Day 21 - Netzach - Dovi

Going back to the fun and tiring ‘dynamic’ schedule of IST was hard especially after having a free weekend filled with sleep, sleep and more sleep, but we all pushed through the first day back. Starting off our day, we stepped into the shoes of those who are either blind or deaf, experiencing what their daily life is like through a series of activities that challenged our abilities. Towards the end of the museum we were able to create our names in sign language using actions that relate to our personalities, giving us the chance to feel apart of their community. After going through the Invitation to Silence museum, I can say that I have experienced something close to what it is like to be deaf but even after going through it I can still not empathise with those 800,000 people who are either deaf or hard of hearing, living in Israel.

Then we continued our experience by going to Beit Halochem Tel Aviv where we partook in wheelchair basketball and had a tour of their facility. During our time at Beit Halochem, we delved into what their organisation does to assist soldier who were injured during their service and civilians who were injured by terrorism. By watching our friends play wheelchair basketball it gave us an insight into how hard it is for injured people to recover and how they use sports as a way to keep healthy, and use it as a method to distract themselves from their injury.

They say that music brings people together, so that is exactly how we ended the day, with a surprise concert by The Portnoy Brothers. It was possibly the best way to bring all of IST back together after a free weekend without each other.

Dovi Romm - 8.12.2019