April 4th, 2015 by Rachel | Tags: Peace Corps | 1 Comment »
“…you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
– Steve Jobs
I don’t like to think that one person’s life is changed by a single person. Every person’s life is influenced by various connecting dots. When I think of connecting dots, I think of Steve Job’s commencement speech at Stanford, “How to live before you die.” He explained that there would have been no Apple if he had not taken a calligraphy course or dropped out of college or left Apple for a period of time and returned to Apple.
I like to think that my journey in growing up with hearing loss involved many connecting dots. It all began in when my parents first learned about my deafness at a hospital and met an audiologist named Barbara who whispered into my mom’s ear and said, “Go to Lea.” Shortly after my diagnosis, my grandfather connected my mother to another mother of a deaf child, Esther, who told her to visit a therapy center. The center then also recommended Lea too. My parents then eventually took me to Lea, who was a therapist to teach me how to listen and speak. Then a four-year old girl named Krista received a cochlear implant, a technology created by Graeme Clark along with Jim Patrick. This led her therapist, Judy, to tell Lea about the technology and the team at New York University, which included a surgeon and an audiologist. Just when I was still unable to use my voice and my parents were considering sign language, Lea then told my parents to go to NYU and look into the technology. At NYU, while my parents met with the surgeon, Noel, and audiologist, Bill, they also met a four year girl with a cochlear implant, Caitlin, who was speaking and hearing well. Keep in mind that this was in 1989 when the multi-channel cochlear implant had not yet been approved by the FDA for commercial use in children and thus, fewer than 200 children in the United States had the technology. My parents had to grapple with the decision as to whether or not it was worth having me be part of the clinical trial. However, seeing a child hearing and speaking in person put an end to my parents’ hesitation. A couple months later, Noel then operated on me to insert the technology into my head. Bill then activated my cochlear implant a month later. With the help of Lea and my parents, who trained me to hear and speak, I found my voice a few months later. Bill continued to program my hearing for another several years. Then when my family relocated to another city, I continued my therapy and made progress with a new therapist, Mary Ann, and also eventually with a new audiologist, Jolie. Throughout my schooling years, I continued to thrive with the support of many teachers. Each of these people and events and also an item were a dot. Without one of the dots, my life would have been altered. As I have often said, it took a village to raise me. This situation is exactly why I believe in team work and no person or event or item can single-handedly change one person’s life. Every person was a collaborator in contributing to changing my life for the better.
Rachel at age two years old working with Lea who told her parents about cochlear implants.
As a volunteer working in a community, I see myself just as one of many dots. I’m just a collaborator and team player. I’m not a leader at all. I have no right to dictate to the locals on how they should do the projects or give myself all the credit for a success of a project. Research studies have shown that when foreigners fund 100% of the projects in developing countries, the communities are not motivated to maintain the projects and collaborate with the foreigners. However, when the communities fund part of the projects, they are far more motivated to collaborate with the foreigners and maintain the projects.
My work has been so successful so far because I have the most motivated work partners who are driven to improve the quality of life for persons with disability. I was recently able to complete my Community Needs Assessment successfully because my work partners helped me find persons with disability throughout the city of Bamenda and its surrounding areas. They also accompanied me to help translate between grammar English and Pidgin. I absolutely cannot take all the credit for the success in writing my Community Needs Assessment. If one of my work partners were not involved, I likely would have struggled in completing the assignment.
Left to Right: Ruth, Hilda, and Samuel – My three very motivated work partners.
My work partners and I recently successfully put up a photography exhibit at the Congress Hall in Bamenda in honor of International Women’s Day. Two of my work partners and a few other women with disability reached out to potential donors in their community to raise funds for the exhibit. Two of my work partners recruited women with disability who then recruited more women with disability to be models in the photo exhibit. While I took the photographs, one of the work partners went to the print shop to print the photos. Another work partner took the photos to the Congress Hall and hung them up. Our photo exhibit happened simply because my work partners and other women with disability took a piece of responsibility and collaborated together.
I’m currently working on a malaria project that involves in helping persons with disability become better educated about malaria. One work partner has taken the responsibility of reaching out to disability-related organizations about my giving a workshop at one of their association meetings. Another work partner is coordinating the net distribution. Another is working on creating a radio program about malaria issue in the disability community. With this project, I have made sure that my community is very heavily involved in the project. It is not only because I want to see success. It is also because as I am constantly thinking about how my work can live on in Cameroon when I return to the United States in 20 months, I believe that by having my community being involved in my projects, I am also helping them learn about how they can initiate projects on their own when I am no longer in Cameroon.
1 Comment
Kay Kershman
April 6, 2015 at 3:13 pm
You have no idea how proud I am of your attitude. I completely agree that life is a series of dots. I would never had obtained a college degree or a Masters Degree had I not had teachers and others along the way who helped me achieve my goals. This also true of other facets of my life. If I am correct, your see life as a “glass half full” rather than the reverse which has helped you accomplish so much. I know the people you work with all very very glad that you appeared on the scene.