Sunday 12^th October

I was just leaving for Mass this morning when Sr Soklin arrived on her moto, I knew she was in town,  on the way to Thailand for meetings, but did not expect her to visit. She brought me a bunch of bananas and gave me a lift to Church. I did not concelebrate this morning as Fr Jub SJ has now also taken up residence here, although he will be working further afield, so may not be here much, once he gets going.  He is a lovely peaceful man from Thailand and has worked in Cambodia for many years, he was made very welcome at Mass. I sat in the congregation and joined in as much as possible from my English phonic translation, I spotted some corrections that need to be made. After Mass I stayed for a cup of coffee and started chatting and teaching English to some of the young people, answering questions, how to say this, what sound does this make and so on. I met five of Mai’s six children, she comes to Mass every day and her husband is the night guard for the Church. They both became Catholics about 6 years ago and all their children are now Catholic. I have met Mai many times before and she is a very jolly and happy lady, I had a photo with all the family.

 

I was really waiting for the transport to Chong Khnies, one of the floating communities on Tonle Sap lake. Fr Panus goes there once a month to say Mass for a small community, most of whom are Vietnamese. A couple of other people were also going and Elizabeth and Hayley arrived from the Jesuit Mission to go as well.

It is about half an hour to the place where you get the boat. This has now become quite a terminal because of the number of tourists who wish to visit the floating villages on the lake; foreigners pay $3 to board a boat and Cambodian$1. There is also a nice souvenir shop there, for later in my visit. We found the smaller of the Church boats and boarded, it is about half an hour on the lake as well, much nearer than Prek Toal, for those who have been there. We arrived and celebrated Mass for a small group and then the children had rice soup, it was rather low key and small in number, Fr Panus explained that some of the children had been to a party the day before and had not made it to Mass. Sleep over with not much sleep, like in England. 

Chong Khnies is actually two boats together, one is the Church of St Peter, the other is the school. this picture I took on a previous visit in the dry season when the Church is further out on the lake, just now it is beside the bank of the lake the two are end to end.

Getting ready for Sunday Mass. The variety of communities who gather for Mass in the Catholic Church never ceases to fascinate me, the places they meet, how and why they get there is truly amazing.

Everything happens on the water, and if you stand you can take charge of a boat for younger ones who cannot.

The learning centre is open Monday to Friday from 08.00 – 19.00, there are three groups, morning, afternoon and evening, there are two teachers who are Vietnamese and the evening session is teaching Khmer to the Vietnamese children and young people, so they manage better living here. In total there are getting on for 100 children each day in the school. Rice soup is served twice a week, Sunday and Thursday, again about 100 at each sitting. This is a busy centre providing something good for a lot of families.

Not quite Tesco's  opn the high street of a bustling Express, but this is a supermarket and we were definitely on the high street of a bustling community, clinic, school, restaurants anything you need to sustain a community.

The children had finished their rice soup and we were just having lunch in the Church end of the boat when a group of Korean tourists stopped their boat against the school, poured off, gave out gifts and took pictures and then re-boarded their boat and left. Fr Panus says this is a regular event and he gets a number of donations in the church box from such groups. We were all just getting ready to leave when three more tourists arrived. We chatted to two of them from Canada, they asked where we were from and I said Suffolk, they replied that the third member of their group, who was taking pictures of the children, was from BURY ST EDMUNDS.

So I met Edward the first person from BSE that I have met here, so far. I did not actually know him, but he knew where St Edmund’s is and we chatted about the town. I knew this would happen, the world is a small place; I warned Ratana one evening in Pub Street that one day someone would call to me “Fr Philip, I know you from my school in Bury St Edmunds”. Not yet, but I think it could be just a matter of time.

Ratana returned from Battambang today, so I went for dinner with her and her friend Pharoth, simple Cambodian food and drink, lovely to see her back here. She says we start learning Khmer tomorrow morning at 09.00.

Ratana and Pharoth come to cook in my room some evenings, some cooking, lots of Khmer and laughter.

Pharoth brought me some lotus flowers for my room and because it was a Buddhist feast and the anniversary of the death of the King Father, and a public holiday. She then folded them into beautiful shapes and left them for me.

Monday 13^th October

We started Khmer lessons at 09.00 and we will do one hour each day and then she practises reading in English to me for about 20 minutes. Apart from that, other events are now a regular pattern, except that now I do have someone to have dinner with some evenings.

Tuesday 14^th October

Ratana is keen that the market is a good place to learn and practice Khmer, so after the lesson we went off to the food market to buy veg and fruit and also a piece of chicken from her friend. She is very well known in the market and barters fiercely to get good prices. I was not too sure about the chicken, but in fact it was very good value and tasted great and there have been no after effects. In the afternoon we went to a different market, The Old Market and bought a mop for the floor, a couple of jars and a new pair of shorts for me, American Eagle Outfitters, Made in Cambodia, a good deal at $7. I might get some more before I go home. I had visitors in the evening, Channa and her sister Viriya came to chat; Channa was the young lady we tried to get a visa for to visit England and failed three times. We had a good chat, she is doing very well, she is a translator at a clinic, working beside a doctor from Myanmar. Viriya is younger and is waiting for results of her final exams to see will she get to university. It was lovely to see them both.

The rest of the week was just the usual, Mass, Khmer lessons, swimming, English lessons. Now that Ratana is here there is a little more entertainment, so sometimes we go out in the evening for a ride on the moto, it is a little cooler, then we stop and have a drink in Pub Street and chat. It is very lively in Pub Street in the evenings, but always feels safe.

The dogs seem a little less agitated at night now, the full moon is ended, but the cockerel is just as bad as ever, he does not seem to recognise night and day. 

The cockerel, getting a little too close for my comfort!!

With the help of Sarah, my niece, and a little advice from Dominic, you should be able to leave comments now, I certainly hope that is the case, if so I look forward to hearing from some of you. I am going to Ratana’s village for the weekend, so I will report on that next time.