Monday, 30 April 2001
 I had planned to arrive in Hong Kong on Tuesday night and just stay overnight in the airport transit lounge because I fly out for New York early Wednesday. But when I changed my ticket to fly through HK instead of Bangkok, I had to buy the ticket and actually pick it up here so it was necessary to plan to leave the airport.
Three deaf people and one of the volunteers with the deaf group met me at the airport this afternoon, and then we spent the afternoon together before joining some others for supper tonight at a local restaurant. Definitely good to see old friends again!
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Tuesday, 1 May 2001
 Because the Maryknoll Stanley house is so far out of town on the south side of Hong Kong Island, one of the volunteers with the deaf group arranged for me to borrow an empty apartment her family owns in Chai Wan. It was ideal for the two nights I was here because, up on the 25th floor, it was nice and quiet and I was able to work alone all day long. Here is a picture of the apartment when the deaf group brought me here yesterday.The only time I left the house today was to go into Central to pick up my plane ticket for the rest of the journey. Today was a holiday for Labor Day so the travel agent had arranged for me to pick up the ticket at a shop, open every day, that serves Filipinas here in HK. The travel agent owns that also.
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Wednesday, 2 May 2001--Part One
I essentially had two Wednesdays this week. This morning I awoke in Hong Kong at 4:30 AM and got all my stuff ready to leave the apartment where I stayed the last two nights. At 5:30 AM I got a taxi that took me to the airport express (train) station downtown where I checked in and got my boarding passes before riding the train out to Cheka Lap Ko airport. There I had an hour and a half wait before boarding United Airlines' flight no. 869 bound for Chicago. The flight was a 747 and because I travel UAR so much, I have a Premier card that puts me in Economy Plus, the economy section where the seats have an extra 5" of legroom. That may not seem like much, but it makes a big difference especially on the long-haul flights. Once we got aboard, I waited until they served breakfast and then settled down to sleep the first part of the 14+ hours trip to Chicago.
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Wednesday, 2 May 2001--Part Two
We left Hong Kong at 8:05 AM on Wednesday morning and we landed in Chicago at 9:20 AM Wednesday morning--after flying for 14 hours. It's always interesting to see two sunrises in the same day! I had a two-hour wait there for a connecting flight to White Plains, NY, the nearest airport to Maryknoll. Actually United Airlines has just introduced a new nonstop flight from Hong Kong to New York City. It takes 17 hours. I want to try that route, now the longest commercial flight in the world, but for this trip I decided to go through Chicago because from there I can fly to White Plains. When I arrived in White Plains, I was surprised to see our two New York based members of our leadership there to greet me at the airport for the twenty-minute drive to Maryknoll. Once at Bethany, the headquarters building for the MMAF section of Maryknoll, I quickly found my room, greeted the staff, and then took some mail from Cambodia over to the post office and then some other mail to the Maryknoll Sisters' Center to be hand-delivered there.
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Thursday, 3 May 2001
 I spent a good deal of time over at the Maryknoll seminary building (the headquarters of the Maryknoll Society) today, or at least on that side of the road. I went first to St. Teresa's Residence for infirm and elderly priests and brothers who need medical attention to visit two former colleagues from Hong Kong. Then I went to the Maryknoll treasury department to give them some information they needed for my income taxes. And then it was back to the Bethany building (the headquarters of the MMAF) to catch up on more overdue e-mail. Because so many of the staff here are putting all their efforts into getting everything ready for the 25th anniversary of MMAF this weekend, the Bethany administrator decided to order pizza for everyone for lunch and I got included in that. That gave me a chance to make contact with a few more staff I hadn't seen since my arrival. Then it was back to work on the computer. At supper time I borrowed a car again and went looking for a telephone card so I can call my family from here and then to the grocery to pick up a few more things to get me through tomorrow when meals will start being served for the whole group.
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Saturday, 12 May 2001This morning I drove Steve Hicken the 50 miles down to Newark airport for his flight back to California. It was nice being back on road in the US where people only drive one direction on each side of the street.
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Sunday, 13 May 2001This morning I went to mass over at the Sisters' Center, and then afterwards went to the seminary building where I found Jim Noonan from Cambodia talking to Casey Sterr, one of the Maryknoll seminarians. Casey will be coming to Cambodia in June for six weeks of mission experience. I was surprised to find out that he had spent the last fourteen years in Kentucky with the Christian Appalachian Project. I also worked with them when they provided a summer camp for deaf children. Not many people are around Bethany now. It's rather quiet up on the third floor. I've got lots of leftovers from last week for meals.
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Monday, 14 May 2001This is the week of medical exams. I started off today with an eye exam at a doctor's office in Briarcliff. I had asked for the appointment because occasionally in the last few months I've had blank spots in the center of my field of vision. The doctor said they are ocular migraines caused by a cramp in the blood vessels. Nothing to worry about. My eyes haven't changed enough since the last exam two years ago so I just kept my old glasses.I spent most of the afternoon and evening trying to work out complications in the plan to go to Finland in June to talk with our donors for the deaf program. I've been trying to work out the visas for Finland for the Cambodians who will be going. I had done as much as I could by e-mail, but the Finland Embassy in Bangkok had never answered the e-mails I sent so I looked at the Finland Consulate in New York on their web site and got some information. I called them to confirm a few things. That call convinced me that I needed to talk to the Bangkok embassy so I waited till 11:00 PM here, when it would be 10:00 AM Tuesday in Bangkok, and gave them a ring. The first two times the woman I needed to talk to was on another line. Finally around midnight I got her and we talked about 20 minutes. Finland does not make it easy to get visas! The process takes two weeks, I found out, which puts us in a time bind, and I found out they wanted more documentation than is required in New York. After calling Bangkok, I called CDPO in Phnom Penh and explained what they needed to do and then sent them an e-mail with the details. I tried faxing the visa applications to them, but it was lunch time in Cambodia and whoever was answering the phone at CDPO didn't know how to turn on the fax. I had to get that done, though, so I got back up at 3:30 AM and faxed again when the normal receptionist was at her desk. Finally got to bed about 4:20 AM.
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Tuesday, 15 May 2001I got up at 7:00 AM and hurried over to Health Services in the seminary building where they took blood samples and told me I would have to come back for an EKG. I noticed they had no one in the EKG room, though, as I was leaving so I was able to it then. They also gave me two pages of medical history to fill out and two pages of instructions for my exam on Thursday. Then it was back to Bethany to see if any of the e-mail requests I made last night had come through but there was nothing. I was supposed to meet Tom Marti, the director of the associate priest program, for lunch at the seminary, but I totally forgot it until 12:30 so I dashed over and caught him still in the dining room, and we talked over strategies for interesting more US priests--and their bishops--in becoming associate priests with Maryknoll.
This evening Bill O'Leary, a MM priest back for his 40th anniversary, took five of us from Asia out to eat in a nearby restaurant. So much food! None of us finished what was on our plates. I can see why Americans get so fat. Photo, left to right: Ellen Cowhey, Jim Campion, Bill O'Leary, Nancy Sosnowski, and Charlie Dittmeier. The pose was Ellen's idea!
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Wednesday, 16 May 2001I had a little heavier breakfast than usual this morning because it was going to be my last meal for 30 hours or so. Then a call came from Health Services to show up early for my appointment for my physical this morning, but I was already on the way. When they took my pulse, it was higher than usual because I'd been walking pretty fast on the way over to the seminary building. The doctor was a new one for me but a really nice guy who listened and asked questions well. The blood work from yesterday came back while I was there and he noted that some of my liver enzymes are high and said that he'd order some more tests for that when I come back in November for another meeting. I had mentioned a funny feeling in my knees climbing stairs sometimes so he also wrote out a prescription for x-rays. He thought I could get them done tomorrow when I go to Phelps Hospital for another procedure, but the nurse suggested doing it today because tomorrow may be a bit hectic. So I did. Back at Bethany I signed out a car and went over to Phelps and got both knees x-rayed in about 45 minutes. On the way home I stopped and bought some apple juice and bouillion powder because I can eat only clear liquids before tomorrow's exam. I drank my lunch and then headed off to a meeting. And then another meeting. Lots of exciting ideas flying around!
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Thursday, 17 May 2001This morning at 7:00 AM I had to start phase two of the preparation process for today's colonoscopy. I took another bottle of that phospho-soda and lots more water, stopping at 8:45 to give the water a chance to get out of my system before I got to the hospital. Then I went over to the seminary where I was to meet a Health Services driver to take me there. I was told not to drive myself because I would be sedated during the procedure. While I was waiting, I ran into Jerry Burr, the #2 man at the Society, and he asked if I could take some medicine back to one of the priests in Hong Kong. Luckily I'm stopping overnight there so it was no problem.
I got to the hospital an hour early and signed in and then they got me into a hospital gown and a hospital bed to wait. I had a really neat chat with some of the hospital staff before they took me to the endoscopy department. When they were ready to start, they began an IV drip of Demerol. I never noticed it taking effect, but while I was watching the inside of my colon on the big color TV, I kept noticing that I was waking up so I must have been dozing off. Actually I wasn't even aware when it was over and I woke up back in a recovery room. In a few minutes I was back to normal, they called the Maryknoll driver, and I went home to Bethany and had a frozen TV dinner to end my 30-hour fast.
At 2:00 PM I had a meeting with Michael Ball, the new strategist for Maryknoll's joint web site. He explained the present site architecture and how he envisions it for the future, and it sounds exciting. Then I went to Orbis Books to pick up three books to take back to Thailand for a colleague, then to Health Services to get the medicines for Hong Kong, and then it was back to Bethany to meet with Vicki Armour-Hileman, one of MMAF's visionaries. We went out for a sandwich and I got to hear about her latest exploits and ideas, and then it was back to start packing up.
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Friday, 18 May 2001Jim Campion drove me to the Westchester County airport at 6:00 AM and I flew to Chicago where I changed planes for Louisville. When I arrived at 1:10 PM, my mother and my sister Jane and my brother Dennis from Florida were waiting at the gate for me. Dennis had just flown in from Cocoa Beach 40 minutes before. This evening Jane and her husband David came over to Mom's house where Dennis and I are staying. |
Saturday, 19 May 2001I went to the ordination of Paul Beach at the Louisville Cathedral this morning. He was the only new priest for Louisville this year. It was a wonderful opportunity to get to see all my Louisville priest friends in one place. In the afternoon all the family started gathering at the family home in Pewee Valley and by supper time all the eight brothers and sisters were together again with Mom for the first time since our father died five years ago. There were more grandchildren since then, and it was really wonderful to see all the cousins running around together. We took a photo of the Charlie Dittmeier family together out in the back yard and will get some better ones tomorrow.
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Sunday, 20 May 2001This morning the four brothers and sisters staying at Mom's house went to mass with her at St. Aloysius parish. Lots of old friends stopped to talk to us. Then Paul, Dennis, and I cut Mom's grass and cut down a dead tree limb--just like the old days when we lived there. Then in the afternoon all of us gathered at my sister Mary's house for another family afternoon. It was great. Only Hope in Wisconsin (Paul's wife) and Derek and Dalton in Florida (Dennis' sons) were not with us. We took another picture of the eight brothers and sisters with Mom. Then some headed back to Cincinnati and several others got ready for return trips tomorrow.
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Monday, 21 May 2001This morning my brother Paul took off driving to Wisconsin with his two children Nikki and Kyle. They anticipated the trip would take 9 1/2 hours. Then at 11:30 AM, Mom and I took another brother Dennis to the airport for his flight back to Florida. Our sister Jane met us at the airport.Late in the afternoon I went down to the West End of Louisville to a meeting of the priests and pastoral administrators of Region 1 of the diocese. After a brief recounting of what I am doing in Cambodia, I listened as they talked about the problems and issues of their parishes in Louisville's predominantly black end of town. Sokunthea at the Cambodia Disabled People's Organization e-mailed me that all the papers for the visas for the three Cambodians going to a meeting in Finland had been sent by courier to the Finland embassy in Bangkok so that situation may be under control and I can stay in the States until next Monday as scheduled instead of returning early.
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Tuesday, 22 May 2001 This morning mother and I went to Ballard High School for the awards ceremony for the graduating seniors. My nephew Adam Browne, the son of my sister Jane Browne, will graduate from Ballard on Thursday. Here he is pictured (in the blue shirt) with Jane and David Browne (on the right) and Greta Honaker, his girl friend, and her mother, and my mother in the center. Ballard is one of Louisville's high-powered high schools and there were a lot of impressive young men and women there getting a lot of impressive awards, but the ceremony was 2:45 hours! Too long!
This evening Mom and I went out to dinner with my Dad's sister Phil and her husband Bill Lippy. We ate at Buckhead's, a nice restaurant on the Ohio River over in Jeffersonville, Indiana where we got a great view of Louisville's skyline. And Louisville does have a really neat waterfront to look at now. It is exciting to see the downtown redevelopment that is taking place there!
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Wednesday, 23 May 2001 This morning I went to see the financial manager who takes care of my retirement account, just to see if there is anything I should be doing differently. All is in order.After that, Mom and I drove to Cincinnati to see my sister Martha and her husband Mark Reed and their children. We had a very nice visit, and it was good to see that the kids are now more comfortable with their weird uncle from Asia.
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Thursday, 24 May 2001This morning Mom and I went to Ballard High School gym for the graduation of Emily Browne. She is the younger sister of Adam who had the awards ceremony on Tuesday. Emily graduated from the eighth grade at Kammerer Middle School. After lunch I went to my sister Mary Davis' house and transferred some digital photos from my laptop to their computer.Because of some possible complications with a trip next week to Finland after I get back to Cambodia, I decided to move my departure up by two days. United was able to accommodate me on that so now I am leaving Saturday morning.  At 5:30 PM, the three priests from the Pewee Valley parish came over for supper along with the pastoral assistant, Sr. Lou. That was an enjoyable meal. Then at 8:30 PM, we went to the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center for Adam's actual graduation ceremony. It took his class of 390 students 20 minutes just to walk in! The ceremony kept moving, though, so it didn't go too long and we were finished in 1:45 hours. Here is Adam and his girl friend Greta Honaker before the ceremony, with an appropriate sign in the background.
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Friday, 25 May 2001Today was a busy day, made even more busy by my decision to leave for Hong Kong tomorrow instead of Monday. It started off with a mass at 8:00 AM at the Carmelite Monastery in Louisville where my first cousin once removed is a sister. After mass Mom, Sr. Theresa's mother (my cousin), and I had breakfast at the monastery and then got to see some of my sister cousin's paintings she has done for the monastery. She does very good work.After taking Mom back to Pewee Valley, I turned around and drove back to Louisville, going first to the Kling Center where the father of my best friend through grade school and the Boy Scouts goes for lunch every day. He is over 80 years of age but bicycles to the center for lunch every day and then goes to the University of Louisville for a swim in their pool! It was great to see him again. From there I went to a nearby restaurant to have lunch with some of my former classmates. On short notice, only four of us were able to get together but we had a really enjoyable mini-reunion. Then it was time for some shopping. I picked up a pencil sharpener for one of the Maryknoll projects in Cambodia and a book as a gift, and then I met three of the members of my priests support group. We talked for an hour or so and then went for supper in a nearby Irish pub in Louisville's Crescent Hill area. Really great. Then it was home and time to start packing for tomorrow's departure.
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Saturday-Sunday, 26-27 May 2001Flying back across the International Date Line, this was just one long day. I went to the Louisville airport at 0830 to check-in two hours before my international flight, and it took only about five minutes so I had plenty of time to catch up with some work on the computer while waiting at the gate. When I was actually checking in, I had finished and was walking away when I remembered that I was supposed to be charged for changing the date on this special ticket. I told the counter woman about it and she just said: "Oh, don't worry about it." That saved me $75!In Chicago I was supposed to meet a colleague who also works with the Catholic deaf group, but somehow we missed each other, probably because my flight was delayed leaving Louisville and when I hurried to the gate for Hong Kong, they were already boarding the plane. This flight was over the polar route, the first time I've flown that way. Over the Arctic Ocean the view was obscured by clouds, but I got good views of Siberia and remote areas of China. Really interesting scenery. We got into Hong Kong on Sunday afternoon at 3:45 PM after a quiet and uneventful flight. I got to finish one of my books during the ride. Because of all the stuff I'm carrying, I rode the Airport Express train into town instead of the bus, and then got a taxi out to the Maryknoll house in Stanley. When I got there, two people were waiting for me, some representatives of a parish group who want to donate some money to a Jesuit project for the disabled in Cambodia and had e-mailed me about hand-delivering the money for them. Then I ate dinner with the Maryknollers here at the house this weekend, had a meeting with Scott Harris about the China program, and then checked e-mail.
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Monday, 28 May 2001This morning there wasn't much time to do things. I did call Royal Air Cambodge to make sure they were flying today (they often cancel flights) and then walked down to Stanley village to get some Chinese snacks for the lady at CDPO in Phnom Penh who has been such a help in arranging the visas for the deaf people who are going to Finland. Then it was time to head for the airport. When I got to the downtown check-in place, I found out that Royal Air Cambodge doesn't participate in that remote check-in so I had to go to the airport and do it. Then it was a 2 1/2 hour flight to Phnom Penh. Once I got home the chore of unpacking and sorting out all the clothes and papers began.THE END
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