It is not yet dark, but the two girls sitting at a table in a Bogota bar flick on the lamp on their wooden table.
It is the signal to the bartender that they want a drink, in Colombia’s first-ever bar for the deaf.
The Sin Palabras Cafe Sordo — No Words Deaf Cafe — is the first of its kind in the country, Maria Fernanda Vanegas, one of three owners, says. It is located in the trendy Chapinero neighborhood of the Colombian capital, surrounded by heavy metal, gay and reggae joints.
Photo: AFP
“Its aim is for us, people who can hear, to adapt to the deaf, and not the other way round, which is always the case,” said Vanegas.
The No Words cafe has large screens playing music videos with the lyrics in sign language, and a dance floor that pulses with music to dancers who cannot hear it.
The menus are also translated into sign language and there are games such as Jenga or dominos for customers to play.
Photo: AFP
Vanegas and her partners Cristian Melo and Jessica Mojica all have good hearing, but dreamed of opening a cafe for the more than 50,000 people in Bogota who do not.
Colombia has more than 455,000 deaf or hard of hearing people, according to the last census carried out in 2005.
People with normal hearing also frequent the bar, which is as noisy as any other in the capital. But the difference is that here, most of the talking is done with hands.
Photo: AFP
“It’s the first time I can feel the music,” said Erin Priscila Pinto, a first-time client enjoying a drink with her old friend Carol Aguilera.
“That makes me really happy because it’s the first time I can dance,” said the 23-year-old photography student.
All six waiters at the bar are deaf too, and even though many of the clients do not know sign language, they manage to convey their orders with gestures or by writing them down.
The bar also features small cards showing the basics of sign language for drinkers interesting in expanding their repertoire.
“I feel much more at ease with waiters who are deaf. Everything is much easier,” said Pinto.
There is no need to actually speak in the bar.
“Communicating with people with normal hearing can be a bit tricky at first because we don’t understand them,” said waiter Juan Carlos Villamil, 26. “But we get by somehow or other.”
Some new clients are surprised at first, but they end up getting the hang of sign language, he said.
The idea for the cafe came to the owners when they saw a group of deaf people having a coffee, and asked them about their social lives. Now they want to open more bars like this across Colombia and elsewhere.
It is not all plain sailing however. Some “odious” guests occasionally take advantage of the waiters’ deafness to slip out without paying or to smash glasses, said Vanegas.
The bar opened on June 16, and with its exhibitions, story-telling and other cultural performances by hearing-impaired artists, it is already well on its way to becoming one of Bogota’s more hip watering holes at weekends.
“We want to show the world that deaf people have talent,” said Vanegas, as Pinto used her smartphone to record a video to show her mother the bar where people listen with their eyes and speak with their hands.
Nine Taiwanese nervously stand on an observation platform at Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport. It’s 9:20am on March 27, 1968, and they are awaiting the arrival of Liu Wen-ching (柳文卿), who is about to be deported back to Taiwan where he faces possible execution for his independence activities. As he is removed from a minibus, a tenth activist, Dai Tian-chao (戴天昭), jumps out of his hiding place and attacks the immigration officials — the nine other activists in tow — while urging Liu to make a run for it. But he’s pinned to the ground. Amid the commotion, Liu tries to
A dozen excited 10-year-olds are bouncing in their chairs. The small classroom’s walls are lined with racks of wetsuits and water equipment, and decorated with posters of turtles. But the students’ eyes are trained on their teacher, Tseng Ching-ming, describing the currents and sea conditions at nearby Banana Bay, where they’ll soon be going. “Today you have one mission: to take off your equipment and float in the water,” he says. Some of the kids grin, nervously. They don’t know it, but the students from Kenting-Eluan elementary school on Taiwan’s southernmost point, are rare among their peers and predecessors. Despite most of
A pig’s head sits atop a shelf, tufts of blonde hair sprouting from its taut scalp. Opposite, its chalky, wrinkled heart glows red in a bubbling vat of liquid, locks of thick dark hair and teeth scattered below. A giant screen shows the pig draped in a hospital gown. Is it dead? A surgeon inserts human teeth implants, then hair implants — beautifying the horrifyingly human-like animal. Chang Chen-shen (張辰申) calls Incarnation Project: Deviation Lovers “a satirical self-criticism, a critique on the fact that throughout our lives we’ve been instilled with ideas and things that don’t belong to us.” Chang
The resignation of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) co-founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) as party chair on Jan. 1 has led to an interesting battle between two leading party figures, Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如). For years the party has been a one-man show, but with Ko being held incommunicado while on trial for corruption, the new chair’s leadership could be make or break for the young party. Not only are the two very different in style, their backgrounds are very different. Tsai is a co-founder of the TPP and has been with Ko from the very beginning. Huang has
RSS