Sunday November 3, 2013 St Vincent service project

We went with 7 students to St. Vincents in Ein Karem to help Miriam with therapy for severely handicapped children.  Linda and I helped make paper mache. Miriam Griell is a member of the branch. She is from Austria, graduated in occupational therapy, and has been in Israel for a year on an internship at St. Vincents. 

Miriam is very good with the children. We worked especially with Ayat and Dafna.  Our first impression is "there is no way they can understand or communicate'. But they understand 4 languages - Hebrew, Arabic, English, and German. Ayat would nod, grunt, or shake her head to answer our questions. Miriam suggested she say goodbye to us as we were leaving.  There was no response, so Miriam said you have to say something so we know you understand.  She then grunted as each of us said goodbye.

Miriam prepared a book with little cards that she can point to in order to answer questions. Each card has a name of someone or something, and each card has a unique texture. After Ayat finished  making paper mache, she chose a card to send to someone. She opened the book, turned the pages and selected Angie.

 

Ayat is tearing paper with her right hand and putting it into the blender. Her left hand does not function well. Try tearing colored paper with one hand. It is difficult, but she does it, sometimes holding the paper against her body as she tears it, sometimes holding it in her hand while she tears it with her fingers and palm. After she fills the blender with paper, she pours in water, she puts on the lid and sets the blender on the motor section, and she presses the button to blend the paper/water mixture. Then she does the reverse and pours the mixture into a plastic tub.  She does it mostly without help.

Nichel, Angie, Braelyn, Caralee, Angie, Tyler, Kara, Miriam, Linda.

Afterwards, we spent an hour in Ein Karem where John the Baptist lived.  This is Mary's well, where Mary and Elizabeth met and talked about their pregnancies.

 This is Mary's well with a rare shot of us together. I learned to use the camera so I usually take pictures.

 This is a restaurant in Ein Karem.   I thought Dean and the employees at Gunthers Comfort Air might find this an interesting way to install duct work.

We visited an art shop and a jewelry shop while we waited for our hired bus to pick us up.  The artist was born in Brooklyn but has lived in Jerusalem since 1950.  This picture was taken at the entrance to the jewelry shop.  Ein Karem reminds us of the tourist side of Park City on a mini scale.