The MCC Cambodia office will be reopening for fully vaccinated staff starting next month. That means that I can finally make a personnel announcement that I’ve been holding on to since last year. This is probably of more interest to MCC Cambodia alumni than to other readers.

Many alumni have fond memories of So Sopheap, better known as Ming Pheap, the MCC Cambodia office cook and cleaner who retired in 2019. Sopheap was the first and longest serving MCC Cambodia national staff. Fred and Minh Kauffman met her in the early 1980s when she was working at their hotel (all Westerners were required to live in one of two hotels during that era) and they later hired her to continue on with MCC. Over the decades, she’s supported the MCC team as cleaner, cook, and nanny. Many alumni, including myself, spent many hours practicing Khmer, learning to cook Khmer food, and just spending time with Ming Pheap.

We think that Ramy is the right person to follow in Sopheap’s legacy. Ramy has been a cook and cleaner with MCC Cambodia since 1995. She’s often worked at the Rep house and she was always a delightful host there. Like Ming Pheap, Ramy is a wonderful person to practice Khmer, learn to cook Khmer food from, and just spend time with.

MCC Cambodia no longer has a cook assigned to the Rep house, Cambodia has changed a lot over the decades and we felt it was no necessary. We are looking forward to the days when we can enjoy Ramy’s good cooking at lunch with the MCC team and guests at the office again. Hopefully some of you will be among those guests.