[gps-talkusers] How GPS Save a Kids Life

[Kevin Chao <kevinchao89@xxxxxxxxx>]

I thought that I share this article that I found with others as it is about
GPS. The same thing can be used of users of the Sendero GPS on the
BrailleNote or VoiceSense with User POIs and Manual Routes. 
 



: How GPS saved a kid's life    



 <http://www.emara.org/news/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=3> Cape Clear
Island NewsBy Robbie Sandberg
(GPS = Global Positioning System Ed- Ed.)
 
I spent Christmas 2007 on Cape Clear, a wind-swept island off the Irish
south-west coast. I was staying on the goat farm of Ed Harper, who like
myself is blind and has been a goatherd for many years. On my first day he
INTRODUCED me to his goats and I was taught how to milk one. Ed said that
some of the goats were pregnant and expected to kid any day. I hoped that
this would happen during my stay, so that I could get a chance to feel a
baby goat.
 

During the next couple of days I explored the island and walked up and down
its steep lanes, buffeted by wind and occasionally pelted with rain and
hale. To help me navigate the island I used a GPS software for blind people
called Loadstone. It can be used on mobile phones that have speech output
software installed on them. 
 
Having entered the farm house as my main reference point, I entered forks or
crossroads as I went along. With the help of these electronic bread crumbs I
was able to find my way back or revisit a place later. Such a point entry
would for instance say: "first switchback east of goat farm" or "beginning
of South Harbour road"
 
On St. Stephen's day I proceeded to explore the field in which the goats
were kept. I had expected this to be a walk over slightly uneven grass land,
the sort of field which cows are kept in. I soon found that navigating the
field presented a considerable challenge. To say that it is rough terrain
would not do the land credit. There are steeply sloping terraces of grass,
partitioned by piled up rock-splinters, which look like so many over-sized
shards of pottery. The landscape inspired me with awe of the forces which
shaped the earth, when its surface  was still rippling with movement. 
 
One has to find gaps in these forbidding rock barriers in order to get to
the next patch of grass land. Negotiating this sort of capricious terrain
with a cane requires a lot of careful prodding and probing, because one
never knows what change of landscape the next step might reveal. Eventually
I reached the very bottom of the field, the final bit descending so steeply,
that I slid down the wet grass on my backside. Having rolled about like I
hadn't done since my childhood, I decided to make my way back up to the farm
house. 
 
After I cleared the first rocks coming from the bottom, I heard a feeble
cry, almost like a baby's. I thought that it may well be a baby crying, if
not a human one. It certainly sounded much younger than any of the goats I
had heard so far. 
 
I heard it again, about 10 or 15 meters away from me. I concluded that one
of the goats must have given birth in the field and wondered off afterwards.
Ed assured me later that this was not unusual. Given that it was already
dark and the fierce night was setting in, her instincts had probably made
her seek the shelter of the goat house rather than staying out in the open.
The kid would certainly have died of exposure, even if she had stayed with
it.
I called Ed on my mobile and reported what I had heard. Not being familiar
with the land, I could only tell him that I was one level up from the bottom
of the field. He told me to stay where I was, he'd come. 
 
I waited for about 5 minutes, during which I heard the baby goat struggling
in the high grass. It then occurred to me that I wouldn't hear Ed calling
for me unless he was very close, since I was right next to a bluff. I
decided to go to meet him. Before I left the kid in the field, I entered the
site as a GPS point. Then I climbed up to the next level and went in the
general direction of the farm house, occasionally stopping to listen. 
 
At last I could hear him very faintly, shouting my name in the distance. I
cupped my hands around my mouth and bellowed through the stormy night. At
first he couldn't hear me, as I was down wind of him, but then he got
closer. We shouted at each other until we finally got to within talking
range. I then managed to bring us to the kid, following the directions given
by the GPS program. When we reached the spot, Ed asked me to make contact.
He made his guide dog stay put and then followed me down the bluff. 

The kid was still bleating intermittently. I put my hands on it and felt it
struggling to get up and away, but its legs were yet too week to support it.
The little creature was still wet and slimy from birth and its ears were all
crumpled. 
 
When Ed reached us he picked the kid up,  promptly pronounced him to be male
and tucked him down the front of his oilskins. Then we scrambled back up the
sloping grass and across the sharp teethed rocks. 
 
At the goat house, Ed spread out fresh hay  in a Penn, while I used some of
the hey to rub the little fellow dry. All the while he was seeking my
fingers with his little snout and tried to suck them. Finally Ed located the
mother among the heard which had assembled at the goat house and brought her
into the pen. He put the kid's snout to her teats and soon we heard it
sucking greedily and noisily.
 
It being the 26th of December, I called the little fellow Stephen.

• Follow-Ups:
  • [gps-talkusers] Re: How GPS Save a Kids Life
    • From: Armando Maldonado

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