In a little church at the north end of Nogales, Arizona, dumbness struck me upside the head. St. Andrews Clinic was a health
Jesus Munguing is recieving his first hearing aids.
bazaar for children. Children and their parents were shuttled by bus from Sonora, Mexico to the Clinic. As the kids scurried off the bus, a volunteer handed them tennis balls. The kids played while they waited for their appointments.
Once the doctors had arrived, pandemonium ensued. Staff shuffled parents and kids to their appointments. With the clinic meeting once a month, they had limited time to see everyone, about three hours. For all the chaos, it was well ordered. I couldn’t believe it.
The Border Beat crew had assembled a group of eight students to go down to St. Andrews and report. In order to prepare, we read previous stories, watched a behind the scenes video, and devised some story ideas. This was supposed to help orient us.
Since I studied deaf culture and American Sign Language as an undergraduate, I decided I wanted to cover hearing, speech, and, to break it up, orthopedics. However, I spent most of my day in hearing. There’s nothing like jumping in feet first.
I wanted to learn more about these kids with hearing loss. I wanted to know if they were learning Mexican Sign Language, or if they were relying only on their hearing aids. Unfortunately, that was all lost. The translator would bring a couple of kids into the
Dr. John Cobb inspects a little boy
room, and they were happy- not a transient happy, not the kind they have when they received a new toy, a real happiness, the kind they will remember long into adulthood. I was caught up. All I could do was record the happiness.
They were receiving the most basic of needs. In the hearing room, the doctors fitted the kids for hearing aids, cleaned and maintained the hearing aids, or took the hearing aids in for major repair. I was shocked most by the need for batteries. The kids just can’t get them where they are. I kept thinking what’s a hearing aid with out a battery.
My biggest flaw when reporting is getting caught up in the moment. But who wouldn’t when children receive care they otherwise couldn’t. The day was unexpectedly fast, and it was amazing.
Border Health Care 