Hong Kong Retreats at CMS When I worked with deaf people in Hong Kong, I spent a lot of time at Caritas Magdalene School for the deaf in Wanchai. I was invited back to do a retreat for a religious education class on 7 April, and another program for the teaching staff on 9 April. I should have said "no" because the timing is terrible, but I'm left early Friday, 6 April for Hong Kong and will be there till Tuesday, 10 April. Come back here for reports and photos of the goings-on.

Monday, 6 April 2001 The retreat trip didn't start out well. At the airport I had the company of two Hong Kongers, Lucas Chan and Lucia Wong. Lucia was returning to HK for a visit on the same flight as I. That wasn't the bad part. When I got to HK, two of the volunteers from the deaf group met Lucia and me at the airport and helped me get all my stuff on to a bus out to the Maryknoll house at Stanley. That wasn't the bad part either. When I finally got the Maryknoll house and opened my suitcase, I found that someone else had opened it ahead of me along the way and removed my power supply for my laptop, the electronic flash for the camera, and a mouse and maybe a couple other things. The items were rather inconsequential, but losing the power supply meant I couldn't use the laptop and my materials for the retreats on Saturday and Sunday were on there!

Saturday, 7 April 2001 The main reason I came to Hong Kong was to help with a retreat for a small group of non-Christian students who are in a religious studies class at the Caritas Magdalene School. A similar retreat for this group has been held near Holy Week for many years. One of the favorite places for this retreat is the Maryknoll house in Stanley on Hong Kong Island, and that is where it was held again this year. Four of the teachers prepared the basic outline of the retreat and most of the input, and I added some ideas and input about Cambodia. The theme was "mercy," and the day's activities included several interesting talks and discussions to help bring out that idea. The Hong Kong schools now get tremendous financial, hardware, software, and personnel help for their computer programs, and it showed in some of the PowerPoint presentations that were put together by one of the teachers for use during the retreat. The Maryknoll leadership has always been very welcoming and gracious to the CMS groups, and that is one of the reasons the classes feel so comfortable going to the Stanley house. In the photograph here, some of the deaf students are presenting a thank-you card and a gift of some cookies to Fr. Sean Burke, the current regional superior for Maryknoll in Hong Kong.

Sunday, 8 April 2001 I arrived at the Pastoral Center for Disabled People about 9:15 AM for a practice for the Holy Week service and found the group locked out on the sidewalk outside the building. We finally got in had our practice, and then the service got underway on time, starting outside in a little garden beside the building. Fr. Fernando Montano, a Guadalupe Missioner from Mexico, concelebrated with me. I surprised myself with the amount of Cantonese and Hong Kong sign language that came to me. After thirteen years of using basically the same signs for most of the regular parts of the mass, those signs were the easiest. I almost slipped back into automatic pilot. After mass there were a lot of good questions about Cambodia from the group. I would love for some of the Hong Kong deaf people to see themselves as missionaries and come to Cambodia to work in some way for a while. It would take a bit of thought and creativity, but I think it could be done in a worthwhile fasion. Following the questions and answers, we had a meal brought in. It included the standard fried rice and fried noodles and similar dishes, but today they also added some pizzas from Pizza Hut, probably in my honor! Then the deaf committee had their regular meeting while some people went home, some stayed around and talked, and some watched the photos from today that I was able to show back through the large television in the center. There was a very large turnout for the liturgy today. I hope that continues throughout all of Holy Week. I was surprised, too, by the amount of money given to me by various deaf people. I kept getting pulled aside by one or the other of them, and invariably he or she would be putting some money or a red packet (the traditional Chinese way of giving money) in my hand or my pocket. I was amazed at the amount of money from some of them who were unemployed when I left just over a year ago. I'm going to have to check and see if they can really afford their generosity! Finally I left about 3:45 PM and walked over to Wah Yan College, a Jesuit high school nearby, and delivered a package that I had carried for one of their confreres in Cambodia. It was good to run into two of the men there that I know quite well. Then I went to Bishop Ford Center, where I used to live, to see Fr. Michael McKeirnan. He has been sick and is returning soon to the United States for medical check-ups for his eyes and heart. Then I ran back in to Central (downtown HK) to a shop for Filipinas where my travel agent had left my plane ticket home so I could pick it up today when the travel agency was closed. Then I celebrated being in the big city by eating supper at Hardee's before heading home to Stanley!

Monday, 9 April 2001 This morning I went to the Caritas Magdalene School for the deaf to have lunch with the students followed by a talk to them about Cambodia. Unfortunately the school's state-of-the-art video projection system wouldn't work with my laptop so I had to do some quick planning and just use a few photos I had on a CD. The students were very attentive and asked some good questions. I was pleased that they seemed to understand the vast difference in lifestyles between Hong Kong and Cambodia. After a short break I got together with all the teachers and the house parent staff to talk about information technology and their teaching role. The Hong Kong government is pouring lots of money into IT, with an aim toward making it the IT center for Asia. Sr. Theresa, the principal, wanted to be sure that while they are benefiting from the munificence of the government that they didn't lose sight of the overall goal of teaching and using IT as a way to help the students. After the teachers finally got to go home, some of the former pupils of CMS came back to the school for the evening. A first half hour was used by a local hearing aid center to provide information on the latest technologies available, and then I was invited to speak to the old students about Cambodia. They particularly asked good questions. Then we had a dinner together there at the school, all together a very enjoyable evening.

Tuesday, 10 April 2001 I had several small shopping forays planned for today to pick up some things I haven't been able to find in Cambodia, but I started going through some of my stuff still stored in the attic at the Stanley Maryknoll house to select some things to bring back to Cambodia. That took a lot longer than I had anticipated, and finally I had to rush to get into town for lunch with some of the school staff. I took a taxi to the Airport Express Station downtown and checked in my luggage, and then Sr. Theresa and five of the senior staff met me there and took me to lunch at the City Hall restaurant on the harbor. A very enjoyable meal! Then it was back to the Airport Express station for the 30-minute ride to the airport. Since I had already checked in downtown, I just went through immigration and waited for the 2:20 hour flight back to Phnom Penh where I took another taxi to the Maryknoll center house and unloaded all my stuff there because tomorrow I will be moving there from where I am living now. Then I went back to my present house and started packing for the big move tomorrow!    :(