Why can't Deaf people talk?

"Why can't Deaf people talk?"  This was the question posed yesterday by a young fifth or sixth grade boy at the International School of Phnom Penh where I was helping with an NGO Fair.  His question made me want to teach an entire class to these kids about Deaf people and the realities of their lives.  It also made me realize how lucky I was to be exposed to the Deaf Community at six years old (and makes me excited to be a part of it again).  Our two CSL teachers did their best to answer (they probably would have been great at answering but they were relying on me to interpret, thank goodness they are forgiving).  So, other than working the table at the fair and doubling as an interpreter, I enjoyed this opportunity to get to know more of our staff and learn some more sign language. And, apparently was making squirrel faces at people...

The gentleman next to me is our IT guy, on the other side is our interpreter manager, one of our CSL teachers, our illustrator (not sure his official title) and a woman with another NGO showing us her name sign.

So, for those who keep saying, "I can't wait to hear what you are doing!"  This is part of it.  Because all of our interpreters are out in a training, and I speak English (on a good day), and because I was supposed to take photos of the teachers teaching Cambodian Sign Language (CSL) my limited, self taught vocabulary was stretched yesterday!  Going forward, hopefully, I will be a better interpreter :)

So, what else do I do?  I do lots of media related things.  I am learning to tweet!  I am helping to design brochures, posters, banners, etc.  I am helping with the website (P.S. I hate WordPress because it won't let me just go in and change the html to do what I want it to do.  I understand it was not really designed for this and they expect you to use the front end of it, not the back door, but it is driving me nuts).  

I also get to make promotional things like this!  

Shout out again to my favorite musician, Andrew (now with a group called Cloudwalkers), for letting me use his lovely voice for a few seconds!

So, in short, I am loving working in a communications position again and working on the whole communications thing in general.  Learning CSL.  Trying to keep up my Khmer.  Learning new work related Khmer vocabulary.  All good things!  Hopefully, at some point, I will be able to correctly interpret "Why can't Deaf people talk?"  So, the Deaf people can answer for themselves and be understood by the questioner.

If you want to see more of my "work," follow us on twitter, like us on facebook, read our blog :)