Experiencing A Day in the Life

Last week I went on trip organized through OSA (the student activities group in Rothberg) to a museum in Holon that allowed people to experience an hour-hour and half of complete darkness and perhaps getting a glimpse into the life of the blind. A few weeks ago I had gone to the museum right next door called "Invitation to Silence" which was based on the same concept but instead of experiencing being blind, people were invited to experience what it feels like to be deaf. Both were great experiences, but the blind museum was something like I've never experienced before. We were lead into a maze, where our blind guide, Liran, awaited us to take us on a journey through different activities in complete darkness. From the beginning, I knew that Liran was a fantastic guide. The first thing he did was pretend like he was far away with a booming voice, projecting it with what I had to assume were his hands. He was a bit sarcastic and very funny and never ceased to tease. The first room we went into turned out to be a park or a forest of some sort. I felt my way around, making sure I wouldn't bang into anything and to my surprise, found a bench to rest on for a few minutes. Little did I know that there was a tree right next to the edge of the bench, so when I tried to stand up, I banged my forehead. Better luck next time?
A market was our next stop where we were able to feel and sometimes smell the different produce. I couldn't tell if the fruit and vegetables were real, but they definitely felt real enough to be able to identify.
Our journey continued across a shaky bridge and into someone's cabin. Every time I correctly identified an object I felt proud of myself. In kitchen area I was able to feel around the silverware and imagine in my head exactly the object I was touching with my hands. Liran asked us where we thought we were, as we listened to the sounds of the ocean outside the cabin window. It turned out that we were on a desert island and were being chased by some chief who realized we were on the island. Let's think... what would you do if you were being chased by a crazy chief on a desert island who wants to you kill you? Find a boat of course! But not just any boat- the chief's boat. We were lead out of the cabin and into a boat and off we went, with the water spritzing up at us as we made our getaway. Unfortunately for us, the chief found out we stole his boat, but fortunately was unable to catch up. We were safe on the mainland and right by a city. The city was interesting, with a road we had to cross (which just included stepping down off the sidewalk, crossing it, and stepping up again) but there was a telephone booth, motorcycle and a few other things on the other side. Our next destination was the sound room. Probably one of my favorite parts because we got to lie down on our backs on the floor and not only listen to the music but feel it as well. We listened to music with heavy beats that vibrated through our bodies along with news and some classical music. Liran asked if anyone knew the classical piece and who it was composed by. I squeezed my eyes shut, for what reason I'm not sure, because I couldn't see anything anyway, and I said the first thing that came to my mind- The William Tell Overture. Low and behold- that was the piece but I couldn't remember that Roussini was the composer. Liran was excited because, according to him, in the three years that he'd been working there, no one had been able to correctly identify the piece. I made him very happy. One point for me!
Our final stop was a cafeteria, where we were able to make small purchases of chips, various candy bars, juices, and beer. I chose a pesek zman for 5 nis and sat down at the table with the rest of our group. Here we got to talk to Liran, ask him questions, and listen as he told us what he thought of our experience. He asked us how we felt then as opposed to in the beginning of the tour, and I realized how comfortable I felt. I was definitely expecting to feel more unease but it only took me a little while to adjust to not being able to see anything. He emphasized that what we experienced wasn't really being blind, because those who are blind since birth don't know what it means to conjure and image in one's mind. Their brain can't do that so every time we felt something and imagined it, we were relying on past memories to reconstruct an image. Liran had gone blind 4 years before due to a degenerative eye condition. He said the first two weeks he was upset, feeling sorry for himself, but he realized he could and wanted to lead a normal life, and it took him the rest of the month to learn what he needed, but was then able to cook, clean, and do everything else for himself. He teaches English and is getting his teaching degree this year in addition to working at the museum. His conversation with us was very deep and very open. As we were waiting to leave, he had some more time, so he showed us his talking phone and the video his mother took of him spinning fire on his birthday- something he had been learning for over a month at the time- proving he really could do anything he wanted.

I wish we had something like that in the US. I really think that people could learn a lot from that type of experience- not just about being blind and being able to understand/relate to people, but just to realize that you can do anything you want if you really try and that everyone has their issues. Liran pointed out that even blind people have their prejudices. No one is perfect, but if you sit around moping all day- what good is that going to get you? Live your life because you can.

Bahai Gardens Recap

As per Amy's request, I'm going to keep my posts shorter and more frequent (hopefully!). So, to continue on my quest to recap the past couple of weeks, I'm moving on to my trip to Haifa with my friends Keenan, Josh, and Talia. This was early February, before the Eilat trip, but the day we chose to go up proved to be perfect weather. We went up on Thursday and Talia and I stayed with two of her friends at Haifa university (in the Talia dorms! =) ). We got up really early the next morning to get to the bottom half of the gardens early enough to see the Temple and the Shrine of the Bab, one of the leaders of the Bahai religion. The gardens were nothing like I'd seen before. They were absolutely exquisite, with an array of flowers, cacti, and trees. The Shrine itself was beautiful, although we were only allowed into one of the rooms. Going into the garden, I didn't know much at all about the Bahai religion, but I soon learned on the later portion of our tour that there were Bahai all over the world and that it stemmed from Islam but was originated in Iran (Persia) so all of the sacred texts and writings of the Bab were written in Farsi. In order to tour the part of the garden that ran down the mountain, we had to walk up a really long and steep hill. Along the way we came across a sculpture garden with sculptures of women and children at play. I don't know who the artist is or what the inspiration was but it was a nice place to relax and wander around, and all of the sculptures were beautiful. We continued along our way and stopped off once more before reaching the top of the gardens to look at some sculptures in the walkway of someone's house. They were all metal sculptures, some with Hebrew written on them. Although I didn't know what most of them said (according to Josh's cousin who was with us, there was something going on with a play on words in Hebrew) they were beautiful works of art.
The walk down the garden was tiring but definitely worth it. There are over 900 steps and 7 tiers to walk down until you once again reach the Temple and shrine where we started earlier that morning. There are 7 additional tiers below the Temple. During pilgrimage, the Bahai walk all the way from the top of the gardens, past the temple, to the bottom by the port. Our tourguide told us more about the Bahai as we made our way down, pointing out the long rectangular building with a teal/seafoam green room as the archives, where all of the texts are kept and translated into 100s of different languages, and one other round building with the same color roof of which I forget the purpose.
The trip to Haifa was a nice getaway, but it made me realize how much I enjoy living in Jerusalem. There is a much smaller international population (american) at Haifa University, and it is much further away from everything else that is going on. Granted, it is beautiful up there and closer to other places in Israel I want to visit, but I am quite content where I am.
Here's a slideshow of a few of the pictures I took at Haifa (I took over 150 in total). If you want to see all of them, and all of the pictures I've taken so far, feel free: http://picasaweb.google.com/reezespiezes