I arrived in Mexico City on Tuesday, July 27th. I am always amazed flying here. Mexico City is one of the most populated cities in the world, with 25 million people living here. The traffic, day or night, is always terrible.. The city is an incredible mix of many very poor neighborhoods, with other areas of the city with some of the best restaurants and most expensive shops in the world. Deacon Pat Graybill, Gerardo Castillo, Chelo Manero,me, and several others all piled into one van and drove for three hours(one hour to get out of the City!) to Puebla, Mexico.
The deaf Catholics of Mexico priests, and pastoral workers meet yearly in different locations in Mexico. Last year, the meeting was in Oaxaca at the southern end of Mexico. The meeting has many different purposes: strategic planning, prayer, learning, setting priorities for ministry, training. This year, Wed-Thurs (7/28-29) delegates and pastoral workers would meet. Then, July 30-31st, any deaf Catholics who wanted to come would join in. There are 31 states in the country of Mexico. Eighteen sent representatives to the gathering.
We arrived late, in a rain storm, on Tuesday evening at the Quinta(Inn) of San Ramon, a retreat center in a very poor neighborhood. We were greeted by pastoral workers and interpreters we knew. Also, several of the young people who had been on the Deaf Youth Encuentro three weeks ago were also there.Our rooms were simple; no air conditioning and sometimes hot water. We were so tired from travelling, we did not care and happily went to bed.
The next morning, I woke up early and went for a walk. Very few people on the streets. The housing was very poor; the streets very dirty. San Ramon is like a holy oasis in the middle of human suffering. Great poverty; people trying to survive. After a simple breakfast of fruit and stew, we went to work. We had a long meeting in the morning to discuss the work of the next three days. Then, we all gathered for a wonderful Mass in a beauitful, simple chapel. Then, the meeting formally began. DEACON PATRICK GRAYBILL of New York presented his history of a deaf pastoral worker, and his present work in New York. He signed in ASL (American Sign-Language); Gerardo and Chelo voiced in Sapnish; the Mexican interpreters signed in Mexican sign-language.
My presentations were next.I also signed in ASL, turned off my voice, and let the interpreters voice my talk into Spanish for the Mexican interpreters. My first presentation about the situation of ministry with deaf people in the world. A lot of people followed up with questions. Then, after a short break, my second presentation was on the two Conferences re:Deaf People in the Church that happened in the Vatican last November and recently in June. After a break, we attended and participated in a Conference on World Youth Day in Spain 2011. Dinner followed. Then, the interpreters had an almost two hour meeting. I had time to meet and try to converse in sign-language with people from various areas of Mexico. The deaf people from Oaxaca, very far south, use a sign-language that includes signs from the Indian languages of their region. Not sure if I made much sense to them, but we laughed, took lots of pictures, and enjoyed each others' company. The day finally ended about 11pm!