Five-Star Disability

My dear readers!

You think I’ve gone and left you?

Well, it is far from the truth!  Last week I was in Winnipeg for the Second annual Canadian DeafBlind Camp, and I had a blast!  This camp is unique because it brought together people from across the country for a week of fun, games, learning and friendship!  Oh, did I mention that campers were DeafBlind, with Intervenors, Interpreters and others to make communication smooth and learning accessible!

One of my friends asked me, on the final day of camp, what was my highlight of the week?  And I thought, and thought, and replied after thinking some more; the first highlight for me was Seeing & Meeting many new and old friends!  The second highlight was Seeing DeafBlind Smiling more often, for no apparent reason!  This inspired me!

How can this be?  Many DeafBlind are isolated due to inability to hear and see what is happening in their environment; They missed the visual cues from a friend to avoid that path, they didn’t hear the water still running and the sink overfilled (myself…), They didn’t see or hear the car approaching, On I could go on… The point being, for one week, everyone was able to be involved, to learn, all because of Intervenors, Interpreters and other individuals who worked hard to support the DeafBlind people in attendance!  Some of whom do not have intervenors in their home area!

I can account meeting one friend I’ve known on Facebook for years; I found him that first night, we chatted.  He was wearing comfortable clothing from home, sorta drab in my opinion, we had a lovely chat yet he didn’t smile very much!  An hour later, I said good night, hit the hay, exhausted!  Two days later, I found him again, he had changed!  He ditched the drab clothes, had on a new hat and best of all: a megawatt smile that never left his face!

I want to ask you, What happened?  Why did his mood change?

My only disappointment was that I could not keep a live blog happening DURING the Camp!  I brought my phone & my BlueTooth keyboard with me; as technology has an insane habit of doing, it froze on me!  I was not able to be keep a running tab of what happened at camp!

Now, that I am home, I am going to fill your newsfeed with new articles!

(I gotta work on my conclusions!)