On Monday, the rains came and washed the dry season away. It’s a remarkable time of year here in Cambodia. Overnight, the dusty brown countryside turns vibrant green. Even here, in the city, you can feel the shift of the seasons in the air. It’s much like the cool crisp snap of Autumn in North…
Author: Charles
COVID-19: Restrictions Lifted
We were expecting Cambodia to continue with targeted zone based lockdowns for some time but over the last week almost all COVID-19 restrictions in Phnom Penh have been lifted. The few that remain, like mask wearing and bans on large public gatherings, are not being enforced. I think we’re already seeing the impact of this…
New Office Cook – Ramy
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,…
Pray for Myanmar, Pray for India
Please continue lifting up Myanmar and India in your prayers. The situation in both countries continues to grow worse and our hearts ache for the people there. Myanmar There’s been less communication from Myanmar not because things have improved but because the Tatmadaw has heavily censored the internet and cut back on communication access. We…
COVID-19: First Dose
As of last Friday, all of MCC Phnom Penh’s personnel have at least received their first vaccine dose. More than half of national staff have received their second dose. We have two staff in the countryside who are not yet vaccinated but that’s due to preexisting medical conditions. Crystal and I were in the last…
COVID-19: Lockdown Zones
As I mentioned last time, this has been by far the most serious outbreak of COVID-19 that Cambodia has experienced. The country went into full lockdown for several weeks and then, slowly, transitioned to a zone based lockdown. Red Zones: Areas with high rates of community transmission. Complete lockdown. Families are allowed to leave homes…
The Year in Board Games
Our family loves playing board games! We especially enjoy cooperative ones like Pandemic or The Fairy Game, though this year we didn’t play any pandemic. We had enough pandemic in real life. As we looked back over our photos from the last year I thought that I’d share some of the board games we’ve played….
Crystal’s Birthday in Lockdown
Yesterday we celebrated Crystal’s birthday in full lockdown. We’d been planning to go visit an elephant refuge in distant Mondulkiri province for her birthday but as the COVID-19 situation in country has worsened we had to abandon those plans. Then, when Phnom Penh went into full lockdown, it became clear that we’d need to celebrate…
COVID-19: Full Lockdown
By many metrics, Cambodia is still doing well during the pandemic but the situation is much worse than it was just two months ago. On Friday, we saw our highest increase of cases with almost 700 people diagnosed followed by almost 500 people on Saturday and another 300 people yesterday. These are not high numbers…
The Holy Week Meditation: Jesus’ Journey to Calvary, thence to the Empty Tomb.
This reflection was written by one of the pastors we work with in Myanmar. Name and identifying details withheld for security reasons. The Holy Week, also known as the Passion Week, began on Palm Sunday, and will end on Easter Sunday. Christians all over the world commemorate in their own church’s tradition—fasting, praying, contemplating, meditating,…