Alex’s story

Alex’s Deafblind Camp Stories

9th November:

Landed in Perth and spent the day at a Casino and meeting some of the Staff from Senses Foundation.

In the afternoon, we all travelled to Hillarys and met our Volunteers and had wonderful Dinner.
That night, we had an opportunity to play the African Drum (I personally never played a Drum before) and it was one of the best Music sessions ever! How 30 DeafBlind people were able to keep up together despite the fact most can’t hear, is just mind blowing. After the Drum beat program, most people from Melbourne trudge walked slowly to Bed as only one Melbourne person (Me) had the guts to stay up and interact with the people from Perth.

10th November 2012.

After almost sleeping in, and had breakfast, we all travelled to Swan Valley and tasted Wine. Some tasted horrible, some were okay and mind you, it was a beautiful morning too seeing the full view of the Sun at 10 am, we don’t get that in Melbourne.
After the Wine tour, we somehow stopped at some sort of Church which I didn’t really enjoy but others seem to love it.

Back at the Campsite at last! We began our activities, which included Archery, Rock Climbing and Abseiling. I never done Abseiling or Archer before and what a thrill it was with Abseiling (started off with a 5 metre one then moved on to 10 metres) and let’s just say with Archery, I had 8 shots with 2 almost reaching the target and 6 went past the target box with at least 2 went into the bushes (apparently it took the Lady 40 minutes to find them)

After Dinner that night and some people were exhausted, unfortunately we just couldn’t complain because the first ever DeafBlind got Talent was on, even streaming live all around the Nation trying to search for the best Talented DeafBlind in Australia. Melbourne’s very own Heather Lawson took the honour, followed up by 2 other Victorians. Unfortunately though, a guy from Melbourne had to deal with the fact He became the first ever Wooden Spooner (He was trying to bribe the Judges to give him the First Prize) but nevertheless, the acts were mind blowing and personally, I would’ve given every act First prize.

11 November 2012.

Well, on the final day of Camp some people felt like chilling on the beach for the morning. I along with Senses Foundations Number Occupational Therapist Adele, dived head first into the Water even  though people told me not to but it felt good swimming in the Water although it’s different to Melbourne. Adele had to endure many splashes and even though she tried to scream and tell me to stop, she should’ve have known that without Hearing aids on, people can’t hear! After drying myself, I wanted to hop into a Kayak and dared Adele to go with me, for one reason or another, she said No and instead I went with Stewart, after about 10 minutes in, we headed back to shore and I guess Adele made the right choice not to hop in the Kayak with me because soon after Senses Foundations Number one Speech Therapist Aimee sadly got injured and had to be rushed to Hospital.

After packing our stuff and cleaning the Rooms, we all said our goodbyes and almost everyone almost cried. The good thing was that we all did some Paintings on tiles which would be Hung up at Senses Foundation in memory of the Camp.

I personally want to thank the wonderful people in Perth for making the people from Melbourne feel like being at Home in Perth over the 3 days. In particular the wonderful bunch of ladies from Senses Foundation including their Number One Social Worker Karen, their group of lovely Speech Therapists including Aimee A and  Katherine, also to their Number Physio Therapist Aimee D, their Number One Occupational Therapist Adele, and finally the many Volunteers who kindly assisted all of us.

Published on January 6, 2016.