Author: Charles Dittmeier

USA Trip 2022

Saturday, 17 September 2022

Afdter my sisters Martha and Mary picked me up at the airport, they started work in the kitchen to prepare for a BBQ dinner for all the brothers and sisters.
Meanwhile, Mary’s husband Mike was outside fixing his daughter’s bicycle she uses for commuting to work every day.
When the Reed family arrived from Ohio, Mary showed them her new garden and landscaping.
Finally everyone had arrived and it was time to eat.
After dinner the self-proclaimed Council of Elders gathered to resolve world problems.

USA Trip 2022

Saturday, 16 September 2022

Today was a loose day with three really important elements: visiting Fr. Tom Dunleavy, a lunch meeting with Ted Miles, and dinner at the NYC office of Maryknoll with Br. Tim Riable.

Another of the fabulous staff of Maryknoll Lay Missioners is Marci Winston, our long-time administrative assistant.
A view of the Rogers Building on the campus of the Maryknoll Sisters.





A wooden statue of Mary in the entrance way of the Sisters’ chapel.




Another shot in the main course of Grand Central Terminal, a really beautiful building.

USA Trip 2022

Thursday, 15 September 2022

Today was a day for visiting people around the larger Maryknoll campus, on the grounds of the priests and brothers, then the sisters, and then the lay missioners.

Sr. Luise Ahrens was in Cambodia for many years and is now in service at the Sisters Center in Ossining. She is recovering from a broken arm.
A bird feeder on the grounds of the Sisters Center.
Ted Miles, executive director, and Lupe Garcia, administrative assistant, at the Walsh Building, the home of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners.
A view of the old seminary building, with the chapel wing on the left.



The main seminary building occupants have just endured two weeks of Covid restrictions after a surge of infections. Those restrictions were lifted three days ago but one returning Maryknoll priest tested positive and is isolated in his room.



USA Trip 2022

Wednesday, 14 September 2022

Today was mostly a series of meetings as part of my process of “checking out” from the Maryknoll Society of priests and brothers.


One of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners team who was at the Walsh Building when I arrived was Pat Norberto.









My room for this trip in the old seminary building. The rooms weren’t so big and so nice in the days when the seminarians were here. (They now study in Chicago.)



This evening I ate dinner with Adel O’Regan, a good friend from her days as a Maryknoll Lay Missioner in Cambodia.

USA Trip 2022

Tuesday, 13 September 2022

Today was my first full day at Maryknoll, New York and I started reconnecting with people here.

There weren’t many Maryknoll Lay Missioners staff in the building and I had to call Chris Keavney to come down and let me in the front door. Then he graciously reinstalled Microsoft Office on my laptop to eliminate several problems. Chris is the IT man for MKLM.
It was a dreary rainy morning but the towers and peaks of the old seminary building always have a certain attraction and cachet.
One of the changes since I was last here was the addition of a solar power unit which now covers a parking area.
This is what the underside of a solar panel set up looks like.

USA Trip 2022

Monday, 12 September

This trip, first schedule for May and canceled then and again in June because of my surgery and Covid, finally started today. It began shortly after midnight when a flight on Korean Airlines departed for Seoul. Here people are checking in about 11:00 PM on Sunday night.
We had a 5.5 hour flight to Seoul and an almost two-hour layover, and there we boarded this Airbus 380 bound for New York City. Notice it is a two-deck aircraft, very new and very efficient and comfortable to fly.
This picture was taken in New York City as we landed at JFK airport. For some reason the A380 had to be towed to a parking gate, and here an onboard camera looking straight down show the ground crewman hooking up the connecting rod between the aircraft and the tug, underneath the plane. The A380 has cameras on continuously, one pointing ahead to where the aircraft is going and the other pointing downwards at what is below the plane as it flies.
Because of Covid, the buses that used to carry people between JFK airport and Grand Central Station in Manhattan have been eliminated and now people must utilize a combination of an airport train and subway trains. It is not nearly as convenient as it was before.
I had to take two different subway trains but eventually reached the always impressive main concourse of Grand Central Terminal.
At Grand Central I bought a ticket for the Metro North train that goes up to Ossining, NY where Maryknoll is located. At noon time there were few passengers and it was easier to get around with my large suitcase shown behind the man’s seat.

Deaf Day!

Today was the official Deaf Day celebrations and a large number of deaf people from several provinces came together at the DDP office in Phnom Penh for a full day of activities.

In the morning a group of deaf people performed a dance based on the theme of inclusion.
Then there was a food-tasting event, with desserts and snacks and foods from different countries and cultures to give the deaf people a “taste” of things different from what they know in Cambodia.
When I arrived after the morning church service, the staff “helped” me into a Deaf Day T-shirt for picture taking.

Deaf Week Activities

Socials Coffee Day

PPC Bank in Cambodia has established a coffee shop in their headquarters as a social enterprise employing deaf people. Today to promote Deaf Week, they offered a 50% discount on all drinks and we invited our friends and supporters to take advantage of the offer.
One of the deaf staff at Socials Coffee preparing an iced Hazelnut Latte.
Some of the DDP staff gathered at Socials today.