dlberglund's review against another edition
4.0
This was a difficult book about a Peace Corps volunteer in the first group to go back to Zambia, and the challenges of his village. He also has had near total hearing loss since childhood. The book explores the way that it is more and less difficult to be deaf in rural Africa than in the US. Then there's the hostile village leaders, the disappearing supplies and the angry mob...
tboltkid's review against another edition
4.0
Definitely a good read if you are considering to volunteer in Africa or anywhere in the developing world. He speaks from a unique perspective and is unafraid to point out some of his own flaws.
liralen's review against another edition
3.0
Another Peace Corps memoir, this by a man who was born with severely impaired hearing and who lost most of the rest of his hearing before he was in school. His parents pushed him hard to fit in in the hearing world -- in the 70s, other options weren't great -- and after college (side note: just because college admissions are the first time you overtly 'play the deaf card' doesn't mean that's the first time you've ever played it) he joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Zambia. There, he says, he found a place where deafness didn't matter. 'For the first time in my life deafness...did not close off a single possibility,' he says (95).
It's an interesting concept, but as far as I can tell a deeply flawed one. During his in-country training, Swiller happened upon a school that had a couple of classrooms of deaf students. He spent some time volunteering there and found that those kids had effectively been given up on. They received almost no instruction, could barely read or write, and had really no hope of success later on in life. At least one boy had hearing aids, but the fit was bad (causing pain if he wore them very long), and anyway, he couldn't afford batteries. There just wasn't any belief in these kids, or understanding that deafness didn't mean incapability.
But in the village where Swiller was placed, he had a much easier time communicating than he usually had in the U.S.: There wasn't much background noise. People talked slower, and they looked directly at him when they talked (making it easier for him to read lips). If he couldn't understand people, they usually chalked it up to their English being poor. Because he didn't fit the model of deafness they knew in Zambia -- the model of those children in the deaf classrooms -- and because they'd never seen hearing aids before and didn't understand them, they generally just didn't believe he was deaf.
He was a white man, after all. And that, I think, is the crux of it: It's not that his deafness didn't matter. It's that his whiteness trumped his deafness.
It's an interesting book, and in many senses I think Swiller had a more difficult PC experience than the authors of other PC books I've read. He saw some really frightening instances of violence; he was in a terrible accident; he was one of the first Peace Corps volunteers in the region, which meant that people didn't know what to expect. It definitely doesn't sound easy.
But, but. Because Swiller was one of the first Peace Corps volunteers there, a large part of his role -- as a supervisor explicitly told him was basic cultural exchange. Learn about the culture. Teach the villagers something about where he comes from. Don't expect to get too much actually done. He didn't get much done, although I'm not sure how abnormal that is. But he also demonstrates a rather stunning inability to understand that he's in a different culture, with different expectations, different societal mores, different ways of doing things.
I'm reminded of a story in [b:The Ponds of Kalambayi|477819|The Ponds of Kalambayi|Mike Tidwell|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1175098398s/477819.jpg|466013], in which the author asked someone to plant some lettuce seeds for him. The man planted all of the seeds, leaving him with a surfeit of lettuce -- so much that he'd never get through it before it rotted. The author wanted to pay the man only for the small portion of lettuce he'd expected; the man wanted to be paid for all the lettuce he'd planted. The case went to the village court, where it was decided that the author would pay the man in full -- but as a show of goodwill, the man would give the author a 'gift' of the same amount that the author was paying. In other words, it came out a wash, but a saving-face wash.
This book reminds me of that because Swiller never understands the face-saving portion of things. He talks about, as a deaf man, developing an 'intuition based on physical observation' (133), of being especially attuned to people's body language and facial expression because he can't hear them. That may well be true, but apparently that didn't come with an increased understanding of what to do with that intuition. He wants everything to work the way he's used to it -- the American way -- and preferably on his schedule. I fully believe that it was, is, extremely frustrating to adapt to a very different way of doing things, of phrasing things, but, but. Damn. It sounds like a really enormous failure at the whole cultural-exchange end of things. By the end of the book he'd and the Peace Corps -- which seems just as well, because I'd hate to be the one to follow him.
This isn't meant to be a scathing indictment of the author; I understand that he was young and in a new-to-him environment full of challenges and that nobody's perfect; he went in with good intentions and not a lot of resources. He also went in with a perspective, and with hopes, that most people don't have. I just found myself disappointed by the non-discussion of things like the role race played in how Zambia locals viewed his deafness.
It's an interesting concept, but as far as I can tell a deeply flawed one. During his in-country training, Swiller happened upon a school that had a couple of classrooms of deaf students. He spent some time volunteering there and found that those kids had effectively been given up on. They received almost no instruction, could barely read or write, and had really no hope of success later on in life. At least one boy had hearing aids, but the fit was bad (causing pain if he wore them very long), and anyway, he couldn't afford batteries. There just wasn't any belief in these kids, or understanding that deafness didn't mean incapability.
But in the village where Swiller was placed, he had a much easier time communicating than he usually had in the U.S.: There wasn't much background noise. People talked slower, and they looked directly at him when they talked (making it easier for him to read lips). If he couldn't understand people, they usually chalked it up to their English being poor. Because he didn't fit the model of deafness they knew in Zambia -- the model of those children in the deaf classrooms -- and because they'd never seen hearing aids before and didn't understand them, they generally just didn't believe he was deaf.
He was a white man, after all. And that, I think, is the crux of it: It's not that his deafness didn't matter. It's that his whiteness trumped his deafness.
It's an interesting book, and in many senses I think Swiller had a more difficult PC experience than the authors of other PC books I've read. He saw some really frightening instances of violence; he was in a terrible accident; he was one of the first Peace Corps volunteers in the region, which meant that people didn't know what to expect. It definitely doesn't sound easy.
But, but. Because Swiller was one of the first Peace Corps volunteers there, a large part of his role -- as a supervisor explicitly told him was basic cultural exchange. Learn about the culture. Teach the villagers something about where he comes from. Don't expect to get too much actually done. He didn't get much done, although I'm not sure how abnormal that is. But he also demonstrates a rather stunning inability to understand that he's in a different culture, with different expectations, different societal mores, different ways of doing things.
I'm reminded of a story in [b:The Ponds of Kalambayi|477819|The Ponds of Kalambayi|Mike Tidwell|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1175098398s/477819.jpg|466013], in which the author asked someone to plant some lettuce seeds for him. The man planted all of the seeds, leaving him with a surfeit of lettuce -- so much that he'd never get through it before it rotted. The author wanted to pay the man only for the small portion of lettuce he'd expected; the man wanted to be paid for all the lettuce he'd planted. The case went to the village court, where it was decided that the author would pay the man in full -- but as a show of goodwill, the man would give the author a 'gift' of the same amount that the author was paying. In other words, it came out a wash, but a saving-face wash.
This book reminds me of that because Swiller never understands the face-saving portion of things. He talks about, as a deaf man, developing an 'intuition based on physical observation' (133), of being especially attuned to people's body language and facial expression because he can't hear them. That may well be true, but apparently that didn't come with an increased understanding of what to do with that intuition. He wants everything to work the way he's used to it -- the American way -- and preferably on his schedule. I fully believe that it was, is, extremely frustrating to adapt to a very different way of doing things, of phrasing things, but, but. Damn. It sounds like a really enormous failure at the whole cultural-exchange end of things. By the end of the book he'd
Spoiler
literally been driven out of townSpoiler
had decided not to send anyone else to that same villageThis isn't meant to be a scathing indictment of the author; I understand that he was young and in a new-to-him environment full of challenges and that nobody's perfect; he went in with good intentions and not a lot of resources. He also went in with a perspective, and with hopes, that most people don't have. I just found myself disappointed by the non-discussion of things like the role race played in how Zambia locals viewed his deafness.
ellensears's review against another edition
5.0
the last paragraph of the penultimate chapter...as a peace corps volunteer a good memoir of a peace corps volunteer
jkinkadeblack's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
renatasnacks's review against another edition
5.0
Hands down the best Peace Corps book I've read. Funny, interesting, and none of the sappy bullshit other PC books sometimes try to pull. And seriously Josh Swiller sounds like a total badass.
boshii's review against another edition
5.0
The Unheard is an amazing journey through Zambia. The intermingling of beauty and violence, the wonders of so many of the people and the inherent solemnity in the losing of them, the struggles of the deaf community in Zambia and the triumphs of this deaf man due to privilege. The Unheard is undoubtedly a whirlwind of love and fear and will stick with me for a long time. Please give this book a chance.
memarq0's review against another edition
4.0
Honestly, I was surprised. This was probably one of the most interesting memoirs I've read that doesn't aspire to fit or exploit a genre. The sincerity and genuine writing/memory here makes this completely refreshing. It's not a third world memoir, it's not a disability memoir, it's just a snapshot of an important time in the author's life that touches - in a completely natural way - some really important issues/ideas.
cristyd's review against another edition
4.0
one glimpse into the experience of a deaf Peace Corps volunteer with the political challenges of a new Peace Corps country (Zambia).
dkeane2007's review against another edition
2.0
An honest look at how hard life in a small African city can be, while also providing an interesting insight into being deaf.