Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
People and activities in the Cambodian deaf world
When I left Louisville for deaf work in Asia, Fr. Randy Hubbard replaced me in deaf ministry and kept thing going. Now he has been made pastor of the St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown, 50 miles from Louisville. Today some of the Catholic deaf group in Louisville went to visit him.
Afterwards we went to a local restaurant and continued our conversations and comradery.
50+ years ago I used to have my hair cut at the Tri-City Barber College in Louisville. Then I went to Asia for 42 years, and for the last 20+years in Cambodia I had my own barber school, a job training program for deaf youth.
Today I returned to Tri-City after the long absence. It’s in a different location and the staff I knew are no longer there. The same could be said for a lot of my hair: it’s no longer there. But I got a cut from Eli, a delightful young man, eager to please, and he only charged me $7!
This evening three of us retired priests drove south to Bardstown, Kentucky to the St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral where we had dinner with Fr. Randy Hubbard, the pastor there. Randy followed me as the priest with the Catholic deaf ministry in our archdiocese.
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.
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!
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.
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.
