30. Carolyn

The DMI blog aims to let people know about the deaf kids, teachers, pastors, schools and churches that DMI supports in developing countries, and encourage support for them by telling their amazing stories. Please share this blog with your friends.

Carolyn is 16 years old and she has never left San Miguel, a tiny island in the Lagonoy Gulf at the southern tip of Luzon, Philippines. But today is her big day. For the first time in her life, she will, with her mentor Sarah Jane (see blog #19), travel off the island to visit DMI’s Fishermen of Christ Learning Center in Ligao. 

The journey is an arduous but exciting one. They will ride a motorbike to the boat, sail for 45 minutes to a coastal town before catching two trikes, then ride a jeepney for an hour to the school. My first question is to ask her how she found such a grand adventure. “Boring,” she said! Sarah Jane and Anabelle (the school Principal) explode in laughter. “All she said the whole way,” Sarah Jane explains, “is ‘Are we there yet?’!” There is more laughter. Seems this is a common response from kids all over the world regardless of culture, language or socioeconomic background.

Carolyn’s socioeconomic background is harsh. She lives in a tiny make-shift-looking house with her mother, her stepfather and three brothers. There are no ‘rooms’. There is no furniture. No running water. Carolyn fills out her homework sheets on a plank of wood on the bare ground. But even completing these is a challenge.

Carolyn’s educational background is harsh. She didn’t start at the school until one year ago. That’s 15 years without a Deaf education. 15 years of silence, loneliness and frustration. And when she finally did start at the school, COVID hit, forcing her into remote learning. With basic signing skills, Carolyn struggles to understand the study modules that have been so meticulously prepared for her by the staff at the school. She and three other FCLC students who live on the island gather at Sarah Jane’s house to work on them together. Sarah Jane is an angelic mentor for Carolyn, an indispensable teacher and friend because of the little support she otherwise receives at home.

Carolyn’s family background is harsh. Her family are all hearing but none can sign and little effort is made to communicate with her. As a result, she is usually left alone. While her parents go out to work, Carolyn stays at home. When her brothers go out to play, Carolyn is told to stay at home. There she does housework, often cooking for the family. But this alienation is hard. Carolyn shares her annoyance with me. “I have all these thoughts inside my head but I can’t get them out. I see everyone moving their mouths and communicating but I can’t participate. I’m always left out.”

I press her for some positives. What does she enjoy? She looks a little shy but signs that she has become a pretty good cook. Her signature dish is the upo (bottle gourd). She can cook it so that it’s really delicious. She has also taken to gardening, growing red and pink flowers but it’s difficult to get detail from her because her signing is so poor, but I press her for more. 

“What’s the best thing about being Deaf?” At this, her face lights up and she answers without hesitation. “The school!” In the shortest amount of time, Carolyn’s association with the school has brought transformation. Even with the diminished fellowship of remote learning, finally she has found a community in which she belongs and in which she can thrive. She is not alone anymore. She is happy being Deaf.

This last statement – She is happy being Deaf – is something I could never have imagined hearing before entering Deaf culture. But this is a common response, a beautiful development.

Yet there is so much more for Carolyn. 

She has never been to a Deaf church. Sarah Jane shares the gospel with her but as Carolyn has no background knowledge and limited signing skills, it’s slow work. 

But love perseveres.

The apostle Paul wrote, ““The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Last January, Pastor Arnel went to San Miguel to express his faith in love to the inhabitants of the island. There, he and others from the Deaf church went to Carolyn’s house to help repair it after it was damaged in the cyclone. With Carolyn, he met with other Deaf on the island and discussed planting a new church for the Deaf on San Miguel. And so the mission of DMI – to take education, employment and the gospel to the Deaf – continues even in the harshest of environments.

I ask Carolyn how she feels about the trip back to San Miguel. “I’d rather stay at the school,” she says. “This is my new home.”

If you would like to know how you can support Carolyn, any of the kids or teachers, or help meet any of DMI’s needs, please click on the donate button below, or mail to info@deafmin.org