Disabled in the Desert

Just a few days ago in the local paper I read that some new laws are to be passed in Botswana in regard to building regulations needing to accommodate the needs of the disabled.  That is sure welcome news indeed.

Getting around this Desert nation in a wheelchair is a journey full of the motto 'be prepared'.  You are never quite sure if you will be able to get where you intend to go or what adjustments you might have to make along the way.

Since receiving my special recliner wheelchair over a year ago now, my life has certainly happily included many 'outings' that I would otherwise have been unable to take.  You see I can't stand for long or sit up for too long without my heart rate going way too high, and if I don't want my heart to wear out completely in the near future, I have to make sure its doesn't get too high too often or for too long....and so therefore I spend most of my life now in a horizontal position on a day-bed with a special computer bed-table.  It's all a part of living life with POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome).

My wheelchair looks like a relatively 'normal' wheelchair except the back is a little higher with an extension piece, and it has elevating leg rests.  But then when I need to lie down, the back can be lowered and the leg rests elevated so essentially it looks like I have my own mobile 'bed'.  I can go to restaurants (and lie down between courses), to church (there I am at the front of the photo), to the doctor, into the garden, to visit friends, to meetings in Government and Corporate offices, to craft fairs etc etc and anytime i need to, I can just go 'horizontal'. It's great!  (I would do even more than I do, except it does take more effort than just my routine at home, so there is still some extra strain on my heart.....and on hot days when my heart rate is already higher than normal, I can't afford to send it even a little bit higher).  

But the process of getting packed into the car, and then the process of getting out of the car and not being sure what awaits me at the other end can be a bit tricky sometimes.  The chair is a heavy one and a bit bigger than a normal chair so I can't just have a friend pick me up in their car and take me somewhere.  I have to be taken in our car and lifting the chair up and down from the back of our CRV is heavy work for my husband.  But sometimes that is the easy bit!  We have had some interesting experiences along the way.....

u  I can turn up to a shopping centre or flash hotel only to discover that yes, for sure they have 'disabled parking' but there are ropes across the front of it or a cone hat in the middle of it......so we have to stop the car, my husband has to get out and move the hat or rope (or try to find an attendant to 'unlock' the rope chain') and then get back in and park the car!

u  Going to the public toilet is sometimes tricky too.  Many places just don't have a toilet for the disabled/wheelchair so you just have to hang on!  Other places have a ladies one in the ladies toilets and a men's one in the men's toilets - but what do we do when its just my husband and I?  (yes we have had situations where my husband has taken me into the ladies loo - what else are we supposed to do?!) Some places where this is the case have double automatic closing  doors (one that you push followed by one that you pull) that don't like to stay open - at least my arms still work and I can help hold doors open as we go through and once in a while someone will notice our plight and actually help us!.  Other places have an accessible disabled toilet but its kept locked.....and not used very often, so finding the key becomes a mission!

u  change rooms in a department or clothing store....Well that's almost out of the question completely because the chair just can't turn in the tiny passage way space to even get to the change rooms and no change room is big enough to get the chair into and still be able to close the door!.....and again which change room does my husband take me too....the men's or the ladies?

u  Thankfully many buildings here are one level although one level can often mean up one or two steps and then one level!  But there are still a lot of 2 or three level buildings that have been built with stairs and no lifts - even executive office buildings.  Most often this can be worked around and executives whose offices are upstairs will come down to see me.  But sometimes a 'stairs only' situation can be very disappointing.  Recently my husband and I were excited to be able to go to a local concert with the local Musical Society and a couple of local Tenors.  We were really looking forward to it and we knew the place had ramps so we thought we were set....until we got there and discovered that the concert was not on the lower level as we had anticipated but was on the upper floor in one of the function rooms  AND the only access was a very narrow and steep flight of stairs!  We hung around for the first half to see if maybe the sound might travel down to our level....but it didn't really.  Then a wonderful thing happened - the choir conductor was so apologetic about it that she brought the choir down to serenade me one item at the end of intermission!

u  Even just going along without any need for toilets, change rooms or parking spaces can have its own challenges, when one is in a wheelchair.  Uneven concrete, curbs that don't always have 'ramps' to get on and off, ramps that are not built to any specification and are way too steep for comfort!, and of course on the edge of a desert of course there is the fact that there is plenty of sand!  Sandy soil and even patches of rough rocky soil here has meant that we have had to change the wheels on my chair from the originals (that were designed for wheelchair friendly smooth hospital corridors and smooth even footpaths of the UK) to what we call the 4X4 version of wider tyres with deeper tread.  We have even had issues of the rubber seals that enable the seat to move when the chair is folded for transport, have dried out in our excessively dry weather and when my husband went to open the chair for me, the whole thing came apart and the seal went rolling away! (we are more careful now!)

So life in a wheelchair can be interesting and challenging, and just that bit more when its at the edge of the Kalahari Desert.

But wheelchairs are not a very common sight here and they were even less common when we first came over 10 years ago.  Traditionally, disability was something that was shameful and meant a person had no ability to get anywhere unless they were carried.  But things are changing bit by bit and we praise the Lord that disability is seen a little more positively now days and that there is recognition that even the disabled are equal in value as people and can still contribute to the community.  And I praise the Lord for the opportunity He has given me to be an example to those I meet when I am "out and about" that God has a plan and purpose for those the world would ignore or discard, because what might seem a 'limitation' in the eyes of man, can be a 'facilitation' in the hands of God to fulfil His purposes more fully and display His glory more clearly!