Last week I went with my mom to East London. I was asked to speak at Mercedes Benz' Graduation of their learnership programme for people with disabilities.
It was a great experience. I met awesome people and had a really good time getting to know some of the people who were on the programme. I even got asked if I would 'consider' one of the graduants. That was interesting....
Going to the airport is always interesting as a disabled person. There are always challenges to overcome, but most of the time it's just hysterical.
I won a bet against my mom about where the Steers is, which was cool.
On this particular occassion, it was pretty normal with a little bit of weird. When we went through the boarding gates, they searched me, which is normal practice but this time was different. First, I had to wait for them to search another person, a woman who was probably close to 90 years old and they asked her to stand up out of her wheelchair. It took a while....
Then it was my turn to be frisked. All in all, it was a really weird situation. She said hello and whatever, and then she asked me to go into this little room, which was not normal. So I went and they closed the door behind us. It felt very sketchy, actually. I think she was new on the job because she had a supervisor and she was very.....eager to do her job and, rubbed her hands together before she started.
Nothing dodgy happened, it was just a really weird experience.
After that, it was normal. We are kind of frequent flyers and we know every one of the PAU people. It's really cool. It's like a family reunion every time we go.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Bloemfontein...
Two weeks ago - I think - I went with my mom to see our Pay-it-forward Ambassadors in Bloemfontein and Kimberley.
Now, being the people we are, clearly there was drama and hysterical situations that we found ourselves in. It started at the airport, when we were 10 hours late for our flight...
haha.
So we had to book another flight. We made the last flight to Bloemfontein for the day. We made it by 10 minutes. EPIC stress session, right there.
After arriving in Bloem we were so hungry and decided that we would go to Debonairs. I know, this sounds like a really boring story that serves no purpose, but I promise, it gets entertaining round about now.
My mom went in to order. Average. It took ages, so she came out to see if I was still in the car and not being stolen. All was good. But....there was this man....he was the car guard. He used a really annoying whistling direction system, which would be effective if anybody knew what the different whistles mean. Keep in mind that I had been sitting in the car for 30 minutes, listening to this idiocy.
I was getting sufficiently frustrated with this man. Especially because I can't get out of the car to clear the earspace. He was having a good time though, so thumbs up to him for having fun at work. What made this situation a whole lot more ridiculous was the fact that he only had one properly functioning eye.
Now, for me, I don't put a whole lot of faith in a partially sighted car guard.
Something else I didn't understand was that he was wearing glasses...
He already has one eye that is covered (probably due to surgery or something), which means that he does not need glasses for that eye, which means that the eye that was assumably 'functioning properly' was, in fact, a lot less functional than initially predicted.
This made me have no faith in the abilities of this man to direct cars. I wasn't even sure if he could see them. I try hard not to judge but looking at that situation, I'm just saying...
The rest of the trip was quite normal. Except for the fact that we stayed with people that my mom last saw 25 years ago - that's a long time because I wasn't even alive then! So naturally we stayed up until the early hours of the morning. We had to catch up. Erica, Chris and Mariet were amazingly welcoming.
Our Ambassador groups are amazing! Yvette (our facilitator) does such an incredible job with these young people. Thank you, Yvette.
After the Ambassadors meetings had finished, we met Kendra, who is six years old, has cerebral palsy and goes to a mainstream school, and her family. They are moving down to Cape Town at the end of the year. I'm so ampd!
I went with Mariet and her friends to the movies. We watched 'Magic Mike'. I'm not sure what we were expecting to see in a movie about male strippers, but our expectations were too high. The only way to deal with the awkwardness of that movie was hysterical laughter. We were pretty good at that. I had fun, though, and now I have memories of that Bloemfontein trip that I will not forget. Even though some I would prefer to forget...
:)
Now, being the people we are, clearly there was drama and hysterical situations that we found ourselves in. It started at the airport, when we were 10 hours late for our flight...
haha.
So we had to book another flight. We made the last flight to Bloemfontein for the day. We made it by 10 minutes. EPIC stress session, right there.
After arriving in Bloem we were so hungry and decided that we would go to Debonairs. I know, this sounds like a really boring story that serves no purpose, but I promise, it gets entertaining round about now.
My mom went in to order. Average. It took ages, so she came out to see if I was still in the car and not being stolen. All was good. But....there was this man....he was the car guard. He used a really annoying whistling direction system, which would be effective if anybody knew what the different whistles mean. Keep in mind that I had been sitting in the car for 30 minutes, listening to this idiocy.
I was getting sufficiently frustrated with this man. Especially because I can't get out of the car to clear the earspace. He was having a good time though, so thumbs up to him for having fun at work. What made this situation a whole lot more ridiculous was the fact that he only had one properly functioning eye.
Now, for me, I don't put a whole lot of faith in a partially sighted car guard.
Something else I didn't understand was that he was wearing glasses...
He already has one eye that is covered (probably due to surgery or something), which means that he does not need glasses for that eye, which means that the eye that was assumably 'functioning properly' was, in fact, a lot less functional than initially predicted.
This made me have no faith in the abilities of this man to direct cars. I wasn't even sure if he could see them. I try hard not to judge but looking at that situation, I'm just saying...
The rest of the trip was quite normal. Except for the fact that we stayed with people that my mom last saw 25 years ago - that's a long time because I wasn't even alive then! So naturally we stayed up until the early hours of the morning. We had to catch up. Erica, Chris and Mariet were amazingly welcoming.
Our Ambassador groups are amazing! Yvette (our facilitator) does such an incredible job with these young people. Thank you, Yvette.
After the Ambassadors meetings had finished, we met Kendra, who is six years old, has cerebral palsy and goes to a mainstream school, and her family. They are moving down to Cape Town at the end of the year. I'm so ampd!
I went with Mariet and her friends to the movies. We watched 'Magic Mike'. I'm not sure what we were expecting to see in a movie about male strippers, but our expectations were too high. The only way to deal with the awkwardness of that movie was hysterical laughter. We were pretty good at that. I had fun, though, and now I have memories of that Bloemfontein trip that I will not forget. Even though some I would prefer to forget...
:)
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Just a little bit busy
I know it's been a while since my last post. Okay, a long while, but life has been so busy I haven't really been able to update you guys. I'm sorry.. So, I'm writing now, in my room and its pretty much dark because of the kind of crappy weather we've been having lately. It doesn't inspire much creativity, but hey. Life goes on through the rainy days.
I honestly don't have a lot of exciting news. Quite sad actually. But.....I applied to university (not sure if I've told you but here's to reinforcement) and I handed in my results and other stuff they need and now we are waiting, somewhat patiently, for the verdict...
I also recently did by NBT. That was a mission in itself. I guess I should be used to it by now that being disabled often comes with hurdles, but I'm continuously surprised at how hard life can be. I'm going to put that down as 'positive thinking'. I registered, just as everybody else, and waited for my test day to arrive. Two days before, my mom phoned to ask about accessibility and stuff like that. And she was told that I can't write with everybody else because I need extra time.
Don't freak out.
I did. But in retrospect, it actually worked out better in the end, the way that it was organised. I wrote my test and now....we wait for the results. They say it takes two weeks to get them, so on Tuesday we will see.
The major thing that is on every matric pupil's mind - well, hopefully - is prelims. Oh my goodness, they are very soon and I don't know about everyone else but I am stressing. I have five weeks until they start and we are still getting work to finish. I'm really not sure where to fit it all in.
These 'holidays' have been crazy. Kind of like when people take the day off and end up doing work anyway. We have been given a lot of work and needed to finish it in the holidays. Mostly, projects that we were given a while ago. But I am very good at the whole procrastination thing. I realised a couple of days ago that I can't do it anymore. Result = stress!
I may be overplaying it a little bit, but it's fun :)
My plan is to study for exams from now so I can kick prelims' ass! We'll see how well that plan works out when life starts interrupting again...
:)
I honestly don't have a lot of exciting news. Quite sad actually. But.....I applied to university (not sure if I've told you but here's to reinforcement) and I handed in my results and other stuff they need and now we are waiting, somewhat patiently, for the verdict...
I also recently did by NBT. That was a mission in itself. I guess I should be used to it by now that being disabled often comes with hurdles, but I'm continuously surprised at how hard life can be. I'm going to put that down as 'positive thinking'. I registered, just as everybody else, and waited for my test day to arrive. Two days before, my mom phoned to ask about accessibility and stuff like that. And she was told that I can't write with everybody else because I need extra time.
Don't freak out.
I did. But in retrospect, it actually worked out better in the end, the way that it was organised. I wrote my test and now....we wait for the results. They say it takes two weeks to get them, so on Tuesday we will see.
The major thing that is on every matric pupil's mind - well, hopefully - is prelims. Oh my goodness, they are very soon and I don't know about everyone else but I am stressing. I have five weeks until they start and we are still getting work to finish. I'm really not sure where to fit it all in.
These 'holidays' have been crazy. Kind of like when people take the day off and end up doing work anyway. We have been given a lot of work and needed to finish it in the holidays. Mostly, projects that we were given a while ago. But I am very good at the whole procrastination thing. I realised a couple of days ago that I can't do it anymore. Result = stress!
I may be overplaying it a little bit, but it's fun :)
My plan is to study for exams from now so I can kick prelims' ass! We'll see how well that plan works out when life starts interrupting again...
:)
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
My speech in Chicago
I thought it would be cool if all of you could see what I said to all the cool people in Chicago. So, here it is:
I’d like to start by saying thank you for giving me this amazing award. It’s such an honour to be recognised for the work I’m doing with differently abled people in South Africa.
I was born in 1994 and in my country we are known as Madiba babies, as this was the year that Nelson Mandela became president of the new South Africa. It’s even more special for me to be getting this award from Mr F.W. De Klerk, who worked with President Mandela towards a more equal society. I am so grateful that I was born into a democracy. I do feel, though, that people with disabilities are still living in our own form of apartheid.
We are segregated from society not by choice but by a lack of accessibility and acceptance. These are issues that I, through The Chaeli Campaign, am working at getting more accessibility in all places as well as changing the attitudes of able-bodied people. It’s also important to educate people about the abilities of people living with disabilities. My main drive is for differently abled people to be included and accepted the way we are, because we cannot change our disability but we can change the way people see our disability.
I believe that we can do it. We can make disability just another trait instead of a reason for exclusion. We need to work together to make it happen. There’s a song by Nickelback that says “What’s worth the prize is always worth the fight” and I know that the prize of inclusion is definitely worth the fight.
Thank you.
I’d like to start by saying thank you for giving me this amazing award. It’s such an honour to be recognised for the work I’m doing with differently abled people in South Africa.
I was born in 1994 and in my country we are known as Madiba babies, as this was the year that Nelson Mandela became president of the new South Africa. It’s even more special for me to be getting this award from Mr F.W. De Klerk, who worked with President Mandela towards a more equal society. I am so grateful that I was born into a democracy. I do feel, though, that people with disabilities are still living in our own form of apartheid.
We are segregated from society not by choice but by a lack of accessibility and acceptance. These are issues that I, through The Chaeli Campaign, am working at getting more accessibility in all places as well as changing the attitudes of able-bodied people. It’s also important to educate people about the abilities of people living with disabilities. My main drive is for differently abled people to be included and accepted the way we are, because we cannot change our disability but we can change the way people see our disability.
I believe that we can do it. We can make disability just another trait instead of a reason for exclusion. We need to work together to make it happen. There’s a song by Nickelback that says “What’s worth the prize is always worth the fight” and I know that the prize of inclusion is definitely worth the fight.
Thank you.
Back to reality
I had an amazing time in Chicago with all the incredible people I met there. I told you about them...
But now, we have been back in SA for 2 weeks. It took us nearly a week to recover from our 30 hour travelling stint. I'm telling you, never do anything like that. It's a stupid idea. Especially for a disabled person - it just gets ridiculous.
I'm back at school. And it's as hectic as it ever was. Probably more. We are now a week away from our first matric exams. So, as you can imagine, everybody is pretty stressed out. The situation is pretty much like this:
We get more work, we complain about doing it, procrastinate doing it, then we sometimes end up NOT doing it (some of us do this as a form of protest, at least it links in with the history syllabus). We don't really have a lot of time to study for the exams...
I'll be the first to admit that my most used study method is CRAMMING! It seems to work for me most times...just because it has to. This year I'm trying to be a little more prepared for exams than I usually am, so I am cramming earlier and then going over it slowly, closer to exam days.
Today marks 9 days before we write our first paper.
Wish us luck.
:)
But now, we have been back in SA for 2 weeks. It took us nearly a week to recover from our 30 hour travelling stint. I'm telling you, never do anything like that. It's a stupid idea. Especially for a disabled person - it just gets ridiculous.
I'm back at school. And it's as hectic as it ever was. Probably more. We are now a week away from our first matric exams. So, as you can imagine, everybody is pretty stressed out. The situation is pretty much like this:
We get more work, we complain about doing it, procrastinate doing it, then we sometimes end up NOT doing it (some of us do this as a form of protest, at least it links in with the history syllabus). We don't really have a lot of time to study for the exams...
I'll be the first to admit that my most used study method is CRAMMING! It seems to work for me most times...just because it has to. This year I'm trying to be a little more prepared for exams than I usually am, so I am cramming earlier and then going over it slowly, closer to exam days.
Today marks 9 days before we write our first paper.
Wish us luck.
:)
Monday, April 30, 2012
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.
:)
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.
:)
Sunday, April 29, 2012
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?
:)
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?
:)
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