I was born deaf by a rubella when New Zealand was the last county during the pandemic of rubella between 1962 and 1965 starting in Europe and spreading to the USA. The first diagnose as a clinical description of rubella was in 1740 by Friedrick Hoffmann and there were two more men – de Bergen in 1752/Orlow in 1758 confirmed the rubella. In 1814, George de Maton suggested that rubella were a disease distinct form both measles and scarlet fever. All these men were German and they called this disease ‘German Measles’. Then a British surgeon – Henry Veale who worked in India and there was an outbreak in India. He coined the new name ‘rubella’ from the Latin word which meaning ‘little red’.
The nature/essence of a person as myself, is the journey of my life in the Waikato area and many other places around the world. From the early childhood of 18 months old, i was diagnosed deaf when my family members noticed my hearing and speech were not developing as every children. This was the first stage of my journey as a deaf person in the hearing family. I never understood and realised that I was deaf until I reached teenager. Something made me to realise that I was actually deaf at the high school. I am not disappointed that I am a deaf BUT I am just like everyone who speaks and hear the sounds. I am happy where I am fit in my life. I believe that God has given me the gift to use to teach other people to understand what deaf is, how to communicate with deaf people or hearing impaired people and how can I use my skill by learning and able to try something different approach in my life. It is not a pity or feeling sorry for any deaf people by judging them. The most important skill/tool is to help or to teach them by becoming independent than dependent deaf person. I alway find a way by working out the problem or asking someone to teach me from the early stage of my life. I was thankful for my family to be there but I know that i alway keep asking them what they were saying on TVs, radio, because we did not have closed captioning on tv or interpreters in the old days.
The only things I notice something different in my journey of life, were silence, communication and putting/taking off my pair of hearing aids every days. Constantly my families were always there when we go out on a holiday, duck shooting and farming and they were looking out for me. I recalled my sister played the recorder right against my ears and it was some kind of experiment whether I can hear or not. I am not a fan of a clarinet when my sister played it for her music. In the photos, there was an old fashioned hearing aid and this old hearing aid was the worst and ugly type to wear in the old days. We did not have a flash hearing aids like today in the old days. I hated it when I wore it because of the sounds were strange to me and I couldn’t understand where the nosies coming from. One night or day I tried to flush hearing aids down in the toilet. Didn’t work out. Today I am wearing my ‘past by date’ hearing aids which due to renew time once every 6 years. In a couple weeks to go, I am looking forward to a new pair hearing aids because I need some security of daily life out in the rural country and my works involving with people with disabilities and their safety.
In the silence life, it can be great for me where there are no loud noises or even a tiny annoying noises like buzzing, recurring noises of surface. Every night times, I don’t wear them in bed because my body needs to rest after a whole day by lipreading people where I am working, doing activities out in the garden, driving on the road, around the house. During the days, in me – monitoring, watching, observing is where I am working in the environment by picking up all kind of sounds in the background or face to face. I keep picking up any new sounds that I never come across and I have to find it. If I can’t find it and I will ask my partner where the new noise coming from. Often there are strange noise which i don’t recognise like behind the bathroom wall or too quiet for me to hear. Raining on the roof can be nice for me, but not to other people i know.
In the city of Hamilton, there has been increasing growing of transports, people walking on foot traffics, loud conversation in the offices, cafe where there are too many noises for them, noisy neighbours, loud music even raps/heavy metal music, dogs barking, cats fighting and so on. Yep I can hear these kind of noises. But behind me, it is a risk because I can not see something behind me without hearing aids. Today there are many new kind of sounds in cars due to new technology e.g low horn beeping, car being drive off. It can be disturbing daily routines for everyone even troubling in sleeping. I recalled one time when my partner were away and the dogs were barking at some strangers – taggers and cats fighting in the street. It was on a rubbish day in the early hours of the morning. I woke up when the dogs barking something differently way and I was so tired. I realised that there were visitors at the early hours – 1am knocking on the door. It turned out two police officers checking on me. The new neighbour – a solo mother with foster children didn’t realised that they were living next door to a deaf person with dogs. She was worried about my dogs and if I am okay or not. She rang the police to check it. I simply told the police officers that my dogs are guard dogs during the night when my partner was away and it was a rubbish day where cats/dogs looked for food scraps, animals fighting and taggers running down to the park or fighting. That was a life in the street. The police officers understood and left my house.
In the rural country, it is a nice break and peaceful sounds of ducks, cow mooing out in the fields, birds flying and making tweeting sounds on the trees, leaves blowing like rattling noises. It is not alway too quiet for me because I am use to it. On the other side of our home, it is a state highway 26, people travelling to Morrinsvile or other places and we can hear the traffic such as tractors, police/fire engines/ambulance, large machinery trucks daily. These kind of sounds are not loud to me and it does not bother me. It is a nice peaceful life for me and I realise how much different sounds I missed out in the rural country. A few new neighbours are learning to understand me when I meet them e.g. Colin who runs the petrol station and he found me an interesting deaf person who can speak well than his family member who also have cochlear implant and does not speak well, Katie who lives up the road from us, realised that I am deaf when the dogs were barking and attending to me. She was not sure if our dogs will attack strangers or not. I told her that our dogs are guard dogs and letting me know that something is not right where I am in danger. Mitchell is another one as a share milker for his boss up the road and he notices we have dogs in two different kind of job roles for me – guard dogs and pet dogs. They are learning to understand that our dogs are protecting me when my partner is away.
Many Deaf people does not wear hearing aids because they believe hearing aids is a medical thing. They can’t hear any sounds around the city or at their home but they do pick up by feeling vibration sounds. This is another type of sounds that we including myself uses every days life. There is another way of sound which called visual sound e.g. flashing light. The flashing light comes in many ways of communication e.g. fire evacuation, baby crying, visitors uses the door bell, phone/fax ringing, smoke alarm signal and so on.
I don’t have these kind of equipments out in the rural country now but I used to have a few equipments in the city. Now I have got two dogs and they helps me around in the garden and in the house. I kept my special equipments to use something for the future.
Life in Eureka 