As I said, I was in Kampot to observe two of DDP's sign language interpreters at an AIDS workshop presented for teens from 16 and up. The two interpreters did a bang up job given the material and presentation style. Their challenges were many. The presenters themselves knew nothing about Deaf people, and the Deaf young people were largely not literate, though for the most part they were quite smart. The audience were largely graduates of DDP's school program in Kampot.

Almost everyone in Kampot makes their living off either cultivating durian fruit or from fishing. As a result it's often hard for parents to see a need for the young Deaf people to go to school past elementary. Some of the young people have gotten jobs at the very program that co-sponsored the AIDS workshop, Epic Arts Center. Epic Arts is a performing and visual arts association focusing on integrating people with disabilities into Cambodia's communities. A small Epic Arts cafe downtown caters to foreign visitors and earns the British sponsored program some cash.

When it comes to AIDS Cambodians have been struck hard by the epidemic because of the large sex work industry that largely caters to foreigners, and because of the draw that recreational drugs have in a country recently devastated by a genocidal regime and presently being dragged down by a worldwide economic collapse. Meth, heroin and cocaine have a strong foothold here. That is why the presenters have worked with the Deaf young people over five months to introduce the concepts of personal hygiene, infectious disease, sexual health and drug awareness.

Some of the concepts presented are apparently very difficult for barely literate Cambodian Deaf people to understand. The presenter, a talented artist, drew a picture of a fenced in garden with various animals trying to hop the fence or break it down. She then explained that the HIV virus is like the farm animals repeatedly attacking the immune system (the fence) until it breaks it and invades the body (garden.) One of the older audience members then asked, "Do you think we have cattle inside our bodies?" Obviously Deaf people have a long way to go to get a full comprehension of HIV infection.

All in all an interesting week.