About Daniel
Daniel Hanenberg
Born May 7th, 1987 in the carneval city of Dusseldorf
Special attributes: Strong-minded, stubborn, especially endearing, a little comedian, very honest and seriously handicapped
High: 138cm
School: Mikado School in the Netherlands
Favourite music: Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Revolverheld
Favourite hobbies: Swimming, listen to music, chilling out,
doing silly things
Pets: A small dwarf poodle named Ronja
During the week I have to go to school just like every other child. I attend a school for handicapped children in the Netherlands. It is not too far from home, because we live right on the Dutch border.
At the beginning it was a little bit difficult due to the language and I often wondered “What are they saying?” But now I understand almost everything that is said. I have to get up early at 6 am. I’m
glad that I’m not a long sleeper!
My chauffeur arrives at 8.30 am, and takes me to school in a taxi. At 3 pm he picks up and takes me home again. Wednesday afternoons are free. I do lots of interest things in school. Maths, writing and
reading are not party of my curriculum, but I have to learn to use my voice computer. I don’t always want to do this. My voice computer has a MP3 player and I prefer to switch this on rather than talking to the computer. We have various theme weeks, such as “Which animals live on a farm?” or “What happens during the various seasons in the year?” It gets really exciting when the Netherlands play football agains Germany. We always have a football party to accompany the match. In the mornings I go to school with my face painted (done by my Mum) in the colours of the German flag and I come home in the afternoon with it painted in the colours of the Dutch flag. This is always quite funny, because my chauffeur always jokingly threatens me by saying he won’t take me home if my face is painted in the Dutch colours.
I very much enjoy all of this. I have speech training and physiotherapy, music, cooking and lots of other things. When I then get home at about 3.30 pm I have to have a rest. I have a small speech button
“Step by step”, which allows the teachers to give me instructions. Using it I tell my Mum about everything that I do in school. It’s a really great gadget. But at times it can also be rather awkward because the teachers can also leave messages about the times I have done nothing but silly things in school. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen too often. Once a week I have to go to physiotherapy in the evening. In reality I like going there, but it can also be very strenuous.
At the weekends I’m happy because I can enjoy a bit of peace and quite and play in my room or just listen to music. When the weather is nice I like to go for walks with my pet dog Ronja. It is also always nice to visit granddad and grandmum. They only live 10 minutes away. I take great pleasure in going shopping with my Mum. I think in that sense she’s really lucky to have me there, because men don’t always like to go shopping!
I look forward to the summer holidays when it’s warm and I can jump into the pool. I’m a real fan of water. Having a barbecue at Grandmum’s and Granddad’s is also great. I enjoy having everybody around me and listen carefully to what they all have to say.
It’s absolutely great to skype with Grandmum. It always fascinates me and I wonder how Grandmum gets into my computer!
I also like to go on holiday. It’s just nice not to have any therapy at all. Mind you the holidays involve a lot of planning. First of all we have to find suitable accommodation for my wheelchair and my Mum always has to pack a lot of things, which makes our car look like a removals van. It’s a good job that we don’t end up in a police traffic check.
Naturally I’ve also got friends. There’s Lina, Yannik and Nina and also my schoolmates.
Well now I’ve told you quite a bit about myself. As you can see there’s a lot going in my life and it’s never boring. Especially for my Mum and I make sure of that.