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Washington, DC Community Initiates Deaf Man
The weekend of September 10-12, 2004 was a special NWTA in many ways. There have been unique Adventure Trainings before – bi-lingual (English/Spanish), Gateways, others with multi-cultural issues bouncing around – and now this one where one of the new brothers is deaf. Two initiated men, both educators of the deaf, were brought in from Houston (Greg Gondron) and Indianapolis (Chuck Daube) to interpret. To our knowledge this has only been done twice before (Milwaukee in 1997 and Houston in 1999).
From the moment AJ, the deaf initiate, arrived until the final wrap up meeting, Greg or Chuck was with him except during times of “essential silence” or journaling time.
While Chuck escorted AJ through the Greeting, Greg was at the table and signed directly to him while Chuck voiced for them. This was AJ’s first encounter with Greg and, boy, was he surprised! Greg also facilitated AJ’s work with Chuck voicing for the staff and initiates who were watching. It was awesome work.
There is always the worry: Will the initiate “get it”? In small groups developing affirmations and missions and shadow missions, AJ consistently was the first one done with his. He got it.
One of the challenges was how to do guided visualizations (eyes closed) with a deaf man since he’d have to have his eyes open to get the story of the wild man, for example. Just as most of us can filter out extraneous noise when following a conversation, a deaf person can do the same with visual noise. Deaf people also tend to be quite good at role playing and charades, so during the Iron John story, AJ assumed the role of each of the characters at the appropriate time, signing the dialogue that character would say completely spontaneously. At the end he said, “You know, there’s a part of each of those characters in me.” As Chuck said afterwards, “I didn’t even have that insight the first time I heard the story.” AJ got it.
During the midnight adventure in the dark (a scary situation for a deaf person without a flashlight), AJ was there encouraging his team on. He stepped through his fear and became an important member of his team. Throughout the weekend his team accepted him, supported him, and celebrated with him. It was a blessing for all of us to see.
In the Sweat Lodge Greg and AJ sat face to face on the outer perimeter with just a tiny tea candle providing the only light. But it was enough and AJ participated in each round. He got the significance of that experience too.
Having interpreters floating around required a lot of flexibility on the part of the staffing team. Thanks to all who made the weekend so special in so many ways. Going the extra mile for AJ was beneficial for all the new and old brothers. We all “got it.”
Submitted by Chuck Daube. 2004
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