Today we had an amazing day together. After davening and breakfast we headed out to start the day! We went to a seeing eye dog training center and learned the process a seeing eye dog goes through in order to help people who are visually impaired. It was interesting to see how a person who is visually impaired can work together as a team with the dog. We also got to play with the cute dogs! Then we made our way to a museum that simulates what it is like to be blind and deaf. There we were able to better understand the challenges that people who are blind and deaf go through everyday, by putting ourselves in their shoes. In the part of the  museum that focused on deafness, we learned how to communicate without speaking and that communication is about sharing ideas rather than words. In the portion of the museum simulating blindness, we relied on our other senses to help inform us of what setting we were in. We danced and relied on each other to make it through the course. We then got to speak to people who are blind and deaf about their lives and ask them questions. We ended off the day by playing see, run, build, where we had to build specific structures based only on communication. Overall, is was a very enlightening day and we all feel so thankful for the abilities that we have.

 

Miri Granick, Eli Boord & Masha Greenblat