In 2021, I shared a post following the journey of a Mango from Flower to Fruit. I couldn’t quite go as in-depth here, because I don’t grow pineapple at my house, but I thought you might be interested in seeing a pineapple in it’s early stages followed by the same pineapple near harvest. I took…
Category: Around Cambodia
2024 Prison Fellowship Cambodia Annual Conference
We’re aware of three organizations working in prisons in Cambodia. Two of the three – Peace Bridges and Khmer Vulnerability Aid Organization – are already current MCC partners, Prison Fellowship Cambodia is the other. I’ve been wanting to connect with Prison Fellowship to see if we could work towards a partnership with them too but…
What’s that Tower with a Ball on top?
An open air sewage canal empties into the Boeng Trabek lake near the MCC office in Phnom Penh. Across the waters, you can see a strange tower with a ball on top standing in the near distance. This tower is slowly being swallowed by new construction and doesn’t stand out like it once did. This…
Phnom Penh High Rises
In my recent post about leading a walking tour through Phnom Penh I mention the rapid growth of high-rise buildings in the city. Specifically, that there were only three skyscrapers (two completed, one in progress) when I left in 2009 and that a decade later the Phnom Penh skyline was filled with high-rises when I…
Phnom Penh Walking Tour
Every time we have new foreigners on the team I take them on a walking tour of Phnom Penh. We start near the Royal University of Phnom Penh which is one of the few public green spaces in the city and historically hosted many MCC volunteers. Then we walk along the railroad tracks through a…
World’s Longest Dragon Boat
In 2018, I was excited to read in a news article that Cambodia had broken the Guinness World Record for the longest Dragon Boat. The Dragon Boat is named កម្ពោជិកបុត្តាខេមរាតរី or Kambojika Putta Khemara Tarei, which means Dragon Boat of Khmer Youth in Cambodian Territory. At 286 feet 5 inches it’s almost as long as…
Visiting Oudong in 2008 and 2023
Oudong was the capital of Cambodia for almost 250 years until it was moved to Phnom Penh by King Norodom in 1866. Oudong was largely abandoned after the capital was moved but the monasteries, pagodas, and stupas remained in use. Only some 21 miles northwest of Phnom Penh, Oudong with it’s ancient structures and beautiful…
Visiting Bokor Mountain during Rainy Season
Last month we were in Kampot for a teambuilding retreat and, afterwards, our family decided to drive up into Preah Monivong Bokor National Park to see how things had changed since I was last there (in 2007, I think?). Bokor is a mountain near the coast and marks the southeastern end of the Cardamom mountain…
Catherine chasing birds
This last week we’ve been hosting the MCC DPRK (North Korea) Program Director, Stacy Nam. She came to join the team conducting the 5-year Program Review of MCC Cambodia & Myanmar and is acting as the Peer Reviewer. I’ll say more about the program review in future post. This post is just about a series…
Return to Monkey Island
Last month during our team visit to Prey Veng we spent a morning at Toul Baray Andet just outside of Prey Veng town. The last time we visited was in 2021 with that year’s YAMEN class. ‘Toul’ is a river delta word, it means ‘an elevated patch of land that is an island in the…