A Whole New World

My friend Jenny in Nairobi alerted me a few days ago that there was a team of ear doctors coming to Kisumu this week. One of our teachers at CGA has a nephew named Ian who contracted meningitis before the age of one and hasn't been able to hear anything since that time. He is now eight and in 1st grade at a special school for deaf and mute children. Along with Ian, there is a 15 year old girl from Mfangano Island who is in our football club. I have coached Dorothy for around three years now. She is not totally deaf because she can hear some sounds like when I clap at her, but she is severely hearing impaired.

We were able to get Dorothy to travel by boat to Mbita this week. So this morning we went across on the ferry with both of them and travelled to Kisumu. We met a team of 16 ear doctors who greeted us with warm smiles and began examining the kids immediatley. Within an hour, they were both fitted with new hearing aides! When Dorothy first arrived, she was amazed to see hundreds of school children who had trouble hearing. Being from the island, she had only met a couple of people in her whole life who had hearing problems like her. She felt good to know that she wasn't so different!

The minute that they fitted Ian's ear with a hearing aide and someone stood behind him and spoke, the little boy's face just lit up with a smile from ear to ear. A few minutes after getting her aides, Dorothy commented that she could hear what everyone around her was saying. When she walked into the supermarket she started complaining that the noises were too loud and had to turn the hearing aides down.

It was a whole new world that neither of them had ever experienced! What a blessing to be able to be with them during this special day.