Deaf – Page 28 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

ADCC — Day 2

Actually today was the main travel day for most of the group. They gathered in Manila and then took buses to the Maryridge retreat center in Tagaytay City southeast of Manila. Click here to see today’s activities.

ADCC — Day 1

This week saw a gathering of Asian Deaf Catholic people in a retreat center outside of Manila in the Philippines. Today was a travel day for those, like me, who had to make an overnight trip of it. Click here for a few photos from the journey.

Welcome to the Philippines….Not

I’m in the Philippines for an Asian Catholic deaf conference. The trip was rather routine and even enjoyable until I actually got here. More about that tomorrow when I start documenting the trip. Getting through immigration was a trip and then the taxi couldn’t find the hotel. But I’m here now and because it’s so late, I’m going to bed. More in the morning.

DDP Staff Meeting–Day 4

Today was a travel day from Siem Reap where we had our annual meeting to Kampong Cham, Kampot, and Phnom Penh where are centers are located. Click here for pictures from the trip to Phnom Penh.

DDP Staff Meeting–Day 3

This was the second full day of our staff meetings and the morning was full of discussions. But the afternoon saw some special recognitions and then a trip to Angkor Wat and to the tourist area of Siem Reap. Click here to see some photos from the day.

DDP Staff Meeting–Day 2

Today was the first of two full days of reports and discussions. Click here to see what we did.

DDP Staff Meeting–Day 1

The DDP staff came from Phnom Penh, Kampong Cham, and Kampot today to a reflection center in Siem Reap, the home of Angkor Wat. Half the day was travel but then we got into our agenda. Click here to see our journey and the meeting beginnings.

DDP Partners

The Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme doesn’t work in isolation. There is very little room to work with the government of Cambodia but DDP is always on the lookout for possibilities of working with other groups. This past week Sokly (R) and I met with representatives (old friends) of the UNDP, the UN Development Program, to look at possible collaboration on projects.

Starting to plan….

At the end of December, the Maryknoll Seedling of Hope project will close and the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme will move its offices and activities to the present Seedling grounds. Our usage of the property will be quite a bit different from at present so we have been going to Seedling to look at the grounds and buildings to determine how we can best utilize them.

One part of the Seedling grounds that is currently underutilized is this adjoining property where we are going to house students in our education and job training projects. At the far end of the property, beyond the two figures, is a single-story building with six units where we will create dorm rooms with bunk beds.

We want to preserve most or all of the garden area in the middle of the lot and then at the other end renovate this garage building into some sort of kitchen with an outdoor covered eating area for the students and for the deaf community when they come for special events.

Pchum Ben at DDP

Cambodia now is celebrating a two-week Pchum Ben festival, the Khmer equivalent of All Souls Day in western Christian cultures. During this time the Cambodian people pay special attention and respect to their deceased ancestors. Next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are the three public holidays associated with Pchum Ben, but today was the last day of class for our students who must travel to the provinces to be with their families. We allow them to go early because the transportation companies all raise their prices tremendously starting the two or three days before the public holiday. To celebrate the festival at DDP, the students cooked a traditional Khmer meal at school and invited us the staff to eat with them.