Last week Cambodia hosted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) annual summit. Foreign ministries and leaders from around the world gathered to meet with Southeast Asian leaders in Phnom Penh. The heavy influx of motorcades brought traffic in the city to a standstill. Schools were already closed for the national holidays of Water Festival…
Sihanoukville
Imagine that – instead of Washington DC – George Washington personally established the United States’ foremost seaside resort, Washingtonville, and that it was the top vacation spot for Americans for decades. That should give you an idea of how Cambodians view Sihanoukville. King Norodom Sihanouk, after negotiating bloodless independence from France, founded Sihanoukville; Cambodia’s only…
Flat Tire
This afternoon, I was on my way to pick Charlotte up from school and had just crossed the sewage canal when the rear wheel of the electric moto suddenly started to slide. I pulled to the side of the road and the tire was flat. After calling Crystal and asking her to get Charlotte, I…
The Giving Tree International School
Charlotte and Catherine attend The Giving Tree, a small international school in Phnom Penh that a group of expatriate* parents started as a nursery 14 years ago. The nursery grew into a school with it’s first students and now offers Nursery through to Sixth grade. What’s an Expatriate? Expatriate, often shortened to Expat, is a…
Bua Tong Sticky Waterfalls
While we were in Thailand we traveled about an hour and a half out of Chiang Mai to visit the Bua Tong Sticky Waterfalls. When the MCC Nepal Reps first invited us to join them we had no idea what sticky waterfalls were… It turns out that they are waterfalls in the jungle that have…
Asia Leadership Team Meetings 2022
Last week, for the first time since 2019, the Mennonite Central Committee Asia Leadership Team was able to meet in person at the Regional Office in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We met with the International Program Directors from MCC US and MCC Canada, as well as MCC International’s new Security Officer, both sets of Area Directors,…
Karma, skin tone, and gender.
In Cambodia, lighter skin tones are traditionally associated with fortune, virtue, superiority, and good luck. These associations have a spiritual component due to how Buddhist beliefs around karma are interpreted locally. Skin tone – along with other traits such as class, health, and gender – are believed to have been determined by the individual’s accumulation…
How many Christians are in Cambodia?
As part of their horrific year zero policies the Khmer Rouge regime banned all religious practice in Cambodia and persecuted the local Christian Church almost to extinction. Buddhist institutions were allowed to reform soon after the regime was driven from power but Christianity remained illegal throughout the 1980s and the few Cambodian Christian believers who…
Big Bad Beetle
This morning I found a delightful rhinoceros beetle in our courtyard that must have been knocked down from it’s perch by the heavy winds and rain caused by Typhoon Noru last night. Well, I shouldn’t say delightful because this pest is one of the critters that’s been infesting our poor coconut palm! The Coconut Rhinoceros…
Pchum Ben
Pchum Ben is the second most significant public holiday in Cambodia after Khmer New Year. The pronunciation of Ben here is somewhere between the name ‘Ben’ and the word ‘Bun’, phonetically ‘Bĕn’ is most accurate. Pchum means ‘to come together’ and Ben means ‘ball of food’, usually a rice or meat ball used as a…