Another goodbye

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!

DDP Farewell for Charlie

Our DDP students learned a traditional Cambodian dance. It is extra difficult for them to dance without the music.

Then I had a chance speak of my 25 years at DDP.

The deaf people were invited to speak and Samath spoke of the very early days of the Deaf Development Programme.

Saphaek from the UN Human Rights office spoke about working with DDP.

Then it was time to eat.

DDP Farewell for Charlie

We had a super farewell for me today at DDP. About 100 people came, many of them deaf people I hadn’t seen for years after they left our program.

When I first arrived, staff were working preparing lunch for everyone, to be served Khmer style after our program.

Visitors from Japan

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!

Typhoon Wipha

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.

Arrival Problems

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.

More to come about the typhoon!

Taiwan–Day 1

One of my last tasks while before returning to the United States is to say goodbye to the many good people I have known and worked with in Asia.

I am now in Taiwan and I came here to visit Judy Wu and Henry Wong and their son Dominique. Judy was the main force behind the Catholic deaf people and the volunteers for the group when I was in Hong Kong. I had to transit through Hong Kong on the way to Taiwan.

The flight to Hong Kong was about 2:20 hours and was rather uneventful. The new HK airport, which was build while I was living there, is now expanding still again and it a long time to get from the remote terminal to Immigration inside.

The flight to Hong Kong was delayed but I had a three-hour layover there so it was no problem and I landed in Taiwan after a 1:30 hour flight.

Judy Wu’s and Dominique’s smiling faces were there to greet me and we took an airport train and then a taxi to their home in Taipei. A good first day of the trip.

Respect for Creation

A tree located in the girls’ area of our hostel fell over a few days ago. Before staff and students organized to cut it down, chop it up, and dispose of it, Mom, a houseparent (squatting) organized prayers for the tree.

Mom and the students offered coconut, water, sweets, and incense to the spirits of the tree who are now displaced.

Take a look…

When my sister Ann died, we kept her photo frame for displaying photographs and today I introduced it to the deaf students at the Deaf Development Programme. We take lots of pictures at DDP but the students seldom see them so setting up the photo frame was a big hit! Ann would be pleased!

Trip to Kampong Cham

Today the DDP director, Soknym, and I went to Kampong Cham Province to the DDP office there for a graduation ceremony for a Cambodian Sign Language class. The students were all government civil servants and it was a great pleasure to be part of a ceremony for them.