Who is Disable?

In the envelop that carried the letter of success for JICA volunteer, a document on self-learning was found. JICA required me to write 2 reports on Deaf: 1. Read book(s) and write a report on Deaf and 2. Visit deaf school(s) and write a report on Deaf. I wrote the following in one of the reports: “I think that those who don’t understand pains of deaf people are the deaf, more precisely the deaf of heart.” To tell you the truth, I hadn’t known that there were so many obstacles and burdens for deaf people in life until I studied about the deaf with books and by visiting deaf schools for this occasion. But we don’t normally notice others' difficulties unless we happen to encounter with their problems. Well, even if we witness them, we may not do anything because we’re powerless to save others after all. So what can we do? And what should we do for others? Especially for people with disabilities.

By the way, do you use glasses? Does it mean you are one of people with disabilities? Fortunately I don’t. Well, I can say so right now but I “will” use glasses for aged in the not too distant future for sure. So does it mean I will be one of people with disabilities? Physically “Yes”, but socially “No”. Because there are so many people living with glasses in society, so people don’t regard them as disabled. What about people on wheel chair or people with a white walking stick? You would think that they are disabled, wouldn’t you? Namely they are physically disabled and socially too. Is it a matter of degree of disability? Or type of disability? By the way, do you watch the Olympic Games on TV and are you excited about gold medals? So what about the Paralympics? Actually mass media in Japan don’t treat them equally because viewers are not interested in the Paralympics. With or without disabilities, the value of gold medal should be the same but people don’t regard them as the same. Because of disability? Or of number of athletes? Or you compare records of them? So why?

<< Who is Disabled? >>

If you fail to see the potentials in the person but see only the person’s disability, then who is blind?

If you cannot hear your brother’s cry for help and justice, then who is deaf?

If you cannot stand up for the right of all people, then who is the cripple?

If you cannot have the patience, the tolerance and understanding for individual differences,

then who is mentally-handicapped?

Your attitude towards persons with disabilities is the biggest handicap.

 I found the above writing on the wall in the principal’s office and was so surprised by that because I wrote the same sort of thing in my report for self-learning in Japan. However to understand people with disabilities is not easy and to treat them as the same is more difficult without physical contacts with them. “To be disabled or to be, this is the question that I want to ask…” And actually the former principal was the person described as “if you cannot” and always screamed and shouted “Deaf children!!” whenever problems occurred, as if they had made up the problems because of deafness. It’s completely discrimination. The head of our school was “mentally-handicapped”, unfortunately. In general children are geniuses for making problems and giving headaches to adults. It’s the essence of children. That’s why teachers are there with children to educate and discipline them. I think that the attitude of the 3-I: Indifference, Ignorance and Irresponsibility toward others would make you disabled and bring the handicap to people with disabilities. Yet it’s not easy to change our society overnight, so what can you do in everyday life? And what will you do for others?

 

A Seed of Tampopo - Dandelion

JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) takes care of volunteers – JOCV (Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers) – very cordially, supportively and safely. Before we are officially assigned to developing countries, we have a pre-dispatch training for 65 days in Japan. And when we arrive in assignment countries, we spend a month for orientations, lectures, vaccination, courtesy calls and a homestay program in order to get used to a new environment, which is normally so different from one in Japan. During this period, we can readily get diarrhea, Malaria, homesick, depression, mad etc. without any anxieties before we start our duties. So we don’t get lot in the midst of adventurous environment. I would say that I am lucky because I was born in Japan by accident.

In the capital of Ghana, Accra, there is a supermarket called “Accra”. When we went to a courtesy call, JICA chartered a bus and we, all volunteers, were sitting on seats in frozen air-conditioned bus, watching scenes of people living life today from windows of the bus. When the bus stopped at traffic lights, we saw that people crowded to windows of vehicles to sell things. Vendors were carrying things on their heads, shoulders or hands expertly and all kinds of wares were sold like food and drink: water, juice, ice cream, fried banana, fruits, etc.; daily necessities: pen, notebook, cup, dish, bucket, dust cloth, etc.; even goods for hobby and amusement: toys, radio, books, souvenirs, T-shirts etc. In the book, “THREE CHEERS FOR GHANA!” by Robert Peprah-Gyamfi, the author calls this scene “Supermarket Accra”. When you go to supermarket, “you” normally walk around aisles, but here in Accra, “things” are going around on aisles between cars. However it’s a hard job for vendors to sell things under the burning sun with heat coming from cars. I was watching them being burned by the sun from the “cold”, imagining what if I was born under the start of the vendors. What if…

Let me continue “What if”. I was born in Japan far after the World War II, but what if I had been born before that… I was born in an ordinary family in Japan, but what it I had been born in a poor family… I was born without any disabilities, but what if I had been born under the star of Deaf… There are so many possibilities in life but I am Me as I am now. It is just “by accident”. I didn’t choose the star under which we are born. So who had decided it? Is that a decision of God? Well, maybe… I should like to extract some words of Kokuta Suda from a travel note: “Human beings are the same as ‘Tampopo – Dandelion’ indeed. We regard the soil where the seed fell on as paradise and live there. Even if we don't think it's paradise, we keep on living there bravely. That is the great thing of Human beings.” Do you know Tampopo? It’s a flower known as “Dandelion” in English. Do you know how its seeds are planted? The seeds are blown by Wind and spread out in the world, and then when they are landed on soil, they start living there, even if they don’t like that place… When you think about it, we can’t choose family, country, face, time to be born. We’re all seeds of Tampopo.

Last year, I made a video named “A Seed of Tampopo” for JHS-3 students as a graduation souvenir. And I put the message that every single person is a seed of Tampopo and whatever life is, we should live life with dignity as we are given. This is the essence of life. I’m just lucky to be born in Japan after the World War II under the star of ordinary family. It isn’t my ability, but it’s destined by the Wind that brought me onto the soil of my life. It is true that being deaf has so many obstacles in life yet it doesn’t mean that they’re either incapable nor unhappy automatically. It depends on them. All they need to do is to root deeply in their lives and pour water themselves like Tampopo around us.  

Rahina the Smile

“Did she write this? Wow, Rahinatu, that girl… And it is ‘English’ and it’s not just a copy, but she managed to express her feelings in words...”, said Fauzia, English teacher for JHS-2 and JHS-3. It was surprising news for me as well, because she couldn’t write even her name in the task... 

When I came to the school for the homestay program, I was really surprised by English words written on blackboards in classrooms. I had thought that the deaf were bad at English and students’ English ability was my anxiety, but when I saw many difficult words and complicated English there, I was relieved a bit by that “fact”. In any event, my first job was to check students’ English level. But I came to be more surprised by the result of their English: they couldn’t write and read English. I wondered, “What is this result?” It was quite simple that teachers just wrote words on blackboards, following syllabus and students just took note without understanding the meaning of words, following teachers who just followed the syllabus. And when I gave a task to write about “Introduce yourself”, some students couldn’t write even “their name” because they didn’t understand the meaning of “Introduce yourself”, which I explained in sign language. This is the “fact” in the school. 

For deaf people, English grammar is very difficult because it’s abstract; they are not good at categorizing or grouping things in one concept. For example, I, you, he, she, we, they, it are all “Subject” but for them “I” is just “I”, they don’t understand why there is another name “Subject”, which is the name of categorization, and “You”, “I” and “He” are all different but they’re all the same “Subject”, it’s extremely difficult for them to grasp the idea. And when they talk in sigh language, if they say, “My” walk, or “Me” walk, both ways work in their conversation, and rather in Ghanaian sign language “I (raise up little finger and tap chest with side of index finger)” is a bit clumsy to do, so students don’t use “I” at all in their talk. Moreover if you add past tense, future tense, adjective, adverb, and conjugation of verbs and so on, their brain “freeze” like an old computer. However English is very important for them because it’s a tool to study all subjects; sign language is based on English, and it’ll be a weapon to survive in society after school. And I teach my students: You are deaf, so you don’t have “voice”, but with English and the Internet, you can have “voice” in society. 

So I started an extra class for English afternoon to improve their English ability. However it wasn’t very easy to call students every afternoon; although I got permission from the school, it wasn’t an “official” class, so I couldn’t force them to come everyday. At maximum 20 students participated it and at minimum 1 student came for it, and Rahinatu was one of students who participated it. She is meek, modest, humble, and very “clumsy” and her smile is “perfectly beautiful” because her heart is so pure and innocent. And she is very kind, compassionated, sympathetic, especially when she takes care of small children, the atmosphere is filled with kindness as if the whole scene was covered by velvet veil of Love. Her smile is eternity. Yet she can’t survive in society only with her beautiful smile and needs to get weapons. So I always called her for the extra class and she tried to attend it.

As a mid-term test, I gave JHS students a task of essay: “A letter to a Japanese friend”, in which they wrote about themselves, Ghana, and Japan, and Rahinatu could expressed herself in it, which surprised and pleased the English teacher, Fuazia. I was very happy to see Fauzia’s smile when she read Rahinatu’s paper and her smile made Rahinatu smile when Rahinatu saw Fauzia’s smile. Smile is passed to others by smile. If you smile, I smile, and I smile and you smile. It’s just simple:)))

 Anfia 

It is a story in 2011. She was always sleeping in my class because computer was too boring to her. And my teaching way wouldn’t have been very exciting to some students in Primary-4, so I couldn’t complain to her sleeping before my very eyes. Basically I don’t really care about those who sleep in class because it doesn’t bather the class, but it is they that suffer. On the other hand, I never allow them to come late, talk to others, do any deeds that destroy “order” in class because others suffer from one’s laziness or selfishness. For I should teach them not only ICT but social behavior.

She is one of those who were brought to school behind age unfortunately and was “too old” to start in kindergarten, so she started in P-3 without basic education. With good imagination, you can see how hard her situation could be. She didn’t know how to count numbers, how to spell letters, and needless to say she couldn’t talk in sign language, either. Parents don’t know sign language so children must learn it at school. This is the typical case of deaf children who suffer from domestic discrimination. Although she is “innocent”, she has to shoulder such burden at the beginning of life.

Generally speaking, deaf people are not good at memorizing words because of the lack of hearing sense. When we memorize words, we rely on the “sound” to a great degree, though we’re not aware of it. Therefore they easily make mistakes on spelling their names, for example Drag becomes “Darg” and Network does “Netword”, which won’t happen to us. And what’s interesting is that some students can write “Mirror writing”. This ability seems to be developed as a by-product when teachers write letters in the air to teach how to write letters, which is Mirror writing from the view of students. And many students get confused with “b” and “d”, and face a wide variety of obstacles caused by deafness. That’s why MoidiB might use the capital “B”?! In passing, in authentic Ghanaian English, you must pronounce Mosque as “Moques”, ask as “aks”, Desktop as “Dekstop”, and “Cucumber” as “cuCumber”, which has nothing to do with deafness and this topic, though. Anyway her name is “Anfia” who has a beautiful and innocent smile with burdens in her shoulder.

As I mentioned above, I educate “order” in class. There was a naught boy called Abu Basheru in P-4. Although he is actually the leader of the class, his way to lead the class was very bossy more like “dictator”, and he didn’t have any sense of compassion, kindness, sympathy, like “slave owner”. There are more important to life than ability. If you are a real strong man, you know how to protect weak ones. If you exploit others with the help of power, money, weapons, or in the name of Peace, Equality, Fraternity, or God, it is just hypocrisy. In Karate, which is a Japanese martial art, there is a saying: “Karate ni Sente nashi.” – There is no first attack in Karate. You train, train and train yourself in Karate, but you don’t use it, this is the ideal of Karate. Namely to protect yourself or someone important, you have to have power; without any weapon, you cannot protect anyone. This is the real strong person, but Abu Basheru was misusing his power. So I kicked him out from my class in the rest of the 3^rd term in June in order to give him a chance to think about “real man”.

And surprisingly enough, just before the exam, Anfia came to me and begged for him to let him take the exam. She was so sympathized with his situation to take the action. I was so touched by her Coeur (heart), but I rejected it for the sake of his change. She taught me what real kindness was. In truth, her real name is “Anifa” but she spells Anfia, swapping “f” and “i” due to deafness. Yet my teacher who taught me “real man” was “Anfia”, who is so kind, compassionated and sympathetic.