Students from Global City Innovative College (GCIC), Philippines came to Singapore on an entrepreneurship learning journey that had them coping with literally losing the sense they rely on the most- sight.

Most of us would not only be debilitated, but completely devastated should we lose our sight. And while we don’t really think about that possibility, it does happen, as it did with one of the guides at Dialogue in the Dark (housed in Ngee Ann Polytechnic). He woke up with extremely blurry vision and over the course of a few days lost his sight altogether. “I can only see shadows and when someone asks me if I can see colours, to me it is just different shades of black.”

The students were surprised with the oppressiveness of the darkness as they walked into a completely dark room, feeling their way into the narrow passages with only their sense of touch to rely on. “At first I thought this was just a student project and we would just stand around for one hour listening and feeling and dreading the slow passing of time. But when we were asked to get on a boat, I suddenly realized that this was something special.”

Students walked away with different realizations about themselves with most feeling more confident about being able to trust their other senses should they lose their sight. Everyone was also deeply impressed with the guides who were blind, one of whom now has a family of her own and even uses the internet. Most everyone also agreed that they lose out on so much, just relying on their eyes instead of all their senses to “see” the world. “I learned to define my world using my other senses instead of my eyes. It made me ‘see’ things so differently.”