Ed McGovern in Cambodia

Ed McGovern is a former New York City prosecuting attorney turned missionary. He spent two years in Cambodia as part of Maryknoll's Overseas Training Program, and then he returned to Chicago Theological Union for a final year of theological studies. He was ordained in June, 2004 and was assigned back to Cambodia. In October, 2008, after being elected to the Maryknoll Society General Council, he was assigned back to the United States for his six-year term.

Photo Gallery

	5 November 2008 At the weekly Maryknoll meeting today, Ed McGovern gave a report on the general chapter meeting of the Maryknoll priests which was held over a three-week period at Maryknoll headquarters in Ossining, New York in October. Ed was the delegate from Maryknoll Asia South which includes Cambodia.
	At our liturgy after the meeting, Jim Noonan presented a gift—a carved wooden statue of Mary—to Ed as a memento from the Cambodia Mission Team who work with him.
	Then the Maryknoll partners from the Philippines Catholic Lay Mission group, joined by Lisa Pirie, serenaded Ed with several songs of farewell.
	Finally it was time for some dessert. This was Ed's last meeting with the CMT because next week there will be no meeting because of the Cambodian Water Festival.

	7 November 2008 Ed had another farewell tonight as he celebrated mass with the Daughters of Charity and a group from the Filipino community here in Phnom Penh. Ed prays with them every Friday night and they have formed a close and loving community.
	A large part of Filipino liturgy is music and even a simple home liturgy will have multiple songs, often just as many as for a Sunday liturgy. The Filipinos are excellent musicians and singers.
	This was Ed's final liturgy with the group before he leaves although he promised them he would be back for visits and they would get together again then. Tonight after the mass they had a bountiful supper together, another area in which Filipino people excel.

9 November 2008 Today Ed had a farewell party and dinner for all the staff of the Seedling of Hope AIDS project. There was a 100% turnout to say goodbye to Ed (middle, blue shirt) and it was a very important event, a time for both Ed and the staff to acknowledge his leaving and also their sorrow at his going. The gathering was held on the rooftop porch of Ed and Charlie's house.
Ed and Charlie are lucky that their rental agreement covers the top floor of their house also. Occasionally it can be put to good use, like today, although most of the time it is just used for drying clothes. Here some of the staff from Seedling arrive early to clean the bat droppings off the floor.
Another group of early arrivers get busy blowing up balloons for decorations.
Inside other staff prepare some roasted chickens which were ordered in addition to the main meal catered by a local Khmer restaurant. It is the normal practice in Cambodia to prepare all food on the floor.
Ed posed for a group photograph with many of the Seedling staff who arrived earlier in the evening.
Ed posing with a mixture of young staff and staff children. On the left is Kong Sidoeun—a law student at the top of his class—who has worked for Ed for almost four years, first as a motordupe driver, sometimes language teacher and interpreter, and then as a very competent personal assistant. He has now become a full-time staff member at Seedling.
Ed and Charlie do not have a high-profile social life so to see so many motorcycles parked out front of their house is a very rare occurrence. Luckily the NGO next them was closed on Sunday so the bikes could be parked there with the neighborhood guards and motordupe drivers watching out for them.
This is the top floor covered roof area which belongs to the apartment that Ed and Charlie rent. This was only the second or third time they used it for a gathering such as the one today.
In the West, someone's mother would be yelling "Don't leave shoes on the stairs! Someone's going to trip and kill himself!" but in Cambodia no one would think of putting shoes anywhere else. Safety is not a concern in Cambodia.
When most of the staff had arrived, Ed got everyone's attention to thank them for coming and for their gifts and well-wishes, and then he introduced Sr. Len Montiel who will be the interim director of Seedling, replacing Ed for the next few months.
The Seedling of Hope staff listening to Ed explain the transition.
Then Sr. Len (almost completely hidden) got a chance to say hello and introduce herself to the staff, hopefully relieving some of their fears about their future without Ed's presence.
Then it was time to eat and the staff enthusiastically lined up for the buffet dinner that was catered by a local Khmer restaurant.
It is relatively easy to accommodate guests at a Khmer function because everyone expects to sit on the floor. There is no need to bring in dozens of chairs or tables.
The brightly colored reed mats replace tables and chairs for Cambodian people. They are also used to covering bamboo slat floors at night to keep the mosquitoes from coming up through the floor to attack people sleeping.
Several of the staff brought Ed gifts and almost all of them wanted to pose for a photograph with him.
Finally it was time to go home, and the staff filed down the stairs—navigated through all the shoes on the steps—and made their way out into the dark street.
The next morning some of the neighbor guards and motordupe drivers helped load a tuk-tuk with chairs borrowed from the Maryknoll office. No need for a pickup truck!

	15 November 2008 After the weekly Saturday evening mass at World Vision, the Maryknoll Sisters invited the whole Maryknoll gang to their house on St 310 for an informal goodbye gathering for Ed. Here Ed speaks with Roberta McLaughlin while Sami Scott and Lisa Pirie chat.
	Some of the conversations drifted outside to the sisters' large front porch. Here Jim Noonan, Ed, Adel O'Regan, and Mary Little talk. Luise Ahrens is hidden.
	After a pizza supper, Meding Tan (at sink) and Regina Pellicore took care of some of the kitchen clean-up.
	After everyone had eaten, Ed took a few minutes to speak to all the Maryknollers about his leaving and the emotional impact it is having on him, especially because he had only two weeks to organize everything here in Cambodia for his departure.

	2 December 2008 The morning after the farewell party at Ed and Charlie's house, some of the local tuk-tuk drivers helped to transport borrowed chairs back to the Maryknoll office.
	Kong Sidoeun has worked closely with Ed over the past few years and his mother invited Ed over to their house to say goodbye.
	Showing evidence of his good organizational skills, Ed approached his departure for the airport with just a little bit of packing to do with Sidoeun in the last couple hours in Cambodia.

	30 January 2009 Little Folks is the name of the part of Maryknoll's Seedling of Hope program that takes care of children affected by HIV/AIDS. Usually that means the children are living with extended or foster families because their parents have died of the disease. Here Ed welcomes Little Folks to our home for dinner together.
	Dr. Vuthy, here putting up a Lunar New Year decoration, is one of the Seedling of Hope doctors who cares for the HIV/AIDS patients and their children. Maryknoll helps provide for about 800 children, offering school fees, food costs, and other help to families that will take in the orphaned children.
	The children who arrived earlier sat and talked while they waited for the children who live in the other five or six group homes to arrive. As many children as possible are placed with extended family and the others live in small group homes.
	After everyone arrived, the children sang some songs.
	While the children and Sr. Mary Little sang, Ed reflected. Ed left for his new job at Maryknoll headquarters in New York on December 2nd but was able to come back for the Maryknoll Asia meetings in Thailand and then a short visit to Cambodia for a few final goodbyes.
A group photo of all the Little Folks children and the staff of their group homes.
	Finally it was time to eat. The Khmer Kitchen, a nearby neighborhood restaurant, brought lots of Cambodian food for the children and staff to eat.
	It is very easy to set up for a meal with Cambodian people: just spread out the mats and everything is ready.
	The children needed to go to school the next day so as it got dark tuk-tuks came to take the kids back to their family homes and group homes, happy after a chance to tell Ed goodbye.

	10 October 2004 One of the local Maryknoll traditions is that all the members of the mission team try to go to the airport to greet all new members as they first arrive. Ed arrived at an awkward time, at the beginning of a holiday period, so many Cambodia Maryknollers were out of town, but still a good number welcomed him at the airport.

	Later the same day, because it was a Saturday when the English-speaking Catholic community have their liturgy, Ed was also able to reconnect with many friends from that congregation.

	The next morning, after a good night's sleep, the real work of settling in began as Ed surveyed all that he brought with him and tried to figure where it would fit into his new room at the Maryknoll office building.