South African beauty at MISS DEAF WORLD in Prague -This is Simone Botha's journey

Firstly I was eager to get off the plane to find out who these 42 other beautiful deaf ladies from across the globe were to be. Secondly I was interested to see how we were all to communicate, as there is no universal sign language. I am not a frequent sign language user as I did not grow up to learn it. Narda Els, founder of the MDSA pageant, greatly helped me to become comfortable with using sign language.

Let me paint this amusing picture for you: Imagine the MDW organizer, Josef, in front of the conference room, the competitors on opposite sides of the room and the chaperones at the far back. Josef cannot speak English or make use of any sign language. He can only speak Czech. He made use of 5 different interpreters to interpret what he was saying out loud in Czech. On day 1 I thought that being the only competitor that does not really make use of sign language I would be the only lost sheep. I quickly learned that almost half of the girls did not understand the interpreters. Some of them were even worse off than I was, as they did not have the support of a chaperone as I did or if they did, the chaperone did not know what was being said either.

Luckily my chaperone, my German speaking supermom, could gather valuable info from Miss Deaf Germany's chaperone. Arne, is deaf, understands Czech sign language and speaks German. In turn, my mom could translate what he said into English for all English speakers and for those who could or tried to understand English. It was quite hilarious. It reminded me of the 'telephone' game where you sit in a circle and whisper into the next persons ear what you thought you heard from the previous person only to get it wrong many times. Only two voices were to be heard in an otherwise dead silent conference room: Josef's load voice in Czech and Arne's soft one in the back of the room in German.

My first day was quite a shock to my poor brain as I had a whirlpool of new images that needed to be stored and retained in my memory for the next day. The following day my understanding and application of these strange signs vastly improved and I was already going at it like a natural. My signing improved so quickly that I was able to do a Slovakian TV interview in sign language towards the end of my stay in Prague. I enjoyed the fact that all the contestants tried to reach out to each other, however strained the communication may have been at first. It was all worthwhile in the end, as we all greatly learnt from each other's countries, languages and cultures.

The strangest question I was asked about my country was, "If you're Miss Deaf South Africa, then how come you are white?" I just thought to myself surely they cannot think that South Africans all wearleather flapskins running around in the wild? Miss Deaf Holland happened to be blackand I therefore answered their question with one of my own, "If Miss Deaf Holland is from Holland, then why is she black?" This seemed to answer the question and of course it always resulted in a good laugh. The contestants were very eager to learn about SA.

The evening that we all anxiously waited for finally arrived and the adrenaline shot through the roof. The last stage placings', changes and chaotic spurges were present too. Miss Deaf Latvia was rushed to hospital the morning of the competition and had us all worried. We did not know whether she was going to be able to compete or not. Luckily she was well enough by the evening and we could change our modeling sequences back to normal. What is a beauty pageant without a little drama?

I couldn't wait for my turn to present my talent, as dancing is what I do best. My dance choreography had an African-contemporary feel with my costume representing the Ndebele tribe of South Africa. Devon Marshbank is behind the creation of my music video showcasing our country's diversity and beauty. I used Nelson Mandela's voice in sections of my choice of song, "Bring Him Back Home" by Hugh Masekela. I thought it a fitting choice, as many across the globe love Madiba. During this time the world held its breath awaiting news of Madiba's condition in hospital. My dance item was a tribute to Nelson Mandela. I danced my proud South African heart all out!

This was an experience that I will always cherish. I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to have met with so many different cultures on one global platform. This was a once in a lifetime experience and my goal was to go full out, be myself, and to build bridges across borders.

In the end it is not about winning, it is about learning from each other.

HAPPY DEAF AWARENESS MONTH!!