Like
most 23-year-olds, Abby and Brittany Hensel love spending time with
their friends, going on holiday, driving, playing sport such as
volleyball and living life to the full.
Read related news: VIDEO: 22-Year-Old Conjoined Twins Get Reality Show
The
identical, conjoined twins from Minnesota, in the United States, have
graduated from Bethel University and are setting out on their career as
primary school teachers with an emphasis on maths.
Although they have two teaching licences, there is one practical difference when it comes to the finances.
"Obviously right away we understand that we are going to get one salary because we're doing the job of one person," says Abby.
"As
maybe experience comes in we'd like to negotiate a little bit,
considering we have two degrees and because we are able to give two
different perspectives or teach in two different ways."
"One can
be teaching and one can be monitoring and answering questions," says
Brittany. "So in that sense we can do more than one person."
Their friend Cari Jo Hohncke has always admired the sisters' teamwork.
"They
are two different girls, but yet they are able to work together to do
the basic functions that I do every day that I take for granted," says
Hohncke.
The twins know each other so well that they often say
the same things or finish each other's sentences, and are supportive and
understanding of the other in all aspects of life.
With two sets
of lungs, two hearts, two stomachs, one liver, one large intestine and
one reproductive system, they have learned from a young age to
co-ordinate their body, with Abby controlling the right hand side and
Brittany the left.
There
is a difference in height and at 1.57m Abby is taller than her sister
Brittany who is 1.47m. As their two legs are different lengths, Brittany
has to stand on tip toe, on her leg, to ensure they maintain their
balance.
They have had to learn to reach compromises on
everything from what food they eat to their social life and even the
clothes they wear.
"We definitely have different styles," says
Abby. "Brittany's a lot more like neutrals and pearls and stuff like
that, and I would rather have it be more fun and bright and colourful."
While
Abby is seen as the "outspoken" sister and will always win the argument
about what they are going to wear, Brittany says her twin is also much
more of a "homebody," whereas she prefers going out.
There are
other differences, too. Brittany is scared of heights, whereas Abby is
not. Abby is interested in maths and science, while Brittany prefers the
arts.
They also respond differently to coffee. After a few cups Brittany's heart rate increases, but Abby is not affected.
And they have different body temperatures.
"I
can be a totally different temperature than Brittany would be," says
Abby, "and a lot of times our hands are different temperatures, so I get
super-hot way faster."
Despite
having a normal family and social life, studying and working like any
other young women, they do face some additional problems.
For
example, they have to put up with speculation about their private life -
something they prefer not to discuss. The twins deny a rumour that
Brittany has become engaged, describing it as a "dumb joke".
Travelling
to a new country with friends on holiday is also not as straightforward
for conjoined twins. They have two passports, but one ticket as they
only take up one seat on the aeroplane. However, they also have to be on
their guard and more aware of entering crowded or confined spaces
because members of the public will often try to take unwelcomed
photographs.
{read_more} As a close friend of the twins, Erin
Junkans says you always need to be alert because you never quite know
how people are going to react or what they are going to say.
"I
want to make sure that they're safe and that they're not completely
exposed, definitely just standing in the way of pictures, just always
keeping an eye on what's going on and just how the girls are reacting to
the crowds," says Junkans.
"Sometimes if they get more
overwhelmed then… we just need to get away from [the] area for a little
bit, but they amaze me at their ability to just shake it off and keep
seeing what we are there to see."
Conjoined twins are very rare -
it is thought one in every 200,000 births - and around 40-60% of these
births are delivered stillborn. Female siblings tend to have a better
survival rate than male siblings.
Any operation to separate
conjoined twins is a highly complex and dangerous process. It was a risk
that Abby and Brittany's parents did not want to take for fear that one
of the twins might not have survived the surgery or have the same
quality of life they do now.
With possibly fewer than 12 adult
pairs of conjoined twins across the world today, Abby and Brittany
Hensel are defying the odds. Their mother, Patty Hensel, says her hopes
and aspirations for her daughters' future are just the same as anyone
else's.
"Like every mum would hope for, you want them to be
successful and to be happy and healthy as they're being successful, and
that's what I want," says Patty Hensel.
As they embark on their
working life together, the twins aim to take things day by day and do
not tend to look forward to where they will be or what they will be
doing in 10 years' time.
With their position as teachers they
have become role models for children academically, but also in their
attitude to life, overcoming any challenges.
"I don't think
there's anything that they won't try or something that they couldn't be
able to do if they really wanted to," says Paul Good, principal of the
school where Abby and Brittany work.
"To bring that to children, especially kids who might be struggling, that's very special, that's learnt through lived example."
The
court entered the judgment after the firm failed to defend the case
“despite multiple opportunities to do so”. In a judgment Tuesday, Judge
Barbara J. Rothstein, granted the Nigerian embassy’s prayers that Mr.
Ugwuonye’s firm be made to refund $1.55million it stole from the
Nigerian government. 
Speaking
during the launch of an Igbo language school in Ghana recently, this
Eze ndi Igbo, while admitting that immigrants could not expect to
re-write the laws of their host community observed that; though a lot
has been done to redress the situation, the problem persists as borne
out by the wave of closure of Nigerian-owned shops in some areas of the
Ghanaian capital, over the last six weeks or so.
Emmanuel
Uti, the legal adviser of the group, told Daily Trust that the sales of
the licenses are fraudulent and they want the government to stop it
immediately.
Reports
from Turkey said a court in Istanbul acquitted Emenike because of ‘lack
of credible evidence’. Emenike had been charged along with some
Fenerbahce officials.