One of the goals of the Hear the World expedition, in addition to exploring the Peruvian Amazon, is to break down the barriers of communication between individuals with normal hearing and those with hearing loss. Each day, the students on the trip listen quietly to the sounds of the jungle and list what they hear. Today, the task was to try not to listen.
Students with normal hearing were given high density ear plugs to block out all sound and students with hearing loss were asked to remove their hearing devices or turn off their cochlear implants. For once, those who take hearing for granted every day experienced for just a few minutes what the disability is like, both the good and the bad.
“It was depressing, watching the waterfall and not being able to hear the drops because I associate the two so closely,” lamented Rhea McKinzie, 18.
Michelle Tremblay felt like she could hear the drops and just associated what she thought she should be hearing with what was missing. She just created the sounds in her mind and that also scared her a little bit.
Olivia Johnson, 18, just turned inwards. “I could hear myself breathing and even the most minimal things within my body,” she explained.
But despite the initial struggle, the students with normal hearing said they eventually felt at peace when all of the sounds slipped away.
The folks who live with a hearing impairment just laughed. They know the technology that allows them to hear like everyone else is a blessing but they admit that sometimes they like to just tune it out.
“I turn it off when I’m fighting with my brother,” Jentry Taylor, 22, said.
“I tell my mom I don’t hear her. I think she’s caught on,” said Gary Quenzer, 17. “Sometimes I say I didn’t hear about my homework.”
“My dad turns it off during family vacations,” said Brian Barkeley, 20, the son of the blind and deaf inspirational speaker Bill Barkeley who is leading the trip.
Bill Barkeley just nodded and laughed. “It’s true, we have three boys!”
Watch the video for a frank discussion on what it is like to have hearing and lose it and how the deaf students have learned to cope with their disabilities. The iPod generation doesn’t pull punches and they’re not politically correct, which makes them refreshing to watch as they break down the barriers of disability.
Photo by Jo Piazza.