Tag Archive | "No Barriers with Joel Barish"

From Eiffel Tower to Viable France

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Today was a perfect day to begin my assignments in a place, a destination so many people around the world dream about visiting, France’s own iconic landmark Eiffel Tower, which was named after Gustave Eiffel the chief designer, built alongside the Seine River (www.eiffel-tower.com).

The Eiffel Tower, which was originally built for 1889’s World Fair, constructed with a $1,500,000 tab (enough for a nice mansion nowadays), is one of the world’s most recognized structures, weighing over 10,000 tons.

In the last days of the World War II, as the allies neared Paris, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower, and gratefully, Von Choltitz disobeyed the order. If Von Choltitz obeyed that order, we would never have been able to tour the Eiffel Tower. The lifts of the Tower were working normally within hours of the Liberation of Paris, victoriously.

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I thought, “It is a true milestone with the tower welcoming more than 240 million visitors since 1889,” even as Hitler turns over in his grave totally defeated. It is said, that “even as Hitler conquered France, he couldn’t match Eiffel Tower’s resilience.”

The Eiffel Tower was within walking distance from the hotel. The sky was clear blue with a few clouds making it perfect for taking photos and doing the video report. As I walked toward the towering Eiffel landmark, I felt goosebumps, because this was a building that the designer Eiffel obtained a city permit to stand for only 20 years, it was scheduled to be dismantled in the year 1909, when ownership reverted to the City of Paris. The plans to dismantle it was dropped when the city realized that the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, the Eiffel Tower got a new reprieve as a landmark despite the expiration of the permit.

Inside, we picked up the media badges amidst the throngs of tourists crowding the Eiffel Tower premises, the same time crossing my fingers hoping to become the 240,000,001st visitor to walk through the gates of the historic tourist attraction.

The first lift was from one of the four pillars that leads up to the 2nd level observation. I observed people walking around on the 2nd level and it was fun watching their facial expressions when they looked down at the city of Paris, it’s a dizzying sight. We took one more lift to the top observation deck of the tower where it stands at approximately 1,063 feet.

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There, we displayed the DeafNation banner conquering the Eiffel Tower, with emotions building up inside of me because we are very passionate about the fact that Deaf people can do anything.

As we headed back down to the lower observation, I could see a perfect “S” shape of the line the tourists formed without any posts or ropes, it was formed by natural instincts. I could only wonder.

Mitko advised us “that we should walk down the stairs at the lower level to get an authentic feeling of the enormity of this tall structure,” and it was worth taking his suggestion because of the great experience taking the lifts and walking the stairs, some of the 1,665 steps, it would have taken too much time to walk all the way up and back down unless we weren’t in a rush.

From the Eiffel Tower, we walked through the maze of Paris to Viable France’s new office. The building just had been completed a few weeks ago with high technology, built exclusively for new technology companies. Viable France is one the companies.

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Fanny Yeh-Corderoy du Tiers, the sister of Viable founder John T.C. Yeh, opened the office in the very heart of Paris. I was very impressed with her new employees, many of them are Deaf and highly talented just like those at Viable’s office in the United States. Fanny was certainly so busy preparing the grand opening reception with our live Internet coverage, it was a day she and her brother John had been looking forward to.

As you know, in regards to live Internet coverages, technology was never meant to be perfect, because at the Viable France office, the Internet was down, posing as a possible problem to running a successful live Internet webcast scheduled to run soon therafter.

Despite the hitches, I never lost faith in the Viable France staff, it was a good feeling knowing we were in very capable hands.

And guess what? The Internet, thanks to Viable France, was hooked up just a few minutes before our live Internet coverage was scheduled to begin, it was impeccable timing, making our coverage largely successful.

Viable France also hosted the premiere with new Viable representatives from 8 other countries, with the Reunion, France’s own island being the most remote country participating. Mark Wheatley, who came from one of the largest Deaf families in England that can trace its deaf lineage from the 18th century, who also is one of our 2010 DeafNation World Conference & Expo’s keynote speakers, was present at Viable France’s premiere.

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John Yeh, Viable’s founder, was walking around with the Viable VPAD meeting people, while at the same time his headquarters’ employees greeted whoever looked at the VPAD screen, with their images on the screen signing back at the people who stood looking at Yeh physically and his company employees wirelessly. Neat, huh?

“This generation has great technology,” I thought, awestruck by this milestone event for France, and all the other countries that stood to benefit from advances in technology and accessibility.

I was so extremely excited about the Viable France’s headquarters’ premiere plus DeafNation’s live Internet coverage allowing viewers around the world to witness the grand opening of Viable France’s new office.

Viable France had so many important people from the French government giving presentations, and I could see it was “a big step for Deaf people in France having the same accessibility to a true VRS service,” just like America has. I am very thrilled over the fact that this generation and the future generations will have equal accessibility with Viable.

It is also big step for Viable as one of the potentially true global video relay service providers, too.

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John’s brother, Joseph was there to be a part of their historic moment, and I could see their faces “glowing” being proud of their company. John had expressed that he wanted to see “future generations of Deaf people having wonderful access, empowering them to do better in the future.”

I seconded him, seeing his dream come true brought great closure of my France tour!

Viable just tore down a barrier that once hindered untold numbers of Deaf people; the spirits of Clerc, L’Epree, Gallaudet, and Sicard are smiling approvingly of Viable’s good work in extending video relay services from America to Europe and beyond.

In France: The World’s Oldest Deaf School

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Being translated from the quiet Basque Country to the big city in Paris, from the countryside into the very heart of Paris where the streets are so busy, I had taken a 90 minute drive through snarling traffic to get there, to meet a local Parisian Deaf named Mitko, from Bulgaria.

It was much better plan to have a true Paris man to join with me in navigating through the subway maze around the city.

Mitko moved to Paris from his home country, Bulgaria when he was only 20 years old, making France his home ever since. He also has been a professional photographer for more than 35 years.

My first assignment was at the Cite des Sciences et de I’Industrie, the french version of a place like San Francisco’s California Academy of Science in the United States.

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There, I met with Olivier Fidaigo, Director des publics es des activites commerciales, which translates to “Director of public business activities,” who was to be one of our guides around the building,

At first encounter, I was very impressed with his completely well-rounded persona. You will see why.

Fidaigo’s primary focus was on special accessibilities for Deaf people. He knew LSF, some ASL, plus he was pretty good at international sign language.

He has so much insight about his building, pointing out “This famous place has hired several full time Deaf employees doing the guides, researches, developing media and many more other activities around the building. Olivier admitted that positions are so rare (all filled) so those Deaf employees do everything while the hearing people have their own speciality.

Noticing the logo of two hands, I realized that it shows the symbol of sign language.

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Each video display shows the different languages; French, English, Spanish, and LSF. What was even better, Fidaigo, who has done over 40 video productions with the center, and the other Deaf actors/actresses did the video presentation with voice overs, a great concept.

“It’s so fascinating to watch the group of hearing people viewing the video in sign language with the voice over feature,” I thought.

I love the idea of doing video presentations with voice overs because it shows people, when they are able to understand what we are expressing, the realization that we have the same intellectual thoughts as normal people.

I liked where they had one section for two persons in separate rooms outfitted with webcam along with visual aids in pictures of each sign and their definition, so the hearing person that has no knowledge of sign language or little knowledge can observe the signs to figure out the meaning of them so they can sign back to the other person from their end.

It truly gives a strong introduction to any person who has no background in sign language. I am looking forward to their new creations in the future, the center is very supportive with Fidaigo’s suggestions, ideas, and work.

He does travel to other countries to promote the awareness of the museum for the Deaf community. The museum is a perfect model for all museums, for the general public, not just for Deaf people, that is how remarkable it was. Check out his team’s work online at www.cite-sciences.fr, it would be possible one day for Fidaigo to bring his team to your country using the same the unique museum concept!

I thought I would only stay there for less than an hour but we ended up staying for two and a half hours, it was an amazing experience with him.

In London, it’s called the Tube. Here in Paris, we call it the Metro underground of Paris. I felt like I was in old Paris back in the days of when France had a King with all the palace guards.

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At the Metro underground, we took off from the Luxembourg station, to visit the oldest Deaf school in the world. We visited so many Deaf schools in the United States, some were very old, but none as old as Institut National de Jeunes sords de Paris, founded in 1760, that L’Epree ran using his own finances, out of his own pocket.

My first impression of the Deaf school was that I could mentally picture the surroundings as an ancient city wall protecting Deaf children. I entered inside its’ gates and noticed immediately the statue of Abbe de L’Epee, also known as the Father of the Deaf.

The statue was made by a Deaf person fittingly.

Florence, one of the great LSF interpreters and repicient of a PhD degree in History, with focus on Deaf history and the native languages of Deaf people, met us and offered us a grand tour of the historic Deaf school. I was honored having her guide me because of her very rich knowledge about Deaf history. My history, and the history of countless Deaf people around the world, the history of the very existence of Deaf people, everything you want to know about Deaf education and Deaf culture.

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I had a chance to visit their library museum. I saw so many books that were printed in the early 1700’s, very well preserved among other items such as small gifts and other things from the L’Epree days.

I was heartbroken to discover the Deaf lost five dark years during the French revolution just right after L’Epree’s death. It was so amazing to find that the new French Republic decided to continue Deaf education by appointing Abbe Sicard as the new school head master.

History of the Deaf began during the historic transition from L’Epree to Sicard.

With me spotting one interesting large piece of art and Florence seeing my gaze, laughed and explained that “the piece of art gives two different sides,” displaying preference of sign language over oralism, with the old French President watching a demonstration of a hearing person who strongly encouraged oralism, forbidding sign language, and L’Epree stands on the top right corner watching over them, perhaps keeping us politically correct?

I still couldn’t figure out how people preserved our native sign language and the Deaf educational values since the French Revolution, but becoming part of history was unevitable as the whole world is part of history, not excluding Deaf people. I believe we are very lucky, but we will never know the truth or reason why. I’d rather for the French to carry on the torch of Deaf education even though the French Revolution stalled some progress, as the 1880 Milan Conference did.

Deaf culture will never die, it might go through oppression and we may see Deaf people being relegated to the mainstream school education because of lack of government finances to fund a Deaf school, but it will never die as long as Deaf leaders rise to the occasion and promote sign language and the Deaf culture that embodies it. There are no “ifs” for us. From hand to hand, the signs passed on and evolved into the Deaf culture as it is today.

Visit the Deaf school Institut National de Jeunes sords de Paris’ website: www.injs-paris.fr

Mitko brought us back into the streets of Paris by suggesting that we should have a long walk from the Deaf school through the heart of Paris, the Louvre and the street shopping, the Eiffel Tower, and the many plazas that accompanies the route we walked on.

It felt like we walked over five miles within a few hours, and we even walked through the inside of the building alleys with many small shops and the oldest restaurant, which operated since 1626.

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Although we were scheduled for a full media tour tomorrow, we decided to witness the Eiffel Tower at nightfall, to catch a glimpse of the majestic light show that runs every hour after sunset. Every tourist should try to visit the Eiffel Tower both during the day time and night time, to fully experience the Eiffel Tower, which has brought about an estimated 240,000,000 visitors since its grand opening in 1889.

We want to save the best for Viable France’s office premiere, I will be back with more details in the next blog!

Au Revoir!

Basque city in the Bayonne

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Since my recent excursion into old Bayonne, I couldn’t wait to go back there, where Bayonne city life starts bustling again when everyone is back to work, the shopping back to normalcy, and all the cafes open. I owed myself to see old Bayonne, or I wouldn’t have gone back home to the United States quite satisfied. Actually both old Bayonne and the Eiffel Tower, too.

I stopped by the Deaf mainstream program next to old Bayonne where there are two classes, with seven Deaf kids in one class, and five smaller Deaf children in the other class, where Deaf teacher Veronique Deck teaches.

The Deaf school had closed and the Deaf students transferred into the mainstream schools so the French government can save money. All of the students were fluent in LSF, which is good, the less communication barriers, the better.

The Deaf teacher Deck set up the video projection showing the DeafNation website, for her class to watch. Students had to sign using a combination of both LSF and international sign language to ask me the questions about the presentation. The students were so eager to challenge themselves by trying to communicate in sign language with an American, with Veronique jumping in to assist us with our classroom dialogue.

Said Deck, “I admit to the fact there is concern over the future of Deaf children,” thoughtfully adding, “I would love to see new Deaf children born in the Bayonne area, if there are none, then I don’t have the job as a teacher to Deaf children.”

Back to the camaraderie of the engaging French Deaf students, they exhibited a sense of humor, laughing with me during my presentation about DeafNation and Deaf people around the world that I experienced meeting in the past years. I was very impressed with those students who have open minds, doing well with both the French language and LSF.

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Leaving the classroom, all of the Deaf students including their Deaf teacher Deck gave wide smiles, they gave me a great added inspiration to my good start beginning my day in Bayonne.

Walking to old Bayonne was almost like seeing the modern day age of 2009 disappear into a hole literally changing into the 1500’s era, I had to be guided by Veronique’s husband Christian as he knows the “maze” by heart. Bayonne is 6km, or 3.7 miles from the Atlantic Ocean north of Biarritz.

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Christian was puzzled, wondering why Seth and I was walking slowly, and I explained to him that we would like to do a video to show our viewers how old buildings were built in the 1500’s or earlier, which prompted him to slow down.

I glimpsed the coffee roasting shop and thought “there is NO way for me to resist some good coffee brew,” following my nose into the shop, getting a close-up view of the new beans being roasted. The attendant brewed me a small cup of espresso, which tasted so fresh with pure concentrated coffee flavor as I sipped outside of the shop, watching people walking by.

We kept going on with our tour, stopping by one of the chocolatiers that boast of more purely refined chocolate than America will ever offer. The chocolate here is made the old-fashioned way: bitter, spicy and in a heavenly mug.

Imagine, Bayonne had over 130 chocolatiers in the year 1870, which is more than all of Switzerland!

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I never had seen such an imposing mug of hot chocolate with a huge chocolaty foam, a signature of the chocolatier visited. It melted in my mouth, to my gasps. I also picked up a few chocolate candy pieces, and I had to force myself to stop or I would have ended up eating up their whole inventory. I even had to stop for the other reason that I couldn’t stop trying all the different kinds.

I saw so many small cafes, shops, bakeries, and countless doors. I spotted one shop selling Chocolate scented perfume and found the more unique scents of perfumes such as caramel, mint among many other popular scents, marvelling that the French are so creative with all the different perfume scents.

Christian introduced me to a true Basque local who was Deaf, named Patxi. He was wearing a Basque Jai-alai uniform, looking like the real thing. Seeing his outfit brought memories of when I was a young kid attending a Jai-alai sporting event, who always wanted to try and play that game. Upon researching a little more, I was surprised to find that there were more than 20 different kinds of Jai-alai, from just the hand to using a big straw racket.

Jai-alai link: http://www.guethary-france.com/anglais/peloteuk.asp

We tried two different locations; Trinquet and Fronton. I didn’t realize that each location has its purposes. Trinquet is an indoor court with glass or hard walls, while Fronton has just one wall without any side walls.

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Patxi applied some special tape on his hands, wrapping with several layers, taking me to Fronton and started playing handball. I thought that I could play for a few minutes without my hand becoming sore without wearing the special tape, and sure enough on the first hit, my hand got pretty sore when the ball thumped against the palm of my hands thunderously. I couldn’t continue five minutes longer without wrapping some of that special tape, otherwise I’d have to play fast with him before my hands gave out.

Patxi gave me the Jai-alai chistera (racket) to try. “It’s such a challenge to keep the ball under control back towards the wall,” I fretted, trying to maintain a good control game. I told myself, “there is no way I can keep up with a 180 mph gassed ball,’ shaking my head in dismay, but with a smile as a good sport.

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Patxi explained, “I used to be serious about the Jai-alai games in the past, but I’ve been so busy with my career at Turbomeca doing the helicopter engines.”

When I met Patxi’s parents, I was impressed how they can sign to Patxi and me. Any parent who puts their mind to it, will be able to learn sign language to communicate with their loved ones.

Being weak over the finest local chocolate, I was sorely tempted to order yet another mug of hot chocolate, so I set forth in motion a series of events shaping way for my impulses to be satisfied with more chocolate, stopping first to grab a view of Bayonne up the hill, a nice view nearby Patxi’s home. We then rushed into Bayonne’s maze and tried to park the car with little luck until I found a perfect spot by the river. I stood by the empty cafe and river, taking in my sights before I proceeded back to the same chocolate shop, with the staff and manager all roused up by my repeated visit, thrilled. Now back in my latest favorite place, I sipped the hot chocolate very slowly, absorbing all the flavor in my taste buds, and I made sure each drip was done with a clean cup.

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I am ready for a great dinner prepared by Veronique with Goose Liver and cheese, Salmon fish with a special sauce, homemade apple/blueberry pie along with Basque wine, of which the Decks declared as “the best,” and “even better than Bordeaux wine,” their faces smirking.

Christian brought two bottles from Henri Corderoy du Tier’s family cognac that has been made since 1724. It was a perfect occasion drinking cognac particularly due to the fact it came from a Deaf family.

I will always think of Christian and Veronique Deck with their warmest hospitality.

You must see Bayonne and the Basque countryside whenever you are in France, you can always go to Spain directly from the Basque region in your travels conveniently, it’s not far from here.

Au Revoir!

A Deaf Winery in France: Domaine de Grange Neuve

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As we left Bergerac, it was all wine vineyards throughout the hilly terrain, and this time I couldn’t rely on my GPS to guide me to a Deaf couple’s vineyard and winery. I had to rely on a traveler’s instinct, spotting the INFO wooden sign when I entered the village of Pomport, seeing the words “Domaine de Grange Neuve” to my thrill and utmost inspiration, because the wooden sign actually put the Deaf vineyard on the map!

I rushed through the narrow road leading to their vineyard, pulling over to the small parking lot. Frenchman Regis Castaing walked to me and Seth smiling at us as if we were his special guests, and as much he extended his welcome to us, we could see he was a bit shy because he doesn’t know much French Sign Language (LSF), not even American Sign Language (ASL). We made the best of it and gestured to each other, understanding one another pretty good, having some laughs with exaggerated gestures. Some families just don’t have much exposure to Deaf culture, but it doesn’t stop me from visiting Deaf people.

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“DeafNation is doing a ‘No Barriers with Joel Barish’ video show in France,” I explained to Regis, and he understood who we were. I said we can communicate “through gesturing,” and Regis in his sneak peak into Deaf culture, could only say, “wow.” It was dawning on him that Deaf people were coming out of the woodwork before his own eyes, seeing how we as Deaf people can succeed using sign language as a native, primary language in our media endeavors.

While we were still at it communicating through gestures, his wife Paulette, appeared out of thin air. She seems a very active lady, which explains her sudden pop up while we were deeply engaged in conversation. She sign-speaked “Regis, let’s give DeafNation a grand tour,” and I looked over at Regis, who pointed out, “that’s what I am doing now,” it appeared that they were really excited about us doing a story on their family. Paulette knew sign language!

They are 4th generation family owners of the wine business. Their oldest son walked by saying, “let’s have fun with our Winery tour!”

With the French wine family camaraderie going on, Regis continued, “we have another child, a daughter, who just gave birth to two children, extending the family into the 6th generation.”

Regis hopes that their 6th generation children will continue their winery legacy despite current trends leading people to different jobs and other interesting things in today’s society. “Many people are moving to bigger cities,” said Regis.

Paulette mentioned they have 70 hectares, the equivalent of 173 acres. That is a lot of grapes growing. And plenty of dinner wine.

Pointed Regis, “The Chateau is down the valley. It is used for guests who want to stay away from the noisy city or to spend holidays with family or friends.”

Here is a Wikipedia description of chateaus: “A chateau is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions.” I do need getaways to a chateau, and France is a perfect place because wine freely flows.

“Wine season is from September and October,” explained Regis, sounding like he knows the vineyards from the back of his hand.

I saw flowers blooming on the vines, and Regis sensing my intuition, confirmed “the flower blooms before the grapes are grown.”

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We walked back to their winery warehouse to see the different machines used to process and the wine presses with new wine flowing.

Said Paulette, “technology changed the wine industry, doing more production with less employees.” French wine needs to keep up with other wineries from around the world, especially Chile for their red wine.

We walked by many huge secured bins that preserved wine for years before they were bottled. We even walked down into the cellar.

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Said Paulette, “We do some special wooden barrels for higher priced wine due to a different taste.” They explained that lots of bottles are coming from stainless bins that don’t have the flavor the wooden barrels give.

We walked up and joined one employee doing the corks, the foil wrapping over the top and labeling 6 bottles before finally packing it into a box. I was so thrilled over the things I did, including packing the boxes. Hope one of them will go to America’s stores.

If you find “Joel Barish” on any of these bottles, let me know! I am proud of their family winning some awesome awards in French wine events.

The next thing we experienced was their tasting room, seeing different wine bottles. They offered me three varieties for me to try, one white wine, red wine, and a sweet dessert wine. I decided to purchase several bottles because it was too good for me to leave without any bottles from them.

DeafNation presence with us interviewing them made them feel honored, even overjoyed, we like to share and enlighten people about Deaf people around the world. I came away very impressed with their hospitality and the quality of their wines.

Deaf people can do anything, from flying airplanes to making wine. This winery family work very hard year-round by pruning the vine, keeping up with the water quality, eradicating weeds, adding new baby vines and many other exciting tasks in ensuring the wine comes out as good quality stuff.

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We drove 3 hours to Bayonne through countless vineyards. French vineyards are bigger than any other countries with all the vineyards they have.

We arrived in Bayonne only to discover at 95% of business in France were closed due to the Pentecôte holiday, and I was lost in the maze of old Bayonne. It was such a beautiful place with lots of small stores and cafes. It became one of my favorite towns at that moment. I must come back here next day with “everyone” working and walking around town. (www.bayonne-tourisme.com)

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A wonderful Deaf couple, Christian and Veronique Deck welcomed me and Seth at their home only 10 minutes from the old town. I could see the valley from their backyard.

Christian displayed a Jai Alai, a well known sport in Basque county that shares with Spanish Basque culture. You can check Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_alai to learn more about the sport that originated in Basque culture.

They were so surprised that Seth and I gave them 5 bottles from the Deaf family’s vineyard.

They had heard about them but never had a chance to stop by. Veronique told Christian that “we must go there” after I explained them about my experience with Castaing family.

Au Revoir!

In Airspace with a French Deaf Pilot

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From our hotel at Paris’ Orly Airport, we had a very crystal clear morning view, and as we are known for our love for aviation, we watched lots of big planes landing and taking off. Orly is one of the two largest airports in the Paris area, about 18km, or 6.9 miles from the center of Paris.

It was only a few minutes from Orly Airport to Coulommiers-Voisins Airport (LFPK), which is in the Brie region 30 miles east from Paris. The airport used to be controlled by NATO until 1966, while the United States Military used it, as well. The airport’s long runaway was shortened to accommodate the smaller private planes like gliders, pipers, and the ULM.

Seth and I went to see someone unique, who not only drives on roads but flies airplanes. Let’s see where “No Barriers with Joel Barish” takes us today.You know, in America we have some Deaf pilots scattered throughout the United States, but France has their own group of Deaf pilots, just like us, which made my visitation a homage to the world of Deaf aviation. Because, that is one hard barrier to break in becoming a pilot, it takes a lot of training, mentorship, and the right mental objective and purpose to undertake flight training to become a licensed airplane pilot. If you have the right make-up, the ambition and have someone willing to take you on and teach you how to fly, then anything is possible.

Such a pilot is a profoundly Deaf man by the name of Henri Corderoy du Tiers, he is well known internationally for flying airplanes. He is also the husband of Fanny Yeh-Corderoy du Tiers, the sister of Viable founder John T.C. Yeh, who runs his company from the United States.

Fanny runs newly established Viable France, which is the same company as Viable but the French version, with LSF (French Sign Language) interpreters. The siblings manufactures and sells videophones with wifi capacity, and in the current wifi craze, many Deaf people have one now, thanks to them and other providers. Fanny will be hosting a premiere of the new Viable France office on June 4, 2009. If you want to watch the Live Internet streaming from Paris the Viable France premiere, tune into our website for the webcast! More information is posted on the www.deafnation.com website.

As for Corderoy du Tiers becoming a pilot, it took him 25 years before he got his flying license in France; in fact, he obtained his own flight license in several countries first, including in England, Australia, and the USA before France awarded him one, too. France finally accepted his determination in recognizing him officially as a pilot who can legally fly over the French airways. That was a long way to go in accruing 1,700 hours of flight time recorded by the persistent flier.

Corderoy du Tiers also founded the French Deaf Aviators Association (ACSF) in 1996. He is currently an instructor of ULM (Ultralight Machine) airplanes. Additionally, he is the Aéro-Club des Sourds de France President, which is translated to French Aero-club of the Deaf. Being that flying is Corderoy du Tiers’ hobby, he is also a strong advocate of the International Deaf Pilots Association (www.deafpilots.com), an organization I did a video story on in 2002 in Frederick, Maryland on one of their annual fly-ins.

Corderoy du Tiers, a Certified Ultralight Motorized Aircraft Instructor since 2004, recruited and brought many Deaf French folks in joining the ranks with American Deaf pilots. Noting that, it is his big heart that prompts him to bring the French to places around the world. He always shared his experience and advice to anyone who asked, making him an invaluable asset to the Deaf piloting world.

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Corderoy du Tiers has owned other airplanes in the past, some were different models, and he sold them in past years, impressively. He just purchased a brand new ULM, renting out his own hangar for it, using it to share with Deaf French pilots and new flight students.

“I encourage Deaf people in France to become airplane pilots,” said Corderoy du Tiers, “it’d be nice to see more Deaf people flying the skies.”

Aphay Singomvgsa, who came from Laos 25 years ago, is one such student and intern of Corderoy du Tiers, sharing a special connection with him, you could see Singomvgsa glow from his face when he engages into dialogue about aviation with his mentor.

Before Singomvgsa met Corderoy du Tiers, he loved flying but couldn’t understand the hearing instructor. Ever since they met, Corderoy du Tiers took him under his wing and taught him so much, and if it wasn’t for him, Singomvgsa would have had a more difficult time learning the things he knows now, and he now has a flying license.

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“Come here, I need to show you something,” Corderoy du Tier beckons Singomvgsa, “let’s check the new plane out.” The hangar opened and a flash of sun rays shone in, giving me an exciting sensation as they were about to go on a training flight around the airport, I watched, mesmerized as the plane taxied out of the hangar into the runaway for takeoff.

They returned from the training flight, and still in action, they reviewed Aphay’s flight path related to wind conditions, the landing, and the take-off, the flight around the airport and the flight controls, the whole works. It was a very special moment in witnessing a very mutual relationship between the Deaf instructor and the Deaf student, bringing me to awe. It was a beautiful moment.

“Aerodynamically harmonious,” I would say!

I caught the gleam in Corderoy du Tiers’ eye, and I knew the twinkling gleam meant it was my turn to go up the skies with him, with goosebumps instantly popping up all over my arms in the same instant.

I have flown on many different kinds of airplanes, but going on the ULM plane was a first for me. I enjoyed observing him do the check-list, the rush intensified as the plane taxied down the runaway, feeling the motor purring when it took off. It was an amazing take-off experience for me.

I felt a surge as he banks left hard, a feeling I live for.

During the flight, I kept seeing many gliders being towed by tow-planes every five minutes. It reminded me of my experience in Hawaii. I videotaped the beautiful countryside of Paris.

“This is the Disneyland Paris,” Corderoy du Tiers pointed in the distance, “and you can see Paris.”

Corderoy du Tiers states, “I can fly to many airports that don’t have a control tower, but it’s more rare for me to land in some small commercial airports,” his hands motioning with the sign for airplane,”I have to inform each control tower in advance with a specific time of landing when I do.” If he misses the designated landing time, he says, “I wouldn’t be able to land at the certain airport.”

Teasing my French pilot buddy, I asked if he would “love to fly the world’s most brand new and the largest airliner, the Airbus A380.”

Corderoy du Tiers couldn’t resist a smile when I said that, he didn’t have to give an answer. The smile spoke a thousand words. Any aviator enthusiast will give you a look that you can’t possibly misinterpret, because you know of their love for flying and because they are avid airplane pilots, living and breathing in the skies.

It was my turn to smile as he made a perfect landing back at the airport.

Another French Deaf pilot by the name of Ion Berindey, also a plane mechanic, met us at the hangar.

Introducing me to him, Corderoy du Tiers gave a brief history of their acquaintanceship,”We worked many hours together at the hangar,” explaining that when he first brought Berindey to the United States showing him that there are Deaf pilots who fly, “He was stunned and inspired, thus his fascination with flying began.” Added Corderoy tu Tiers, “Berindey loves to fix any kind of airplane engines, he finds it hard to stay away from those engines,” which is obvious how he found his own niche as a plane mechanic.

The strong bond was evident between them. I felt like both Berinday and Singomvgsa were in good hands under the guidance of a Deaf leading pilot in Corderoy du Tiers.

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It was time to leave the airport so we can drive to Paris, and upon arriving there, we met up with a local Deaf Parisian, Stephane Robert, who had strong French facial features.

Corderoy du Tiers dropped us off by the famous Les Invalides, a huge complex with different old buildings along with the golden domed church. Les Invalides are a complex of buildings in the city containing museums and monuments, they exhibit the military history of France, containing a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, which was the building’s original purpose.

With only one hour of walking time by the famous Seine river,  we were able to have a good view of the Eiffel Tower from a distance. I was tempted to head straight for the Eiffel Tower but tucked the idea away in my back pocket saving the best for the last of my France tour.

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Walking around in Paris made me feel a little impulsive, because there was so much to see, I grew up with a mental picture of Eiffel Tower in my mind, and here I was so close to finally touching with my hands the Eiffel Tower and its’ gigantic towering personality.

We kept on walking around the plaza, there were so many beautiful works of architecture.

Finally we arrived the very heart of Paris where Corderoy du Tier’s home was, which appeared very clean with a very original look that has been maintained since the 1600’s. You can see the pride of his noble families who from generation to generation kept things as it was. Old horse stables are a mainstay under his home. He and Fanny even have their own door from the gate in the street, and when you go inside, you can see that the home had the tall ceiling and big wall of books like we see in any medieval home.

His wife, Fanny, came from the United States, coming to France after they tied the knot. They have a beautiful baby daughter, who is a lovely 15 months old.

It was time for us to catch an airport bus a few blocks from his home to get on a flight to Bordeaux, a port city on the Garonne River in southwest France, in a region once inhabitated by neanderthals.

Now even Deaf people can fly, how times have changed from clubbing undereducated neanderthals in prehistoric times to the French Deaf taking the flight controls in an advanced society. I am happy to be living in this day and age, and am very impressed by the sophistication of the French deaf community.

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Walking off the airport, the first impression I got was the grape vineyard at the airport, bringing me to mind that Bordeaux is very famous for its’ wines. The airport practically gave Bordeaux away as a wine country by the vineyard that sat square on the airport premises. It’s quite a welcome seeing how some airports present their own cultures, showing their pride. The city of Bordeaux is among the world’s major wine industry centers.

Bordeaux wine has been produced in the region since the 8th century, wouldn’t it be nice to open an aged bottle of wine and find that it’s still good, not flat-tasting?

Hungry, we drove 90 minutes to the village of Bergerac, discovering all eateries were closed except for one sole restaurant at 11pm, as it was to eat some chow before I hit the sack with yet more blogging to do.

Nice to have Deaf French people as allies who fly the skies just like the Americans. Au revior!

The Mediterranean Experience: Visit with Deaf Ceramist

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Two things gave my day a huge boost: Sunny Mediterranean weather and having a GPS with me, an invaluable tool. You definitely need one when you have to navigate your way through ancient roads in the heart of Marseille.

It was kind of hard driving on these roads because of the road construction going on, with improvements being made to all the roads and highways, and it was especially difficult to drive around the old part of the city. Most of the roads are one way lanes passing through homes or stores, I could literally reach them from my car window, it wouldn’t have mattered how long my arms were.

Marseille had just won the bid for hosting the European Cultures Festival in 2013, so they are in a rush to shore up the roads in an attempt to boost up their city, to uplift their community and restore ancient buildings.

Between Rues Rodillat and Pistoles you’ll see the Vieille Charité, Marseille’s architectural gem. Built between 1671 and 1749 to care for the city’s down-and-outs, this former hospice is the work of the Puget brothers.

I admired the Vielle Charité chapel and its ovoid dome (egg-shaped), a masterpiece of Italian Baroque. The place, a haven of peace and silence, groups many museums such as the Mediterranean Archeology Museum; an African, Oceaninan, and Amerindian arts museum (MAAOA) with its’ Francois-Reichenbach collection.

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I met Jean-Marc Saman, Deaf owner of a ceramics shop called La Sardine D’argile. When he opened the old gate and opened the inside glass door, it gave me goosebumps since he has a shop in a community started in 1500’s.

A day earlier, Saman told me that he is understocked with items because he recently sold a lot of them.

I entered the shop, and I stood there for a minute and realized I underestimated him. He had high quality of work with lots of creative details, and had an adequate supply in stock after all.

“Wow you have a good number of items at this moment,” I said to Saman.

Saman said, “Yeah, most busy months are from November to December and from May to July,” explaining “that’s why I consider myself understocked right now.”

He needs to make more ceramics after my visit to keep up with the demand, you will see why his ceramics are heralded in Marseilles as you follow today’s action with “No Barriers with Joel Barish.”

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I followed him going downstairs. I continued being in awe over his shop. Visiting Europe certainly takes me back in time when people show me authentically ancient surroundings, it is one thing that will stick with me always — I live in modern housing, so when I visit these places, it really gives me a glimpse of what life was like before our great-great-great grandfathers were born, by seeing how they lived.

The basement is a truly ancient cellar with curved stone, all brick. I learned that it used to be an underground canal and a series of water wells. There are lots of molds, clays, paintings and artwork in the workstation where he and one other employee works.

We went back upstairs as there are two ovens to heat the ceramics. Saman showed me how he makes tiles, vases, unique arts and crafts. He mentioned that he used some stencil images that has been used for many generations. He won’t adapt to the younger generation as he wants to keep things the same from the old ancient days. People who come to buy ceramics want that kind of rare originality.

Some customers came in so I moved aside to watch him serve them, observing that he could speak French very well.

He has a hearing wife of 35 years. His family came from Mediterranean Sea; Turkey, Greece, Italy and Lebanon. His wife’s family came from Argentina. Both families have been well known in Marseille for many years.

After my video work with him, he wanted to take me and Seth to his village of Puyloubier.

Puyloubier is conveniently located at the foot of the green pastures leading up to the top of the Sainte-Victoire Mountain, a limestone mountain ridge in the south of France. The mountain is renowed for its many appearances in the paintings of artist Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), who had a strikingly close-up view from his house.

With vast woods and rocky landscapes, Puyloubier offers a beautiful array of wild and preserved landscapes. Puyloubier is one of the points on the Cézanne trail which starts at Aix-en-Provence, where the communes in the Aix area can be found near the places where Cézanne lived and worked at.

Trying to park my rental car in the most narrow street ever, barely squeezing in, I shook my head. Stepping out of the car, I saw only three restaurants in the village.

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Walking up the very old steps, I went through an ancient looking door and saw five tables outside. The restaurant had only one waitress. I could see a wooden menu board. They make fresh food everyday from scratch, which made the entrees very satisfying along with local French wine. I sat, watching as Jean-Marc shared his interesting stories.

Said Saman, “I grew up in a high class family, having four brothers and one sister. I used to go to the Deaf school in Paris, too.”

He remembered old days riding on steamed trains filled with white smoke. He signed it very proficiently, clearly illustrating the image of smoke billowing from the train, saying that “It chugged for 16 hours one way from Marseille to Paris.”

Back then, he flew in an old airplane with two heavy propellers for 4 hours at low altitude to get there. Saman says, “It’s now only 3 hours on TGV or only 70 minutes of flight time,” laughing.

Life changes over time. It would be interesting to see what life was like 50 years ago, there are big advances in such a short period of time, it is scary to think how far advanced technology would be in the next 100 years.

He also mentioned that once he joined his family to Argentina on an old plane, taking a 36 hour trip from Marseille to Buenos Aires, with stops in Canary Island, a small unknown island in the Atlantic ocean, the Caribbean islands, Venezuela, a village in Brazil, and finally Rio De Janeiro and Buenos Aires.

Said Saman, “In the old days the airlines were at their best, they gave the passengers high class service with really good food and huge chairs,” reminiscing, “I never forgot about riding in that plane that flew so close to the water and I could see the water from a very close distance, the plane was flying under the clouds, and it was a very shaky ride at times and a smooth ride during the trip.”

Admitted Saman, “Nowadays the airlines are like a cattle machine,” moving his hands and bending erectly, “once you are inside of the plane they tell you to sit still on your seat!”

He had traveled to 70 countries in his lifetime and even rode on an old cruise liner filled with people being wild in the night, continuing their folly until early morning. He went on a cruise in recent years and couldn’t believe how a cruise liner can hold 6,000 passengers nowadays.

We enjoyed chatting together, he was a very colorful personality with a smirk in his face as he boasted of the old days as it was compared to today. It would have been nice to be in his shoes seeing what it’s like to travel in airplanes in the old days when airlines weren’t struggling financially, when they had original airline service which somehow has evolved into a more of a soda and crackers experience today.

He still loves to travel, because it keeps his sanity.

Did I think he was a ceramist all his life? He actually used to work for the denture industry for thirty years before retiring. But that still wasn’t enough for him, he decided to study the art of ceramics and shortly opened his business thereafter. He preferred opening a small business because he loves to meet people everyday instead of having to work for a boss without any customers to talk to.

After an appetizing lunch, we drove a few miles away from the village through the gravel road to Saman’s home.

The home he just purchased three years ago, he couldn’t have picked a better location that had a beautiful view of Sainte-Victorie Mountains. It is a place where we could stay for hours drinking French wine, watching the unique shapes of the mountains. “I chose this location to get away from the city noise, not that I can hear it, but the quagmire of a crowded population was too much for me to bear,” noted Saman.

I am sorry to say, but nearly every exotic place I have gone to had either a coffee farm, or a winery vineyard. I want to bring to life the coffee and wine that most civilization can only see on the store shelves and share how they are processed from the time they are picked and the time checkout cashiers ring those items up for you. It’s fascinating to follow the trail of something that was picked out as ripe and distributed into the mainstream.

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Saman lived next to a wine farm from his backyard, it would be so awesome to be able to rise from your bed and walk outside to pick some grapes to add to your breakfast plate.

If I had my own wine farm, I would make my own wine, and perhaps put on the label “Straight from the Barish Vineyards,” I thought with a chuckle.

He had built a homemade pond putting in 300-plus small fishes and created a lily pond for frogs. His wife will continue adding more plants around their land. I would love to have a home like his because that kind of environment will help reinvigorate me with renewed energy every morning.

Time was up for me to drive to Marseille airport for Paris’ Orly airport.

It was amazing day spending time with him indulging in his experiences in business and with his travels around the world.

He admired the fact I travel to meet Deaf people in the most remote of places. Conceded Saman, “I never thought about it throughout my travels with my wife, we were more of tourists and did a lot of sightseeing.”

“You do a lot of off-beat and unique travel stories,” a smiling Saman exclaimed, “giving the viewers what they want to see.”

Make sure you stop by his shop in Marseille!

La Sardine D’argile
5, rue du Petit Puits
“la Vieille Charite”
13002 Marseille

Marseille Soap saves Day

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Waking up to yet another day to authentic French cuisine, things slowed down a little bit, which is to be expected for any media.

We have our hits and misses, and in this instance we had a couple of misses.

I had confirmed with different people at the Perrier Water bottling plant in Vergeze, France through my office, and drove almost two hours excited about the prospect of doing a video report on a water bottling plant only to find out the contact person was not there, they had sent a new person. They tried finding more contacts related to our media tour of Perrier, and called the Paris office. They informed me that proper permission for doing a video feature on Perrier Water hadn’t come through.

Lost in translation?

My staff in DeafNation’s headquarters in Texas had to stay up from 2am to 4am making calls to Perrier, because of the time zone differences, it was 9am to 11am in France. In one of the several calls to Perrier, being lost in translation, my staff was told that we can show up there while authorization to do coverage on them was pending. We had no luck when we arrived, although.

It is so interesting learning more about Perrier water being bottled in France. France has so many sources for bottled water. In one of my early dialogues with the Evian water bottling company, they casually shared with us that “German media were concerned about the environment related to bottled water, resulting in negative press,” and I agreed, noting that during my previous visit to Nepal, I discovered that their worst pollution was plastic bottled water. It takes 1,000 years to dissolve one plastic bottle.

I was actually more interested, if granted a media tour, in seeing the water springing forth in all its freshness, and seeing how water is processed and bottled. That kind of thing is fascinating for millions of our viewers, because nearly everyone are walking around with at least a water bottle, to stay hydrated. If I travel to a third world country, a water bottle is my best friend, due to desert dryness or extreme humidity in remote places, and unfiltered tap water.

It was a morning wasted, but it couldn’t stop me from seeking other assignments, for none other reason than why our show is called “No Barriers with Joel Barish.”

Not even in France.

I found out that Marseille is the oldest city in France, with signs of human presence dating back to 30,000 years. While I am not sure about the timetable of thirty thousand years, I do know that people populated Marseille in the early medieval times, and before.

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Marseille is also well known for making soap around the world, giving me a backdrop imagination of soapy bubbles rising to the surface.

Closer to smelling like a fresh bar of soap, the New Hotel of Marseille’s staff hooked me up with a local soap factory as they are regular customers purchasing the soap for their hotel guests amenities. As much we like modern amenities, soap always had done one thing — take the grease off.

In this case, it was not the grease I needed to wash off, but the sweat profusely poured trying to make the water bottling plant media tours happen. Now in the fragrance of scented soap, it had a mellowing effect on me as my day went on to different stories.

It is only a 15 minute drive from the hotel to the soap factory through the “maze” of port Vieux, which was a welcome change from the wasted two hour drive earlier this morning.

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I met the manager of the soap factory, D. Boetto, I was surprised to see he gestured very well, puzzling me as I moved forward with his tour. He gave me the opportunity to stir the hot, bubbling liquid that makes soap. It had a quite powerful smell, but it smelled great, the aromatic soap has such a clean smell.

As fate would put it, one staff came forward signing in LSF, announcing that he has a Deaf son. It became clear why the manager gave us a very nice welcome and it explained his ability to gesture. We watched two workers stamping the soap bars. They have to dry the first batch of soap for 15 days before they can stamp them.

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I was so thrilled about the soap factory tour because it is a true industry for Marseille, putting them on the map other than just being known for being populated as long mankind knows. I got authentic Marseille soap to take home, I might not even use it, but instead, perhaps place it along with other souvenirs I brought home from other countries for display. I wished to unwrap the soap bar but it’s too authentic to use it up, and I wasn’t ready to watch it whittle into a size small enough to go down the sink drain; but if I am coming back to France, I can take it off the display shelves and just bring back some more.

Curious about Marseille soap? Their website www.savon-leserail.com will open your nostrils breathing in the different frangrances — floral scents, fresh scents, citrusy scents, herbal scents, and musky scents.

The Marseille port is so perfect for ancient ships as a location, and now perfect for ancient buildings and cafes around the port. I decided to eat at one of the outdoor restaurants.

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Marseille is recommended for eating good meals with a glass of wine, you can absorb the French way of life by just sitting in those outdoor cafes watching scores of people milling about, walking by.

Au Revoir!

Paying Respects to Laurent Clerc

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Having relished Escargot Comtois’ finest samplings the day before, we awoke in the cozy surroundings of Escargot Comtois, staying in one of the three rooms at the inn. The sensation we felt was of “joie de vivre,” the French phrase meaning a feeling of healthy enjoyment of life. The “joie de vivre” kick-off to a new day began by eating what I considered the very best French made breakfast which included a very fresh homemade apple (pomme) juice.

“It is not too often when I get to drink apple juice freshly squeezed before I even wake up,” I mused.

Everything was fresh, including the bread just brought in from a local bakery. With a feeling of satisfaction, it was time for me to move on to the other assignments, I am going to miss watching the snails harvest for a special destination — my “Palais,” a most refined palate of French creativity.

We headed to go visit a cheese factory in Doucier, France, in the Franche-Comte region, which has a population of only 306 people. I have been anxious about visiting a cheese farm because that would be a first for me, and I love cheese. I am not just restricted to coffee, wherever I go, it is about trying the local specialty. It’s just the feeling that going straight to the source will introduce me to the world’s finest.

Before arriving Doucier, I didn’t see any big cities except a few small villages, small roads, and plenty of cows. It is a pretty serene and scenic environment, and as quiet it seemed to be, cheese makers were already producing cheese in the dawn of the morning just when the bustle of life starts.

Arriving at the cheese factory called “La Fuitière de la Valléedu Hérisson,” which in English, it could be translated to,”The Fruit of the Valley,” a woman named Laurence emerged from the small and quaint factory to greet us and welcome us inside. We were given protective gear to wear inside for our heads and feet, probably for sanitation reasons.

We saw two big copper bowls circling with metal along fresh milk. Milk has to be high quality, and it takes ten pounds of milk just to make one pound of cheese. It had to process for several hours before the whey, or milk liquids becomes milk solids, or what people call,”curds.” The cheesemakers cook and stir the curds and whey until the desired temperature and firmness of the curd is achieved, and the whey are drained off in the drainage bins, leaving a tightly formed curd. The hard curds are then taken out to the cellar.

I was led to the cellar, and upon walking inside, I couldn’t believe my eyes how many cheese pressed into big round shapes were being cured and aged. Different handling techniques and salting affect how the curd is transformed into the many cheese varieties. They had to salt every two days then they are turned over for 30 days, before finally storing them at least for one year in another “cave,” which are ideal storage places for cellars. They usually sell cheese one year after the production day. It is very hard work and a long process for cheese business owners.

After the cheese factory tour, I had a chance to try their cheese. I chewed broken bits of cheese very slowly, because they tasted too delicious to swallow them all at once. I wanted to savour the salty texture of cheese, a dairy product considered a treat, a luxury. Many French and American household refrigerators have a special place for cheese, it is an inescapable fact that cheese accompanies a dinner course on nearly every table we eat on. Check www.fruitiere-comte.com out!

My love for cheese more profound, having picked up snails and swished Jura wine, my contentment was apparent as I drove down to La Balme les Grottes to pay respects to our folk hero, Laurent Clerc.

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Clerc was the first Deaf man in America to be a teacher to Deaf children, and among the first in the world. The village of La Balms les Grotte, population 1,400, is the birth town of the legendary Clerc, which had only 800 people living there during his time, it is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France.

I felt so proud of myself as a Deaf person and really am indebted to Clerc for boosting Deaf education in America, we all should be thankful that Clerc established Deaf education in sign language, he truly built the first “bridge” for Deaf people to become successful in the hearing world by offering classes in sign language.

Looking at Clerc as co-founder of the first school for the deaf, he was truly the first great proponent of sign language instruction over oral instruction in this country (perhaps virtually sidestepping Alexander Graham Bell). Clerc, an advocate for fundamental rights for Deaf people, he supported the right for Deaf people to marry and inspired the spread of Deaf education throughout the United States.

I felt fortunate to have gotten good education and having the background I had, it gave me the chance to run my own business with DeafNation showing the world that Deaf people can succeed in any level, including the business world.

I met with Laurent Clerc Association members (www.assoc-laurentclerc.fr), all volunteers who drove between 45 and 90 minutes to guide us. They usually drive in to guide many Americans, they help us in a heartfelt way by offering us very good hospitality. They called the village mayor to come greet me and Seth. It was such a honor having the mayor guide us around the village of La Balme les
Grottes.

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I was informed that the mayor had been so generous in helping save the historic landmark of Laurent Clerc by purchasing his birthplace home and gave the Laurent Clerc Association their own office. I tolde Michelle Bonnot, a well known Deaf guide that “we are lucky to have the right mayor,” and she nodded, agreeing with me that if we had a mayor who was cranky and unsupportive, we would not be able to preserve the historic legacy of Laurent Clerc for our future generations of Deaf people.

I was shocked to learn that there was never an organization for Clerc until an American named Gil Eastman, former professor of Gallaudet University encouraged these same people to establish the Clerc Association in 1980. Four years later in 1984 they finally finalized all details for forming the organization and started the same year.

I couldn’t believe the fact that even if Laurent Clerc was a very famous Deaf figure who tried to preserve our Deaf education, there was no formal museum to honor his name anywhere in the world. It would bring closure to formally recognize Clerc for his pioneering efforts with Deaf people in the educational and cultural fields, who promoted sign language.

Many Americans don’t realize that Clerc was born in France and brought to America by Thomas Gallaudet. We should respect all the other important Deaf people who taught Clerc and had influence into what has evolved into Deaf culture of today.

They would love to have your kind support for their new office and Clerc museum.

After the tour, I had such a great feeling knowing that our old generation of Deaf people in the pride of their signed language made it possible for all of us to be where we are today. It was a very special time for me as a Deaf person to pay my respects at Clerc’s own birthplace. If it wasn’t for them, I would not be here. I would probably be in a freak show at a zoo, grossly undereducated. Clerc changed all that.

Time is running out before the sun comes down. There is a four hour drive down to Marseille, so we gassed it and finally arrived just before the sun went completely down at 10:00pm. We met up with a local Deaf named Jean-Marc, who said we must meet another Deaf couple named Jean-Pierre and Janine Guerin. We all strolled together at the famous Port Viuex, there were so many cafes and restaurants along the street, a long string of them. People were eating outside, it was a very outdoor atmosphere to indulge in.

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I went to the Guerin home, which was built in 1657 during the reign of King Louis XIV, and as I came inside, my mouth dropped to the floor when I discovered that they retrieved a ship’s wooden masts setting up as their roof. I looked up and wondered how they were able to preserve a 400 year old ship mast to use for roof tiles, wall, wood, you name it, it was used. The couple kept renovating the ship mast as an “original” home. They explained to me that home was for ship’s sail sheet. If the sail sheet were torn or damaged, they were sewn. Later a nearby hospital used that place as a hospital expansion place where patients were on the recovery beds. Jean-Pierre’s mother bought the place.

The ship mast converted to a home, it was so cozy, it felt like a huge studio. I could see their upstairs bedroom from the lower level where the family room was. I walked to the balcony and I could see with almost a panoramic view of the action from 3 stories above, I could see the port filled with yachts, boats, ships. Standing on the balcony, I asked Janine “Have you seen many funny things happening in this intersection?” Nodding, Janine replied, “Yes, I have seen crazy brawling at the restaurant and police cars arriving.” It was evident she has so much fun watching the street action, and in the ten minutes I stood watching the action, we laughed together about the different things we saw, so many people were eating and cars were cruising around the port.

Janine nudged me to come follow her, because she wanted to show me the other part of her home. It was a huge top floor almost a block long above the restaurants. She runs her own mailing business and she teaches French Sign Language, which in the French language is called Langu des Signed Francais (LSF), it is the sign language of the Deaf in France.

The amazing thing was, the brick floors are the same as it was 400 years ago! It was almost surreal to walk on something so ancient, almost putting me into a time machine and taking me on a trajectory 400 years back!  We shared our experiences about Deaf cultures around the world.

Visit her website: www.visucom.fr

Both of them gave me a book of La Marseillaise which is is the French National Anthem in DVD with sign language. It was way past midnight. I am glad I got the French National Anthem in a language that I could understand (gestuno has prepared me for understanding LSF).

We needed to stop and go back to the hotel preparing for next early morning assignments.

Laurent Clerc is smiling on us, because we carried his torch in promoting sign language so that Deaf people would have a language and the cultural pride that goes with our beautiful language.

In France: Garlic Buttered Escargot-Comtois Snails

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With escargot snails foremost in my mind, I flew to Paris’ Charles DeGaulle International Airport, also known as Roissy Airport, named after Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), who was a leader of the Free French Forces and founder of the French Fifth Republic. It was the world’s 5th busiest airport (in terms of passengers) in 2008.

As I got off the plane with a 50-degree breeze blowing at my face at 7:00 in the morning, I got the immediate impression that it was truly a perfect day to start my France assignments, and I could feel my adventure beginning already.

Breathing the cool air having just landed on French soil, as I had a long-awaited assignment to attend to, which was a visitation to Ferme de l’Escargot Comtois, an escargot farm. I had to decide whether to take the TGV directly from the airport to Lyons (only a 2-hour ride), or to drive for 6 hours.

I chose the 2-hour ride by TGV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV) which can go as fast as 173.6 miles per hour (or, 279.3 km), it is the world’s fastest conventional scheduled train, it was nice being able to save four hours on the trip. Besides, I couldn’t wait to sample the sizzling escargot snails buttered with garlic, a most refined palate of French origin.

Let’s see the real side of France!

Arriving in Lyons, France, a city in the Rhone-Alpes region, in east-central France, I rented a car. As I drove in the freeway where the speed limit is 80 mph (or, 130 km), many cars were easily passing me even as I followed the speed limit. That is what I get for following the speed limit, I guess.

It took me almost 90 minutes to reach the village of Courbouzon.  The road was so tight and narrow through the old French homes and the walls.

I arrived at the Snail farm called l’Escargot Comtois, it is one of the 400 snail farms in France.

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A snail farm? Why breed snails, other than to see them come out in droves after a wet rainstorm? They are edible and can be eaten, and cooked deliciously with the right recipe. The high number of farms proved the demand for snails.

A French meal can be composed of Escargot snails, a well known local specialty, it can be prepared in different ways, with butter and garlic, which is my preference, and with other preparations using Roquefort cheese and other recipes.

It was a honor to meet the owners of the snail farm, Muriel and David Blanchard and their two beautiful children, and to see the beautifully renovated old stone Masion de Village (which the Blanchards totally gutted and rebuilt themselves), which dates back to 1747, and has three modern rooms in the renovated building.

Muriel took me to her farm nearby her home. She explained, “I bought snail eggs from another part of France that breeds snails for many farms. Recently I had about 300,000 eggs deposited in the park.”

The park is composed entirely of wood and surrounded by boards 30 centimeters high. Other boards permit snails to hide from the heat and the wind. I saw many small snails, only 20 days old. They will be harvested when they turn 6 months old.

Muriel sells a lot of her snails to her good customers and a smaller percentage to the decent restaurants and shops.

Leading me into her laboratory and kitchen, she proudly opened a bottle of Jura, saying “Escargot snails goes perfectly with Jura wine,” Added Muriela, “Jura wine is made in this region near the French Alps,” looking satisfied as we looked like the most appeased guests of her farm.

As I downed escargot snails and sipped Jura wine marvelling how perfectly smooth it tasted, I turned to look at Seth Gerlis, the videographer, to see the look on his face, he appeared stunned in discovering that contrary to his imagination, the snails were so delicious!

Seth either never had the opportunity to try it, or his mind didn’t couldn’t fathom actually eating one; we so often stereotype snails as something other than being edible, perhaps this thought lulled Seth until this fateful moment? Seth made a successful conversion to eating snails after just one try.

“What makes it so good is the garlic butter on the snail dishes,” a relieved Seth said.

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It was a good start for my France tour, with her family’s hospitality making us feel at home with the snails.

We were truly noble guests of her farm.

*Check their website http://www.escargot-comtois.com/

For the English translation version:

http://translate.google.fr/translate?u=http://www.escargot-comtois.com&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&sl=fr&tl=en

You should stop by their farm for an overnight stay plus experience their special tour and meals!

The Panama Hat in La Pintada

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As with every trip I make on behalf of DeafNation and my indebted sponsors, my goal is to bridge the gaps between nations for Deaf people with an entrepreneurial spirit, Deaf people that have jobs or own businesses will give back support to the Deaf community if I buy from them, because they realize we are doing the very same thing that gives them the proper first impression. Meeting Deaf people in different cultural settings touches every person that joins the No Barrier with Joel Barish tour.

I had just one more chance to close this trip on a strong note, and I decided to head for a special town called La Pintada, a town of only 3,700 residents, which is three hours from Panama City. It was to go see the very trademark of Panama, the Panama Hat. And to meet a famous artisan who creates the Panama hats. It was a great honor to meet such an artisan who made a name for himself making the Panama hat.

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The Panama hat originated from Ecuadorian roots, a traditional brimmed hat that is made from the plaited leaves of the toquilla straw plant. Straw hats woven in Ecuador along with other South American goods shipped first to the Isthmus of Panama before moving on to Asia, the rest of the Latin Americas and Europe. Because Panama hats were in cargo always waiting to be shipped out of the Isthmus, the name “Panama Hat” stuck. This had been going on dating back to as early as the 19th century.

We found a magazine at the airport with a picture of the renowned Panama hat artisan, and upon seeing the pictures, we decided to pay him a visit, to see firsthand how Panama hats are made, and the awesome display of the hats.

We arrived at his place to his shock, which turned into joy, and welcome. The artisan was more than thrilled to show us what the Panama hats are made of. It was surreal to see how much hard work is put into making a hat, taking one month and a half to finish a top quality hat worth $450, Panama hats are made ranging from $15 to $450-plus.

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I got a Panama hat for myself, who couldn’t resist getting a real and authentically made Panama hat? Straight from the famous artisan who made it. I don’t just buy from a regular store shelf, but directly from the maker himself, like coffee straight from the farm.

We drove to Chitre and met a well known Panama artist, Allan Vlises. Chitre is the capital of the Panamanian province Herrera, the name coming from the native tribe Chitra,  which are well known for carnivals in the city, like the Mardi Gras or the Rio De Janeiro  carnivals. There are celebrations coinciding with the Holy Week, Corpus Christi, and St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of the city occurring there.

Artist Vlises took us down to Las Tablas, the capital of the Panamanian province of Los Santos, also a national center of Panamanian folk culture, and well known for their traditional celebrations.

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Vlises introduced me to a Deaf wood artisan named Vidal Santiago, who has made many wood cabinets, furniture, frames, doors with full carved wood. Despite the fact Santiago never had a formal education, he just started his business three years ago after ten years of training. He started out by making his own carving tools, and earned money, re-investing the money into buying a more formal tool kit.

Santiago is currently making fifteen wooden frames for a church. He then will add the image of Jesus on each wooden frame. He is blessed to have such great family support, even from those in nearby cities, as far away as David, Chiriqui.

As I tried gesturing with him, his parents watched us, smiling approvingly because we could communicate with each other using gestures and signs. Santiago’s work on the doors were very professional, adding a lot of creativity to his handiwork. A quiet and shy man, he works hard to make his new venture succeed, he hopes to have his own big shop one day soon.

Like sand pouring into the bottom of a hourglass, time was running out, so we went to the home of a man named Allan who was well known in Panamanian culture for his art work. He has his own studio with no ceiling fan or air conditioner, which would have made his work environment cooler, because I was struck by the fact how hot weather can affect his work. Allan still produces despite the hot weather, and even maintains his business by finding leftover tiles, banners, canvases, car license plates, or other reusable items off the street. His M.O. is turning all these things into a beautiful work of art.

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One particular piece of artwork, I wished to buy and bring it back to the United States, but the problem was, the painted fan can’t close, and if I closed it, the paint would fall off. Instead, I settled with a small painting from him to bring for hanging at my home office, to add to the other special handicrafts I like bringing home that Deaf people make.

Allan and I communicated very well via international sign language, he had the body language and facial expressions, Iris just sat back and enjoyed our discussions. We finally bid adieu, and off we went to return back to Panama City, arriving very late at night.

Before the last trickle of the sand fell in the hourglass, we had a chance to pass the Miraflores Lock in the Panama Canal for one last viewing.

“The Panama Canal is the most amazing and phenomenal work of construction in the world,” I reflected. The Panama Canal is one of the most difficult engineering projects mankind ever undertook. Then again, anything is possible in this world because we have the Pyramids of Egypt, the Stonehenges of England, and in this case, it was the Panama Canal of Panama.

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I really appreciated the hospitality of Iris’s parents who offered us to stay at their place, which displayed some of her best work of art. While admiring the artworks created by Iris, I focused on a painting, one of the bigger ones, it was a painting representing two females as sisters. Iris’s father refused to sell it because it was such a perfect piece of art highlighting two sisters, in his eyes, that would be Iris and Melissa. I discovered that Iris’s sister Melissa works in the bank management.

Panama was so wonderful to me, offering so many cultures in one country for me to experience. They are building many new towers, shopping malls, and expanding communities, and there are many banks to choose from. I felt that Panama was a safe place to visit.

If you visit Panama, it is a must to visit the heavily forested Darien province, and Kuna Yala at the San Blas Islands which runs along the coast of the Darien province, it can be a bargain at affordable prices.

The last trickle of sand poured into the hourglass, and it was time for me to take a flight back into my home country, filled with new memories.

I’d bring the hourglass with me anytime.

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DEAFNATION EXPO

The DeafNation Expo began in 2003, starting with 6 Expos. Today, DeafNation hosts 15 Expos annually, having attracted in excess of 250,000 attendees since.
2009 EXPO SCHEDULE:
Sept 26: Secaucus, NJ
Oct 3: Oklahoma City, OK
Oct 10: Pleasanton, CA
Oct 17: Portland, OR
Nov 7: Chicago, IL