So Much More than Sign Language

Just as I did last year, I have decided to enroll in the sign language classes that Scripture Union Peru offers for the months of March and April. Last year I had to enroll in the pre-basic class, and in that class we actually didn't learn signs at all. It was more about gestures and visual, non-verbal communication skills. This year I am now in level one, and I have only attended two classes so far. In the first class we concentrated on the alphabet, and in the second class we added numbers to the mix. I find myself walking around Lima and practicing signing the letters on street signs. Haha...I know I am a little bit of a nerd.

My teacher's name is Vanessa, and she herself is a deaf adult. As I walked out of my last class on Saturday, I was really moved. It wasn't so much the content that she was teaching but the way in which she chose to teach it. Vanessa does a wonderful job of incorporating her own personal experiences into the classroom. As she patiently spells words to us with her hands and teaches us new signs (10 times slower than she would with someone who already knows signs), she tells us bits and pieces of her testimony. She tells us how she was ignored at home because no one knew how to communicate with her. She tells us of all of the painful doctors visits and odd procedures that she underwent because of her parent's desire for her to be normal. She told us how her parents made her feel like she was guilty--somehow responsible for her own deafness. She told us of how she would be handed books and expected to read, or at least copy the letters even though she did not understand what the letters meant. She had a low self esteem, and she was so angry without any way to express it in a way that other people would understand.

Today she is so much the opposite. Vanessa is bright and outgoing. She is able to communicate fluently in signs, and she can read and write Spanish. She told us that as a child she could never have imagined that she would be in charge of a classroom full of hearing adults. She is so happy that by God's grace she has the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others. Most of my classmates are parents of deaf children. To see the light in Vanessa's eyes as she urges the parents to make the effort to communicate with their children and to include them with the rest of the family is truly moving.

I thank God for Vanessa and her other colleagues who are working at Scripture Union's deaf program. Many deaf people in Peru end up jobless and living on the streets with nowhere else to go. They fall into a life of drugs and loneliness. Praise God that he is using people like Vanessa to make a difference in these peoples' lives. He is using her not only as a mentor and role model for other deaf children but also as a testimony and example for these children's parents and family!