefer to have their wires under the desk rather than hanging from the wall in front of them. But Cambodia thinking is different in many ways.

Too much water…

For these two kids wading through water that was up their knees further back was fun. This was after a twenty-minute rain. That’s Boeung Tum Pun….
For this man, the water starting to submerge his engine block was too much, and he started turning around to back toward the white truck. I had been planning to bicycle through the water until I saw him turning around and realized how deep it was.

Getting Around

Here is a hybrid vehicle that is efficient and not too expensive for getting mom and dad around town. It’s not a tuk-tuk and not a golf cart but something in between. It wouldn’t be street legal in the United States but, hey, this is Cambodia.

Lay Missioner Gathering

I’m not sure what happened but somehow this didn’t get posted yesterday.

Because of rain and conflicting schedules, this month’s gathering was smaller. The lay missioners were from Korea, Italy, Japan, Honduras, and the United States, and Brother John, a seminarian from the Thai Mission Society also came and took this picture.
Ai and Tomoko from the Japan Lay Mission Movement gave a presentation about their work.
Caritas from Korea prepared a lot of really interesting and tasty foods for us!
A picture with Brother John who is from Vietnam.
A farewell photo.

Pchum Ben at DDP-2

After the monks gave their Buddhist blessing, Fr. Charlie had a Catholic blessing, showing that both traditions seek blessings but that the Catholic tradition prays to God to be with us and bless us.

Pchum Ben at DDP

All Souls Day, a commemoration of deceased family and friends, is celebrated on November 2nd in Christianity. The Buddhist equivalent is a two-week long celebration called Pchum Ben. It is a major festival and everyone goes to her or his home village to be with family.

We celebrated Pchum Ben at DDP today, inviting Buddhist monks to come and chant. Here deaf students follow the sign language of an interpreter.
After the Buddhist blessing, Fr. Charlie had a Christian blessing, then we took the above group photo, and then all the staff and students ate a simple meal together before the students left DDP to spend nine days at home with their families.