Chanting greets me as I enter the sacred space. I find Phuong with Thuy. As I genuflect before entering the pew, Thuy's face looks like she is seeing a ghost! She did not know I might attend.
The doors and windows open to let the cool air be circulated by the fans. The prayers and hymns sound familiar though I do not understand a word of Vietnamese. I could be in Heaven. I feel transposed - on another planet where I recognize so much of my world, but everyone is speaking a different language. Like attending Mass in Latin at the St. Joseph church of my youth, I know the sequence of the liturgy. My heart follows the prayers on 'auto pilot'.
St. Joseph is my mother's favorite saint. She keeps a little statue - just like this one - on the window in her kitchen. She calls on him for help, the carpenter, always ready to make something out of nothing. I love talking with my mom about her devotion to St. Joseph. I am thinking of my mom so far away. I miss her.
Mother of Perpetual Help is balanced by two candlesticks with the traditional Vietnamese bird standing on a turtle, symbolizing things of the air, earth, and water. I love how the flowers are arranged off to one side, though the altar offers peace and balance as we pray.
All around the world I visit churches. Something the same finds me though each culture, each community, each parish designs the spiritual space with their own grace.
We meet the priest after Mass. He is a smiling happy man. He says to me: "I noticed you in church, a foreigner!" I wonder how he picked me out of the 4 men sitting on the right side of the church and the 12 of us women sitting on the left side. Maybe he noticed my accent when I said "Amen". He is very friendly and says he's been to Boston one time. He wants to understand why we are in Nha Trang. Interested in our volunteer work with the Global Foundation for Children with Hearing Loss, we tell him all about it. He tells me I look Vietnamese and laughs. I answer; 'Yah, with my blue eyes?' I remind him it is almost St. Patrick's day and then St Joseph's Day!
We pose for pictures. I wish I could remember his name. Names in this language are very hard to remember. He told me it is like St. John the Baptist - perhaps it's John in Vietnamese?
He encourages me to get on the motorbike and take it for a ride. He puts the helmet on my head.
Morning Mass can be a lot of fun!
Judy and I split up today. In Nha Trang there are a few centers helping children with hearing loss.
Judy goes to Hand in Hand Center. Maryanne and Chris Simpson from England helped an ambitious special education teacher, Hien, start this Early Intervention Center.
Hand in Hand is a private center. Later, when I ask Maryanne why she and Hien wanted to start a new center, not just help improve one that is already running, I learn that in order to get a job at the Rehabilitation center, one must pay a lot of money. I ask: “What? Why does a teacher have to pay to get a job?” She tells me because it is a government school. The government requires a fee for the job.
I take the taxi with the GFCHL audiologists; Sophia, Jacquie, and my interpreter, Phuong, back over to The Rehabilitation Center where we lectured yesterday. The Rehab Center is the government run center with funding from overseas as well. It is not in the Education Division, but in the Health Division. A gorgeous building with a rehab swimming pool, new desks, and well stocked supplies.
I observe a classroom with teacher, Thuy. Thuy is about my age. I hope, unless she’s young and looks old! Oh no, as I write this I recall that women must retire at age 55, men at age 60 – oh, well, she is ‘about my age’.
Seven students in yellow shirts and navy pants greet me with excitement, no words, no talking, but squeals of laughter as I smile and say; “Hello”. Each of these kids has a profound hearing loss. It pains me to hear that two of them do not have hearing aids because their parents cannot “facilitate that for them”.
Can you imagine this preschool teacher trying to enhance auditory development for these children with some needing visual, some able to use their hearing aids, some still in the very basic levels of learning to listen? Geeze, I decide to sit down and watch what she does with keen curiosity. I am a little “shakey”, can I really help this teacher? I know I could not do what she is trying to do. Long time ago I left the classroom to focus on individual parent guidance. Seeing this class makes me relieved for my choice and concerned for all these students.
Acoustics in this classroom are the worst in the world! Airplanes fly over constantly drowning out anything the teacher is saying. I am appreciative of all the hard work parents, teachers, and advocates have done over the last 35 years to establish IEPs, IFSPs, and regulations for acoustics in classrooms at home. This is harsh!
I see an interesting lesson: she does the Ling 6 Sounds with each child, she focuses on the sessional fruit available now in this area with a song, plastic fruit, pictures of the fruit, and then real fruit! I am "horrified" as she asks each child to smell the fruit and taste the fruit from the same spoon! She even offers it to me! Yikes, think of all those germs! And, wait a minute, why aren't these kids feeling themselves from a plate with their own fork/spoon/tooth pick???? i find lots to coach these teachers on that is not even Auditory-Verbal Teaching Techniques! The teachers are receptive and understand most of my suggestions as I go over what I saw, demonstrating some ideas with short videos of my AVCC students and their parents. I laugh when they think a mother is a therapist. I tell them, when you train the parents well, they can do the job better than we can!
Judy joins me after lunch. Judy gives her Cognition and Long term planning/Goal Setting lectures. We get these teachers ‘thinking outside the usual’ with toys, laughter and fun. Everyone loves toys. At one point we see Maryanne opening the pockets in the cloth book! Although, we do not see AVT with parents, we see teachers learning about the process and planning of AVT. That feels good for this Tuesday in Nha Trang!
