kudos to the blind

pictures are courtesy of Mr Andre Teh

MINES MENSA Scrabble Challenge exhibited one of the most awesome sight of Scrabble. I must applaud their effort in bringing in the blind community into the Scrabble scene. Nevertheless, these visually-impaired people showed that their imperfection does not limit their ability to nurture their passion in Scrabble. Some of these participants flew all the way from Sabah and Sarawak just to play in this 3-game tournament because not many competitions actually pay emphasis on them.

I finished my first game quite fast. I walked to the Blind Section and was in plain awe and mesmerization! I was clearly lost in words. The way they touch and feel the board, the tiles and form words without even looking; depending solely on their sense of touch and memory to place the tiles at the correct spot without missing any Power Spots and capitalising every spot they could. My heart sank when I see them play. I have to say that all this while, I never, NEVER expected that Scrabble could be played by a blind person. I was proved wrong.

This event made me think that all these while, we've taken things for granted without us realising what lucky bitches we are. Eventhough they are impaired visually or audibly or verbally, their determination to pursue a dream or be good at something surpasses all mockery and negativity thrown at them for the past years.

I'm so gonna organize a tournament for the blind!

Encouragement is just sweet!