Wednesday 12th- Society for the Deaf Presentation Twas school sports day, so Johnston asked me to go and help out. Arrived early to discover I was no longer needed. Just as well cause I was about to pass out in the heat. Was nice to go and get some pics of the kids though and catch up a bit. Headed back to the hotel after and hour or so and went with mum to help her prepare for her Power Point presentation she was going to give at the Society for the Deaf that night. Arthur (boss of the Snack) helped us out a bit and showed me how to use my Scottish DVD- he was very keen to get a copy. We then headed to the batik shop, run by the deaf and dumb workers. It was really good- we asked to go "behind the scenes" and see how the art was made. So we met with the workers and it randomly happened that one of the working deaf guys I'm friends with was checking it out as well, so we chatted for a bit. Was really cool to see how the batik was used- using wax etc. We ended up buying a huge batik wall hanging of hornbills- it was beautiful though. The owner was asking about how I came to Sabah and was very impressed with the voluntary work. He said that I was so "noble" which was very nice of him. That evening, Catherine picked mum and I up from the hotel to take us to the Society for the Deaf. On arrival, horror struck when mum realized that she'd left the power point CD in the hotel, or it had fallen out of her bag. Being prepared as always- mum had 3 methods of presentation. The first, was a memory chip, but the computer did not recognize the software, the 2nd was the CD, which we did not have, so we had to resort to good old fashioned paper. I think it was just as well though cause instead of presenting from a projected power point, mum was more involved with speaking to the audience and it prob made it less formal, therefore more comfortable for the audience to ask questions. The topic was "Sexual Abuse" because there have been numerous cases within the deaf community- especially the deaf primary school recently involving such abuse. Mum touched on all types of abuse, and it was really interesting for me to hear about the diff tell tale signs a child that has been abused in the past may give. There is one girl in our school that has been abused recently and it was true that she related to many of these behaviors. I was a bit surprised to see that when mum asked if there were any questions, many people asked a variety of open things. I thought the community would be far too constrained in their thoughts and a bit intimidated by the talk, but it seemed to have gone really well. They all understood what had been said and were keen to expand on certain topics. The Society for the Deaf were exceedingly grateful for the talk, as they were coming to a loss as to what to do with some of the children. They presented mum with a token of appreciation and I could tell that mum was really chuffed at the success of it all. We stayed for coffee etc and chatted to the parents of some of the deaf children, as well as a few teachers. The Principal of the Society is really friendly, as well as her associate, who turned out to be a member of the local Rotary and it was his club that had helped build the block we had given the talk in. The evening was a success, except that I came down with a migraine so it was straight to bed after that.