LEADING THE BLIND

‏יום שישי ב' אייר תשע"ג

Willie and I chose to volunteer since we arrived in Nahariya.

At first we worked for the municipality doing office work in the municipality buyer and teaching English  at a youth club for people from troubled families.  It was interesting and we did good but after a year and a half we felt that we needed a change.  

So we joined the largest insurance institution in Israel which is responsible to all insurance issues from unemployment payments to old age security and everything in between.

We are part of the division for the elderly. Except for the division head, the entire staff are volunteers. Most are over 60 years of age, others are in their 70^th and 80^th.  About 160 of us in total. The volunteers visit other elderly in the Western Galil; give advice on pensions and rights; connect between the elderly and the community institutions, and even call and check on elderly during times of war, earthquake and other disasters. These are just some of their responsibilities.  With a large aging population, some are holocaust survivors, and about 1,200 people over the age of 105 in Israel, there is a lot to do.

Since we are fairly new in the department, we were asked to join a group of new comers for geriatric studies in the university of Haifa. 

Once a week we are mini-bussed to the university on top of Carmel mountain. People come to that class from all over -  Hadera to Rosh Ha-Nikra.  The 17 of us from this area are forming a close knit group.  I took my camera this week just for the fun of it.

Unbeknown to me, the lesson plan for the day was a demonstration on leading the blind.  The instructor turned a chair upside down on the platform, blind-folded one student, and directed 2 others to lead the ‘blind’ over the obstacle.  It was interesting to watch. They did their best. They had no prior instruction, and the instructor explained after the dry trial that leading a blind is about the person and not about the task. 

 

I am not sure how well the pictures turned out, but I am positive that I would not have guided the blind-folded student better then the other two people without further instructions.

It is good to have these 4 months of studies. The lectures are all in Hebrew and both of us are learning a better professional language as result .  we also learning that being old is no fun unless we are prepared for it physically, emotionally, health wise, financially and socially.   No one knows how to deal with such advanced age as we have now in our community.  Never in modern times were 5 generations living at the same time, in the same place.  Never were that many of older age living and needing special tools as there are now. Not enough research was done nor enough information gathered to know how to deal with it. 

We feel as we have been feeling for the past 5 years in Israel, we a blazing a trail… again.

On Fire, Orith