Fruitful meeting

Wow yesterday it was really a busy day for me cos Jane and I were preparing for our roadshow to recruit more deaf and hearing who works with the deaf to join us.

Initially, I was a bit nervous cos I am not very good at signing and I fear that I may not sign properly for them to understand me. So, anyway at 7pm sharp, Andrew sms-ed me that Amaresh had already been there waiting for me. I rushed from the Bugis Junction to the National Lib and then rushed to my office to get my laptop. I went downstairs to look for him. I found him waiting by the window and I called out his name. He responded to me and he was tall and burly. He has wavy hair on the front of his head and he is very personable. Initially, I already knew that he is hearing but he really signed like a deaf that those mere acquaintances will find it hard to tell whether he is a deaf or hearing. So, we made our way to the lib at Level 8 and we chatted a bit before Ann-san and Andrew came.

We introduced ourselves to each other and he told me that he came to Singapore 9 months ago to work. Initially, he wanted to work full time with the deaf and he had tried his luck with the SAD. SAD, however, did not reply to his application for the job and he said that it is probably that the SAD knew him and his resume. I told him that it could be that SAD is rigid to accept his radical changes if Amaresh joined in SAD. Anyway, there are many ways to implement changes.

Finally, Ann-san came over with her new hair cut. Her hair-cut was neater and shorter. And she wore tight skirts, that could reveal fleshy butts and she always wore her ever-smiling face. She signed that Andrew would be here soon.

Then Ann-san introduced me to Amaresh and Amaresh did not know that I am Adrian. He thought that I was the other guy but Ann-san countered that I was that one.

Finally Andrew came over in his working attire with his shirts tucked out. We said Hi to each other and I annouced that I would start my presentation on MYMCA and Y-Deaf CLub to them.

While presenting to them, I tried to pace myself for them to read the powerpoint slides before they looked up at me. It was around 10 minutes and finally we came to FAQ section where I was bombarded with avalanche of questions about MYMCA and sign language courses.

Amaresh made his point that it was crucial to conduct the sign language course in a proper and with a quality control. He proposed to have a interpretation course or sign language course at University so as to raise more awareness of the sign language. He pointed out that it is not easy task as he has done it before in India. In India, he has been working very hard with the deaf to do intensive research on sign language and finally co-authored Indian Sign language dictionary and technical Indian sign language. He also shared that he had worked in Ireland, UK and USA, adding to his impressive knowledge of the deaf.

Until 9pm. we realised that we had to end our FAQ section and I gave out yellow feedback form to them. And then I rushed back to the office before I joined them. Jane just came in the lib and Amaresh had met her before during the Family Day. Jane updated that she had given her presentation to MHI representative and the MHI representative would arrange a good date for Jane to conduct road show for the MHI community.

Then I went to Cali gym to have rigorous upper body training before I went home.