Category: On the Road…

On the Road Again…

adcC

A special feature of this ADCC was the presence of Fr. Dong, the second deaf priest in the diocese of Seoul. It is going to be great having him organizing and leading in Asia for the next generation. He has been ordained two years.
This conference was so well organized! There were lots of non-business, fun things to see and do and learn. One Korean deaf man, a skilled calligrapher, helped people to write their names in the Korean language. I got a good grade on mine but I had an unfair advantage of 13 years writing Chinese characters in Hong Kong.
Another special touch to the conference was the really inclusive and professional use of IT and audio-visuals. These three video cameras in the rear of the room focused on presenters’ sign language and projected it larger than life on a huge screen at the front of the room.

On the Road Again…..

ADCC

The three days of meetings were rather busy and long and that is why Fr. Min Seo arranged activities outside of the conference room. On our third day we had a mini Olympics. All 220 people were divided into four teams for various simple but fun events.
In this game, the teams rolled huge inflated balls up and back between two rows of their members, trying to be the fastest to make a circuit.
For supper after the olympics, we tried our hand at making a Korean kimbab. A large square of seaweed is covered with cooked rice and then strips of cheese, ham, and vegetables are placed on top of the rice. The whole is then rolled into a solid cylinder and eaten cold. Quite good!

On the Road Again….

ADCC in Seoul

This Asian Deaf Catholic Conference was almost twice as long as usual because every other day we took a trip outside of the youth camp where we were conferencing. We spent a lot of time on buses–and walking on this first trip into Seoul.
On this day our first stop was at the Imperial Palace. A custom for visitors is to dress up in traditional Korean costumes before walking to the palace. Costumed visitors are admitted free to the palace grounds.
Once inside the palace, our group alone was probably responsible for hundreds (thousands?) of photos.
After the palace we walked to a memorial square honoring the Korean king who created the Korean written language. The building on the far right is the U.S. Embassy.
We then walked again through downtown Seoul towards the cathedral. This section of the route was along a stream flowing through city. It is artificial and all the water is pumped back to the source in a continuous loop.

On the Road Again….

Asian Deaf Catholic Conference

Being reconnected with friends from around the deaf world is one of the best parts of a conference like this. These deaf women are from Mongolia and Korea.
Very special was the reunion with the contingent from the deaf community in Hong Kong, my favorite place.
Judy Wu Man Ha was my Cantonese language tutor, colleague, and dear friend in Hong Kong. It was her continued support and encouragement of the Hong Kong group that brought so many of them to ADCC.

On the Road Again….

Sorry for the lack of posts from this trip! There have been wi-fi problems all along but today I finally got a special roaming adapter that allows me to connect my computer. Before that we could only connect phones.

The Internet problems have been complemented by time problems. Every day the schedule starts at 7:00 AM and it doesn’t finish until 10:00 or 11:00 PM, and there is no free time except for an hour for meals. There is no opportunity to catch up on work unless I skip something in the schedule. Grueling….

This is a photo of our Cambodian deaf group–interesting because there is not one Catholic deaf person in Cambodia! More on that to come. At the far right of the photo is Fr. Park Min Seo, the deaf priest from the Seoul diocese who is hosting this 4th Asia Deaf Catholic Conference.

On the road again….

I’ve been in a lot of airports in a lot of countries around the world and Cambodia is the only one where I’ve found signs against tipping, at passport control, at the baggage claim, and other places.

It’s a brand new airport, open less than a year, but the signs represent decades (centuries?) of the tradition of expecting to pay if you want something done by officialdom.

On the road again

Again, I’m sorry for the days with no posts. The flat I’m staying in while the owner is away has wi-fi and I can connect, but there is no Internet access. I tried using my old Cambodia phone’s hotspot and that worked for a day, but when I transferred that number to my iPhone, now I cannot connect to the iPhone hotspot. Frustrating…

This is a United flight at the Louisville gate I was to use. The subsequent flight to take me to Houston/San Francisco/Singapore/Phnom Penh was delayed so long, though, that United at the airport rerouted me through Taiwan instead.
My new flight from Louisville went to Chicago and then Taipei. This is Gate C1 in Taipei, a colorful and creative environment with a good workspace. I always like when I transit through Taiwan. The rerouting only delayed my arrival in Phnom Penh by three hours.

On the road again…

I leave in about an hour for the Louisville airport for a trip to Cambodia and Korea. I go Louisville/Houston/San Francisco/Singapore/Phnom Penh. After week in Cambodia, I go to an Asian Catholic Deaf conference in Seoul for a week. I’ll be back in Louisville at midnight on October 21.

I’m sorry for all the days I missed posting here. I have run into a multitude of problems, mostly computer related, and have spent many hours trying to unblock accounts, changing passwords, etc.

On the road again (Singapore)

Leaving Phnom Penh, I flew on Singapore Airlines to Singapore where I switched to United Airlines. I was surprised when Singapore Airlines served a meal using no metal or plastic utensils or dishes. It was the usual full meal but the utensils were bamboo and the containers were cardboard. It seems it’s probably good environmental practice and I suspect it’s cheaper also. On this trip Eva Airlines and United also used the bamboo knives, forks, and spoons.