Sunday Meeting - Santiago Deaf

Michaela with Brother John Alvarez - ASL Circuit Overseer

Sunday we took at bus into Santiago to go to the ASL meeting there, as they were having Circuit Overseer visit.  It was a beautiful meeting experience.  The CO was awesome.  He did not speak English, and I speak limited Spanish, but we were able to communicate just fine.  His talks were awesome.  He used A LOT of pictures on the screen throughout his talk and several clips from the dramas.  I really liked his style of teaching. 

The congregations is in the process of splitting. They have meeting separately for the Watchtower study and public talk, but together for the service meeting and school.  Prior to coming I had been in regular contact with a missionary sister (30 years in missionary service) that had helped us make all of our arrangements, so it was nice to finally meet her.  There were 116 in attendance, 44 were deaf.  I noticed a real difference in the deaf here, than those in the states.  Here most are deaf from birth, and a lot of them have major sight issues.  We found that with some we were needing to sign our names right in front of their eyes.  Here in the DR the deaf are treated like dirt.  They do not have the educational opportunities like they do in the states.  Most only know home signs (meaning only the signs their families made up for them to use – no ASL).  There were three there that were tactile (meaning blind and deaf) – and the meeting were interpreted for them.  There was one little girl, about 12, that the missionary sister studies with and she is tactile.  The best way to describe her would be like Helen Keller.  She was totally uneducated in ASL or home signs.  She is unruly, because she has never been taught properly and of course yearns to communicate.  She wasn’t even able to sign her name to me; all she would do is stand there and hug you.  It was a beautiful feeling, that even though I could not sign much to her, she could still feel the love I was trying to “communicate” to her. 

What impressed me was the number of Bible students that were commenting at the meeting.  Most were in plain street clothes.  You could see that the “truth” was reaching their hearts.  The meeting was a little different as far as the technology was concerned.  We are SOOO spoiled in the states.  Here they had a small pull down screen with a little projector shining on it.  When you wanted to answer there was a small camcorder that zoomed in on you and projected you on the screen.  The Kingdom Hall was nice and modest.  No air conditioning, but it was very comfortable in there, with many ceiling fans.  The brothers and sisters were so welcoming.  There was one sister that came up to me and said that she had seen me before.  Of course, I had to say where, since I had never visited here before.  She said she remembered seeing my family in the hotel elevator in Denton for the ASL assembly this year.  She is here for 4 months from San Antonio ASL (Brandy Gonzalez).  Too funny.  Again small world in Jehovah’s organization.   

We had planned on preaching today with the Puerto Plata congregation and were dressed and ready to go, but the brother called and cancelled on us since it was raining.  It does rain here frequently (almost every day), but they are such a small congregation and would not be able to have many out when it was raining.  So we are using today to relax.  Mike is going to go to Sosua and go Scuba diving.  Will try and post again tomorrow.




Michaela with her new little friend - she speaks no English - but they communicated just fine








Imbert Kingdom Hall - Santiago - upstairs - two story hall