Thursday, March 20, 2008

Gallaudet en Guate

Last week the Gallaudet population in Guatemala quintupled its size. N and J, a couple from Colorado Springs, came to Guatemala City to complete the adoption of their new son. Additionally, there were rumors of 3 Gallaudet undergrads roaming the city, but we were ultimately unable to get in touch with them. I got to spend a fair amount of time with N and J and their adorable hard of hearing son who is 13 months old. We used the Mariott Hotel as our base, since we could exactly play phone tag. The Mariott is like the adoption capital of the city, there are 2 floors designated for adopting families and even a "baby lounge", a communal area for parents to chat. Every other person is toting a newly adopted baby or toddler.

On Saturday, N and I went to the ASORGUA building to chat with some of the members. I was positively amazed by how seamlessly and fluently N communicated with the Deaf Guatemalans. They knew a bit of ASL and she learned GSL vocabulary like she was being paid $50 a sign. Everyone seemed to enjoy themsleves. On Monday, C, JB, and V from the ASORGUA board met up with us for dinner at Guatemala's most famous fried chicken franchise, Pollo Campero. Campero puts KFC to shame and is more of a sitdown restaurant. I'm not big on fast food but I will say that Campero is delicious. Full and happy, we snapped a few photos to docuement the international Deaf connection.

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