Dinner With a difference raises blind awareness in the dark

Throughout the world there are approximately 285 million people living with partial or complete blindness.

Hein Wagner is one of them. He was born in Cape Town and was shuttled off to Worcester's Pioneer School for the visually impaired at the age of 5, leaving behind his sighted friends in Durbanville.

Attending a school for the visually impaired showed him countless realms of possibilities. It was then that his spirit of adventure kicked in. Starting off with riding a bicycle blind and racing with sighted neighbours during school holidays.

By the age of 16 he had climbed Table Mountain six times. Wagner went on to do the Cape to Rio yacht race, played for the African Blind Cricket team, completed the Iron Man challenge, did the Cape Town Marathon, cycled the Cape Epic and even clocked 322.5 km/h in Lolly Jackson’s Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG Black Series.

How?

Last week, Wagner stood at the Westin Hotel’s Old Harbour room regaling guests with blind conquest anecdotes and how “being blind allows one to imagine the world in whichever way one wants to 'see' it!” before leading those in attendance into a room where cellphones and watches were taken and stored in safe boxes.

The guests were led through a black portiere which led to another. Thus placing all in a dark entryway. The procession was then led into a pitch dark room, hand on the shoulder of the person in front of the other with Wagner at the helm.

“This is your chair, hold on to it and take a seat,” he said, as he took the next guest's hand.

I strain my eyes hopelessly as I realise my eyes will not adapt to this darkness. I cannot see a thing. A few minutes later all the other 40+ guests are seated, nervously chattering away with everyone punctuating their sentences with “wow!” and "I can't see!"

Was it a long table? Round Table? How many people were at ours? I hear Darren 'Whackhead' Simpson’s voice directly across me. To my left I hear Premier Alan Winde who had just arrived from George following the devastating building collapse.

Africa Melane is asking for still water on my far right. I later learn he was born a teetotaller and remains committed to that cause to this day.

“Who has the still water?” Our waiter then joins us, informs us that there is sparkling and still water on the table; the sparkling one has a v-shaped embossing.

Same with the red and white wines on the table.

As we pass along the bread baskets, butter and wine it immediately hits me how heightened my sense of touch is, especially when holding someone else’s arm before handing over anything to them.

“Sorry, what is your name?”,.“My name is Tracy.” “Tracy may you please pass me the still water?”, “Sure let me find it. What is your name?”, “Unathi”.

The starters arrive. It tastes like salmon, there could be beetroot on the side. Grappling with table manners becomes a foreign concept as I dig in with just the fork.

Where things got tricky was when the main meal arrived; beef brisket on a bed of mash and veggies. I could not find the second fork and cannot account for the gravy stains on my shirt.

The food was divine. Compliments to the chef!

At some point I got so frustrated with not being able to see that I just zoned out. Folded my arms. Closed my eyes (useless I know). And just listened to people’s conversations. You could literally eavesdrop while stretching your neck in their direction.

Imagine a world in which you can only imagine what people look like based on their voices. Can such experiences change the way we see one another?

How?

Are such immersive experiences into the lives of “the other” effective? Is there any way of applying these methods on a grand scale? Perhaps use them to address inequality?

Immerse rich in poor circumstances for a month? Make white black for a day? And so forth.

Suddenly a light tap on my shoulder asks, “would you like anything to drink?”. “Double Jack Daniels on the rocks, please.”

A few minutes later, the light tap is back. How?

It turns out the waiters for the evening were also partially-sighted, with some completely blind and had walked the room’s layout earlier.

Remembering all your steps, making mental notes of everything, not bumping into things, being attentive at all times ... heck, one would never survive being unintelligent while blind.

It was when a group of friends asked Wagner, “how does it feel like to be blind?” that the idea to dine in the dark with sighted people was born.

And last week a group of media practitioners, c-suite executives and the Premier of the Western Cape, honoured Primedia Broadcasting CEO, Lindile Xoko’s invitation to a Dinner With a Difference at the Westin.

“Primedia Broadcasting is supporting blind youth development through our newly established partnership with the Hein Wagner Academy for the Blind.

“This partnership has already included a cash donation and will include a significant media investment and employing blind graduates from the academy, to form part of the Primedia family,” said Xoko before shedding some light on their Primedia Cares initiatives.

“Corporates that Care is up and running and is a permanent weekly feature on Radio 702 where Bongani [Bingwa] interviews CEOs or heads of foundations, live on air every Wednesday at 8.50am and unearths what corporate South Africa is doing to make a meaningful difference in our country.”

The evening ended with LottoStar’s CEO, Taz Hadjigeorgiou, who was in attendance, making a R1 million donation to the Hein Wagner Academy.

Cape Times