Life in Eureka

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.

Imagine how much do you see or heard the headline “accident on the road” on the new bulletins, radio, online newspapers even hard copy newspaper daily?
Since moving out to Eureka 7 months ago, I notice many drivers drive passing me or passed next to our home daily, are crazy enough to take over or to drive more speed daily. We live next to the State Highway 26 between Morrinsville and Hamilton City.

The life of State Highway 26 can be boring or exciting times for everyone who lives around Eureka, Morrinsville, Newstead and Tauwhare. Recently over the last three months there were 3-5 accidents along State Highway 26 and the nearest location was the most popular spot – Hardbottle Road. A truck with a trailer caught on fire in the trailer and a company car killed a couple drivers. I recalled there was a power cut along Holland Road in the early hours of the morning. A car smashed into a power pole and caused the power cut around the rural country.

When I drive along the open stretch road and many ‘stupid’ drivers decided to over take the long stretch road by driving over 120kph. That was the most dangerous and stupid to do that… It amazes me that there were approximately once every 3 drivers to pass along State Highway 26. The reality of the speed area is 100kph on the state highway motorway. In the ‘back bone’ of the rural roads, it is the same story and many local drivers drive over 100kph in the quiet open farm roads. These are pretty isolated places in the rural ‘back bone’ roads.

There are a couple rural schools along the road – Tamahere-Newstead Primary School, Eureka Primary School and Motumaoho School. The speed zone is 60kph. Drivers still drives up to 80-100kph if there is no traffic police watching. Many times I see a traffic police officer parking near LIC/Dairy Research Centre and this place is definitely a worst black spot area due to high rate of car/truck/van accidents even cyclists for many years. There were several drivers killed in the intersection of this area.

How can we prevent these stupid drivers? There is nothing we can do for them and it is simple tool for every drivers – to learn and keep safe through education.

When I was young and spent my childhood times with my late grandparents – Bibby and Shorty with their sons who raised farming, butchery, carpentry and possum culling. My uncle and aunty were one of them who used possums something useful ways such as to keep the orphan young possums until they are big enough to released, or to skin them out as hides and all the furs into clothes. My uncle was a possum culler through the council even he was a butcher as a homekill (cows and other animals). His wife threaded furs into thread of possum thread that spun on the spinning wheel. How I remember that when I saw her doing it every time I visited her. She turned thread of fur into wool, then into clothes such as jerseys.That was a long time ago where people did not think about using possum furs into clothes or gloves. Today there are many clothes even gloves made from possum furs. As well, possum pies!

Recently in the early hour of this morning, our dogs caught one young possum who entered the sunroom of our house. We have not see any possums around here since we moved but we saw hit and run possums on the road side along State Highway 26. Our dogs had been really exciting to have close encounter possum..They did not mean to attacked or to kill them.  We have no problem with this one and we often get annoying with pest possums becoming destructing in anyone’s garden, native trees and among other things.

Our neighbour – C Duncan who runs the petrol station laughed when Rusty told him while filling up the petrol. Duncan said there are plenty of possums around where people likes us to hate it or to love it.

I thought about rats or mice too and they are also pests. They are becoming the habits of chewing and wreaking everything when they try to get inside the house, barn, garages carports, rubbish bins, water pump house and the list so on.

Well, looking back in my childhood with duck shooting, encountered with possums, rats/mice during the school holidays with my grandparents did not faze me as all. I have had a wonderful times and does not put me off when coming to see possums, rats or mice again in the present times. Life goes on……… We learn to live with it – to love it or to hate it.

Here is one of the book about Eureka, Waikato.. There were a wide range of families living in Eureka back to 1860’s. Hinton family were one of the family came out to live here. This photo showed Thomas and Nelly Hinton were the longest residents in Eureka. Geoff Hinton who related to Thomas and Nelly, and another female family members who married to Tims’s family are the only family still here. My descendent – Joy Yates nee Hinton and her parents were James Hinton and Ada Henwood. James was related to Thomas Hinton as a brother of the large family. James and Ada moved away to Ngaruawhia and raised a new life there. Ada’s twin sister and her husband joined with them because they were very close knit family. So Joy was my great grand aunty who married Fredrick Yates. My father’s mother – Hilda Watkinson’s parents were Henry Watkinson and Alice Yates. I often spent times with Fred and Joy along with my grandmother Hilda (Biddy) during the school holiday and we talked about farming, old days and gardening. Joy often spoke of her father and other families of Eureka especially Tom (Geoff’s father?) These families were not close to James and Ada and the twin sister and the husband since James and the family moved away. there is an old homestead up the road and the second old homestead further out was burnt down. To me in here, it made me feel like a connection to this home here again.

Life in Eureka is full of surprise here.. Each days passing and somethings little or big throws us. Today we are half way through winter season and in the garden there are many flowers blooming. It is only winter flowers which I love seeing and smelling throughout bare winter season. Imaging pictures of flowers blooming sooner or later,  I better get to work on my garden projects here.

Learning more about my ancestors who lived here back to 1860’s. Hinton family was one of the first family got the land from Gordon family after the Maori War in Waikato. Gordon family subdivided the largest properties including Gordonton section into smaller section such as farming.

Farming, butchery, carpentering and labouring life has been in our bloods for many years and I was one of them. But I grew up in the city of Hamilton. Being deaf does not stop me from doing anything and I alway go out and do exploring, learning, problem solving and helping other people.

Today the weather is changeable – windy, cold and some small sunshine over Eureka. Our home is facing north where winds blows this way. Sunshine in the north facing, are brilliants and for our gardening. Over the last few weeks, Eureka received frosts. That goodness, my vegetable garden has been almost finish and paving for new vegetables in the coming of Spring. Mustard and other seeds had been planted in the gardens and it will be ready for turning over the old soils into fresh fertiliser soils. But not today or next week….

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HI

I am deaf lady who living in Eureka and it is in the Waikato area. Life can be rewarding by daily to daily since I moved to here from the big city of Hamilton, New Zealand.. From time to time, I noticed there had been so many interesting life since November 2014. I would like to share my experience or thoughts of Eureka and surrounding Waikato.