This morning we had our flight to Cape town. We left Brown sugar, our hostel for the night, at 8 A.M for the OR Tambo airport. After checking our bags and grabbing some water, we departed on our two-hour flight to Cape town. On our drive to the hotel, we got to see Cape Town and drove by a van full of kids who waved at us. When we arrived at the Park Inn which was famous because over 90% of its staff were deaf. We met Wilma and she led us to our rooms so we could get ourselves settled in. Then she took us down to the parking garage which connects to DeafSA's headquarters. It stands for the Deaf Federation of South Africa, which was the back part of the hotel which I thought was cool.

We then met Jabbar, the reginal director for the western area of Cape Town. He told us about the five divisions under DeafSA and services they offer like SSI, developing resume, help with applying for jobs and interpreting services. Wilma also told us about the history of DeafSA during apartheid and how the Group Act 1963 forcefully kicked all colored and black people out of the area. All blacks were forcefully migrated and deaf students to one school a church near the airport which was owned by catholic nuns. The different schools attempted to force their students to become oral. The deaf white students become strong oral and attempts to force black students to become oral failed and lead to the birth of a mixture of BSL (British Sign Language), ISL (Irish Sign Language) and oral.

Right after apartheid ends, South Africa wanted to join the WDF (World Deaf Federation), but South Africa needed to have a deaf organization like NAD (National Association of the Deaf) with the condition that they must have at least 60% deaf people being part of the organization. After organizing the DeafSA, the WDF agreed to allow DeafSA to affiliate with WDF. Signing the charter with the founding members of DeafSA also included Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Interestingly enough, he had diminishing hearing loss when he signed the charter. After apartheid, the government feared a revolution and sold many government buildings like the current DeafSA HQ which was sold for 1000 rands which equals 10 dollars in US money. We also met Wilma's husband, Bruno, who is the national director for DeafSA. He told us a little bit about how he was part of National Theater of the Deaf in America and was impressed with how progressive America was. After the tour, we walked over to a nearby mall and ate dinner before retiring to the hotel and we all decided to go for a swim in the hotel's pool until about 8 PM when we went inside to catch up on work and sleep.

TK

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Comments:

Claire Bugen: Well I learned something new about my friend Wilma. I did not know her husband Bruno was part of the National Theater of the Deaf. Very cool that Desmond Tutu signed that charter for DeafSA.

Crystal Schwartz: Good information, thank you for sharing! Keep up the good work.

Kat Murphy: How nice it is to hear that Deaf individuals in South Africa have similar resources and support as we have here in America. Go DeafSA!

Brenda: Interesting information!

Wanda Kelley: Glad you all arrived safely. Keep up the good work!

Traci: Yes so cool about DeafSA. I didn't know. Am glad to know that there have services to help for deaf people. Thanks for sharing.

Marcus: Loved the fact that DeafSA has adjoined building to the hotel where more than 80% deaf are employed! Learned about Desmond Tutu had a partial hearing loss and for him to support DeafSA is fascinating!