Service in the Bush

Recently we were recognized as an official sign language group. This was really encouraging, but our goal is to help more deaf ones find the truth. So we've stepped up our efforts to search for deaf in our territory. Linden, the town we live in, is divided into groups of developed lots with houses on them know as “wards”. But, as you go deeper into the wards the houses get more and more spread out until you look around and ask yourself, “when did I enter the rain forest?” Such was the case last week. We started canvassing a residential area going house to house asking if people knew of any deaf ones in the territory and before we knew it...jungle.

Fortunately, we have a sister, named Crystal, in our group who's very familiar with the territory having grown up in the area. We saw a lot of simple one or two room “squatter houses” made from scrap wood and tin. “Squatter houses” are simple houses that people erect on unclaimed land and live for as long as they possibly can without anyone claiming some legal right to their land. Crystal told us that most squatter homeowners employ an ingenious way of making sure no one takes their land from them. They plant coconut trees around their house. Since most people don't have a backhoe or heavy excavating equipment uprooting the coconut trees is an extremely difficult and expensive task. So in effect, if anyone is trying to build on squatter land they have to first find a way uproot the trees and then they can try and level the house. Most people deem it to be too much of a hassle and so the squatters are able to secure a nice life for themselves. We also found it interesting that even though a lot of people out there have no electricity running to their house it seemed like everyone had a good stereo and/or tv running off of a generator. Priorities.

While we were out in the “bush” two young boys who lived in a little house there started is follow us. We have our theories on why this happened. They were either curious, concerned about our safety, or they just didn't get many visitors in their area and were just excited to see something other than trees. In any case, they led us down to the water and entertained us by diving in and showing us how they can make bird noises and whistles with their hands. We didn't find any deaf in that area, but I placed a few magazines with a man I found out there. And if nothing else...the kids were happy to see us.