Visiting Oakland Sign Language Congregation

Since our Kingdom Hall in Milpitas CA is being remodeled, we needed to attend a different meeting. We could have chosen to attend an English congregation nearby. There are dozens of English congregations within 15 miles of us, but we have no real connection to any English congregation in the area. We technically live in Oakland Sign Language territory. We didn't intend to start in a congregation outside of our territory, but the territory lines are drawn by freeways. Anything south of the 580 freeway belongs to Milpitas Sign, anything north belongs to Oakland. But since we were 2 years into attending Milpitas when we found this out, we just continued there.  Also, the distance of driving is almost equal.  Our house, apparently, is the farthest point in the territory from 3 different ASL congregations! Stockton Sign, Oakland Sign, and Milpitas Sign are all about 35 miles from the Kingdom Hall. I guess we really do live in the Boon Docks!

I have been wanting to switch congregations for a while, John, not so much. I had heard that Oakland ASL congregation had very skilled signers, and the interest in the territory was outstanding.
Since we needed to attend a different meeting, we decided to attend Oakland Sign. We arrived a little late, but enjoyed the meeting tremendously (at least I did).  The elders who had meeting parts were excellent signers, extremely skilled. Many of the elders were young which keeps things fresh and interesting.  I was surprised how many people I had already met from Oakland Sign, so it was nice to see so many familiar faces (but in the Deaf JW world, your world is very small, you see the same people over and over again at assemblies and conventions).  My good friend Jane Sweet attends there, and I had been so looking forward to visiting with her again.  We haven't known each other for very long, but we made an immediate connection, like Kindred Spirits.

The one bad thing about the location of this Kingdom Hall is that it is in the very heart of Oakland. Nearby are Fruitvale Ave and International Blvd., which any from the Bay area will recognize as sometimes dangerous.  But the friends in the congregation have an enormous amount of interest from the Deaf in their territory.  And since there are more Deaf in their congregation, the hearing signers are more skilled.  Wow! I really felt at home there.  One of the Deaf sisters was impressed that I had only been signing for 3 years, but was able to easily communicate.

 I really think that John will become a more skilled signer if we switch.  One of our Deaf friends, E-Do (Eric) was in conversation with John and he humbly, kindly, and patiently corrected John on several signs. John really needs this, and he always appreciates when our Deaf brothers and sisters help him become a better signer.

Unfortunately we had to leave sooner than I wanted to.  The Kingdom Hall parking lot is small, and we were stacked in the parking lot, so we needed to move our car to let other people leave. Plus it was late and we were in a shady part of town (and we didn't really fit the demographics of the neighborhood). But we will attend next week again.  I'm looking forward to it.