Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
Nineteen years ago I witnessed the wedding of Sarah Igboeli to Paul and then in 2007 they relocated to Australia. This evening I got to catch up with Sarah who was very much a part of the deaf program and the Maryknoll community and the Catholic community back in “the old days.”
Today was graduation day for our Year 2 Education Project students and our Job Training Project trainees. It was a joyful experience.
I was the opening act after we sang the national anthem in sign language. I welcomed the parents and thanked them for supporting their deaf daughters and sons in getting an education at the Deaf Development Programme. These young people have great economic value for dirt-poor families in the rural provinces and many parents will not allow their children to come to us.
Then I told the young people I am proud of them and was happy to have had them with us, and that was especially true for this delightful group.
The Deaf Leadership Training Program now going on at DDP has invited deaf leaders from other countries to share with the DLTP team their wisdom and experience with national associations of the deaf. This week Tien (far left), a deaf leader from Vietnam, came to work with our staff.
Cambodia has two seasons: hot and wet, and hot and dry. It’s always hot. The heat doesn’t prevent women from wearing gloves year round, though. Gloves on a hot day is better than letting the sun make your skin a little dark. At least this woman wears her gloves in style!
Come Jan. 20, on the inaugural day of his second term, President-elect Trump has promised voters that he will begin a massive deportation effort. It is a deeply menacing threat without any indication of how matters of due process, human rights, respect of persons, respect of families and other matters of human dignity, justice and mercy will govern the deportation. And though we see indications that some Republicans will try to tone down Mr. Trump’s threats, many members of the party that will take control of every branch of our government on that day have not taken any evident steps to address the massive deportation itself.
I, for one, am not waiting for Inauguration Day. I think the threat of mass deportation needs to be urgently addressed by bishops, teachers, theologians, politicians and preachers. We cannot wait to see what happens, especially since the President-elect insists that he means business on that day.
James F. Keenan, S.J., in America
Last night the Don Bosco Vocational Training Center in the Tuol Kork area of Phnom Penh had a fund-raising dinner. That is the school where I go for mass early Monday mornings with the sisters and some of the students. The school teaches hospitality skills like food preparation, and it was good to see the students dressed up in their uniforms and serving the meal. A number of people from our English parish were in attendance.
Can you imagine a greater encouragement and opportunity for tripping and falling on stairs than these shoes on the church steps at the Carmelite Monastery in Phnom Penh? And this is after half the people have left the church and removed their shoes from the steps! This scenario is repeated a million times a day as people slip off their shoes and sandals when they go into a building.
My major mode of transport around Phnom Penh is my bicycle, here being repaired by a young Khmer man who goes by the name of Jack. He has a little bike shop that fortunately for me is on the way I go from my home to the deaf office. For major repairs like today (getting a new sprocket and chain), I drop the bike off and come back after work. Fortunately also is that Jack is a real good man, a pleasant and caring human being.
