Saturday, September 11, 2010 2:02 AM
(Source: Belfast Telegraph) Deaf Talkabout is running down and over the next few weeks I would like to look back on some of the wonderful experiences I’ve enjoyed researching and writing for the column over the past 28 years. My travels have taken me to conferences and deaf schools and universities in the USA, Canada and Japan and sign language facilitated conversation with deaf people in European countries such as Holland and France. Their signs are different from ours, but we soon got the hang of them. The language barrier hardly bothers deaf people.
Where holidays are concerned, Evelyn and I are in wholehearted agreement that our trip to Israel and Egypt some 15 years ago was the most memorable of all. The trip was organised by a Christian organisation from England and, after meeting with other deaf folk from Scotland and England at Gatwick, we flew to Tel Aviv and then spent the rest of the tour travelling from town to town with our guide and a couple of interpreters.
It was great to feel we were following in Jesus’ footsteps. We walked round the walls of Jerusalem and saw the place where He is reputed to have been crucified, visited Bethlehem and Nazareth and many of the other towns mentioned in the Bible, met a deaf man working as a missionary and teacher to young deaf people, explored the bazaars on the narrow streets and soaked up the unforgettable atmosphere of the place where Jesus lived and died.
Much of Israel is still covered with sand and on the wide roads of modern Israel our journeys by bus from one small town took only ten minutes or so; we couldn’t help thinking that the same journeys in Biblical times would have taken most of the day.
The coach took us to Egypt for the final three days of that holiday and we were put up in a comfortable hotel on the main street of the capital city, Cairo, with its teeming multitudes and almost unbelievable variations in living standards. Families were living in ramshackle huts only a short distance from our hotel.
The Pyramids are situated just outside the perimeter of the city and we tramped around them baffled at how these amazing structures were constructed and the huge stones moved into place.
Our interpreters accompanied us on all these outings, passing on information from the guide and helping with communication in the shops we visited and visits to places like the Garden Tomb and Sea of Galilee. Our deafness was no barrier at all and it’s an experience we’ll never forget.
We also spent three weeks on a course with a group of English deaf in Gallaudet University in Washington, the only university in the world specifically geared toward deaf people, exploring the way things were done in the USA and discussing results with the scholars and tutors.
The visit is especially memorable to Evelyn and me because on a free day from studies we flew to New York with our friend Wesley Kerr, walked down Fifth Avenue and took the express elevator to the top of the World Trade Centre with its stunning views of the city.
The building is of course no more after the terrible events of 9/ 11, but I still have the photo of windblown Evelyn and me on the rooftop.
During that break in New York we were invited to stay a few days in the home of Michael Schwartz, a deaf lawyer in the city, and as they are a Jewish family we were invited to join them in their celebration of the Passover feast.
Michael and his brothers took turns at reading extracts from the story. It was all done orally and we followed by lip-reading and a little signing from Michael and his mother when needed. The feast went on for nearly three hours and was intensely moving.
It’s memories like these that make a holiday so unforgettable.
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