Your questions answered!

Today I was reflecting with some friends about the time I woke up to three lovely girls in my hostel room in Budapest packing their bags... When I looked over they mouthed an apology for waking me and I mouthed back an "It'a okay" so we didn't wake anyone else in the room talking out loud. We continued the mouthed conversation thing asking the usual, "Where are you from? How long have you been travelling? Where are you heading?" etc, etc, until one of the three girl's friends came into the room. Turns out the whole mouthing conversation thing was actually because these girls were deaf... I felt stupid...

Anyway, these ladies inspired me because I thought it was totally dope that four deaf girls were travelling Eastern Europe together! I have been trying to stay in touch with them and the other day I got an email from one of them...

She had mentioned that she had been partying with friends and that the music was really loud. I wrote back to ask her how she knew it was loud and she said that deaf kids can hear the music if its REALLY LOUD otherwise they just feel the vibrations. (That's also apparently why they tend to like anything with a deep beat). She said there are also some awesome deaf dance groups and that some of them even write their own music, (but she is unsure who sings it...).

I also asked my friend how deaf kids chat in bed at night, or if they can... She said that people usually fingerspell using blind language, (like Helen Keller) or when there is enough light at night, you can just get close enough to someone's face and lipread what they are saying or see what they are trying to sign.

Just thought I'd share some info to answer those nagging questions we have all wondered at one time or another...

raff