While working on Merricks Beach, we spent the entire week weeding, cutting down small trees and cutting down fences to preserve the area alongside the beach. Working in this area was lovely. The beach was practically deserted with it being winter. We were able to appreciate the fresh sea air and the sounds of waves as they…. well ok, wouldn’t have been able to appreciate the sounds that much!
The three of us stayed in a beach house for the week with Tim, our team leader (who came across as rather quiet and someone who kept himself to himself) and Jo and Yeong-Suk, two volunteers from Korea. Jo was rather inquisitive asking “why?” to everything we said or did. I’m not sure if he was like this with everyone or whether it was because we were Deaf, British or both. He was an interesting guy though. Yeong Suk was lovely; rather timid and hardly said boo to a goose. If you spoke to her, she smiled and responded rather quietly. She came across as a right proper housewife who seemed to spend the whole time in the kitchen while we stayed at the beach. We were allocated one night where we had to do the cooking, which proved to be a challenge! Rob did the cooking: Jon and I just *helped* out. In other words, we just faffed about not knowing what to do! If my memory serves me correctly, Rob cooked a home made cottage pie. I don’t think he was too happy with how it turned out though!
After one evening of hard work, Tim took us all to Cape Schanck National Park, which is located on the coast of Mornington Peninsula. I found Cape Schanck to be, of course, beautiful and rather calming.
After the first couple of days at work, we found being Deaf volunteers to be a rather amusing. I don’t think we thought about how being Deaf would influence our experience; but I guess we’re not the sort of people to let being Deaf get in the way of things we want to do – just sort out the situations when they happen. Tim (and other team leaders at other locations) would give instructions to the team for work to be carried out that day and as soon as he finished, the three of us would look at each other and go “whaaaa?!” Usually each of us got bits of what was said, and putting it together along with watching what the others were doing, we worked it out. Funnily enough, we didn’t seem to get annoyed with hearing people assuming “everyone can hear”, we just got on with it – the Australian laid back and care-free attitude must’ve rubbed off on us.
Tags: Australia