"Ngoclan" - they gave me a Vietnamese name!

Sitting with Tuyet Nga, Hanh, and Nguyen the Nhan last night at dinner, we started talking about names. They, the three of them, started wondering what my Vietnamese name would be. I never thought I had one! In a minute, the unanimous decision for my Vietnamese name was; "Ngoc Lan" and I could call myself "Lan" for short! Sounded good to me, but I had to ask: "What does the word mean?" and when they answered: "A beautiful white flower that grows on a big strong tree.", I knew they got it right!

I am honored with their love and friendship - and I love my Vietnamese name!

Lunch, lectures, and lots of love in DaLat

We arrive for consulting at 8 am, with or without translators we share information about listening and spoken language with families and teachers. The director, the principal, all the teachers and parents welcome us with happy smiles and beautiful love. Many parents travel great distances to meet with us. Remember, this is a residential school for the province.

Jane and Joanne disappear into a little room with audiological equipment and hearing aids to test and fit children who are lucky. Not every child here has hearing aids. A large number of hearing aids was donated, but not enough for the number of children who need them. We are happy that the children who will benefit most from the technology can receive them.

Charlotte, Judy, and I figure out who lectures to whom and who consults with which children. We relieve each other alternating the tasks because the balance of theory and practice is important. Paige seems to be everywhere, trying to keep the day organized!

As we see old fashioned ways of teaching, we understand the technology and new ideas are just arriving in this lovely corner of the world. At first, I feel sad and wonder how can we help these professionals who want to make things easier and better for their students. It helps me to think of a water pitcher being filled, as we teach this week,we are offering drips.

The teachers, administrators, parents, and translators love us! That is clear. And, the love they show to each and every student, parent, and family is very clear. LOVE will guide the opportunities needed for the ideas to develop.

The school honored us with a lovely ceremony thanking us for what we did. We recieved gifts of knitted scarfs and embroided art work that the children made. We were treated to lunches and dinners at delicious restuarants. We love the people we met here in DaLat.

Judy Simser reminds me of Dan Ling

As Judy and I consult with families in DaLat, I am reminded of my early days in the field of teaching children who are deaf. Jim and I went to Montreal to study with Dan Ling and Nan Ling Phillips at McGill University. Dan had this amazing connection with children and their parents. With old hearing aids or no hearing aids, Dan was able to show the parents and his trainees how to stimulate good speech through even minimal amounts of hearing. Our visit to the school in DaLat is reminiscent of those early years. These children have not had access to their own personal hearing aids. Judy welcomes each family with her warm happy smile. As she shows the parents and teachers here how to stimulate early listening skills and imitation, she reminds me of how Dan Ling did this with the children we observed at schoolsfor the deaf in the USA and Canada so long ago. Now those schools have been closed or have changed to offer one-one Auditory-Verbal parent guidance. Recognizing this correlation gives me great hope for the children of the DaLat school.

Judy and her husband, Ray received parent guidance from Dan and Nan for their son, Scott who has a profound hearing loss, so it really is not that surprising that Judy reminds me of Dan. Judy had great Auditory-Verbal teachers! I just never thought of it like this until I saw her today in DaLat, Vietnam doing what she loves to do and doing it so well.

Observing classes at the residential school for the deaf in Dalat

We saw children in turquoise sweaters sitting nicely in red plastic chairs. They were very cute and loved having their photos taken.