Soon after we turned to Cambodia, Leena’s left ear swelled up like a balloon. This was easy to self-diagnose by googling “my dog’s ear is swelling up like a balloon.” I didn’t take a photo of her ear but it was dramatic, frightening, and painful. Apparently it’s a common condition for dogs with longer ears…
Category: Daily life in Cambodia
Rats! Meet Our Office’s New Rat Deterrent
Since we arrived in 2019, we’ve been in a losing struggle against the rats that keep on invading the Mennonite Central Committee office here in Phnom Penh. When we first arrived, the office had a small dog who was a terrific rattier but – no matter how many she killed – it seemed to served…
2022 Traditional Khmer Photoshoot
As has become tradition, two weekends ago we joined the ‘GSL’ team for a photoshoot in traditional Khmer clothing. GSL stands for Global Service Learning; it’s the department that our YAMEN and SALT exchange program fits under. There are a number of shops in Phnom Penh where you can inexpensively rent traditional Khmer outfits and have your…
100 Mangoes
The MCC Cambodia office was closed on Monday in observance of the Easter holiday. Normally we would have had Friday off but we already had Friday off for the national Khmer New Year holiday. Crystal spent her day off picking 100 mangoes from the trees around our courtyard. The ripe ones that we didn’t immediately…
Cultural differences between Cambodia and North America
In our exchange program files I came across a document on cultural differences between Cambodia and North America. It was written by a former Cambodian staff – in the Connecting Peoples Coordinator role – for a specific situation and I’ve rewritten it to remove the specifics. I wanted to share it here as a Cambodian’s…
Khmer New Year 2022
To paraphrase the artist formerly known as Prince, “So tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 2,565.” That’s right. This week is Khmer New Year, celebrating the start of the 2,566th year of the Buddhist Era. In Thailand, the official calendar is BE and you might be surprised to see your phone automatically shift from 2019…
TADA! Electric Tuk Tuk made in Cambodia!
When I lived here from 2006 to 2009, it was easy to get a moto taxi or tuk-tuk…but you’d have to hope they knew where you wanted to go and negotiate a price beforehand to avoid paying a hefty foreigner increase. It was quite normal back then to get someone who answered “oh yes, I…
Flowers of Cambodia 2022
One of the blog posts that I have yet to write is about our January 2022 trip to Battambang province. We went for an engagement ceremony but got to see the sights while we were there including many, many beautiful flowers. In the latest entry of my Flowers of Cambodia series, I’m sharing some flower…
Sharing Food Together
In the New Testament, we often see Jesus breaking bread to share with the disciples and others. There’s something powerful about sharing food in community. This week, Sokea from the MCC Phnom Penh office is out in Prey Veng at our field visit helping with some work and the Prey Veng team has been sending…
Voltra Electric Motos
Last August I shared that MCC Cambodia was planning to purchase locally manufactured electric motos in a budget neutral by selling our old gasoline motos. The new electric are more affordable than gas motos and, additionally, being made in Cambodia do not have an import tax pushing the cost higher. So we were able to…