Meeting the US Ambassador

Wednesday March 15th – We began today by meeting the US Ambassador to Singapore Patricia L. Herbold. Ambassador Tommy Koh had arranged this meeting and Cheng had also invited Rob Patterson (loosely affiliated with The Seeing Eye) and his associate Janet Winkler. We arrived at the embassy and proceeded through a stiff security screening which required us to leave all our belongings (including cameras) behind at the guard station. An assistant to the Ambassador meet us there and escorted us up to the Ambassador’s office. All the glass in the building was thick, bullet-proof glass and the glass and steel doors were incredibly heavy. We met with the Ambassador and several of her staff. Kendra was the star and they all enjoyed greeting and petting her. Kendra sat between the Ambassador and Cheng during the meeting and the Ambassador was obviously a dog lover as she stroked and gave Kendra belly rubs during most of the meeting. A staff member took a few digital photos one of which I’ve posted here. During our meeting we talked about the need for O&M services in this country and the Ambassador’s staff had some ideas for somehow linking with a US university program to train O&M specialists here. I’m sure Cheng will be following up with her in the future.

After leaving the Embassy we conducted yet another interview. Interestingly while Sue was doing the mobility walk part of the interview (I was following taking video & photos) a young boy (about 12 yrs) came up and asked me some questions. It turns out that he attends the Secondary school that we had toured. He told me that he has seen “the blind man with the dog” on TV that day and also sow the newspaper article. He was very curious, friendly, and seemed to have a positive outlook about dogs.

I actually had time for a quick dip in the pool before we did some computer work and went to our next meeting. It was very refreshing as the 90 degree weather with 51% humidity is beginning to get to me.

We went to the Raffel’s hotel where Mr. Patterson was hosting a dinner in a private room for Dr. Toh See Kiat who is a lawyer who is a founding member of the Singapore Guide Dog Society. Dr. Toh was unable to attend the presentation so we briefly went over the information and answered questions. He is a bright and articulate man who is thinking about all the possible issues (positive and negative) that guide dogs might face in Singapore. Dinner was lovely and presided over by the assistant hotel manager, Madi, who we had met at our breakfast meeting last week. He was VERY welcoming and happy to receive Cheng and Kendra at the hotel again. He commented on the news coverage and mentioned that the staff was buzzing about the “blind man with the dog” who had visited their hotel twice. It seems Cheng and Kendra are turning into minor celebrities!