Starkey Mission Day Five: After care, playing catch and finding nativities
Saturday May 13. After care patients:
The Starkey Team performed a mission back in 2015 where they fit several hundred people with hearing aids kind of like we did here this week- today was an aftercare day- AfterCare is the beautiful part about Starkey that if they didn't have I wouldn’t have come. HA are not like glasses where you can just put them on and see/ understand everything perfectly. It takes weeks for the brain to adjust to hearing sound, and even longer for speech to come. Through out this whole week I would have moments where I found myself pondering about the effectiveness of this mission- just trying to imagine what these people do when they go home and are bombarded with sound, when they start getting headaches from the overstimulation, when mothers realize their child is not going to speak right away- I wonder what goes through their minds, do they ditch the HA? Do they continue wearing them just grateful for the opportunity to hear anything at all? Starkey has a team and a method of following up with every single person we fit and have contacts for the people locally to help them order new batteries and or troubleshoot their HA, get new molds for the children ect. I thought back to the smiles of countless people, the light entering people's eyes, the grateful bows, the tear stained cheeks and just what an incredible opportunity it's been to watch lives change. Yes it's not going to be perfect, and they probably will run into obstacles but at least they know they have somewhere to go for help and that someone in the world cares about them and their hearing.
Today was probably the most difficult day as far as language barriers went for me. There was a man named Un who came into because he lost a HA and needed a replacement. As I was working through an interpreter, he kept mentioning something about his daughter that needed to be helped as well. I told him that she could wait in the line and we would help her. Then he would mention the daughter was sick and needed to hurry and then the daughter was at work and needed a new hearing aid and then that the daughter didn't want a HA. I was getting all these bits and pieces and was so incredibly confused. So we went over to the daughter to help her, we start trying to fit her when she tells us she doesn't want a hearing aid, What?! Here the dad was complaining I mean constantly nagging us for us to help her and she didn't want us to touch her.- Turns out Un had been talking about two different daughters (oh my that cleared things up really quick!!) The daughter that was at work was fit 2 years ago and needed help getting a new HA but could not come in, so they had the younger sister who was also deaf come in, who did not want hearing aids herself but was hoping just to pick up one for the sister. And she had a stomachache that she was complaining about the whole time. Oh my the poor girl!! After a little running around and confusion, we all got it figured out haha.
The most adorable little shy girl with the donut shirt and frozen shoes came into get some new ear molds and adjust the volume in her hearing aids. Every patient we saw today, we took through the same process of otoscopy. I looked in her ears and she had wax that needed to be removed (fist pump) I had hardly even touched her and she just started bawling. Absolutely terrified of us touching her ears. So we gave her a coke and had her just watch a couple people survive getting their ears cleaned out. I had switched to fitting another person while she waited, thankfully someone was able to get her ears cleaned out. I was able to help her get a new mold and clean up her aid, the mom was so thankful and again just seemed like a powerhouse mom making sure this girl got everything she needed in life. I wish I could have heard more of the children talk. I don't know if there was a cultural thing where children are not supposed to talk unless given permission or something but there was language there for this little girl, probably not age appropriate but she had something. We encouraged the mom to take her to the deaf school where they focus on acquiring spoken language along with sign for those that wanted it. With this adorable outfit she was wearing, I couldn't help but just imagine her as any other happy, sassy fun little girl. She was probably one of the more confident happy girls I saw all week. The HA she was fit with 2 years ago have been making a difference!!
As we were waiting to leave, a game of catch started (I miss playing catch so much, I don't get to play often enough!! You'd think guys would love a girl that plays catch, I'm not seeing them anywhere... maybe I intimidate them all hahaha oh my) The best part was that we were playing catch with neon green awkwardly shaped left over ear mold impression material with Bren Brittany, Larissa, and McKay. you would have thought we were little kids on Christmas haha we had such a blast kicking and throwing and attempting to see the little thing as it flew through the air. I could play catch all day. easily. We were the last ones on the bus because we just wanted to keep playing. #simplejoys.
We went to this huge outdoor market today where we all explored the similar yet different stands. I was amazed at how much stuff and how many people they could cram into such a tight area. It was quite amazing really. And the place was an absolute maze. We had to make sure we stayed close to people or I have no idea how we'd locate a lost person (our phones were completely useless here with no service and no wifi) We we to a night market down the street from us a couple nights ago where there were shops with dresses and shirts for $2.50, this market was much bigger and much more expensive. I only wanted a couple specific souvenirs over here in Cambodia. Elephant pants, something hand crafted depicting the culture or life of the people here, and a nativity. The elephant pants and I got two oil paintings that covered the first two, in a country dominated by Buddha, I wasn't sure if we'd be able to find one. Thankfully Tom and Dr. Jensen were looking for them too. And oh my, sure enough, tucked in this little tiny corner of the market we found a Christian stand!! It was absolutely amazing!! Even halfway around the world in the heart of a culture founded on Buddhism, we found Christ. And they had nativities. The woman in charge of the shop would not bargain prices down at all, I didn't even care. I just wanted the nativities. She had the most beautiful full, wood, hand carved set with wise men and all that I wanted SO bad. But it was $300. AHH. But they had these beautiful scenes set in a coconut shell that grabbed my attention immediately. I was just so happy we found some!! The Light of Christ is real. I swear this little booth was the lightest, most illuminated shop of the market.
Here they sell brand name things for super cheap, North Face backpacks, every brand of shoe, those were the main things- backpacks and shoes- and most of the stuff (actually probably all of it) is just rip off wanna-be stuff but I had to try on the orange Nikes. Oh snap. they were SO comfy. Why do I have such a weakness for Nikes?! These were so so cool. I heard the price as $13 and I spent way too much time debating whether to get them and tried to bargain them down, I realized the price they had said was $30 #deafness. For a knock of Nike, I used self-control and decided against it but man.... I loved them :).
The Starkey Team performed a mission back in 2015 where they fit several hundred people with hearing aids kind of like we did here this week- today was an aftercare day- AfterCare is the beautiful part about Starkey that if they didn't have I wouldn’t have come. HA are not like glasses where you can just put them on and see/ understand everything perfectly. It takes weeks for the brain to adjust to hearing sound, and even longer for speech to come. Through out this whole week I would have moments where I found myself pondering about the effectiveness of this mission- just trying to imagine what these people do when they go home and are bombarded with sound, when they start getting headaches from the overstimulation, when mothers realize their child is not going to speak right away- I wonder what goes through their minds, do they ditch the HA? Do they continue wearing them just grateful for the opportunity to hear anything at all? Starkey has a team and a method of following up with every single person we fit and have contacts for the people locally to help them order new batteries and or troubleshoot their HA, get new molds for the children ect. I thought back to the smiles of countless people, the light entering people's eyes, the grateful bows, the tear stained cheeks and just what an incredible opportunity it's been to watch lives change. Yes it's not going to be perfect, and they probably will run into obstacles but at least they know they have somewhere to go for help and that someone in the world cares about them and their hearing.
Today was probably the most difficult day as far as language barriers went for me. There was a man named Un who came into because he lost a HA and needed a replacement. As I was working through an interpreter, he kept mentioning something about his daughter that needed to be helped as well. I told him that she could wait in the line and we would help her. Then he would mention the daughter was sick and needed to hurry and then the daughter was at work and needed a new hearing aid and then that the daughter didn't want a HA. I was getting all these bits and pieces and was so incredibly confused. So we went over to the daughter to help her, we start trying to fit her when she tells us she doesn't want a hearing aid, What?! Here the dad was complaining I mean constantly nagging us for us to help her and she didn't want us to touch her.- Turns out Un had been talking about two different daughters (oh my that cleared things up really quick!!) The daughter that was at work was fit 2 years ago and needed help getting a new HA but could not come in, so they had the younger sister who was also deaf come in, who did not want hearing aids herself but was hoping just to pick up one for the sister. And she had a stomachache that she was complaining about the whole time. Oh my the poor girl!! After a little running around and confusion, we all got it figured out haha.
The most adorable little shy girl with the donut shirt and frozen shoes came into get some new ear molds and adjust the volume in her hearing aids. Every patient we saw today, we took through the same process of otoscopy. I looked in her ears and she had wax that needed to be removed (fist pump) I had hardly even touched her and she just started bawling. Absolutely terrified of us touching her ears. So we gave her a coke and had her just watch a couple people survive getting their ears cleaned out. I had switched to fitting another person while she waited, thankfully someone was able to get her ears cleaned out. I was able to help her get a new mold and clean up her aid, the mom was so thankful and again just seemed like a powerhouse mom making sure this girl got everything she needed in life. I wish I could have heard more of the children talk. I don't know if there was a cultural thing where children are not supposed to talk unless given permission or something but there was language there for this little girl, probably not age appropriate but she had something. We encouraged the mom to take her to the deaf school where they focus on acquiring spoken language along with sign for those that wanted it. With this adorable outfit she was wearing, I couldn't help but just imagine her as any other happy, sassy fun little girl. She was probably one of the more confident happy girls I saw all week. The HA she was fit with 2 years ago have been making a difference!!
Through the duration of the trip Larissa, the Starkey Marketing team (she was the one member of the team there and we would just call her the whole team, absolute rockstar!!) interviewed us all just sharing our experiences of being here in Cambodia. I had told her earlier in the week about my hearing loss, a little bit about my story and that doing humanitarian audiology has been a dream of mine for years. After I got back, she posted parts of my interview in a video and posted it on the Starkey Facebook page, I was not expecting that at all, she got some really neat footage of us fitting hearing aids and the people's reactions to hearing for the first time. Larissa did such a neat job with it, thank you!!
As we were waiting to leave, a game of catch started (I miss playing catch so much, I don't get to play often enough!! You'd think guys would love a girl that plays catch, I'm not seeing them anywhere... maybe I intimidate them all hahaha oh my) The best part was that we were playing catch with neon green awkwardly shaped left over ear mold impression material with Bren Brittany, Larissa, and McKay. you would have thought we were little kids on Christmas haha we had such a blast kicking and throwing and attempting to see the little thing as it flew through the air. I could play catch all day. easily. We were the last ones on the bus because we just wanted to keep playing. #simplejoys.
We went to this huge outdoor market today where we all explored the similar yet different stands. I was amazed at how much stuff and how many people they could cram into such a tight area. It was quite amazing really. And the place was an absolute maze. We had to make sure we stayed close to people or I have no idea how we'd locate a lost person (our phones were completely useless here with no service and no wifi) We we to a night market down the street from us a couple nights ago where there were shops with dresses and shirts for $2.50, this market was much bigger and much more expensive. I only wanted a couple specific souvenirs over here in Cambodia. Elephant pants, something hand crafted depicting the culture or life of the people here, and a nativity. The elephant pants and I got two oil paintings that covered the first two, in a country dominated by Buddha, I wasn't sure if we'd be able to find one. Thankfully Tom and Dr. Jensen were looking for them too. And oh my, sure enough, tucked in this little tiny corner of the market we found a Christian stand!! It was absolutely amazing!! Even halfway around the world in the heart of a culture founded on Buddhism, we found Christ. And they had nativities. The woman in charge of the shop would not bargain prices down at all, I didn't even care. I just wanted the nativities. She had the most beautiful full, wood, hand carved set with wise men and all that I wanted SO bad. But it was $300. AHH. But they had these beautiful scenes set in a coconut shell that grabbed my attention immediately. I was just so happy we found some!! The Light of Christ is real. I swear this little booth was the lightest, most illuminated shop of the market.
Here they sell brand name things for super cheap, North Face backpacks, every brand of shoe, those were the main things- backpacks and shoes- and most of the stuff (actually probably all of it) is just rip off wanna-be stuff but I had to try on the orange Nikes. Oh snap. they were SO comfy. Why do I have such a weakness for Nikes?! These were so so cool. I heard the price as $13 and I spent way too much time debating whether to get them and tried to bargain them down, I realized the price they had said was $30 #deafness. For a knock of Nike, I used self-control and decided against it but man.... I loved them :).
Comments
Post a Comment