Stacy, Patrick and Dana.
Stacy’s the loud one of the group. You can still hear her making slight noises as she holds her breath in concentration. It’s a slight hum. The same hum we all make and neglect to hear over the rest of our polluted world. She’s Braun-full in the way she walks at over six feet and red curly hair. Patrick is even taller at 6 foot 3 or 4 and a full build. He’s got dramatic eyebrows and a piercing at the base of his bottom lip, just above his chin. He’s all business, almost even intimidating until you give him a reason to smile. Then he cracks a biting one that would make your best look like a frown. Think of Jack from Will and Grace, but brighter. These smiles are spread liberally through his conversations. If Patrick absolutely needs to speak, he’ll do it softly and just enough for you to understand his over pronounced facial expressions and lip sinking. Then There’s Dana. Standing 5 foot 4 she looks just like Kate Hudson. She is completely silent. Unless you make her laugh, then you get a taste of the past.
If you haven’t guessed already, I am currently traveling with three deaf people I met at the bus stop in Cappadocia. As fate would have it, the two of our buses were combined at the last second and gave us a chance to sit together and talk all night. That is, write and lip sink to each other. But I have to say, sign language is extremely quickly learned if you are immersed in the three. It’s been 2 days now and I’ve stopped talking myself. For someone who loves to hear the sound of his voice as much as I do, not talking is incredible. An experience that I never thought I would get the chance to do.
It is like cheating as you learn a new language. We both speak the same language, but it’s just a matter of transmitting it to each other. For instance, they are way better at reading lips than me, but they can not rely on that completely. I can make up sign language as I go and they will tend to get my drift because they have been following the context. If we just jumped in the ocean and look at each other, they can sign me “cold” and I will understand it intuitively. If they tried to say “cold” when we were in the middle of a hot day, I would be lost. Context is everything in sign language.
It’s a great look into their world because when I am talking to them, people think I am deaf as well, because I am not making any noise. I get to see how people react to it and in Turkey, people are VERY respectful but not treating us (them) like they are idiots or anything. People love to watch us sign, but they don’t form a awkward crowd or anything. Sometimes they get free admission into places which is nice as well.
They don’t have the gift of voice inflection so they have to rely heavily on facial expressions. This means that when they speak, they have over pronounced emotions with their face. That is, unless I am just traveling with an extremely lively bunch!
Dana and Stacy are from a deaf family. It is passed on in their genetics generation over generation and deaf people tend to mary each other. Patrick is the only deaf one in his family. They are all teachers for the deaf in San Fransisco and are out for a month traveling around Croatia, Turkey and Serbia. Patrick (age 27) went on a 1 year round the world trip alone just like me 4 years ago. Stacy (age 30) loves to travel too and Dana (age 26) says she would go around the world alone if she wasn’t a girl (not because she is deaf) (who did I already mention looks just like Kate Hudson!)
Back to hanging out with these guys. Like hanging away from the tourists in a country makes you cringe when you see tourists again, I now cringe when I hear people breaking the sweet silence, even when it’s my own voice. I realize how obnoxious they can be and how much noise pollution we really have out there in the world. Ya that’s coming from me, the loud ass.
I can now enjoy the long forgotten whisper of a coke being poured into a glass. The slightest gulp of air being held when lip sinking and the demi silent moan of someone bearing down when leaning over. Isn’t it a tragedy that it takes their loss for me to appreciate what I have? I enjoy the silence, that is the silence of voices. I can move into the other world back and fourth as I please. I can also hear the sound of the waves crashing.
Dana began to lose her hearing when she was 6 and by the time she was in middle school she stopped talking to here friends on the phone. She can still hear high frequencies like a whistle blowing. Patrick was born with some hearing and is now profoundly deaf (completely) in one ear and almost in the other.
We let Patrick do the negotiating for the 4 day cruise from Olympus (where we are right now) to Fettiay. When he came back, he wrote on a piece of napkin to me “the guy thinks we are all deaf, so he’s giving us a discount because of it. You have to act deaf when we show up and pay.” I wrote back. “I’ll act deaf for the whole cruise!”
It’s a perfect opportunity to get a real different experience; a look into how someone else lives. I never thought I would like the silence so much. It’s like an all day functional meditation. I strongly suggest you take the chance, it you ever get it.
Al, I love you. Can’t wait to see you and tell you about the lopez family reunion. You know how cool Aunt Vickie is?…Well multiply that by 9 and go to ALQ New Mexico with them for a weekend. We missed you and hope to see you next year at the reunion in Ca. Hopefully around this time in summer at Big Sir. I love our extended family. You’re the best brother I ever had.
That is awesome that Patrick hooked up that discount. I have been reading this blog from the top down, after not reading it for a long time. So I was a bit confused earlier as to why you were acting deaf. Now its all coming together.
As I sit here at work with all the stresses of life here, family, kids, commitments, I can’t help but be extremely jealous. You made a good choice to do this trip when you did. Although we were all upset that you were leaving, and so abruptly, I understood that this was simply something that no one should ever pass up as an opportunity!