Menachem Weiss, a “special” teen, reports on an angle of life that he alone can talk about.
Shalom dear readers!
Remember me? I’m the one with CP – the one who doesn’t let the CP stop me from having fun. Well, not always but I try. There are a lot of things I can’t do in a wheelchair but Ezer Mizion has taught me that there are a lot of things I can do. And I try to take advantage of every one.
For the past few years I have not attended the Ezer Mizion retreat because I had an opportunity to be taken to Switzerland instead. I always had a blast at the retreats but, after all, Switzerland…This year, Switzerland is not going to work out but I wasn’t shy at all to call Ezer Mizion. It’s like a family and I knew I’d get a big welcome back.
Like always, I was worried who my counselor will be. Having the right person is so important. I need help with everything. And besides, no counselor can help me if he can’t understand me. My speech is not so great. Well, great news! My cousin, Motty, will be one of the counselors and I’m going to ask that he be assigned to me. We get along great. He understands me when I try to talk and he knows just what I need and how to manage everything. So, I already registered and made up with my friend, Gavriel, that we’d be in the same session and in the same room. I hope everything will work out for the best and we’ll enjoy ourselves as we did in the past.
I’m really looking forward to it. I remember one year, we went to the ocean. I had never seen the ocean, never in my life, and the counselor was able to get the wheelchair all the way up to the waves. I could feel them! Wow! That was really something. One year we had a magician as entertainment who did some really cute tricks. One of the days began with a performance about a king who searched for happiness. It gave us a lot of food for thought in a fun way. After lunch, we went out and there, outside, was an authentic Bedouin encampment. They even brought a real camel and walked him around all the time. They gave out drums and big darboukas and we tapped along energetically, together with the Bedouins. Leave it up to Ezer Mizion. What will they think of next?! We also had a band and I danced, sort of. It was fantastic! We ended the day with slow songs, songs of yearning and prayer.
I had a fantastic counselor that year, Yehoshua, who looked after me with all his heart and never forgot to give me occasional chocolates so I would have a sweet, happy time.
I always start off with fears about any new counselor – whether he’ll understand me and know how to help me – all kinds of nonsense and in the end, every counselor is great and I forget about it all and enjoy myself. But what can I do – I can’t overcome my worrywart habit. But this year, I’ll probably have Motty so I can skip my usual nervous session. I’ll let you know how it all works out.
Until next time,
Menachem Weiss
Ezer Mizion provides services to over 660,000 of Israel’s population annually in addition to its Bone Marrow Registry which saves the lives of Jewish cancer patients the world over.
