Daily Life in the Cambodia Deaf World

2008

23 May 2008 26 of the 34 staff of the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme work in our five-story building in Phnom Penh. No one enjoys running up and down the stairs so internal communications have long been a nuisance. Now we are experimenting with a staff mailbox system for distributing messages and papers for the staff. Stephanie Linder, an advisor to the job training project, took responsibility for making the mailboxes happen. Ura, one of the DDP guards, helped her assemble the plastic boxes which will be placed on rattan shelves in an area near the one stairway.

22 May 2008 Last week four different students living in our hostel for deaf youth studying in job training centers woke up with extremely swollen arms or legs.   The painful swellings all had what looked like a bug bite in the middle but it was obviously not a mosquito!  Two of the bites were so bad and continued to swell and hurt so much that we took the students to the local doctor.  When asked what might be causing the bites, the students mentioned seeing centipedes, usually coming up out of the drains in the bathroom floors, so I asked them to catch some for me.  This is one centipede they turned over to me.  Whether this variety of bug is actually causing the problem, we don't know, but we have sent the photo to the website What's That Bug to see if they can help identify it and recommend an antidote if others get bitten.  The problem is compounded because although we provide beds for the students, culturally they prefer to sleep on a thin reed mat on the floor.

2006

Martha Dittmeier Reed, Charlie's sister, gave him two simple chess sets to bring back to Cambodia where chess is a national pastime.  The students at the DDP center in Phnom Penh quickly took advantage of this new fun option, and now everyday at lunch time there are impromptu matches between students. Charlie was worried the deaf people would not know how to play since they are not exposed to so much of the culture that is available to hearing people, but many deaf students, both boys and girls, already knew the game and have started teaching the others.