Dialogue in the dark

who would have thought that there was snow in israel? well there is...sort of. At the very top of the hightest mountain in Israel there is a little snow. My israeli friend on the program put it the best way, he my friend jamie and i were talking and he was telling us about the snow in Mount Hermon, he asked her 'where are you from?' 'North Carolina' she said. 'ohhh there's TONS of snow in the Hermon, Steph you're from Baltimore right?' i said yes

...'yah there's no snow...' So seeing as most of the people reading this are probably from Baltimore- or maybe a few from out west in Idaho :-D, you get the idea of how much snow there was. Still, to a bunch of excited 18 and 19 year olds- it doesn't matter. 

Saturday we traveled 4 hours up north to the Hermon (Mount Hermon). A 4 hour drive in the state to a mountain isn't considered too ridiculous of a drive- for the small country of Israel- well let's just say we stopped 4 times to get off the bus for a break in our 4 hour drive. I think with adapting to the cultures and lifestyles here, my bladder has also shrunken in my attempts to be more like the Israeli people. The Hermon was a lot of fun- after we went to see an old Fort- Nimrod's Fort with a lot of history in it. Then we all went and had a BBQ. The part that was the most interesting to me was driving up to the Hermon- when we got close we were soo far up north, close to Syria. As we drove through the towns I almost felt like I wasn't even in Israel anymore, but still I looked around at the signs in hebrew and knew that I was, but only a few Kilometers away was only arabic. I felt like way up north where we were near the Hermon was like the remote places in the States that people sort of forget- like Iowa, New Mexico, Driggs Idaho--:). I also felt the same about the remote location of the Hermon as I do about the remote locations in the U.S.- they are the hidden jewels- the most beautiful and pure locations of the country. 

This week has been a normal week of work and class. Had a test in Hebrew on Monday which I believe went very well- we will see the result though. Tuesday we had a mandatory all day seminar. The seminar basically explained that when we returned to our college campuses in the states how to deal with the people who are anti-israel. It got very repetitive and personally even if i do agree with the things that the speakers were saying seeing as I am of course a supporter of Israel, I'm not a fan of the "brain-washing Zionism" although some great points were made and i do feel like i learned a lot. The climax of the day was in the end- the head of one of the organizations leading my program brought in an old friend from College who was a Jew and supporter of Palestinians. We sat there for 30 minutes while he explained how Israel is a terrorist state and why he supports the Palestinians. 

Everyone has their own way of dealing with things. Some people left the room, some people got very very emotionally upset and you could see it physically, some people yelled out and were disrespectful. I am a firm believer in "once you 'lose it' you lose the argument". So i sat and paid my respects and listened to the points and only calmly argued with him, never raising my voice. As his time was up he surprised us all my telling us that he in-fact is a Zionist and does this type of thing often in order to give students like us an idea of the people we'll face in life. As much and i'm not sure whether or not I agree with the whole deceiving fake presentation, it definitely gave me a scary idea of the people i hopefully won't have to face- but may. I also realized something about myself- i'm not so much of a fighter because i know that my opinion won't change as won't other peoples, all we can do is move on a look to the future.

This brings me to my experiences today. This morning was amazing- as I was awoken very early for something that I voluntarily signed up for I asked myself- "why did I decide to do this!?" I got on the bus and headed to my destination. Got a little lost on the way- of course. My friends and I that signed up arrived around 8 A.M. to the Blind and Deaf museum. We were taken in, put our bags away, anything that could produce any light. Then we were taken into a dark hallway where we met- and when i say met i mean heard the voice of, our tour guide for the morning. Liran, who was blind himself, took us for a 1 and a half hour, as they call it "dialogue in the dark". It was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of you- in fact once i decided to test myself- i put my hand in front of my face and slowly moved it toward my face to see when i would be able to see it, well what i saw didn't change, but i did to my surprise soon felt my hand hit my face. 

On the tour we were taught to use our other senses. We went into one room that was like a rain-forest- the reason i know this is because of the sounds of the birds and animals I heard, the smell and feeling of the misty air, the feeling of the trees and water from the waterfall. After and hour and a half of going through rain-forests, going on motor boats, going through markets and into a music room we had lunch in the dark. I went to the counter, ordered, paid and ate in the dark. We all sat around and talked with Liran, a man who 3 years ago went from having full eyesight to none whatsoever in no longer than a week. This is where my idea of moving on and not fighting was reinforced. Someone posed him with the question, do you remember what people look like? And when you meet new people do you imagine what they look like? He explained, yes of course i still have a little memory of what people look like, but i try not to. Part of adapting to my new life is moving on, and if i sit and imagine things from my old life, how am i supposed to move on. No, i don't think about what people look like, I'm moving on. 

Niran was truly inspiring- he explained that within 3 months of his new condition he was back to living independently, cooking and cleaning on his own. He explained how he is even also an english teacher at a public high school, and how he deals with his students in different ways because of his "minor limitations".