Hear and there!

Imagine, if you will, having been born blind or deaf in a community that has no access to books, resources or specialists to help you and your family cope with your disability.
Imagine not being able to communicate with family and friends, and being excluded from the local school because you cannot hear or see the lessons being taught.

If your parents can afford to, you get sent away to a weekly boarding school for blind and deaf; the only school of its kind in the North of your country. How wonderful that there is one.

The good side is that you are among people that understand you, and can teach you how to learn and communicate effectively … albeit no one outside the school grounds understands sign language and, if you are blind, you can only leave the school grounds with a seeing friend to guide you.

However, at weekends, when some children get to go home, you are one of the many who have to stay behind, as your parents can’t afford the travelling time or money to come and collect you. Maybe they just find it too difficult to have you in the house as they do not know sign language.

And now, although the teachers have all gone home for the weekend, you and your friends hang around school; chatting; doing your washing; looking after the little ones; braiding each other’s hair (girls!), maybe walking around the town a bit. It would be nice if there were games’ resources with which to play, coloured pencils and paper, books or magazines to read …. but there is nothing. And some of you even spend the long school holidays here, too.

On Sundays, you and your deaf friends take some of your blind friends and you all walk to church. Last year there was a teacher who would come with you to translate. But this year there is no one, so you all just sit there, so bored, and wishing you knew what was going on. But you are eager to know more about Jesus and do read your Bible.

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Last weekend, Katie and I went to this very school to ask the children to teach us sign language. We went to church with them, but could not translate much! They are so willing and eager to teach us and are such a pleasure to be with
This weekend we went again to the school. We took Étienne and Caris.
Étienne got some boys together and played a game of cricket.
I took paper and crayons, and Caris and lots of other girls sat on the concrete and drew (they were all shyly eager to show us their masterpieces).
Katie ‘spoke’ to some older girls about her life/family and theirs. Tomorrow we will meet up with them at church again.

It is soooooo frustrating to have soooooo little of the language, but it is exciting to already be able to hold simple conversations.

Although it is simply an idea in the pipeline at the moment, perhaps we can train older children to run a Kids’ Bible club, and I can offer the lending library?!
(Perhaps that is why we have so little garden space this time?!)
Please pray for us as we seek to learn sign language effectively, and as David and I continue to make decisions regarding my ministry involvement this term. (The Sunday School workshops will still be taking place.)