Almost fifty years ago, Mass of the Air began broadcasting on Louisville television to allow home-bound people to have at least limited access to Sunday mass. Many volunteers have helped to provide this service, including sign language interpreters and prompters. Above, Nancy Reynolds (L) is signing American Sign Language and Peg Darcy is prompting her to make sure the communications are clear and understandable. Both Nancy and Peg have been part of the Catholic deaf community for more than 40 years, serving our deaf brothers and sisters in many ways.
Today Charlie’s Angels came to Nazareth Home for a visit. These are women who decades ago began working with deaf people, especially in sign language interpreting. Several of them were students in classes I taught at Angela Merici High School. There were five Angels originally but two have returned to heaven.
Today at the 10:30 AM mass we had a farewell for Charlie. This was his last mass with the English Catholic Community in Phnom Penh before returning to the United States tomorrow.
At the homily Charlie spoke of faith, not as assent to a series theological statements but rather a force that leads us to do as Jesus asks us.
A special part of this liturgy was the presence of deaf people and staff (front row, all Buddhist) from the Deaf Development Programme with Maryknoll Lay Missioner Julie Lawler interpreting in Cambodian Sign Language for them.
After some reflections there was time to take photos of various groups within our English Catholic Community. Here are the various liturgical ministers who serve our community.
Today four of the interpreters and staff of DDP invited me to lunch to say goodbye. It was really good to catch up with them–and they also gave me the pictured silk shirt!
Today a family from Japan visited DDP. The Cambodian wife is deaf and was our student until graduation in 2016. Soon after she married her Japanese deaf husband and moved there. Now with two hearing children, they came to visit and it was really heart-warming to see her and her family so happy. A DDP success story!
Today I spent the day in my borrowed apartment in Wanchai in downtown Hong Kong. Typhoon Wipha arrived early last night and the #3 wind warning went up. When I woke up this morning, the #8 warning was hoisted and that changed to #10 at 9:30 AM. #10 indicates the strongest winds, above 70 MPH.
The #10 typhoon warning mounted on the elevator panel of the building where I am staying.
The #10 signal has been hoisted only 4 times in the last 13 years but the center of Typhoon Wipha passed just 30 miles south of the city so the effects were strong here. Gusts of 120 MPH were recorded.
I used to like typhoons when I lived in Hong Kong. Work places and schools were closed and it was like having a snow day when I was in elementary school. Today I ventured out when #10 was raised just for the experience and it wasn’t much. There was little rain at that time and even the winds were not that bad. One little palm tree was felled on the street near us but there aren’t many trees in the concrete and asphalt city so it was not a good reflection of the damage that was done elsewhere in the 80% of the colony that is forested hills.
Perhaps the greatest sign that something was different today were the empty streets. Hong Kong is densely populated and at 2:00 PM the streets were EMPTY.
I left Taiwan Friday afternoon and flew to Hong Kong. Peggy, a long-term faithful volunteer with the Catholic deaf group, took me to the small apartment of Judy Wu, the former volunteer I had just left in Taiwan.
Problem 1: I have a new iPhone that only uses eSIM. It is not possible to inset a SIM card into the phone. I had signed up for an eSIM account but when I tried to activate it in Hong Kong, I got a message that my phone cannot use eSIM which is not true. We went to a phone shop and the tech person said that the Hong Kong government prevents eSIM from being used in Hong Kong for some reason.
Problem 2: Needing Internet connection while here, I opted to install a physical SIM card in my old phone. But it wouldn’t work even though the phone shop installed it! I just now–24 hours later–got it to turn on!
The notice on the elevator at the apartment building where I am staying.
Problem 3:We have scheduled a Catholic deaf gathering for tomorrow (Sunday) so I can say goodbye but now a typhoon is approaching. Signal #3 has already been raised and it is expected to hit #8 in a few hours. All transportation, everything, closes and stops at that point. Now we need to wait and see if the typhoon moves quickly through Hong Kong or goes slowly. If the latter, we will postpone the gathering until Monday night.
