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Don't know why the pictures aren't uploading .

Anyway, thanks everyone

I came, didn't see though, but I conquered regardless. You see, I'm one of the very few uncommon corp members passing out today. Blind, restrictive but relentless.

When I lost my sight and later enrolled into a special school for the blind, I honestly thought I had simply settled in for a training on how to read and write braille. I thought that would be the height of the formal education I, being a blind person, could get. Then on one of my early days in the school, in between my chatters with an older colleague, I learnt that there's a college of education specially instituted for the disabled where we, the blind, can attend if we want a higher education. The name of the college is Federal College of Education, Oyo (SPED). As a student of my special school, if you could proceed to the college after the completion of your special training, you're very fortunate.

And so I wanted this higher education so badly. I wanted to attend this special college and get my NCE certificate. I didn't just want to learn braille and typing, I wanted an advanced knowledge, the type I was sure I could acquire in the special college.

Whenever visitors, humanitarians came to visit us in the special school, our principal would always appeal to them for a scholarship that could see one or few of us, his students, through higher education at the special college.

He would say: "please ma, please sir. Many of our students here are very intelligent, but have parents who are financially handicapped. This school will appreciate if you could award a scholarship for the best minds here so they could get the opportunity to further their education at SPED" .

So, subconsciously, it got registered in my mind that my only option for a tertiary education is the college. Because my school is located at Ogbomoso, some good students of LAUTECH would come for a visit with gifts and relief materials, address us with very fine grammar and clap wildly for any twenty-something year old blind students who had managed to define Noun as a name of any pelson, animal, case or tin.

I loved those university students. I admired their sophistication and fluent, flawless way of speaking oyinbo. I would always struggle to speak to them, shake their silky hands and have them validate my little intelligence. And so I wanted to be like them, but blindness wouldn't let me. I can only attend the special college, so I thought.

Curious enquiries on blind students and their education from some outsiders exposed me to another option for acquiring higher education. I got to know that my kind, the blind, can equally go to the university to study. So I made it my dream. It became a paramount priority. I wanted the kind of exposure, sophistication displayed by our LAUTECH visitors. I wanted to speak english like them and make someone else's head spin, just as they did to me.

I followed the steps on how I could gain admission into the university, and I was eventually admitted to study Mass Communication at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. It was the first good thing that happened to me since the day I bade goodbye to a colourful world. So I started learning the profession of the press guys.

I studied my course with great passion and vigour. I didn't have it easy in the university as it was not instituted specially for the disabled like the special college, but I was able to tune out the challenges. I knew my only tool of standing tall and prominent in this world that is seemingly set up for only the able-bodied- is quality education, hence I gave it my all and graduated excellently from the university.

It was time for NYSC and guess where I was posted to? The special college of education where I would have attended, collected my NCE certificate and never got the chance to partake in the national youth service. You know, NCE holders don't go for NYSC.

And today, I'm passing out with thousands of fellow youth corp members across the country. Today, I'm getting certified as one who has successfully completed the NYSC scheme. And lest I forget, I now have the kind of exposure, sophistication and can also speak english language intelligently like those LAUTECH students of my special school days. �

Moral of my epistle? No matter the challenge, always strive for the best.

Ladies and gentlemen, permit me to introduce you to Demola Adeleke, the latest ex corper in Nigeria

Please help push to front page.

Yes. I am blind. Check me up on facebook to confirm- facebook.com/see.demmy

illicit:
are u blind

can u read this comment

1.
The blind marry themselves. I mean; blind men marry their female counterparts. But guess what? As impossible as this seems, the blind couple often lives comfortably and independently to a reasonable extent.

They both assume every responsibility as apportioned traditionally by their individual gender and raise the middle finger at whoever maligns their happy union.

With the influx of assistive technologies, it's even much easier for a blind couple to live together in an apartment without bothering their neighbours for sight intensive assistance. They can wash, iron, sweep, cook and do all other house chores originally, and for exercises that require eye-sight, all they need to do is point their devices at the required spot and the artificial intelligence will do its usual wonders.

Well, I don't want to talk much on blind couples raising infants though. You know, you and I wouldn't enjoy imagining a floor asphalted with baby's poop and a couple blindly walking right into it. �

Gross, right? But such is avoidable with the availability of a nanny in the house. Financially capable blind couple, often times, ensures to hire one most especially to assist them raise their children to a manageable age from which they can take over the parenting responsibilities.

It's really not an enviable life- you see. But what else would they have done? The blind have only a few special schools scattered across Nigeria. The blind students live and study in these special schools for years; get to know one another, play, muse, bond and share their bitter stories with one another. These schools are usually unisex, and with the unlimited time the students spend with one another, romantic feelings start to creep in.

Naturally, the only one who can exactly relate to whatever you're going through is that person who has also been there. Therefore, a blind girl tends to feel freer and more original with a man who is in same condition as her, as she wouldn’t be inclined to always fit into a sighted spouse’s expectations; and vice versa. Or better still, perhaps the blind husband has faced a lot of disappointments and rejections in his attempt to secure a non-disabled woman and hence resorted to marrying his kind.

The above is my theory though, and my theory alone. Meanwhile, should you want to have a feel of programmes which help blind persons with sight-requiring tasks, you can check “Seeing AI” on App Store or “SuperSense” on Play Store. The two are undergoing some modifications at the moment, but you might want to play with them, especially for those of you who never had toys as kids.

2.
A self-conscious blind person, especially a young adult, often puts a lot of work into making people see him or her differently.

You know, blindness is that disability which makes you appear helpless and unintelligent. You're perceived as less privileged even when you are financially buoyant. So, in order to earn a little respect from the society, an average blind person proves his relevance by living ostentatiously. Consciously dressing in expensive clothes, acquiring enviable properties, using princely gadgets; and for the broke ones, displaying academic sagacity to meet a warm reception.

Don't blame us. We only receive friendly hands after having flaunted some admirable qualities. Those of us who have nothing to show are still feeling alienated because of the neglect suffered from the society.

My partially sighted friend would have been catapulted by his in-laws if not for the ingenious idea proposed by his girlfriend. The lady, knowing his parents' wahala, had to make his boyfriend assume a big boy personality. The young man simply went to the lady's house with a rented SUV driven by a chaufffeur, passed the car off as his, and the lady's parents who, initially, were vehemently against their daughter's union with a ”half-blind guy”, sized him up on noticing the car and gave their blessings. Mind you, the guy was partially sighted, not totally blind.

3.
The blind wash and iron their clothes, sweep the floor, wash the plates and cook like every other person.

i. They can feel the brim and container of the bowl, so it will be stupid to ask how they wash clothes. The only reasonable question will be to know how they know when the clothes have been cleanly washed.

Anyway, they usually don't know. All they do is keep squeezing and scrubbing till their instinct tells them to stop. They need not to be told that the collar and armpit absorb the most dirt, so their focus is often on those parts. They wash for a much longer time till they're convinced the clothes are clean.

Sometimes, when there are people around, they really do not have to waste much energy washing an already clean-washed fabric.


ii. What the blind cannot see, they feel. Lion, fire, booty, just name it �. That's why all they need while sweeping is their bare feet and a little concentration. Their bare feet inform them on how dirt free the sweeping has made the swept area, and the concentration is needed to know which area has been attended to and which area has not.

Although a little onerous and time-consuming, especially for a lazy ass like me, but the floor will eventually be tidied up. Yoruba people will say; ”elede mi ad'oyo, ariwo e l'apo". This somehow translates to: ”I might have taken a longer route, but I'll definitely reach my destination".


iii. It's much easier to wash plates. Scrub, scrub and scrub till there's no oily feeling when you touch the plates. Even you can do it with your eyes shut.


iv. Ironing of clothes can be deceiving sometimes. Although we try to press the iron on the fabric as hard as we can, but we often have our focus on the gators forming, thus losing concentration on the crispness of the fabric in whole. So, often more than not, we succeed in making peng gators on our clothes but fail to get rid of the creases completely.

The iron men among us don't make such mistakes though. All they do is keep ironing till they are convinced it's been properly done. Feeling the surface of the fabric for visible creases doesn't give accurate result. In other words, our palms can be insensitive to some creases on the fabric.


v. The blind cook just like every other person. The only difference is that we're often exposed to some mishaps in the kitchen. We sometimes burn our hands, cut ourselves with the knife, knock a few things over or spill some stuff.

We simply ensure to place all the condiments and utensils at a familiar spot for easy access. With that, we can easily reach for whatever we need and finish the cooking without anybody's help. In fact, I know a few blind ladies who can cook professionally without needing an extinguisher or first aid kit on standby.

____________________

4.
An authentic blind person will never see again. And when I say”authentic”, I mean a medically diagnosed blind individual and not one faking blindness for a healing drama at some church crusade. The only reason a blind person can have his sight restored is when his eye defect is medically reversable.

Example is when the lens is covered with cataract, thus blinding the patient. If the cataract isn't chronic yet, a simple surgical replacement of the lens should make the blind person see again. There might be other redeemable eye conditions which I'm not aware of.

But you have to believe me that no amount of speaking in tongues or saliva spitting will give a blind man an extra pair of eyes. Nollywood and our fake clergymen have been the cause of your confusion. Please, don't be a gullible human being in your life.

5.
The blind see in their dreams. Yeah, we see within the dreamscape, just as we see in real life.

Many blind people are not conscious of this fact, but the blind do have the illusion of sightedness even in real life. When a blind person faces a particular direction, he imagines all the things that are supposedly within sight in his head, and the mental picture adjusts to accommodate the new discoveries he makes everytime he comes in contact with the real objects around.

For instance, I'm lying on my bed while typing this. I can imagine myself lying on the bed, I can imagine myself holding the phone, and I can imagine a standing fan right in front of me. That's because I'm familiar with the room though. All the afore mentioned imaginations are just like normal human sight to me. It's an illusion anyway. But if I go straight to where I know the fan always is, gropes around and finds no fan there anymore, then my imagination of the room will immediately change to a room without a standing fan.

See, I can't exemplify it better than that. Let the brightest minds grab my point. �

Anyway, we do experience a similar illusion in our dreams, thus giving us a sense of sightedness.

Guess what? It's the 98th episode of my blind chronicles. You can read the earlier episodes on /blind.demola


PS: All the facts discussed in this episode are products of my interview with a few blind individuals; therefore, I didn’t just write out of personal experience.

Written by Demola Adeleke

Yeah, I'm still looking out for scholarship opportunities. Just want to find something doing pending the time I'll get lucky with one.
Thank you so much for the advice

Hello Nairalanders. I'm Demmy, from Oyo State. Although blind, I finished with good grades from the university in 2018 and just completed my youth service in March this year.
The plan was to get a scholarship to study abroad for my masters but unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. I received a mail from the scholarship organisers late last month that I wasn't selected, thus leaving me with no choice than to find something productive doing here in Nigeria.
However, job hunting is not something I can do physically. I can't go round the city in search of job like my non-disabled peers, hence the decision to resort to coming online.
Please, I wouldn't mind getting any job that is Masscomm related, as that is my field of study. I write for online blogs as a volunteer columnist and also have a facebook blog where I give the Nigerian populace an insight into the blind world; /blind.demola
I have skills in both the print and broadcast media, and will really appreciate any job offer I can get on this forum.
Thank you so much.
Meanwhile, I've been a fan of this forum since 2014, but this is my first post here.
You can check out my profile on facebook on facebook.com/see.demmy
My e-mail address is seedemmy@gmail.com
Thank you. ][]

Why the hell should I be paying salary to my girlfriend, when in fact the bleeping is a two-way thing?
You bleep me, I bleep you.
I even do the strenious part of the job most times.
It's very wrong to expect money from your boyfriend solely because you feel you're offering him some services. It's a very silly mentality. It reduces you as a woman to mere sexual objects in the eyes of men.
If I really wanna spoil you silly with money, then it doesn't have to be premised on the fact that you've been opening your legs for me and thus, you deserve some compensation.
Please grow up