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When I was in the Philippines, my friend and I attended an Easter Celebration in a Province where neither of us lived. Serving there in the Peace Corps as a Deaf Education Instructor, Joan immediately took interest in a young girl, about 8 years old, who was happily moving through the crowd in a very animated fashion. She watched her for some time and then went over to you and found as she suspected, that the child was deaf. In a third world country we understood that those who are handicapped in some way are given at least some of what the need by performing some service to the community. Much to our chagrin, it was often to entertain, (court jesters so to speak). The little girl was very sweet and we spent some time with her that day. Joan was conducting her own little research study and concluded at the end of the day that the deaf child was actually using sign language very close to ASL - but obviously constructed by the girl. We were fascinated about how this came to be since only the very rich (3% of the population) had access to formal deaf education.

Today’s session on synesthesia brought about a new understanding of the phenomena. Her sign language arose from a function of perhaps common human brain strategies that allow us to find ways to communicate with each other.