Hello reader,

Lately I've been thinking a lot about my future. The past year was incredibly difficult for me; I had to deal with a lot of changes in my life and I also had to deal with depression. To be quite honest, the past year shook me up to the point where I forced myself to have no expectations. I entered 2014 with a promise to myself to only take each day as it comes, to not make plans and to just 'float on a cloud' as I called it. But now I'm ready to pick up the pen which is my life and to write my own stories in the book of my life.

You see, I have so many goals and dreams I want to achieve and so many things that I want to do. I want my life to have meaning; I really want to make a positive difference in people's lives. I want to do my utmost best to make this world a better place for everyone who lives in it. I do not want my nephews to grow up in a world full of hate, violence, injustice and inequality. I want to bring my own children -should I be blessed with a couple- in a world that I have done my part to improve, a world full with hope and love all around. Am I being unrealistic? Perhaps, but this is something I believe in and something I believe I can help make happen. Even you can. I have always been passionate about making a difference in the world I live in. Last year I started a youth charity initiative with other young people around South Africa with the objective of being youth helping other youth -to have young people instrumental in making a positive difference. For a while things looked great, but unfortunately running  charity organisation is really challenging ad we didn't have enough support and the team and I parted ways. Even though that didn't work out, it made me even more determined to work with charities and there are a lot of good charities with the same vision I had. I am so, so excited to work with a few of them.

Today I'm proud to announce that I've been chosen as a Miss Deaf South Africa finalist yet again. I'm happy and excited to be involved with it as I'd love to bring awareness to the talents, skills and world-changing abilities of deaf and hearing impaired people. The pageant is not as supported in South Africa as the well-known Miss South Africa pageant and I'd love to see that change. There are so many beautiful deaf and hearing impaired people who can really make a difference if given the opportunity to do so. Thankfully the organisors of the pageant (who are also deaf) recognised that and since 2004 they've been working tirelessly to bring this pageant to the deaf and hearing impaired community. The past winners have made great strides fighting for deaf rights and showing that deaf and hearing impaired people are as much able as hearing people. They are so inspiring and this pageant however small it is, has done a great job in giving them a platform to be heard and seen. I'm excited to see my fellow contestants and to also work with them. The pageant will be held on the 11th October and you can find out more about it HERE. *fingers crossed*

There is so much more I want to do. I'd love to bungee-jump over crocodile infested waters! I'd love to go on a very scary roller-coaster ride! I'd love to go skiing at some skiing resort I've only ever seen in movies! I'd like to spend the night in the open air, star-gazing. Ok, ok. Let me not get carried away. *clears throat* Ahem... I will not bore you with in-depth details but I'd love to travel and see the world. I'd really love to visit bgi cities like London, New York and Amsterdam. I've never been on a plane before and I'd love to visit Cape Town. There's people I'd love to see in Cape Town and I can't believe I've never been there yet! Everyone always tells me how amazing it is and I'd love to experience it for myself. I'd also love to publish a few books. I love writing and my biggest dream is to publish a novel that people would love. So far as practice I've written a novella that's half-way complete for my friends to read and dang! writing a book is extremely difficult! Do you want me to post the novella here as soon as I'm finished with it? Do you? Hahahahahaha! Whew! Okay, I'll think about it... I want to shoot short films as well! I actually wrote a short script a couple of months ago and it was really awesome and exhilarating to do so I think I will continue with that. The script is somewhere on the internet and only one person other than me knows where haha.

I have also written and illustrated a children's book with a the main character inspired by my baby nephew but unfortunately my nephews and their parents never got the chance to see it. It -along with my other prized possessions- was stolen from my mother's car. I had a digital and physical copy which were both stolen. Boo hoo darn you thief! I hope you develop painful boils on your bum so you can't sit down. Not really but I hope whoever stole it lives with guilt and regret. I do wish my brother got to read it before he passed away because he really wanted to. My mother luckily got to read it and it made her smile. I'd love to write a few children's stories as well. It'll be great for me to make up to my nephew for never getting to read the first one haha!

My internship period is ending. October will be my last month and as sad as this makes me (I work with really amazing people and let me brag a bit... I get to literally rub shoulders with the country's renowned journalists haha!) I'm really excited to begin another phase of my life. I have a thick notebook filled with ideas and I want to implement all of them. I'll have more time to work on and to prepare for the launch of my online company early next year. I'll reveal details closer to the time! This also makes me uncontrollably excited because I can do anything. I really can! So can you. I'm taking this pen and I'm going to write an excellent story of my life until the pen runs dry. The future is scary and uncertain but I'm willing to put in the work with God's help to make it a future I want. A future I'll be happy to live my short life in. Before I've been cruising but now I'm ready to pick up speed and take control. Will I crash? Maybe... but I'm betting everything I have that I will fly.

This blog is will also be going through some changes. In October I'll be moving to Wordpress because  want it to be a long-term thing and I'd love to host it as a site on my own domain and Wordpress offers the most support for that. Also, blogging through Wordpress will make it more convenient me blog on the go with my phone. So why didn't I start the blog on Wordpress in the first place? I don't know, I'm a doof sometimes I wanted to give Blogger a trial run. So I hope you won't leave me. *hangs on tightly to your leg and refuses to let go*

Speaking of more future things, I will be guest blogging on the lovely and beautiful Alisha's blog over here at The Alisha Nicole later this month. I'm so excited (I'm aware that I'm saying this a lot but I really am excited!). Her blog is great, she blogs about her life and helps people begin their businesses by offering coaching and mentorship packages. Do check out her blog and fall in love with it.

Thank you, reader for reading my blog and I hope to have you in my future. Remember, you hold the pen that writes your future. Put it to good use. :)

'Til next time
-Bella

I sometimes fail at interneting

Hello reader,

I have a confession to make…I sometimes fail at ‘interneting’. Now, I understand that the internet it a huge place that can be confusing. I can manage it most of the time, but sometimes it gets very confusing for me. The one site that confuses me the most is Tumblr.

Tumblr. I’m sure we’ve all heard of it. It’s everything. If Tumblr was a non-virtual place, it’ll probably be one huge mental hospital that’s full of all kinds of crazy people…or Wonderland. You know… the place that Alice stumbles into? I personally love the Alice in Wonderland description. “We’re all mad here.” But really, Tumblr is a magical world filled with strange creatures and like Alice, I went tumbling into it. (See what I did there?)

I first got Tumblr about 4 years ago as my online portfolio for my photos and artworks. I didn’t know how to use it and I kept seeing screencaps of funny Tumblr conversations with comments on other websites. I marveled, “You can comment on Tumblr!? How do I do that?” I never found out. I generally sucked at Tumblr, therefore I stopped updating my portfolio and went in search of greener pastures – Behance, which is a really excellent platform for online portfolios. 

I forgot about Tumblr and was only occasionally reminded about it by ‘birthday’ emails from the Tumblr staff, in which they told me how old my blog was. A few months ago I discovered the awesomeness that is Buzzfeed. Seriously, that site is amazing! If you know Buzzfeed you’d know how they constantly feature stuff from Tumblr and so...I wanted back in. I found out that a dear friend of mine had a personal Tumblr blog (which she kept secret can you believe it!?) and I immediately went scrolling through it to and she had a lot of posts like the ones featured on Buzzfeed. That did it. I was going to Tumbl! Whoo whoo! *literally tumbles*

I ‘dusted’ off my old blog, started following a lot of new blogs, reblogging and posting every now and again. Slowly Quickly my blog transformed from a portfolio to a personal blog. This is where it started getting confusing for me. The very first time I tried to post a gif, I didn’t know how. Don’t laugh, but I Googled the gif I wanted then copied the URL and pasted it on Tumblr. I was puzzled when I viewed my blog because instead of a moving picture, I was looking at a link. *sigh* I then consulted the above friend for help (she is now my unofficial Tumblr consultant). Now I know how to properly post gifs but I don’t know how to tag another blogger or how to post a gif set. I’m learning though and goodness gracious, I feel like an old lady who’s just discovering technology.

The technicalities of Tumblr are not the only confusing aspects of it. Its users are! Daily I’m confronted by strange jargon and abbreviations I’ve never seen before and no I’m not talking about that word I loathe ‘bae’. I kept seeing abbreviations like AU, (y/n) and IRL. Buzzfeed uses a lot of them as well. My friend kindly explained to me that AU means Alternate Universe and (y/n) (which appears on most gif sets) means (your name). I actually asked her who (y/n) is and this took me back to when my sister laughed me out of her room when I asked her who ‘nuff was, as in the phrase, "‘nuff said" (enough said). As for IRL, I told myself that I wasn’t a moron and I could at least Google that (I’m really great with Google, yay!) and it stands for 'In Real Life'. If you reader, are perhaps like me and didn’t know what these abbreviations meant then you do know now! You’re welcome. 

I do wish though, that we did not have to abbreviate everything. Language is beautiful, so are words when they are not abbreviated. Imagine a world where every word is abbreviated. *shudders* So people please, let us not abbreviate words unnecessarily.

That said… I am not entirely bad at interneting or Tumbling, if you will. I mean, I figured out Reddit! Well, uhm… I’m getting there. But look! I made great strides on my first day there and I wasn’t even reading a Reddit AMA (Google it if you don’t know it). I love learning and I love discovering new things. I really love the internet, it can be very lovely. And I love Tumblr too… duh!

Let me know if there have ever been instances when you failed at interneting so I can virtually pat your hand and nod sympathetically with you as I pour a cup of tea for you.

Happy interneting!

‘Til next time,

-Bella

Deaf Awareness month part 2

Hello reader,

Welcome to the second and last part of my Deaf Awareness Month posts. In the first one, I wrote about deaf people here and now in this one, I’ll be telling you about sign language yay!

About sign language

Sign language is considered as much of a language as English. By this I mean sign language differs country to country, just like spoken languages. Here we have South African Sign Language or SASL, in America they have ASL and in Britain there is BSL and so on. All of these differ greatly, some signs may mean something else altogether in another country. Also, much like spoken language, sign language has ‘slang’ which differs from region to region.

Below are the some of the different kinds of sign language:

Sign Supported English (SSE). This is the preferred method of hearing people to communicate with the deaf. SSE uses the same sign as British Sign Language (BSL), but unlike Signed English (SE), you do not have to sign every word. SSE also doesn’t have its own grammar system like BSL, enabling hearing people to use the sign system without having to learn a whole new grammatical structure. SSE can be picked up fairly quickly which expedites communication.

International Sign (IS). IS is an international auxiliary language used at international meetings, such as the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) Congress and events such as the Deaflympics.

Padget Gorman Signed Speech. This signing system is used with speech to help those with langauge difficulties. There are 37 basic signs which when combined can make over 4,000 more complex ones.

Pidgin Signed English (PSE). Another characteristic of language -much like pidgin vocal language, sign language has a very crude signing system, in which elements of BSL and spoken English are combined to allow communication between hearing people and deaf people who only know the strict confines of sign language. This system is not recommended though haha.

Finger Spelling. This signing system is generally used alongside sign language. It is used to spell out names, places, and anything else where there is not usually a sign for. Many times, new words take longer to be adapted into a singular sign; therefore they must be spelled out. Hearing people probably have used this a few times in their lives.

Why you should learn sign language

Who wouldn’t like to learn a new language, especially one as beautiful as sign language? You can also place this as an extra language on a CV or résumé which is an added bonus! Learning sign language will also help in bridging the gap between the hearing and deaf communities which is beneficial for both. Also, learning sign language is fun! Did I mention that already? No, well, I’m saying it now; sign language is fun. You also get to amaze people with sign language skills and because not many people are fluent in sign language, you get to communicate in broad daylight with your friend about secret things haha! It’s a great experience, so if you’d like to try something new, go for it!

Where can you learn sign language?

The best and fastest way would be to befriend deaf people and learn from them. If you aren’t able to do that, there are many institutions which offer sign language lessons; some free of charge and some at a cost. Do a quick Google search for any in your area but be careful you don’t go to dodgy places. Always bring a friend as well; this makes it double the fun. If you’d like to privately learn within the comfort of your own home, YouTube has a lot of videos of people teaching different kinds of sign language and you can easily find a sign language tutorial book in your local library or online.

I myself, am constantly trying to improve my sign language skills. Two weeks ago I watched a video about the basics of American Sign Language and it was thrilling. You can also learn by watching TV shows or movies where sign language is heavily used. I suggest Switched at Birth for a TV series (it’s really awesome and also brings the issues deaf people face every day in a mostly hearing world to the surface), and this Oscar nominated drama film, Children of a Lesser God (the talented deaf actress, Marlee Matlin won an Oscar for best actress for her role in this film at the very young age of 21!) and I heavily recommend it.

*rubs hands together satisfactorily* So… that’s about it. Again, if you have a question to ask, don’t be afraid to leave a comment. I’m always happy to help!

Deaf Awareness Month Part 1

Hello reader,

September is International Deaf Awareness Month and as a hearing impaired person, I decided to do my part in bringing awareness towards the deaf community and deaf culture. It is something I really wanted to do because I believe not enough awareness is given to deaf people so I thought what better place than my blog? I decided to publish this post in two parts because I know most people do not appreciate long posts as they quickly lose interest and I really do not want you to lose interest. I mean, I’m trying to spread some awareness here, haha!

A little back story: even though I have severe sensorineural hearing loss -which means the nerves or ‘hair cells’ just up and died and the remaining ones are just barely holding on, and this also has an impact on my speech – I have lived as close to a normal life as I possible with the help of lip reading and hearing aids. A few years back I became interested in learning more about the deaf community and a while after that I entered a national pageant, Miss Deaf South Africa, which was a truly amazing experience. I met a lot of beautiful deaf and hearing- impaired young women who wanted to make a positive change. I spent a lot of time interacting with them and watching them interacting with each other in sign language, they also taught me a bit of sign language which I just LOVED because it was a great improvement to my alphabetical sign language and when I left after a week, I left with increased sign language vocabulary and a profound love and appreciation for the deaf, deaf culture and sign language as a whole. Where ever you are, I urge you to make friends with deaf people and interact with them (this is also the fastest way to learn sign language. Without further ado (and to prevent myself from rambling) I’m going to spread a little awareness in here!

About deaf people

Deaf people are like you and deafness does not affect a person’s intellectual capacity or ability to learn so be careful before calling a deaf person dumb just because they are struggling to communicate with you. However, because deaf children do not have the language stimulation that hearing children do, they is a slight delay in learning language and this may cause a deaf child’s academic progress to be slower than that of hearing children.

Dos and Don’ts when communicating with a deaf person

Do’s:

• Tap gently on his or her shoulder to get attention.
• If beyond reach to tap, wave in the air until eye contact is established.
• Switch lights on and off to get attention.
• Establish a comfortable distance between you and the person you are communicating with.
• Establish eye contact before beginning communication. Sign language is a visual language and therefore eyes are used to process the message. Eye contact is also used as a turn-taking technique, especially in group discussions where everyone looks at the next speaker.
• Wait for your turn to start signing.
• Keep your face clear of obstructions, e.g. hair, scarf.
• Show that you are attentive by nodding slightly – if you are expressionless, it conveys inattentiveness. Sign language is a visual language; you need to express yourself as adequately as possible.
• Do not be afraid to ask questions. Seriously, most deaf people to not mind questions and are always happy to answer. Don’t discourage people in your company to ask questions as well, unless it’s an inappropriate time.

Don’ts:

• Do not shout, make obscene gestures or speak very loudly close to a deaf person. This can be very annoying to them and I’ve had this happen to me often and it annoyed me. I also had people stand behind me and yell at me or obstruct their mouths while speaking to me to see ‘if I could hear them.’ I get their inquisitiveness, but it got old and to be honest, it made me feel sad and inadequate.
• When you need their attention, do not touch elsewhere on the body, e.g. head, face, stomach or use a fist/punch or kick or throw things to get attention. Especially throwing things, don’t throw things.
• Do not pass between two people signing - or excuse yourself if you have to. It’s considered very rude.
• Do not stand before the light from a window, this causes back lighting, meaning they can’t really see your features from the front.
• Do not stand in a dark spot. They need to be able to see you.
• Do not stand too close. Personal space rules apply to everyone people!
• Do not look away during the conversation, as that indicates termination of communication.
• Do not sign with hands full of objects, e.g. cup, books.
• Do not eat or chew anything while signing.
• Do not force a deaf-mute person to speak. Some deaf people prefer not to speak and that choice should be respected.

Why should there be more awareness for deaf people?

Ask yourself this question, how many deaf people do you know and have interacted with more than once? The fact is there are many deaf people around but unfortunately they are limited to their own world which is in the background of the hearing world. Deaf people are excluded from a number of opportunities and participation for something they cannot help just because many are not aware of them, or they choose not to include them because it takes more time and money. A lot of events do not use the services of deaf interpreters to involve the deaf community which means deaf people are often excluded from events that would have been otherwise beneficial to them. Inclusion and awareness of deaf people is a win-win situation for both the hearing and the deaf communities. Many deaf people are so talented but they do not have a platform to showcase and develop those talents. Also, some TV channels and movies do not make use of subtitles/captions to include deaf and hearing impaired people in their target audience. I myself have dedicated time asking local film makers and producers to consider having subtitles on their movies to include deaf and hearing impaired viewers. As a hearing impaired person, lack of subtitles in movie DVDs I need to watch discourage me from watching therefore I do not buy them. For example, the Spud movies staring John Cleese and Troye Sivan. I am a huge fun of the books and when the first movie came out, I waited for it to go to DVD and when it did I went looking for it and flipped the DVD case over to check if it has subtitles…it didn’t, I placed it back on the shelf and walked away. See where I’m going with this? I did not buy it, meaning they lose a lot of potential money. Plenty of American and British films that come out on DVD have subtitles, this is great. I however would like to support the local film industry but I can’t if they don’t cater to me, I can’t if they don’t support me. Imagine the amount on revenue that would be instilled into the local film industry if they were aware of deaf people. Imagine all the possibilities if the world was acutely aware of the deaf community.  

Thanks a lot for being a willing audience haha! I hope those burning questions you have are now answered. If not, leave a comment and I’ll be more than happy to answer or refer you to someone much more qualified to answer.