Mass on Christmas Day

For mass on Christmas morning, we moved from the small chapel (where we can seat only 100 persons) to the large upstairs church used by the Khmer community. We had to bring in chairs because they sit on mats on the floor and we had to take off our shoes as they do, but it was a very comfortable worship space that enabled us to welcome more people.

The Khmer community had copiously decorated the sanctuary for their own liturgy before ours.
In Khmer masses where the people sit on the floor, the priest presides from a sitting position instead of the usual standing position.
The sanctuary area of this church is very “busy” visually.
The Christmas crib or creche was a bit different. Made from 25-lb bags of rice, it looked something like a military bunker.

Preparing to move

We are moving our office from one building on our compound to another building and it has been a slow and complicated process. There have been delays getting the new building ready and it has taken a lot of time to empty cabinets and pack materials for the short journey.

Here the sign language department prepares materials for the move which is planned by the end of the month.

Inclusive Employment Workshop

We had a workshop today to discuss and promote inclusive employment for people with disabilities. It was quite good, much better than what I usually expect from such workshops. Soknym, our DDP director, and I attended to give more voice to the deaf community.

Representatives from industry, especially the garment manufacturers, from the Ministry of Labor, and from NGOs attended.
We provided a sign language interpreter (seated, grey blouse) for two young deaf men who attended.
Later one of the deaf men reported from one of the six discussion groups that were the last activity of the afternoon.

Graduation Day

Today was graduation day at the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme. We had students finishing Year 2 of our Education Project and other students finishing their work in the Job Training Project. Here DDP director Sau Soknym speaks to all the students before handing out certificates.

A fried returns…

More than fifteen years ago, Fr. Hung Nguyen and I were Maryknoll associate priests together here in Cambodia. After his term, Hung returned to his diocese in Seattle, Washington where he has been pastor of different parishes. Now on a visit to Cambodia, he joined us today for our liturgy and dinner. Here he is speaking with Hang Tran, a Maryknoll lay missioner.

I see that a large winter storm is threatening heavy snowfall over much of the United States in the next few days. Maybe a White Christmas? The weather service here has also been putting out some alerts: The headline above cautions that temperatures could possibly drop below 68ºF! Bundle up!

Where are we?!

You could be forgiven for thinking that these sale items on display might be in a grocery store in the US but the photo is from a “supermarket” for foreigners here in Phnom Penh today. Kraft macaroni and cheese, Skippy peanut butter (both creamy and super chunk you’ll note), and Hormel Spam. That’s rather American! (The ketchup bottles at back left are from France.)

No Entry

This morning I went to the Don Bosco Technical School for a day of reflection for the Salesian brothers and priests who live there. I have always used this gate to get in but today it was locked and no one was around. I waited about five minutes and then noticed a man on the inside of the wall to the left of the gate. He was rather far from this gate so i went back to the street behind me and walked to the left and found they have a second gate that they use only on Saturdays and Sundays. Finally I got in and met with the confreres there.

Christmas is near…

Today Bishop Olivier had the quarterly meeting with all the priests from the Phnom Penh diocese and he added a Christmas air to it. At the lunch at the end of the morning, he donned a Christmas cap and handed out some simple gifts to all of us. There are now 45 priests in the diocese of Phnom Penh. When I came to Cambodia 22 years ago, there were 32 priests in the whole country.