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 Moto Driver

There’s a new moto driver in Phnom Penh! It’s Crystal! We had planned for me to teach her over Pchum Ben this year but – hopefully not a new tradition – I was sick again. But we took advantage of the quieter streets the last couple of weeks to begin practicing. She’s doing great! Her…

Documentation Center of Cambodia

Last Thursday I visited the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) with Annaliese. She’s a SALT participant working with long term MCC partner Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the Cambodia Peace Gallery in Battambang. She scheduled the meeting with DC-Cam’s Information Technology Coordinator, Morm Sophat, to ask DC-Cam for recommendations on archival databases, how…

Phnom Penh Rainbow

The quickest route to Charlotte’s school goes through a construction area. They are building a Mall and apartments. On our ride home this afternoon we spotted something in the sky. Don’t worry. I pulled over to take the photos!

Picture Frame Shop

I visited the Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville, Pennsylvania before we left North America to find special gifts that speak to the Anabaptist identity. As globalization and consumerism have spread, it’s become harder to bring gifts from North America* that can’t be found here and harking back to older traditions is a way to ensure…

គុយទាវ | Kuy Teav

Kuy Teav is a Cambodian rice noodle soup similar to but distinct from Vietnamese Phở. It’s a popular breakfast item across Southeast Asia – with local variants like Hủ Tiếu in Viet Nam, Kway Teow in Malaysia, and Kuai Tiao in Thailand. It’s usually made with pork stock. It uses different spices and rice noodles…

Three Languages, None Khmer

Yesterday morning at the local market in Phnom Penh a boy asked me, in English, “Do you speak Vietnamese?” I know maybe seven words of Vietnamese so I answered with, “Xin chào.” He responded in Chinese with, “Wo hen hao.” I have to thank the bookshop owner in Prey Veng for teaching me enough Chinese…

Bike Injury

On Saturday last week, Charlotte and I had a lovely daddy-daughter outing around Phnom Penh. We stopped by the office on the way home to pick up a bike and, as the guard did some last minute maintenance on it, Charlotte took off her shoes. This is where I messed up – as we started…

Probably not food poisoning

I’ve had food poisoning a lot in my life, as noted in my last post, so I’m familiar with the symptoms by now. This latest bout started off feeling like an extreme case of it. The nausea, fever, and vomiting lasted around 48 hours. But the diarrhea (and associated lightheadedness/weakness) has continued since. That’s way…

Olympic Market

The Olympic Market was one of the three markets that I visited the most often during my term in Cambodia from ’06 to ’09. This was entirely because this was where buses heading to and arriving from Prey Veng could be found in Phnom Penh. The buses rarely left on time so that there were…