Five Weeks of Meetings I've known for a year that we would have a meeting of MMAF's New York leadership with the five Area Representatives this October, but then I was invited to a meeting about Maryknoll's presence in China starting 9 October. Then, a deaf group in Japan invited me to a fund-raising exhibition they are sponsoring to aid the deaf group in Cambodia because it fitted neatly in between the other meetings. Here's the schedule of where I'll be the rest of October and early November. Watch this space for reports from the meetings. Charlie's Itinerary 8 October 9-12 October 2001 13-17 October 18-28 October 28 October-14 November Travel to Hong Kong China Meetings Exhibition in Japan Visit with Family in Kentucky Maryknoll Meetings in New York

Hong Kong

Monday, 8 October 2001 I went to the Phnom Penh airport an hour and fifteen minutes before the flight time. It was way more than enough time because it was almost eerie because there were no other cars in the parking lot and no other people ahead of me checking in. You may guess from this that we're not talking about one of the world's busier airports. At least the counter crew were there and I checked in right away. But then when I got to passport control, there was no one there. I had to wait 25 minutes before the officers showed up to start processing us. There was literally no one around the immigration desks so we could have just walked on through into the departure area. So much for security there. When I got on the plane, I heard the cabin crew make an announcement about flying to Siem Reap. Since I was planning to go to Hong Kong, I thought I'd better check it out. It turns out that now that Royal Air Cambodge flight goes to Siem Reap first because that's where all the passengers are who want to go back to HK. No one bothered to tell me that, though, and none of the signs anywhere indicated that. So much for traveling with RAC. In HK I was met by a friend and we had a chance to eat and talk together for a couple hours there at the airport. Then at 3:30 PM, one of the MMAF leaders in New York arrived from Bangkok, and I took her from the airport to the Maryknoll house at Stanley. One of my soft-sided suitcases ripped on the way here--it's quite old!--so tonight I asked the regional superior here and he offered me a replacement from some of the old ones others have left here. Starting off with such good luck, I then asked if I could borrow a watch for the next five weeks because I found I arrived here without mine. So he pulled an old one of those out of his desk drawer!

Tuesday, 9 October 2001 This morning I took the bus into Central, the downtown business district of Hong Kong, and made the U.S. Consulate my first stop to get new pages put in my passport. Security was heightened there, but not excessive. Mostly it caused a long line of people waiting to get in the building because they were searching every bad, putting people through metal detectors, and making people handover all telephones, pages, laptops, etc. Once inside it only took them five minutes to add the pages. It's nice to deal with people who smile and are polite like that. Then I started making the rounds of Hong Kong Next I picked up my onward plane tickets at my friendly travel agent and then went to a stationery store to get some ballpoint refills that are not available in Phnom Penh. Next I hopped on the subway and went to Kowloon and bought a small mini-keyboard to use with my laptop when traveling and a case for the CDs I need to carry with me. Then it was time to look for a new camera to replace mine which was stolen Saturday night. I went to my old camera store in Lok Fu but all the people I used to know where gone and they only had one digital camera in the window so I thought maybe I'd wait until the US for that. Then it was time for lunch at McDonald's but the one at Lok Fu was jammed with the students on their lunch hour so I went back across the harbor to Wan Chai and ate there. Here McDonald's adds some different items to their menu each month. I noticed for October they have a vegetable and cheese pie that looks like their hot apple pie. I hurried back to Stanley because the bus from there to the retreat center was supposed to leave at 4:00 PM, but I found out that the meeting venue had been moved to the Stanley house itself on sudden notice today. That was great because it's much easier to do e-mail and stuff from here. And I got to keep my VIP room here which I had last night, one with an attached bath. Usually only special visitors get that but since I already had my stuff in it, they said just to keep it even though the heads of both the Maryknoll priests and sisters are both here and should have had priority! We got disturbing news tonight that a 37-year old Maryknoll brother died suddenly this afternoon after complaining of a stomach ache.

Hong Kong Meetings

Wednesday, 10 October 2001 Today was the first day of our meetings about Maryknoll's future role in China. There are twenty Maryknollers here from Asia and the US, including the top leaders of the priests, sisters, and lay people groups as well as of the China Bureau from the United States. The morning was given mainly to personal reporting, ten minutes each, about what the participants have been doing vis-a-vis China. It was interesting to learn about their activities. The afternoon was for reports on the different programs and projects in which Maryknoll is involved, everything from a leprosy project in China to assisting seminarians in China to AIDS work. It's impressive how much is happening. I was kept busy all day taking notes. I thought a notetaker had been arranged for the meeting but I was wrong. I got tapped again!

Thursday, 11 October 2001 Yesterday was focused on the "who" and "what" of Maryknoll's work in China. Today the spotlighted shifted to the "why," specifically why continue Maryknoll's commitment to China? And what is the goal of Maryknoll's work there? The morning session started with a five-minute reflection during which each person was asked to name one or two ideas that stayed in their minds from yesterday's discussions about Maryknoll's China work. Then we got into an earnest discussion of why we do what we do, leading to small group discussion of the five elements of "integral evangelization." That is the church's new phrase for an approach to taking the Good News to the world that involves serving human needs and rights in addition to making known the gospel in more verbal fashion. In the afternoon we heard reports from the small group discussions and then brought the whole group back together for a look at how Maryknoll should be involved in China for the future, with an eye toward starting to develop specific recommendations. News came from Japan about the autopsy of the young brother who died Tuesday afternoon. Apparently it was the result of bee stings. He was allergic to bees and had been stung several times on his hand and once on his forehead. He had taken his anti-allergenic medicine for the stings but it must not have been enough.

Friday, 12 October 2001 Today was the last day of the meeting on Maryknoll's future in China. In the morning we first heard the reports of the small group session from yesterday afternoon, with time afterwards for comments on the various ideas that were presented. Then Ray Finch, the superior general of the Maryknoll priests and brothers, and Helene O'Sullivan, the president of the Maryknoll sisters, gave the group their impressions of what they had heard so far and added ideas of possible approaches. Then it was time for small group work again. In this session the groups tried to define more clearly the different tasks that would be the responsibility of the group once the meeting has ended. Liturgy was pushed back till the end of the day to give us more time to work. After lunch the groups came together again to report their tasks and we were asked to note the commonalities and the differences we noted in the various lists. After a final round of clarifications, we formally ended the meeting at 3:30 PM and gave assignments to two teams, to produce a preamble to a final document and to produce a rough draft of a final document which listed the different specific tasks that need to be done and who would be responsible for doing them. The preamble team had finished their work by 5:00 PM, but the document people had barely just begun. Their work will have to be finished by the local staff next week. One of the tasks accomplished here was setting up the Maryknoll China Committee, a group with the task of following up on all the ideas that the three days of meetings produced. The Maryknoll Society, the Congregation, and the lay mission group, the Association, are all represented in order to work for a collaborative effort in China in the future. Almost as soon as the meeting ended, some of the participants started heading out to Taiwan and other locales. Others had a meeting this evening with one of Hong Kong's bishops, and several went out to dinner. There were only three of us here at the Stanley house for supper.

Japan

Saturday, 13 October 2001 This morning I flew Japan Airlines from Hong Kong to Tokyo, a 4-hour flight on an MD-11. Clearing immigration was as bad in Tokyo as I remembered it; this time it took more than 20 minutes to get up to the counter marked "Foreign Passports." After that, things moved relatively quickly. I went to the information desk and found the location of the bus company going to the New Otani Hotel, and soon I was on the curb waiting for the ride into the city. It was interesting to watch the workers loading suitcases into buses, the women taking tickets, the taxi drivers, and others. They all wore uniforms, worked with such dignity and class, and were so polite. And no one ever expected a tip for doing their job. It took about 3000 yen (1:45 hours to get into the city in the evening traffic, and I walked into the Maryknoll house at exactly 6:00 PM, just in time to see the backs of the priests walking vested into the chapel. It turned out they were having a memorial service for Brother Mike Greyerbiehl who had died earlier in the week. I was supposed to be at the opening ceremony for the exhibition I had come to Japan for, but the secretary told me she didn't have the information that was supposed to be waiting for me and thought maybe the priests did. Since they were just starting the memorial mass, there was nothing for me to do but wait for them to finish. About 45 minutes later, though, a telephone call came for me from the exhibition, the people there asking where I was. The secretary took down the information on how to get there and then went out with me to get a taxi on the street. The short ride cost me 980 yen, about $8.00. I hadn't understood clearly what kind of exhibition I was going to, but when I arrived I could see that it was limited reproductions of various painters including some very famous artists like Picasso. The reproductions were on sale and a percentage of the proceeds was to benefit the deaf program in Cambodia. I had a chance to meet with some of the leaders of the deaf group from the Minato Association of the Deaf and look around the exhibition a bit, and then it was soon time to go home. The taxi back cost me 1700 yen!

Sunday-Monday, 14-15 October 2001 The exhibition continued all day on Sunday and Monday, from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. The Minato Association of the Deaf had agreed to organize this exhibition through a company which guaranteed the sponsoring group a percentage of the profits of all the paintings that were sold. I had never heard of this type of arrangement but it seemed to work well. The exhibition venue was a hall in the Science Museum in Tokyo which itself was located in a large Japanese medieval park. Near the entrance a display had been set up with photographs to show visitors who benefit from the exhibition. I had been asked, when the organizers learned I was coming through Japan this weekend, to make myself available to represent the deaf group of Cambodia. Basically I stood near the photographs for two days and answered questions and explained what people were seeing in the photographs. I met some very interesting people, both deaf and hearing. A great number of people came to the exhibition. Not all of them purchased paintings but all came to show their interest and support of the deaf group. Particularly fascinating for me was the number of deaf people who came and, through sign language interpreters, had the paintings explained to them. I could not imagine a deaf group in the United States having such an interest in the fine arts and visiting an exhibition like this one, but they certainly turned out in Tokyo. Several deaf people even bought paintings. During the slow times during the day, I would take a walk out into the park to see parts of Tokyo that were new to me. I found where the subway stations were located and learned the route for traveling back and forth to the Maryknoll house and that saved a lot of money since the basic subway ticket was 160 yen. On the second day, a newspaper reporter came to interview several of the people responsible for organizing the show and he also spoke to me to get more background for his article. One part of the exhibition was dedicated to the work of a young Russian artist named Eugene Fedorov who was present and available to talk with visitors. Sunday night the deaf leaders wanted to take me out to eat after we closed up the exhibition for the day. By that time I just felt like going home, but they took me to a Japanese restaurant in the Ruppongi district where we had an enjoyable meal seated at a long table set into the floor. I didn't get home until 11:00 PM, though.

Tuesday, 16 October 2001 I had hoped today to visit the university outside of Tokyo which has a college for deaf students who want to study in technical fields. Because the computer at the Maryknoll house developed a problem, however, and because I could not get my own laptop to connect with the Maryknoll ISP, I was not able to arrange that trip. In the afternoon, the president of the Minato Deaf Association, Masaji Oboshi, was to take me to the Japan Federation of the Deaf to meet the president there and see if there is any possibility that the JFD could help us in Cambodia. It turned out the president would not be available in the afternoon, however, so Oboshi and I had a planning meeting. I am not scheduled now to stop in Japan on the way back, but if he can set up a meeting with the JFD president, I will change my ticket and come back to Cambodia a few days later. Because Oboshi does not know a lot of English and I don't know any Japanese, we went to an Internet cafe and used two online connections to a Japanese-English translation service. We were able to type back and forth to each other quite effectively this way. When I got home, I was reading in the newspaper that Royal Air Cambodge, Cambodia's national carrier, ceased flying today! I flew them from Phnom Penh to Hong Kong and was supposed to go the opposite direction with them, too, but I may be holding a useless second half of a ticket now!

Kentucky

17-28 October 2001 My time in Kentucky was unplanned in advance but turned out to be very busy. One of the more significant happenings was that I bought a new digital camera to replace the one that was stolen from my room while I slept in Cambodia two nights before I left. Some highlights from Kentucky: A liturgy planning meeting at the Catholic Deaf Office in Louisville. Seated around the table are Mary Ann Kaiser (deaf); Fr. Randy Hubbard, moderator; Susie Pasikowski, office manager; and Deacon Tom Ryan (deaf). A visit with Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly, OP, Archbishop of Louisville. A visit to my brother Ray's and his wife Tammy's house to check the renovations they have completed since my last visit. The night before I left we had a Dittmeier family gathering at Mary Ellen and Mike's house. Several birthdays needed celebrating that day!

Maryknoll, NY

MMAF Global Council

MMAF ALT+5

5-7 November 2001 The ALT+5 is a part of the leadership of the Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful consisting of the Association Leadership Team (the ALT) who are based in New York plus the five area representatives from Africa, Asia, Latin America (2), and the United States. As a group they have responsibility for three areas of Association life: budgets, placement, and strategic planning. Monday, 5 November--The Budget The ALT+5 began discussing the MMAF budgets back in July when the budget process involved another level of approval by the Maryknoll Society (the priests and brothers). That was changed in August, though, and today the ALT+5 looked at the financial situation of the Association for 2001 and 2002. The economic downturn this year has depressed all the fund-raising expectations, and then the events of September 11th on top of that had another major effect as donations plummeted (in what is normally the best quarter of the year for fund-raising) because of all the donations given to the survivors and families of September 11th. We project a deficit for 2001 and 2002 and probably budget cuts will be necessary. Tuesday, 6 November--Placement Presently a group of MMAF candidates are in orientation at Maryknoll, NY. The ALT+5 made their mission assignmenets last May. Several members of the group have dropped out of the program since then and a couple others needed changes to their assignments. We dealt with that and then determined priorities for placements for next year's group after hearing from the area representatives about the personnel and conditions in their areas. Wednesday, 7 November--Strategic Planning The last strategic plan of the MMAF was developed after the 1997 general assembly. Taking some advice from our advisory board, we limited the number of goals for the new plan in order to concentrate more on major directions for the Association. Vicki Armour-Hileman facilitated our discussion process.

Maryknoll/Travel

Japan

Tokyo Meetings

11 November 2001 I arrived in Japan after a 20-hour trip from New York and was met at the airport by Oboshi, the deaf man who has been spearheading the fund-raising for a vocational training building in Cambodia. The man is a dynamo of energy! We got seats on an express train from the airport that had tables with them, and we worked for the full 1 1/2 trip into Tokyo. We dropped my stuff off at the Maryknoll office and then went to Oboshi's house where two other deaf men were waiting to plan strategy for the coming two days of meetings. We had a very Japanese dinner seated on the floor, concluding with tea served ceremonially by Oboshi's wife, and then finally at 10:45 PM I headed home, totally tired.

12 November 2001 Luckily Oboshi was not able to schedule any meetings this morning so I was able to work at the Maryknoll Tokyo house. Then at 3:00 PM, I met Ikeda at the subway station and we went to two coffee houses where we met with other deaf people to prepare tonight's meeting. The cheapest cup of coffee we had today was 450 yen or $3.85! At 6:00 PM we met with the president of the Tokyo Association of the Deaf and talked about our plans for vocational training in Cambodia. The purpose of this meeting was to get the president onboard before we make a presentation tomorrow to the Japan Federation of the Deaf.

13 November 2001 I met Ikeda at 9:00 AM and we went to a government center for the disabled--12 stories, fully equipped, beautiful!--where he taught a two-hour intermediate sign language course. I spoke to the class about ten minutes at the end. Then we walked to another center where we sat in on a beginner class and an advanced class. Afterwards we went to a hotel coffee shop for a sandwich with one of the retired senior leaders of the deaf community. Then Ikeda and I went to prepare for another meeting. We arrived too early for our appointment so we went to one coffee house to wait until an interpreter, Junji, arrived for me, and then we went to the Cambodian embassy where we met with the ambassador to Japan and his aide. It was a slow meeting because we went through two interpreters, first Japanese sign language to spoke Japanese, and then from spoken Japanese to spoken English. We spoke with the ambassador about an hour concerning his support for the vocational training project. Then we went to a restaurant for supper and then to another hotel coffee shop for the final meeting of this trip, with two leaders from the Japan Federation of the Deaf who would ultimately decide on the funding. That was an interesting meeting. The coffee there was 650 yen or $5.55 a cup! The Japanese didn't think a thing of that! I almost died!

14 November 2001 I was ready to go at 6:30 this morning, and Fr. Pat O'Donoghue drove me across the street to the New Otani Hotel, where I caught the bus to the airport, because I was carrying so much luggage. My Cathay Pacific flight left at 11:00 AM, and I arrived in Hong Kong at 4:10 PM. I got out to the Maryknoll house in Stanley about 5:30 PM. I had planned to catch up on some work, but I ran into a priest for whom I used to be spiritual director and talked till 10:00 PM.

15 November 2001 As soon as it was late enough, I called the travel agent in Hong Kong to make sure I had a ticket because I had had to replace my original ticket on Royal Air Cambodge after it went bankrupt two weeks ago. Then I took a taxi to the travel agent, had the taxi wait while I ran upstairs to get the ticket, and then continued on to the Airport Express downtown station where I checked in and left my luggage. Then I went to several places around Hong Kong looking for a clock radio (no luck) and an appointment book ($4 instead of the $9-$12 in the US). Then it was on to the airport and a Dragonair flight that left at 4:25 PM. It got into Phnom Penh at 6:10 PM and I was back at our house at 6:45 PM, totally tired from five weeks on the road.