Photo by: cfarivar

This is a story about how the Peace Corp helped build a pipe in a village to bring in water. Ironically, while the water channeled in, communication and community gathering channeled out! Join LaRonda as she compares and contrasts this village story with the Deaf Community gathering at DeafRead.

Transcript:

Ahhhh…. perfect water…. which reminds me of a good story…..

Last night, my husband and I were sitting together, just the two of us, chatting for a long time on our date night together. My husband told me this story about a woman who had joined the Peace Corp and who went over to do some work in another country. She wrote about her experiences while she was over there.

In this third-world country, the women would gather together daily and make a 2-hour journey to their water source. They walked on together for miles, and then when they reached the water, they filled up their pots and jugs and carried them on their shoulders or heads on the long trek back to the village. When they arrived, they would pour their water from their pots and jugs into the community well. They did this everyday, walking the long 2-hour journey back and forth.

Well, the group of workers from the Peace Corp decided to teach the villagers how to set up a water flow system using a pipe that would pump the water from the river far away and bring it back to the village. This would save them time, muscle and energy and bring running water to their township.

The villagers were excited and actually happy to hear of this new system. So they all agreed to proceed. They helped the members of the Peace Corp build this new water-flow system. When it was finally accomplished, they would finally have running water coming into their village.

After the water system was built, the female member of the Peace Corp who wrote her story stayed on in the village a little longer to observe how the water system was impacting the village and community. However, she began to notice something strange was happening since the introduction of this water pipe system.

The women in this village started to become more gossipy in a malicious way. They seemed to be more angry as well. They began making assumptions about one another, talking behind each other’s back and back stabbing one another. Something had happened to change their emotional attachment and concern for one another.

What had happened, was the introduction of the water pipe system. The wonderful running water now blocked the daily interaction with one another that these women of the village used to have. It impacted and stopped their communal gatherings and daily trek they had made together to their water source.

In the past, when the women made their water journey, they would talk and talk for hours. They knew everything about everyone. They knew whose child was doing this, whose husband was doing that. They knew whose mother was feeling sick and whose sister had just given birth. They knew it all.

You see, on one hand, while that water flow system helped make it easier on the village, it actually caused a new barrier within the community.

This story made me think about the Deaf Community who gather on DeafRead. I thought about vloggers in particular. Before we Deaf people began to make vlogs, we were still pretty isolated from one another. We didn’t really have a way to connect with each other much. Well some of us did, through e-mail and then through VP (Video Phone), since it’s beginning. Using VP’s are actually similar to vlogging because we are able to see each other, visually, as in person. But before VP’s and Vlogs, Deaf people didn’t really have a communal space to gather.

But now, with the advent of VP’s and Vlogs, it’s like the Deaf Community can gather together from anywhere across the globe! Where? In “cyberspace.” Our community gathers right there in our computers! We all meet up together in that strange world. But, without that communal congregation in cyberspace, we might still be feeling isolated from one another, like the women in the village. We might make assumptions or hold suspicions about one another. We might have uncertainties about one another or doubts.

However, with a place and space to gather, like with DeafRead, in cyberspace, we have continuity within our community and the ability to stay in touch. We can remain up-to-date and know what’s up with who. Today, on DeafRead, I saw pictures of another blogger’s children. They were adorable. I also learned another vlogger wore a Pinnochio nose to a party and had a funny story to tell about it. I’m learning all kinds of cute, fun, personal stuff in my gathering space!

I think it is really cool to have a gathering place like DeafRead. Don’t you agree?

Bye. (ILY – wave)

Posted by LaRonda on Saturday, October 13th, 2007 at 8:55 pm.