FAD Anniversary Celebrations3 October, 2005Today was the last day of our trip to Finland for meetings and for the 100th anniversary of the Finnish Association of the Deaf. Basically it was a day for one long meeting and a lot of waiting.
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We checked out of the hotel at 7:30 AM this morning, or rather we paid the bills. The young deaf man with us was not part of our meetings so he kept the room available until check-out time at noon. The other three of us took a city bus to the Light House, the headquarters of the Finnish Association of the Deaf, for a meeting with Riikka Heikkinen, FAD's project coordinator for the Cambodian Deaf Development Program. We first discussed our bookkeeping and accounting procedures with the financial secretary of FAD, the first time we have had an opportunity to meet her face to face. Then we updated Riikka on DDP and talked about various issues, especially how FAD and Maryknoll can better work together as joint sponsors of DDP. At 3:15 PM, the meetings with Riikka were finished, and Chap Kimhoeung and Liza Clews took the bus back to the hotel while I stayed at the Light House to meet with Anja Malm, who is the overall manager of the new International Development Department of FAD, to give her an overview of the DDP program and the issues we face. Back at the hotel, Liza, Kim, and Mat Seila, the young deaf man, were all sitting in the lobby waiting for a taxi at 9:30 PM to take them to the Helsinki airport for an 11:35 PM departure for Bangkok on their way back to Cambodia. I went out to get a sandwich, and then got Seila to help me to the train station on foot to catch the airport bus because FAD had only arranged a taxi for three instead of four persons. Actually it was cheaper to take the airport bus, just 3.4 euros, instead of the 9 euros for a taxi. At the airport I was afraid they wouldn't let me check in because my flight wasn't until 8:05 AM the next morning, but that was not a problem. I got my boarding pass, walked around the different levels of the airport, and then worked on the laptop until the other three arrived a couple hours later in their taxi. They went on through passport control to be ready for their flight at 11:35 PM to Bangkok. I went around the airport to find a place to sleep. During the week of meetings, the FAD was paying one half the cost of the room I was sharing with Mat Seila, the deaf young man who was our representative. The room was 104 euros a night. If I stayed in the hotel the final night by myself, I would have to pay the full 104 euros (about $125) so I opted to sleep at the airport. Luckily, the Helsinki airport is listed on the web as one of the best in the world to sleep in, and because it was a Monday night with few travelers, I had my pick of several very good benches for sleeping in relatively quiet areas.
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