Quite the long day...

This weekend was quite hectic to say the least. On Thursday we had our last practice before the competition. Aahh.

Brandon also has an able-bodied partner, Lauren, and because they are championship dancers, they dance on the Friday. Brandon asked me to come and watch them to see how he does his thing at competitions. So we went. We arrived just in time to see their last two dances. I would have been in the dog box if we got there afterwards. At least it was a semi-final, so we would've seen him dance later if we had missed it. They came second...yay partner!

Chantelle, also a CSRC leg partner, was dancing on Friday. We got there in time to see her do Latin. She was amazing!

We left after Chantelle danced and that was at somewhere around 10. Not bad for a competition day.

Then Saturday came. We were told that we had to be there at 9 for registration. So, we get there at 9 and turns out we only going to be dancing at 4. What do you do for 7 hours? Basically, you sit, you wait, you eat...a lot. Most of the time we were on the brink of boredom, some of us were already off the cliff. Brandon only arrived at half past one. I think he's the smart one.

Our time to dance came, after a long wait, and it was incredible. The adrenaline started pumping before we even got to the floor. We walked out onto the floor and people started screaming (most of the noise was coming from our own people, but still).

In the middle of our Tango, I felt my eyelash lift off the middle of my eye (I was wearing false eyelashes. They were amazing). You know what I was thinking? If I lose an eyelash on the floor, I'm going to look ridiculous and I'll be winking at the judges and then I'll look even more ridiculous. Luckily, my eyelashes behaved themselves and stayed on my face. Go eyelash glue.

Our Quickstep was quite interesting. The floor that we danced on was very smooth...this is a problem for a wheelchair dancer because it's too smooth, the wheels don't have anything to grip on to. Now, the Quickstep is a fast dance and the turns are very quick. Hence the name. When we got to the far corner, we tried to turn but we ended up just drifting across the floor. Keegan knew that it was a mistake (he's our coach) but the audience just thought it was a really cool move that we came up with. It was a good time.

We had to wait until 10:30 for our prizegiving. That was a long wait. In the end, we won our section and we won all 5 dances. So, I'd say it was pretty well worth waiting for.

We left the competition at 11:30, only got home at 12:30 and only went to bed at 2:00. Brandon only left the competition at 3:00. Shame.

It was a long day to say the least. We should be training for competition survival!

Then we had Sunday practice. There were only 4 of us there (everybody else was too tired). It was not the most productive practice we've had. But, it was entertaining.

So, that was my weekend. Not a lot of sleeping was going on, certainly not by me anyway. But it was a really EPIC weekend!

Let's Go Dancing

I have been dancing for almost seven years now. The majority of these years, my partner was Jesse (I've spoken about him in previous posts). In February, Jesse and my partnership fell apart and we 'broke up'. I won't go into the details

So, I had about 2 months of being partnerless. I needed a new partner.

Then The Chaeli Sports & Recreation Club (CSRC), was introduced to Delta Dance School. The CSRC now has eight wheelchair dancers who needed leg partners. That's where Delta came in - all the leg dancers come from Delta.

It's amazing how a couple of people have completely transformed our dancing component of the CSRC. The club now has a vibe. And I have a partner.

His name is Brandon. He is 16 and in Grade 10. Brandon is a Youth Championship dancer - the interesting thing is that he only did Ballroom. He hasn't done Latin-American in quite a while.

Now we have to learn how to work together and make what we do look pretty. Simple.

Our first competition is on Saturday...we are only going to compete in the Ballroom section (it's always good to start with what you know), just for the first competition, so we can get into it slowly.

We have to be there pretty early, which is normal, and we'll be there the entire day. Hopefully there'll be something entertaining (other than the dancing) that will happen to make the day more memorable.

Wish us luck...

Things happening

This is a bit delayed but it is completely blog worthy, so here we go...

Every year the Chaeli Campaign has people riding in the Argus Cycle Tour to raise funds for the work we do through the campaign. For the more daring - and somewhat insane - people, we have the 'Double and Again'. It's exactly what it sounds like. The Argus Cycle Tour. Three times.

This year we only had 5 people crazy enough to do it. There is a tradition of not training for this that makes it all the more entertaining.

One of these people is Craig Sieben. Craig did his first Double and Again this year and was the only rider to make it up the final hill at Zewenwacht. He had a six year old mountain bike. Everybody else had road bikes.

Craig is leaving in 73 days, on a Walk4Wheels up Africa, in aid of The Chaeli Campaign as well as raising awareness of the abilities of disabled people. To find out more visit his blog at http://walk4wheels.tumblr.com/

But Craig knows some incredible people and has put me in contact with them - John McInroy (founder of the RedSockFriday Initiative), Sonja Kruse (travelled around South Africa experiencing the Ubuntu of fellow South Africans), Tithiya Sharma (travelling around the world finding '100 Heroes') and Adin van Ryneveld (living without spending any money).

These people, along with Craig, have shown me that there is a lot to be excited about in life and in others. It's awesome to see that there are still people that believe this.

We had an crazy-hectic day at Chaeli Cottage one Friday. We made headbands at the weekly craft workshop (Craig is quite a skilled headband creator).

It was hysterical...

There may be some pretty rad things to come. One thing I will tell you is that there are mountains involved, but I'll tell you more about them when things are a little more concrete.

Rolling with the Inspiration

This last week has been quite bleak - weather wise. Not a lot you can do when the heavens are opening outside and it's too cold to do anything inside. So, why not write to you guys?

I'm on holiday now...until the 18th of July. It's amazing.

One thing I've been doing for the last three months is an article for Rolling Inspiration (a magazine aimed at wheelchair users). Rolling Inspiration is a bi-monthly magazine. I am one of two writers for a youth section in the magazine.

It's so exciting that I got the opportunity to write regularly. I appreciate it so much because it could open so many doors for me. My articles are about life as a differently abled person. It's quite nice to share my story with other differently abled people who are in similar situations to me.

This morning I woke up with that horrid feeling of "I've forgotten to do something important". I hate that feeling.

I found out later, when I got to Chaeli Cottage, that it was about my Rolling Inspiration article. I looked at previous emails from the editor and my deadline is TODAY! I had a little mini breakdown because I was still undecided about a topic and now I had to get it in by the end of the day.

But, the way I work is to only really work properly when under pressure. So, I got to writing. My article is finished now. I've emailed it. Now I just need photographs.

I hope what I wrote about is still the same as it was when I saw it so I can actually get a photo of it...

Yes, I am an Exchange Student

A couple of entries ago, I told you guys about my application to be an exchange student. We heard at the beginning of the year that I got accepted. So, I'm the first disabled person in this district zone to apply and be accepted. How awesome?

It is quite the process, I must tell you. Especially, as a disabled person. The crucial thing is finding a host family. You need to understand that, in my case, it's not just a home for me. It's a home for a disabled person (which means it would have to be an accessible home), and it's also a home for another person (my caregiver, Olwethu, who works as a community worker at The Chaeli Campaign). In my opinion, it's Olwethu who would be the one people should be worried about.

But that's not the point.

When I got accepted we decided that London would be a good place to go. This is purely because of my being disabled, and the transport system is really good in terms of accessibility in London. It would suck if I go to a country for six weeks and I can't get around anywhere.

We have been trying to find a home for us for months now, and it's just not happening. We started getting a little despondent about the whole situation. Then, I got an email from Jana - from Newlands Rotary Club - saying that London wasn't really coming together, but how do we feel about Scotland?

We were super excited, but also a little confused. We had just got the idea of "London" into our brains and now we had to change our brains to "Scotland". If you look at it, they are both in the same general geographical area, so it's not such a big deal.

Yesterday I went to Home Affairs - watched a guy get angry (I swear, I thought he was going to jump over the counter and smack someone - and I got my Passport, after waiting for about an hour.

Note to all: If you're planning to go to Home Affairs, don't plan anything else for that day. All that will accomplish is you getting frustrated and you'll end up cancelling or postponing your meeting anyway.

So, now we just have to get a departure date and visas and then we are good to go...

Under the knife

I have been having problems with my knees for almost two years now. I can't believe it has been that long.

It happened because of my disability - five years ago, I had surgery that would make walking easier, but now I am not walking and I have grown since then. So the desired outcome of that surgery worked for a while, but now it's having the opposite effect and it was pulling my kneecaps in all sorts of directions.

Just so you understand what I mean, my kneecaps were about four centimetres above where they're supposed to be. That's a problem.

About five months ago, my knees started complaining, as they should. We wanted to have them sorted out so they wouldn't be a misery for the rest of my life.

But here comes the problem... the orthopeadic surgoen who had done every one of my surgeries retired last year. Now we had to find a new person. It's quite a long story, but we found a good one. Dr Craig Hastings.

We went to him just over a month ago. He decided that a good plan of action would be to do one knee at a time and release the hamstring transfer (the surgery I had five years ago) and release the quads. In theory, this should reduce pressure on my kneecap and they should go back into its rightful home. Now, we just have to wait to see if theory becomes reality. It looks like it is.

I have to go back to him in about ten days to take off the bandages and see if it has worked. If it has, then we need to fix the other knee. Fun times.

I'll write more news when I get more news.

xxx

Patience is a virtue.

I know that I haven't written an entry in a while...things have been so busy since my last blog entry.

I'm now in Grade 11. People tell you about how much more work it is. I didn't believe them. Listen, people, you should listen to those people when they tell you stuff like that so you can prepare properly.

Anyway, to get you up to speed on what's happening in my life.

A lot of interesting things are in the pipeline. I'll tell you guys about a couple of them.

Firstly, last year I applied for a service dog - quite the mission to find the right people, but once you find those people it's all good. So, I applied in September 2010 and in February this year, I had an interview with one of the trainers to see if my having a service dog is a good thing. I got accepted for the programme.

And now, we wait. They say it can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years for them to find the right dog for me.

Exciting...

The second thing happening is that I applied to go on Rotary Exchange. The committee has to discuss it and then decide if I'm right for the programme.

If I get accepted, I'll be one of the few disabled people from South Africa to go on exchange. I guess it's a trend with disabled people: very few people have experiences well-worth having when there are so many disabled people out there. Quite ironic, I think.

And again, we wait...

I think that's one of the things that come with the territory of being differently abled. Playing the waiting game. We have to wait for everything. Opportunities, failures, other people, even ourselves.

But I think the best thing I've gained from my disability is most probably...patience. I have to have patience with myself because, let's face it, stuff takes a little longer. I have to have patience with other people, because they take time to get on your side.

I hope that you all have patience with yourselves and each other. And as the saying goes, "patience is a virtue", so make it one of your own.