By: Sanele Ntshingana
In a rather calm tone, as we are walking down Lumpkin street Dr Ojo exclaims that “there are two things I fear in my life. To be buried alive and to be visually impaired”. He sighs and he continues walking. I am struck by this statement and for a minute I pause to reflect about my fears too while I am trying to process these chilling words. I am taken back to a seminar I attended a few years ago where one of the speakers narrated how his great grandfather was buried alive by the colonialists in the nineteenth century South Africa. Dr. Ojo’s fear. Before my mind takes a different direction I let this slide and I come back to the moment. We are about to change direction now and I tell Dr. Ojo “We are about to turn right now. The curve is not sharp just follow me”. His right hand holding my arm gently and he moves half a step behind me. The mid-day summer sun of America basks our melanated skins, a rather huge relief from the air-conditioned room we were sitting in a for the past few hours, learning how to orientate a visually impaired person. Dr. Ojo’s eyes are folded by a sleep mask and he plays a visually impaired person and I am playing a helper. We are getting training on how to orientate a visually impaired person. In this case, another Fellow in my cohort, hailing all the way from Sierra Leon. This for me was a big learning curve about this week. Learning to guide a visually impaired person. Something I never even got sensitized of in my town. Something I have always known it exist but never got to be so close to it. Although I enjoyed being orientated around the beautiful campus of the University of Georgia, this was for me the most powerful learning moment. To learn and to practise living with a fellow who has visual impairment. I am moved by this and each day I am in awe of my fellow’s love and passion to be a champion of rights for people living with visual-impairment. A principle of serving, suffering and sacrificing for justice. This is the biggest thing I am taking back home.
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