Hebrew Senior Life #1

This week was the first week we went in to Hebrew Senior Life to take pictures. Prior to this, we had gone only for Coffee Hours, to meet with the staff, and to get to know the residents. These meetings went smoothly, were informative, and very productive in preparing Amelia and I for what was to come.
When we began taking pictures, we started with only two floors. We wanted to see what we could handle. With Amelia on the camera, and myself organizing the residents and prepping them for how to take it, as well as explaining what the photos were for, we were able to finish fairly quickly. What we didn't expect was the large quantity that didn't show up.
On Wednesday, we upgraded to taking on three floors. We noticed even more people didn't show, and more people were refusing to get it taken. One rather outgoing senior decided to share her reasoning with us, which escalated rather quickly. Despite the somewhat offensive comments about our project and what we were doing with Hebrew Senior Life, Amelia and I had to keep our cool, constantly throwing out phrases like "I'm sorry you feel that way" or "We are only here to try and help" or "You aren't being forced to get anything done." Coming into this project, we knew we would get a range of personalities; perhaps some chatty, some quiet, some that don't speak english, some that can't hear. We even knew some wouldn't want their pictures done. We didn't expect to be lectured or compared to the Nazi's and Hitler, but now we know.
Amelia and I try our best to be as gentle, nonjudgemental, and nice as possible to all of the seniors and look past their comments, even the offensive and aggressive ones. We look forward to seeing what kinds of situations will be thrown at us for the next few weeks!