Chicago vibes...interesting times

I better tell you guys some of the awesome things that went along with the wheelchair drama. Otherwise, I wouldn't be a very good blogger.

We only had the Sunday before the start of the summit to do our own thing so we decided that we would go to the baseball - if you're in America, you have to do something American, right? The game was Chicago Cubs vs Cincinnati Reds.

I have never been so co cold in my life. We were totally underdressed for the occassion...my mom was wearing sandals. Bad idea. Our solution was to buy almost every warm piece of merchandise we could find at the ballpark. We got a hat, a jacket for me and a blanket for mom. We were pretty kitted out, I won't lie.

The atmosphere was awesome! The crowd, the people who walk up and down the stands selling things, shouting, the players, the music, everything made the experience that much more of an experience. The Cubs lost, but it didn't really matter to us - we were there to say we had been there.

I even got two of the players to sign my first-timer certificate. So cool!

Then the summit started and it was a whole other level of cool. I took a book with me to get all the cool people that were there could sign it and write a message that I could show my friends that I actually did meet them.

I'm going to do a little namedropping now...

Bill Clinton; Mikhail Gorbachev; Lech Walesa; FW De Klerk; Alfre Woodard; Laura Innes; Trevor Donovan; ANNIE LIEBOVITZ; SEAN PENN! I'm stopping now because I'm starting to freak out all over again.

I also got the opportunity to meet and socialise with the youth delegation of the summit. This was awesome because I was able to interact with like-minded people, which was really cool. I now have a network of awesome young people all over the world. We are already discussing our plans for world domination. It will be legendary!

This summit was the most incredible experience I've ever had. Meeting all these people, especially the young people was amazing and I would jump at the inkling of a chance of doing it again.

One Time.

:)

Crazy Drama

Sorry about not keeping you as updated as I said that I would. Things have been crazy busy....

I was asked to attend the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates' because I was being awarded the first Medal for Social Activism - how cool?

So we left last Friday for CHICAGO!! Again, how cool?

it did take us 30 hours to get there and 30 hours to get back - 2 hours to Johannesburg; 1 hour waiting in the plane; 12 hours to Istanbul; 6 hour layover in Istanbul; 10 hours to Chicago; and then all that in the opposite direction to get home (it's okay, you can say it, ARE YOU CRAZY??!!) I think we were a little bit. But it was totally worth it! Even though we were only in Chicago for four days.

There was clearly drama...

I mean, what would life be without drama. It keeps life a story worth telling.

My drama was wheelchair drama. It's becoming a trend that whenever we travel my wheelchair decides to do something stupid. I'm not sure I like it, but hey, what can you do?

The first thing that happened was in Istanbul. When we arrived, I had been awake for close to 28 hours ( I woke up at 5 on Friday morning to finish some school work to hand it in before I left for Chicago). So, I was a little tired...

We get off the plane and the PAU people put me into a regular 16 inch wheelchair. Not my own chair. This is the point where we should have known that there was a problem because nobody understood what we were saying from the time we set foot out of the plane. They told us that my wheelchair was waiting for me at the 'disabled resting place'. We figured everything was cool. How wrong can a person be?
On our way, we went through customs and they started to wipe down and check the wheelchair...This is when I started wondering. Why would they check the wheelchair if it belongs to the airport? They generally don't do that. When we got to where we were meant to be, there was no wheelchair in sight, mine anyway.

I got a little nervous at this point. We were sent to various people that were supposed to tell us where my chair was. The second information desk was my undoing. The man there asked my mom if the chair was for her...

That was the end of my being in control of my emotions. I started crying. Now, keep in mind that I actually just wanted to be sleeping as that was my 29th hour of being awake, and then you add the stress of not knowing where my wheelchair, my legs, was. It was just too much.

Nobody understood why I was in such a state. REALLY??

Eventually, we got to the Turkish Airlines Transit Desk, where they sort out all problem-passengers. We told them our whole story and the first thing they ask is where we're going. So we told them, Chicago. They informed us that the chair had a tag that said Copenhagen.

They had given me somebody else's wheelchair! What?

This all happened before 6:30 in the morning.

The Copenhagen chair was meant to be on a flight at 8. So we were fighting for somebody else as well as myself. Just imagine the state I was in. I was hysterical in tears and laughter. Interesting place to be emotionally, I have to say.

Then....this amazing man (pretty too) who spoke not one word of English, understood the situation. He told his people to tell us that he knew what was happening and he would find my chair and put it on our next flight. Could have kissed him!

We got another chair for the 6 hours. And the other chair went to Copenhagen. Let me tell you that things like this are the reason that I got the Medal for Social Activism. Not easy stuff. It's super stressful, but in the end it's so worth it.

When we got to Chicago and I saw my wheelchair I had a little party all by myself. Arriving at the hotel, my wheelchair battery had no power. We tried to charge it and it didn't work. So we thought that the chair was damaged. Turned out that it was the charger not working with the electrical current in the US. Crisis averted.

Coming back was less eventful. I got my wheelchair for the 6 hours in Istanbul. But we did nearly miss our next flight because the wheelchair people didn't come to fetch us.

As I said earlier, what's life without drama?

:)

Almost time for the big people world

So, today I applied to UCT (University of Cape Town). It's a lot simpler than I thought it would be. I applied online...so much easier than doing the whole hand-written thing.

I applied for a Bachelor of Social Sciences majoring in Politics - don't you think it's going to suit me?

They ask you to give your second choice as well, which for me was difficult because I know what I want to study. I went with psychology. I think that would suit me too, but less.

Now all we have to do is wait and see. They say that is simple to do. I disagree. I am probably going to obsess over it until I get the all important letter saying that I made it into politics.

We'll just wait together.
:)

Life is crazy...still

This year my life is not really my own. It belongs to Reddam.

Matric workload has really taken its toll - it's like when people say "all I do is work". That saying is totally legit!

Term one is close to its end. I think in three weeks, I'm not sure - I haven't really had any time to look at calenders. But there is light at the end of the matric tunnel...

We are in the process of getting our marks back for the first term report. You know, some are good, some are bad. I choose to focus on the better marks.

I tell the 'rents "they'll balance each other out and come out on the better side of the scale".

People say that it doesn't get any easier. I'm not asking for easier, I'm just asking for a few rest days in between the ridiculously hectic ones. So, I'm also choosing to ignore those people.

As they say, ignorance is bliss.

:)

I'm Matriccing

This is my last year at school. Oh yes!

We all wait forever for this to happen. People are telling me that I must savour each moment of this year...right.

Right now, I'm just trying to adjust and survive the workload. Matric is no joke. Especially Matric history. Oh my goodness, it really does just get heavier as you go up in the grades. Seriously, no joke.

I have also started doing AP English as an extra subject - so I do eight now. I don't know how smart that is with the afore mentioned epic workload, but I like the stuff we do in the subject, so time will be found somewhere to fit it in.

Hopefully things will become a little more chilled sometime soon. If it does, you'll be the first to know.

:)

Merry Christmas!!

It is the festive season!

Amazing things have happened this christmas. The way we celebrate christmas may be a little different to other people. We do presents in the morning - that's pretty much what everybody does - and then we organise the house for the afternoon because we celebrate christmas with the Terry family (the other family who founded The Chaeli Campaign) and they arrive at two-ish. Then we start the celebrations.

I think it's much better celebrating with the people you want to celebrate with. This way, everyone has an epic, awesome time. We have christmas lunch. The only thing is our lunch happens a little later than the general population. We have lunch at seven o'clock at night. It's very chilled. It's amazing!

But, being the people we are...we don't really do things slowly and we don't really do the whole relaxation-for-an-extended-period-of-time thing. So, true to this trait, a week before christmas we had the National Dancing Championships in Bloemfontein. We had to drive there because it's just way too expensive to fly a week before christmas (especially to Bloem as there are only two airlines that fly there). This is always interesting when travelling with four wheelchair users. Fun times. I honestly could have died of lack of surroundings.

The only thing I saw for twelve hours of my life were sheep and prickly pears. Do you have any idea how mind numbingly boring that is? I'm pretty sure I lost brain cells due to no activity...

Anyway, I digress. We only got to do our christmas presents on the Thursday before christmas. We decided that it was an awesome thing that I'm in a wheelchair because we get special parking - it's especially helpful during holiday seasons.

I think it's important to use what you have. I don't feel pity for myself and neither should anybody else. It's christmas and I believe christmas is about being with each other and creating amazing memories together.

Nationals, here we come!

Tomorrow morning is going to begin very very early - 5am early. So excited! Can you see the sarcasm in my face?

We are going to Bloemfontein for our dancing national championships. It's going to be awesome...once we get there.

The team is going to be arriving on mass in 2 Kombi's, so we have to drive there. It means we have 12 hours in a car with 6 other people, which is fine for about a quarter of the journey. Then you start to get tired of one another and bored of the company. The worst thing somebody can ever do to fellow travellers is to open a packet of cheese flavoured Nik-Naks in the car! Trust me, I know what that is like. It's horrific. There is no way to get away from the smell of old socks on dirty feet!

That will not be happening in our car - I have put my metaphorical foot down!

The other thing is that when you travel to Bloemfontein by car, there is not the greatest scenery. In fact, there's very little scenery to speak of at all. The majority of the time you're driving on the same road that has NO life around it for kilometres at a time.

I guess we'll just have to keep ourselves occupied by doing funny things inside the Kombi and not rely on outside to keep our brains functioning.