Äänetön saari

by Raija Nieminen

Raija Nieminen, a deaf woman from Finland, had been leading a very full life as both a librarian and mother of two children. Then her husband Jukka won an exciting new job designing the harbor in the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia. Raija suddenly needed to start her life over again in a small, hot, developing country where both the hearing and deaf populations used languages foreign to her.Voyage to the Island recounts the remarkable story of how she adjusted to a strange, exotic island, first by seeking out other deaf persons and learning their sign language. Later, she met Alfonso, a deaf child and an orphan, and realized that he was only one of many deaf children who needed her help. Soon, Raija was teaching at the island's school for the deaf.Her vivid stories of daily frustration mixed with moments of exhilaration at the school make Voyage to the Island an unforgettably moving book. It becomes even more poignant against the backdrop of her own accomplishments as a deaf person advocating complete communication among all people in all communities.

311 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Robin Mandell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating red. A small but important piece of Deaf history.

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating memoir in many respects. The author, a deaf woman from Finland, spent several years in St. Lucia in the 1970s teaching at a school for deaf children. The deaf were treated very badly in St. Lucia and it was assumed they couldn't learn, so Raija's students came to her having never learned sign language or lip-reading or writing, and thus being very difficult to teach. Raija wrote about the school in compelling detail, as well as her own difficulties being deaf in a hearing society. She was more fortunate than most because she had been born with good hearing and gradually lost it until she became totally deaf as a young adult. But she could talk and read lips because she had once been able to hear.

Raija also sort of adopted a deaf street urchin, who stayed at her house for over seven months and was treated like a son. I think the boy might have had Reactive Attachment Disorder. He certainly was a great challenge -- from what she describes, I think I would have wanted to strangle him very quickly.

I think this memoir could be of interest to a lot of people. It provides a great description of deaf culture and the challenges of deafness, of being a foster parent to a special needs child, and also the island culture of St. Lucia.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting glimpse to St Lucia in the 1970s. Raija was a Finnish lady who became deaf in her teens, and spent a few years as an expat with her husband in St Lucia. She volunteered in the deaf school there, and the book chronicles that. Good insights also about what it’s like to be in the gray area of hearing bad and deafness, or the hearing and deaf worlds. and communication tips, and observations about deafness and cultures. i hope a lot has changed in the past 40 years

[Sanna ☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mielenkiintoinen kirja jossa pohditaan miten voi lukea ja olla kieltä jos ei ole kuullut sanoja. Mutta viittomakieli on oma kielensä.

[Meh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book some years ago and I did enjoy it, especially since it is set in the homeland of my father. I read as many books as I could about and written by deaf individuals.

I was just reading several descriptions of it on Amazon and was a little disturbed by the way the island was depicted.

It is not a strange place it is a place where people live. I have an extremely large family that lives there.

In one particular instance she mentions a boy coming down from up in the mountains and I believe it's someone who's actually related to me. My grandfather was known as the grandpere of the island.

At the time she was visiting the island, my grandfather had, I believe, something like 100 grandchildren and maybe great-grandchildren. I was only 17 and none of us had kids yet. My father was one of eight brothers and two sisters.

So when I say there are a lot of us there are a lot of us. Some of us visit the island frequently some of us live on the island and some of us live in United States and in Great Britain and around the world.

I worked with the deaf and hard of hearing for 20-25 years and yes there are many countries in which the deaf are not treated particularly well or educated particularly well and guess what that includes United States Great Britain and France ie first world countries.

Deaf people are still being educated in this country graduating from high school with a third to 5th grade reading average so this is not something that is only exclusive to so-called developing countries.

I've had many clients from countries around the world who did not receive proper education; however, they quickly picked up American sign language.

Showing how intelligent they actually are and are only victims of poor educational systems around the world.

America still hasn't gotten it right in the year 2024. Often I would send them to the state school for the deaf and they would learn sign language there as well as from the local deaf community. I had clients with whom I could not communicate and was able to do so within 6 months time.

At any rate this is a good read from another perspective and of course it had a personal interest for me not only because of my interest in deafness but my own fluency in sign language my contact with the deaf community having worked with the deaf community as well as being married to a culturally deaf man for the last 33 years.