Communication

I just want to give a shout-out to being able to speak and hear.

We have a couple different families who are deaf that come in to our office.  Both parents in both of these families are deaf.  One family has all hearing kids while the other family doesn't have kids.  We try to take care of their needs by writing everything down or making sure that we move our lips so lip-reading is possible.

I am one to speak with my hands and I think that throws everything off.  When our deaf patients are there, I make a conscious effort to hold my hands down at my sides; this causes me to shake my head in weird ways to emphasize what I am trying to get across.

It takes me back to my greenie months where I had no idea what people were saying to me.  They could be as concise as they wanted, and speak as loudly as thy thought necessary, but there was still NO WAY I understood the gibberish that came out of their mouths.

In the end, the only way that I was able to communicate was by learning their language.  I had a few awesome companions that learned enough English to give me a break, but the majority of the time I was communicating in a way that was not my own.  Not to say that that wasn't the point; people are supposed to learn the gospel in their own language and, as a missionary, it was my calling.

It makes me think about how it must feel to live in a hearing society and have to try to conform to that method of communicating.  There may be a chosen few outside of your immediate circle who can understand and speak with you in a like manner but that is not as common as having to try constantly to bridge that gap of understanding.

Who knows, maybe I'm completely off on my assessment of the situation.  Obviously, I am not deaf (or mute--far from it!).  I am grateful for all my senses.  Those that work properly and those that don't but can be fixed (eyesight--I am BLIND without my contacts/glasses).  They all make it that much easier to communicate.