About ears-donna
How can I summarise myself. A perpetual traveller who has found a home away from home in a country that I hadn't ever heard of before I first came here.So how did I end up in a country I had never heard of before travelling here. I blame David Pither, president of EARS inc a Christian organisation that trains and equips people to carry out audiological wrok in various countries. David casually said to me one day that they needed a Paediatric audiologist over here to run some training. So when I took 200 off and decdied to dedicate a year to volunteering in different countries for EARs it was not surprise he suggested here. When I first came to DR it was for three months to train a couple of guys and now I am back and setting up a University course and expanding that original clinic.
I want to train people to test hearing, fit hearing aids and to work with hearing impaired people to allow them to fulfil their potential. I hate that the kids we end up seeing here are often 11 or 12, illiterate with severely affected speech and language, before they get even a hearing test. I am very excited to be here and to have the support of people at home. I am a missionary, but I believe all Christians are as God's presence is clear through our lives and actions.
This is a country with some really really rich people and a lot of really really poor people. I am constantly being surprised by the generous nature of some people and the selfishness of others. They speak Spanish which leads to plenty of funny things as before coming I had some basic present tense. I am a person who loves to talk with friends and who now finds herself stuck looking for the Spanish words to express all the thoughts she used to just be able to say. You can imagine how limiting that feels at times. But at least now I need to think before I speak. Although less each day as my Spanish increases. The problem for me is still those verbs I end up telling people about the wrong person and time, all very confusing when the verb has so much reponsibility in the sentence.
My Travel Map:
