Deaf – Page 14 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

Pchum Ben at DDP-2

After the monks gave their Buddhist blessing, Fr. Charlie had a Catholic blessing, showing that both traditions seek blessings but that the Catholic tradition prays to God to be with us and bless us.

All Souls Day, a commemoration of deceased family and friends, is celebrated on November 2nd in Christianity. The Buddhist equivalent is a two-week long celebration called Pchum Ben. It is a major festival and everyone goes to her or his home village to be with family.

We celebrated Pchum Ben at DDP today, inviting Buddhist monks to come and chant. Here deaf students follow the sign language of an interpreter.

After the Buddhist blessing, Fr. Charlie had a Christian blessing, then we took the above group photo, and then all the staff and students ate a simple meal together before the students left DDP to spend nine days at home with their families.

A Concert Is Coming….

Today Ms. Miwako Fujiwara came to DDP to talk with our students about the next Musica Felice concert to be held. It will benefit DDP and Miwako would like to involve some of the deaf people in parts of the production.

Deaf Week

Friday

The activity for Friday of Deaf Week was making shirts with handprints, signatures, greetings, etc. Here Julie Lawler and I sign the shirts of two students

After making the shirts, the students saw some sign language videos, had some chocolate to drink, and then played some games.

Deaf Week

Thursday

The theme for Thursday of Deaf Week was floral crowns the students and staff wore all day.

The students enjoyed it also with the garlands they made.

Deaf Week

Tuesday

Wednesday

I had to get help to tie a khrama around my head somewhat artfully!

Deaf Week

Monday

Each day of deaf week, the students and staff of DDP had some special activity to mark this special time. The Monday of Deaf Week was Face Painting Day.

Deaf Week

Sunday

Every year deaf people around the world celebrate Deaf Week to inform people about their deaf culture and to encourage the inclusion of deaf people into the societies and communities where they live.

This year a major change for our Deaf Day was moving to a new venue, a Salesian Sisters school in Phnom Penh. We were afraid it might seem far away for members of the deaf community but it turned out to be an ideal location.

Another change this year was having the big Deaf Day celebration on the Sunday at the beginning of Deaf Week instead of at the end of the week. The morning saw an opening talk and the a story-telling activity. Then it was time for lunch which was prepared by the hearing students in the hotel hospitality training program at the school.

After lunch there were some games pitting teams against each other. The games are always a most enjoyable time for these gatherings.

Then it was time for the major activity of the day, a food-tasting event. Volunteers from the English Catholic Community prepared foods from their home countries to give the deaf people a taste and a glimpse of different cultures from around the world.

Deaf people experience tremendous isolation. Hearing people tend to avoid them because they don’t know to communicate with deaf people, and so when we have a large gathering like this a major attraction is just catching up with old friends and chatting in sign language.

We also have a Deaf Day celebration in Kampong Cham Province but this year we also invited a group from Kampong Cham to participate with us in Phnom Penh.

Embassy Visit to DDP

The Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme has had a partnership with People in Need, focusing on employment projects. People in Need introduced DDP to Agile, another Cambodian NGO, and to the embassy of the Czech Republic with whom they worked. Last week a delegation from People in Need, Agile, and the Czech Republic Embassy came to visit DDP.

First the visitors met with the DDP management team and Charlie Dittmeier explained DDP’s vision and projects. That day was “coffee day” for DDP’s celebration of Deaf Week, so our visitors got to mingle with our deaf students enjoying coffee that day.

It was a good experience for both the visitors from the embassy and for our deaf students who don’t get much opportunity to interact with hearing people. Such an exchange helps to develop their identity as people worth knowing and with something to offer. Here students help the visitors prepare their coffee.

A second stop on their visit was at the DDP barbershop which is already benefiting from a small grant offered by the Czech Embassy in cooperation with the Agile NGO.

Interpreter Graduation

Today we had a graduation ceremony for the first batch of Cambodia Sign Language interpreters to be trained after the formation of the National Institute of Special Education.