A moment that changed me: after losing my hearing, newspapers helped me find a way to cope
Imported
The psychological effects of going deaf as a child were unbearable. But after stumbling across a front-page headline, reading the news helped me discover new worlds
It was a long time ago, on a Friday afternoon, on a street in Khartoum. I was 11 years old, or perhaps 12 – I don’t know the date or year I was born. I was feeling very sad. I had spent the whole night before crying and shouting because a doctor had just told me that I’d never regain my hearing, and prescribed a hearing aid. “Why me?!” Up until that moment, I’d had a faint hope that I would be treated in the capital and be able to hear again.
I had lost my hearing completely in my left ear and about 80% in my right ear, but this makes it appear better than it was: as a doctor once put it to me, I would just about be able to hear the roar of an aeroplane engine without my hearing aid if I stood next to it.
