Author recalls being deaf in the Peace Corps

By Alina Soler | Special to amNewYork

October 8, 2007

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If living in a remote African village replete with brutal killings, corrupt and confrontational community leaders, and a number of nearly unpronounceable diseases doesn¹t seem daunting enough, imagine experiencing it without the ability to hear.

In his book debut, "The Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa," Josh Swiller candidly recounts his two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the rural Zambian village of Mununga during the mid-90s. His extraordinary experiences nearly kill him but also place in his path a number of compelling characters that help him to come to terms with his deafness and feelings of isolation.

Deaf since his childhood, Swiller tirelessly attempted to understand the world around him, with the help of hearing aids and a knack for reading lips. Nonetheless, Swiller found himself awkwardly wedged between the hearing and deaf populations. "Even when working ears were irrelevant I felt out of place," he writes. "To the deaf students I was hearing; to hearing people I was deaf." In August 2005, Swiller underwent a cochlear implant surgery that restored most of his hearing.

In search of "a place beyond deafness," Swiller joined one of the first Peace Corps groups to be sent to the area with not much more than "a two-year supply of underwear and malaria pills," he said.

Despite encounters with a menacing village elder named Boniface, babies withered from disease and the angry father of a deflowered virgin, "The Unheard" is not a depressing memoir solely aimed at stirring Western guilt.

Instead, Swiller, who lives in Cold Spring, New York, is able to find and convey beauty and more often, humor in the most chaotic of places.

"If there is anything that people take away from the book, I hope it¹s a sense of being more grateful for things," he said.

For Swiller, gratefulness is hand in hand with "laughing at things, laughing at yourself, laughing at craziness," a quality that is common in Swiller¹s portrayal of the people of Mununga.

To Swiller, the title "The Unheard" has several meanings; the unheard words and phrases of being deaf, unheard and "unenjoyed" moments we take for granted and the unheard lives of Africans. "You read that 500,000 people are starving in Sudan or that a million are refugees, and it¹s just numbers. I wanted to peel back the surface and show that they are individuals with unique and interesting lives.

"One of the most gratifying things about the book is that I get emails from the parents of deaf children who say, 'I don't want my kid to do what you did, but it's good to know that they can,'" he said.

"The Unheard" (Henry Holt & Co., $14) is out now. Swiller¹s next reading is: Tonight, 7 p.m. The Half-King Pub 505 West 23rd St. 212-462-4300 Free and open to the public.