Deaf – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

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.

Holiday Activity

Two government holidays fell back to back yesterday and today, and to keep our resident students occupied and interested, they took a ferry across the Mekong River yesterday and today worked together to cook a special holiday dish. Here they are this afternoon grinding, chopping, boiling, frying, and combining all sorts of yummy ingredients.

All part of the job

Last week I was handling English and French correspondence from the prime minister and the king as they sent condolences to our bishop.about the death of Pope Francis.

Today I was overseeing the pumping out of our DDP septic tank.

Gaining experience–and confidence

Today I finished a meeting early and stopped in our DDP barbershop to look presentable again. The young deaf man on the left is a new barber trainee and he was a bit terrified to work on me, the boss! The trainer (R) was there, though, so he took on the challenge and did a good job. The worst part of the new barber trainees is that in their fear and caution, they are very slow!

Staff Training: Personnel Policy

Our Deaf Development Programme students went home yesterday for an extended break for the Khmer New Year. The staff continued working, with a day of training on the DDP Personnel Policy.

DDP director Sau Soknym (seated at table) updated the staff on the policy.

Khmer New Year 2

When we had all the students and staff together for our DDP Khmer New Year celebration last week, we also said goodbye to two our staff. Here I am listening to Sophary saying goodbye. On my right is Theary, a teacher who is leaving after only a year because of an opportunity for training in Germany.

New Year Celebration

The Khmer New Year isn’t until April 14 but our students go home for a long holiday on 8 April so today we had the DDP new year celebration. Here Mom, one of our houseparents, and Sophy (R), the Education Project manager, watch lunch for 60 people cooking on a charcoal brazier. It was so heavy they were fearful it would break the clay fire pot but all was well.