24 October 2012

I got up quite early this morning and had a good walk and work-out. It was cool enough that I decided to wear a t-shirt instead of just a tank top.

At 9:00, we had an intake appointment with the social worker at the municipal welfare office. Her name was Bat El (which means "daughter of God"), and she was very nice. She spoke English quite well, which was very helpful for us. She gave us a form that an eye doctor must fill out. We must get that done and return it to her, together with 2 passport pictures of David, and this will get the process started for getting David a teudat iver (a certificate that he is blind). This is important in order for him to receive many services for the blind, and it will not be a quick process. She also put in a work order for someone to visit him and help him with mobility and other issues in dealing with being blind and trying to achieve more independence. She said that this also will take time.

Although things are slow here in Israel, there is an important positive difference. In the U.S., when one applies for help from nearly any government agency, one nearly always gets the feeling that one is somehow suspect. The silent assumption in the States is that EVERYONE is surely just dying to receive welfare benefits, and the job of the workers in all agencies is to make sure that there is absolutely NO cheating. Here, on the other hand, their attitude here in Israel is always that it is their job to HELP you get the benefits that you are ENTITLED to! This difference is perspective makes a WORLD of difference to someone in David's situation, believe me!

In the late morning, just before noon, it was not too hot out, so David and I went for a nice walk around the neighborhood. There was just enough warmth to make it feel really great.

I taught only 2 Berlitz lessons today (3 units): 1:00-1:45 and 7:00-8:30.

After my first lesson, we went again to eat lunch at Greg and again watched the ice-dance show. Today's show was one that we had not yet seen and was based on songs from the musical "Grease". I think it was one of the most impressive I have seen them do here.