30 Years Ago

30 years ago…In March 1989 we were totally unaware that our youngest son Hughan was profoundly deaf and unable to hear us. He was a happy content baby.

We have been on an incredible journey with him, teaching him his lip-reading and communication skills, where he has overcome his challenges and can even hold a conversation on a phone.

Luckily we kept a ‘Diary’ from February 1990 which I will be sharing with you. 

At the time we were living in Gaborone in Botswana and it was exciting time for us, as we had recently moved from Zimbabwe where our two sons, Jamie and Hughan, were born. Hughan was already 7 months old and growing fast. 

My husband, Willem, had just started an ex-patriot contract at Kalahari Ford and we were enjoying our new life in Gabs.This was quite a critical move for us at the time, as it meant we were in a better financial position, so I didn’t have to work and could spend quality time at home with our children.

Gaborone is situated on the edge of the Kalahari desert. We had arrived at the beginning of the hot summer with scorching heat. The city had just got its first set of traffic lights and often you would be giving way to donkeys, chickens, goats, cattle and children.

In Gaborone there were no Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists (ENT) or Paediatricians for the children’s check ups, so we had to travel through to Johannesburg in South Africa (four hours away) for these appointments. Hearing tests were also not available yet for children at birth.

At the time there was no technology to find information, there were no home computers with internet and Google, and mobile phones hadn’t been invented yet.