I recall it all started when I was about six years old, and it happened when I was running around to get things done for my mom. On this particular day, my mom had just come back from her hometown and as expected, we were all happy because she would have brought back some goodies.
My mom then asked me to help her share what she bought with our neighbors. After having finished sharing the goodies, the last person was calling me to come and take the bowl but I was playing with some of the kids and I didn't hear her when she called. She went and reported to my mom that she was calling me and I didn't respond to her call. My mom now called me and I answered. But she was not satisfied with the development, so when my dad returned home from work that evening, she still told him what had transpired about my not hearing properly.
Later, my dad took me to a church, I simply can't tell what the whole wahala was all about, but with age and time, I think I now understand that the “church” was a place one can find out how what has happened or will happen.
When we were there, I could remember been thrown into a house covered with smoke, fearful of the smoke, I ran out of the place only for my dad to run after me, where can my tiny leg run to now? My dad caught me and took me inside again with himself there. That was how I was just seeing people waiting for their own time to “consult” the Great Oracle until it got to our time to be attended to.
The man abi is it, woman, again sef told my dad that my “issue” was from his village and that he should take me to the village first thing in the morning. But the next day, my dad didn't do as he was told because he said he didn't believe in those things. Rather he took me to a hospital to find out what was wrong with my ears, but there was nothing all the doctors could find wrong.
Many tests were conducted most times leaving me scared with their big injections on my ears...lol! That was how we started going from one hospital to the other, from church to the other. It became the order of the day for me!
The fact remains that pastor after pastor kept saying at the same time that someone from my fathers was responsible for my hearing problem. But my dad would hear nothing of that.
The problem grew worse by the day and eventually I was sent out of school in my primary one because I couldn’t hear the teacher. In all of these, my parents spent millions on my hearing condition, even with that my parents did not give up. and I was home for nine yrs and later after the end of the nine yes I wa sent to Enugu state where I did my primary education, after my primary education I came back to port Harcourt where I did my secondary school in Hallel college secondary school, graduated from high school in 2012 and 2014 I gained admission into the river state university, in 2015 where I was sent out on the ground of my hearing condition, because they feel I can't cope and we did everything for them to take me in but they did not want to listen, so we sue the university, that was on my victory that I was asked to start from 100 level, but now I am a graduate.
MY CHALLENGES
I encounter challenges daily but the most telling is discrimination, abuse, difficulty in getting a job. I have even been laughed at.
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS
1). I find it challenging when I attend parties and though I can’t hear the music and trying to dance to it is very tough. Also, when people try to talk to me but I can’t respond as expected it makes me feel left out. At other times, people may greet me and when I can’t hear them, they think I am a snob. This leaves me feeling bad.
2). My education has suffered because of no specialized hearing aids at school. During lectures, I struggle with hearing and most lecturers don't care. I usually struggle to ensure I get the notes from my course mates...even when there is a test I find it hard getting the questions when dictated leaving me to sometimes end up not writing the test.
3) My transportation has been a nightmare. I am lucky to have escaped accidents, suffered abuses, especially from bus conductors when they demand money and I didn’t get to see them doing so.
OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES. There are many ways I have overcome the challenges.
It has been an uphill task in tackling the challenges my hearing impairment brings my way. I can only say it has been by the help of God; His grace is what keeps pushing me through. There have been times I feel like giving up, to stop living, but at such times God’s grace speaks for me as I am encouraged by great women and men, some that I have never met, urging me never to give up, because there is always light after the darkest night.
I have come to realize that in life we have to focus on whatever problem we find ourselves in. It is a fact that if one fails to focus, one will be lost and nobody can focus for you. My motto has remained: NEVER GIVE UP!
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