Happy Kampaloween!!

A few weekends ago (Halloween in the states) my roommates and I had planned to have a going away party for our roommate Felix who was supposed to be leaving the first week in October. His stay got extended, but we had already planned the party, so we just switched up the theme a little bit to Kampaloween- pretty clever huh? This was not the only part that was already planned. Felix had already planned the food and decorations. He had gotten Christmas lights to put up around the house and tiki lights so people could hang out outside. He also had arranged for a rolex guy (egg omelet in a chipati) and a pork guy to come and grill/ cook outside for people’s delicacy enjoyment.  We did not, however, win in the costume category! We got so stressed out with options that a friend and I ended up going as Halloween- ya know, black and orange… I know, less than creative, but choices are pretty limited in costume shops in Kampala. One group of girls came as different bars in Kampala: Fat Boyz, Stake out, Cayenne, Silk, etc. It was delightful and definitely kicked my costumes tush! We did, end up throwing a great party and someone even brought some candy corn so we could get into the holiday spirit. And it wasn’t even only just Americans. We had British, Germans, French and Ugandan in attendance as well. The idea of a costume was lost on some, but we still got a little taste of the tradition. A woman from down our street even came to ask if we were celebrating an early Christmas with our lights and we decided not to explain we were almost all Jews living here, we just invited her in and she stayed for quite some time- just a testament to what a great Kampaloween it was!

We took Saturday off of touring or doing really anything (we had gone dancing after Kampalaween and gotten back very late!) and instead chose to come back to our Ugandan roots on Sunday and visit the Baha’i temple. (This was also good timing considering the LOUD services that begin right outside our window promptly at 8:30 EVERY Sunday! Seriously, it’s like they are inside of our house) We wanted to make sure to get there in time for some services at 10:30 so we got to the temple grounds around 10:10 so we could walk around and explore and just take in the sights because it was beautiful! Such a relaxing and delightful place to visit! The only other Baha’i related place I have been is in Haifa and apparently that is not a temple, just a shrine. This was a beautiful building, but more than that, the area that it was settled on was so manicured and gorgeous. It sits on one of the seven hills of Kampala so you get away from the city traffic and are surrounded by flowers and gardens and serene beauty. You really feel like you can just sit and relax for hours there.

The service was quite interesting as well. First, four Ugandan children all came to the podium one by one and said some sort of psalm or poem. Then different members from the congregation got up to do different readings. In between each reading was a lovely song from the choir who as located directly underneath the dome of the temple. The sounds were lovely. Afterwards we heard that the leader of the congregation was on a pilgrimage to, where else, Israel and therefore they had to do the service themselves. The half-hour service was nice and felt like any religion would have enjoyed it. There was even a part from a Hebrew prayer book: “May the meditations of my heart and the words of my lips be acceptable to you O God.”  That was exciting when I finally figured out why that sounded so familiar. We also talked with a few white women who had been living in Uganda for many years (since 1980) and called Kampala, along with the Baha’i temple, home.  We had assumed they were just visiting, but it was clear these were members of the congregation. As the only Baha’i temple in all of Africa, I guess they really do get people from all over.

This last weekend we went to visit the Abuyudaya tribe and see Sipi falls and I can’t wait to write about it- it was awesome! But that will just have to wait until next time. Until then, one month until I am back in the states- soo crazy!!

Love to all,

Shira ZK

Uganda in the News

Well, Uganda is all over the news these days! Well, if by ‘all over’ you mean once in a while there is an article about the country somewhere on the “Africa” page of the New York Times website, then yes, they are all over the news! There are US troops coming in, a new/ old bill in the parliament and Mussevini has a bunch of protestors- pretty much a wildly exiting place to live- huh?

First things first: America. There was an article a while ago saying that the Obama was sending in 100 troops into Uganda to see how to deal with the Lord’s Resistance Army led by Kony. There has been more recent news that makes sure to state that there will be no combat, it is just some troops seeing what the situation is. The reason this is so weird is because there hasn’t really been a “situation” in over twenty years. There was definitely a bloody fight in the 80’s up in Northern Uganda, but since then- not much more than a peep out of Kony. This brings about a great deal of suspicion that the US is mainly here not to see about Kony but see to see about a new place for drilling oil- eh, 6 of one, half a dozen of the other- right? Not really…

There has also been some frustration with the government here- it’s no “occupy” movement, but people are beginning to protest. No worries, I have not attended anything even resembling a protest, namely because there haven’t been any large gatherings. People, instead, are walking to work as in protest of the rising gas prices.  Only in Uganda, where you take a matutu four bocks would a walk be considered some type of protest. Apparently people here don’t walk much so actually walking to work is a big deal! I haven’t seen much of this, however and the day it was supposed to start was the day I was 20 minutes late to work since there was a huge traffic jam, so it’s unclear what will come of this.

 There is also a bill that has been reopened in parliament. It says that being gay would be illegal and punishable by death. There is actually very little support for this bill (which is good news) especially from countries who give aid to Uganda so it can never pass, but why they would even reopen it makes no sense to me! It is also interesting to see the different views when it comes to homosexuality in this country. There is not a great deal of support for this bill, but still it is quite stigmatized to come out of the closet. There are a few who have done so in Uganda but many more cases of men who are married but still have sex with other men. They do not want to say they are gay, since this practice is not yet accepted. However, it is common to see two young men who are friends and walking down the street holding hands or two men holding on to each other on the backs of motorcycles. In the US (or at least northeast US) it is not AS stigmatized to be gay, however, when I see two men holding hands, I assume some sort of homosexual relationship. (I know ass, you, me, I know). No Ugandans have a problem with the hand holding but many still consider sex between two men to be unnatural, especially since its from the bible and damn, do Ugandan love them some bible!

The good news is that the Ugandan Little League team whose place in the world Little League series got taken away when they couldn’t provide correct birth certificates to the US may actually get to play! This was the first African Little League team to get to go and then they couldn’t provide the correct papers so they had to sit and watch in Uganda. Then a woman in Canada said that if the funds were raised to bring them to North America, they could play a few games in a different league in Canada! It would be amazing and so exciting for this team!

Things here are going famously and time is at the same time flying by and crawling by (probably depending on where I am at the moment.) Hopefully I will get to write a little more this week and tell you all about Kampaloween- yup, you read that right- and a gorgeous Baha’i temple we visited. For now, I was trying to show you how worldly I am, and also how much time I really spend reading the paper every morning (hint: it’s usually more than an hour)

Love and miss you all!!

Shira ZK

Jinja- the Vermont of Africa

This post comes slightly later than my last ones a little because I am procrastinating, a little because I am trying to figure out how to describe this weekend well and do it justice and a little because there are actually things for me to do at work- hurray!!

                This weekend, my friends and I took a little vacation to Jinja. It is around 50 miles away from Kampala. Next to Kampala, it is the biggest city in terms of tourism since there is a great deal of outdoor activity done there. And since you all know me so well and know my LOVE of all things outdoors, you’d probably assume I would go my first free weekend.  If you actually know me well and my distaste of camping ever since it rained EVERY single year when I went with Camp Yavneh, you will be pleased to know it was a delightful weekend! It was really gorgeous and I didn’t realize how nice it would be to get out of the city. I know people say this all the time about NYC but sometimes I just think they just need an excuse to take a vacation. Now, I see what they mean. It felt calmer, more relaxing, and so green! Not in the way that they were super economically friendly, but really lush and green as far as the eye could see.

                We arrived at our destination, Adrift, around 10AM. How it is that we woke up at 6:30AM and got 50 miles away four hours later, I will probably never understand. Oh Africa time! Adrift was a really fun place and, if I did more of these kinds of things, I would want to stay there forever! There were some tents set up, some nicer equipped tents on a platform and some dorms with 9 bunk-beds in each room.  There was then a lovely area overlooking the water with chairs, tables, a bar, a reception desk, some couches, and some monkeys just in case you forgot where you were! They were playing the rugby matches on the TV and beer was around 90 cents all weekend long- seriously, what could be bad? You also got a great shot of the bungee jumpers around 50 feet away when you sat in the bar area- don’t worry, although the thought did cross my mind, my cheap side won out over my adventure side and I declined the $100 bungee jumping into the base of the Nile River.  I’m kind of regretting it, but only a little.

                We instead decided to see the Bugagali falls and go ATVing. Because of recent construction in the area to create yet another dam in the Nile River (boo) to help with the electricity shortages (yay!), the falls were not as breathtaking as they once were described to us. Instead, there was a small walk down some mud steps to see some small falls and some rapid-type action. Of course, we took our classic pictures making sure to get the pretty scenery in the background but after the fifth guy asked us if we wanted a ride on his boat, we decided it was time to go. We walked to the ATV place (what Ugandans called Quad bikes) and got ready for our adventure. I’ll be honest, this has always been a secret dream of mine to do. Ever since I saw those four wheel small bikes for four-year-olds that actually dove up to 5mph with Barbie decoration on the side, I really really wanted to drive one. ATVing was like that except with a bigger bike, a bigger engine, and driving all around a village and through mud and rocks and hills.  That’s a pretty good description- right?

The place we were using gave us overalls and helmets and made sure to inform us we WILL be getting dirty and not to race, which I honestly thought was the whole point of ATVing, but oh well!. I tried out the semi-automatic for about 10.5 seconds before I realized that just because I knew how to drive the manual transmission of our 2010 Toyota at home,  that did not give me much of an upper hand with a semi-automatic bike in Uganda. I switched to the automatic and after a quick track around the parking lot and min-golf course next door, we were off! We got to go through some crops and some forest areas and since it had just rained, they did not lie about getting dirty. To me, though, charging through the mud puddles was half of the fun! It only started to get a little awkward when we started driving through villages. There we were: four American girls on big bikes and we were zooming through tiny mud roads with huts made of sticks and mud on the sides. All the while there were half naked (or some fully naked) children calling out to us and screaming after us. It was unclear to me if it was in fun or just yelling at us. Many of the adults did not seem too happy to see us and I can’t really blame them. I am sure many times a day some Muzungus come charging through their village, getting mud everywhere and making a ridiculous amount of noise while they are cooking, planting, and just plain trying to live. It was a weird juxtaposition and I definitely enjoyed the ATVing more when not in these parts of the tour.

That night we sat for close to seven hours just next to the water, drinking cheap beers, playing cards and, let’s be honest, waiting for close to two hours for food. But, we had nowhere to go, so it was fine. We were awakened the next morning by the banging of the monkey on our roof and by Erin, one in our party planning to go rafting, finding her eye swollen almost shut. We didn’t know the cause, but since she already had a metal rod in her ankle from an accident in the US before she left, she decided to stay back while we adventured on the Nile. We all put on some bathing suits, some loose clothing and piled into a bus with 4 other Norwegians, 11 French Engineers, 1 French woman, 1 English man, and 2 Canadians, although one had a suspicious Australian accent for some rafting at the source of the Nile!

We started off the day with a breakfast of sausage, a whole deep fried egg, and a piece of pepper on a stick. You also could take a banana and some tea with that breakfast if you liked. Good thing I don’t love breakfast! We got into our rafts, we had our  4 Americans with 3 Norwegian girls and an Iranian woman all studying Urban planning in Kampala, and our trusty Canadian/ ‘spent 6 months in Australia and now has a semi Australian-accent’ leader. We got some life jackets and helmets and practiced flipping, falling out, being rescued, and attempting to get back in the boat (only one Norwegian girl actually had the upper body strength to pull herself up) so we were ready for everything that could come our way. And then our guide said “our first rapid is a 16- foot waterfall.” Well, alrighty then! Taken back everything I just said about being prepared. Somehow Daniela and I had ended up in the front when he said he needed two strong girls in the front (basically I had nominated Daniela who had, in turn or in payback decided to nominate me) and  he then gave us specific instruction to not look directly at the waterfall since the force of it could break your nose. I am not going to lie, my heart was beating so fast especially when we watched the first boat go and suddenly completely disappear from our line of vision .So Daniela and I and all our Norwegian friends ducked low in the boat and turned our heads as much to the side as they would go and thankfully, loved the 16 foot fall. It was like a roller coaster, only you had to hang on to your paddle and pray your boat didn’t overturn.

We did flip once on the second rapids. We got caught in a little whirl pool and pushed back enough that it turned our boat. At least this is what our guide said, although we all had the sneaking suspicion that he turned our boat over on purpose! Al though it was what we had practiced, I did not instinctively hold on to the rope, but instead do as I always do when I am about to go into the water- plug my nose. Since I was not holding onto the boat, I came up right on the side of the boat and my head hit it and would not go further. I had to go back down and find a way out. Once I could breathe again, I saw the rope a few feet ahead of me and thought that I could reach out for it if I really tried. However, in the other corner of my eye I saw one of my friends drifting towards me. So, boat that just flipped over or a live human being? I reached out for Erin and we kind of just held each other’s hands in the water and waited for the kayak to come and save us. This happened in all in around 20 seconds, but in my mind, it felt like a great deal longer!

We stopped for a delicious lunch along the way of chipati, salad, cheese and soup and I thankfully got transferred to the back of the boat where most of the afternoon was spent swimming, pushing people into the water and, of course, some rapids. You finish up around 3:30 where they have a tent set up with some beer, some more meat on a stick and great pictures that they took of you flipping that you could buy- thus adding to our theory that our guide flipped us over on purpose, if for nothing more than a photo op. But, we are suckers, so we bought the pictures anyways. If I can figure out how, I will try to post them on here.  It was a delightful day full of rapids much bigger than I had ever encountered before and thankfully a hot day so getting completed drenched every 10 minutes was not a bad thing. I wore SPF 45- come on, whose proud? And still got some color on my back! By the time we got back to the campsite, it was time to head back to the city and I was definitely not the only one bummed about coming back to Kampala and leaving our little respite in Jinja.

If only I had more time here, or some of you were with me, I could go back and maybe even do the bungee jumping this time…

Love to all until next time

Shira ZK

Technically, I am here to work...

Welcome everyone to the rainy season of Kampala!

                And they were not joking when they said rainy season! Like clockwork, October 1^st rolled around and the rain came on and as we go on in the month, the rain gets more and more frequent. This week it has pretty much rained every day/ night, which means that at least 2 hours out of the day are constant rain. It usually happens that the next four hours are sunshine, so there is not much to complain about. However, it does make it a lot easier to stay home at night and watch a movie, so not too many exciting African outings to report today, but that’s ok because then I get to talk more about the real reason I am here: my job!

                Now that I have been at work for a little less than four weeks, I have started (but by no means finished) getting my bearings and creating a schedule for myself. I wake up at 7:30 and am out the door by 8 (this is after getting out of my fortress of a house with the four locks I have to open and lock again just to get to our driveway- you’re welcome ray) and get to work around 8:30. I say ‘around’ since I just stand on the street waiting for a matatu or taxi and sometimes they are waiting for me and sometimes I stand there for 20 minutes waiting for one. This would probably bother me a lot more in the US. Here, when I get to the office is when I get to the office. Usually I say hello to whoever is already here, get a cup of tea, log onto nytimes.com and maybe play a game or two before starting work no earlier than 10AM. This is quite different than my usual getting up at 6 at work by 7:15 to prep myself mentally for high-schoolers at 8AM. Sometimes this is a welcome difference, sometimes I still half expect to have to go into the hallway and say ‘good morning’ 180 times. Working in an office is definitely very different than a school- that part is clear!

                While here, I am meant to be helping out two components of my organization. One is what they call “education campaign.” This is a project that hopes to raise awareness of Special Needs Education (SNE) and get more children with disabilities into schools. There is a sense in Uganda that it is embarrassing to have a child with special needs. Many parents, especially not in the city, will keep their child at home rather than deal with the embarrassment of having other people see their child. Many might think they have been ‘cursed’ to have a child with any sort of disability. So far, I have made a booklet of what to do in an inclusion classroom and am hoping to do some goal setting for a special education classroom. However, clearly you can all sense some of my boredom so any and all suggestions would be much appreciated!

                The other part that I am helping out with is the parent support group. These are groups of parents located all over Uganda with around 7 central locations. My NGO is hoping to gather parents of children with disabilities to get them together to raise awareness, again, and to organize to make sure that everyone knows their rights. I’ll be honest, I’m not too sure as to what these rights are, but I love the idea! My job here is to help organize them, which is proving pretty difficult with no emails or phones… but slowly, yet surely, we will…. Well, I’ll figure something out.

                So, my office in Kampala is just one of the many offices around Uganda. It feels funny that this is the hub of the organization since there are only around 6 people working here on any given day. There is the executive director (Tolorence*) who was recently made ED but no one filling her old position so she is crazy busy doing around 15 jobs at once! Then there is my counterpart, Jonathan* who is delightful young man who is actually slightly older than the 18-year-old he appears to be. He is very nice to me and loves to discuss the differences between American and Ugandan culture including marriage age, dowry, economics (which I rarely understand) and Rihanna (which is obviously my favorite topic!) Yup, he reads the celebrity gossip that comes out once a week in the paper- how he controls himself to once a week is impressive to me! There is then two accountants- apparently these are very important in NGOs: Paul* (the wildly inappropriate man who lived in UK for 10 years and loves to discuss Judaism and the universal differences between men and women) and David* a gentle man who is from Mbale right next to the Abuyudaya tribe and stops by every morning for WAY too long to chat. Finally rounding us out is Frances* a blind woman who works part time as a program officer. She is the most fascinated by my Judaism and when introducing me to someone said “this is Shira. She doesn’t believe Jesus is the son of god, can you believe that?” And our dear administrative assistant who may or may not be my favorite (don’t tell anyone) Violet*. She is a bossy, strong woman with an adorable 5-year-old who comes to the office every afternoon and she will laugh at my jokes and compliments my never ending supply of Kenyan earrings, so we get along real well. And that’s the office! It is fun to write about them, but, let’s be honest, just as much fun to make up names for them that have some connection to their real names…guesses?

                Although there are definitely differences between a school and an office, I’m pretty sure that there are many more differences between an office in America and an office here- based on studies from friends here and in the US (not that I would really know.) First of all and most importantly is time. We have started to refer to it as Africa time. If a meeting is supposed to start at 9AM, be ready anywhere from 9-11:30… for the next three days. There are many things that come up, especially in an NGO world and time just doesn’t mean the same thing it does in America. (This is not restricted to the work place, but seems to be true of many places in Kampala.) Another main difference is ability to hang around and chat. Many times a week- sometimes every day- the power goes out.  We have a generator but when that is out of fuel, people pretty much just wait. There is no 15-minute rule as to the amount of time you wait before going home- you just wait. You hang out, you chat to your colleagues… personally I play some solitaire and it generally adds to the more laid back attitude of this office.

Off to a Jinja adventure: falls and some white water rafting! Wish me luck!!!

Shira ZK

We go, We go, Uganda Cranes We GO!

Happy one month Anniversary Africa!

Yes, on Sunday, October 9^th, Africa and I celebrated our one month anniversary! We did this by having a gray rainy day (it is the beginning of rainy season) and my roommates and I and other AJWS volunteers who live in Kampala and came to visit from Kenya, went out to a lovely brunch and spent a good deal of time in a coffee shop all reading on our kindles and nooks. It was quite American of us, actually.  We tried to go bowling, but there was a huge tournament so we couldn’t get a lane, maybe for our two month?

This last week has made me really enjoy Kampala and realize that it really has so much to offer! It surprises me that I am actually nervous I will not get a chance to do everything I want to do. I know I have two months left, but this month has passed so quickly, these next two might go by without my even knowing it. So last week I took advantage a little and went to a trivia night, a dance class and a soccer game…. And although I was not a winner in any of these situations, they were still a delight to do!

                Last Wednesday night, many of my roommates and I went to a trivia night at the British High Commission. Perhaps I should have listened to my mother when she asked why we were going to a trivia night with British people, but alas. Now, I have nothing against anyone British, but I pretty much just found out that the United Kingdom covered more than just London… This poor decision choice was made clear throughout the night. Many, many questions about the EU later and we had pretty much all but given up. We came to a category called T minus 81 and somehow I thought they might give us some math questions and I could break out my phone calculator and get us some points. Unfortunately, this referred to 81 days until Christmas and all the questions were related to Christmas! My two best categories, geography and Christians! As a table full of American JEWISH world service volunteers, we did NOT rock that category. As the results were read out loud for the whole place to hear, we were trying for anything but last place- guess what we were? 20^th out of 20!! We were super proud and since one man called us “culturally handicapped” we didn’t take the loss too personally. We had gotten dinner and drinks and some buttery microwave popcorn, so what could be bad? The night was a lot of fun and although we can’t ever show our faces there again, it was a fun thing to do on a Wednesday night in Kampala.

                The next day a roommate of mine heard that I loved to dance so asked if I wanted to go to a dance class at the Ndere cultural center. This is the biggest, and perhaps only, cultural center in Uganda so I wanted to see the place anyways and if I got to take an African dance class, all the better. It was only when I got there that I realized it was just the two of us with a woman in the Ndere dance troop and the stage they use to perform on for an hour! How awesome is that? For around $7 we learned three African dances on the cultural stage of Uganda. The dance moves were pretty straight forward, but I could not figure out my hips while my roommate could not figure out her feet. Our teacher was patient but had no problem telling us we were wrong and we had lost the beat. We eventually gave up and spent the last ten minutes learning some beats on the drum which was just as fun! She said we should come back and learn more, but I have got to get better at shaking my hips first!

                This weekend was a BIG darn deal in Kampala with the Uganda vs. Kenya football match at the Nelson Mandela or Namboole Stadium in Kampala. Basically if they won, Uganda would get to go on to the Africa cup which they have never been to. If not, they wouldn’t. They had already beat Kenya so Kenya had no chance of going to the Africa cup. Thus, in my mind, Kenya should just have let Uganda win-right? I mean, no skin of their backs since they weren’t going anyways. But apparently, this is not how soccer, or any sport for that matter, works. The match was all anyone could talk about all week and since this seemed like a big cultural event, we all really wanted to go. Getting tickets proved to be quite complicated since a lot of people were buying many tickets only to be sold for a higher price later which apparently, is unheard of in Uganda, thus also making it legal. Also a few days before the match, the US Embassy sent out an email telling people not to go to any crowded places especially any soccer games. Now, they didn’t specify which soccer game it was that we were to stay away from, so we figured it was still totally safe to go- few people at home agreed with us on this account, but we had already bought the tickets AND the jerseys for Uganda Cranes, so by golly- we were going to go to that game!
               

                And what a game it was! OK, I should probably change that to what an experience it was, since the game itself was actually not that great.  We took a bus full of people to get there and got bombarded with Uganda Cranes paraphernalia once we did. We got our faces painted, Ugandan flags and the offer of Ugandan bracelets and horns all around us. We walked in two hours early and it felt like we were late since almost everyone was already there! (Don’t worry, there were lines, and metal detectors, and pat downs to even get in and riot police everywhere!!)Just getting into the stadium you were hit with a huge wall of cheers and horn blast and this was almost 3 hours until the game even started. Honestly, my first thought going in was that this must be what the Quidditch World Cup was like.  (just trying to be honest here, even if it embarrasses me) You were not allowed to bring in any liquid so I don’t think that much of the sound was from ruckus drunk Ugandan- I’m sure some of it was- but I think the large majority was just country pride! As the game wound down, unfortunately, so did the pride as the score stayed the same: 0-0. They had so many chances and just could not get the ball in the goal! It was frustrating, but I imagine much worse for those from Uganda. I ended up just feeling really bad for all the dejected people leaving the stadium. I didn’t see tears but it was definitely a somber mood. This ended up helping me in the long run since there was no need for riots or loud banging anymore now that they were out of the race. The Kenya section celebrated a lot, especially since they had lost too!

                All in all, I was very happy I went and maybe should disregard the US Embassy more often (don’t worry, M+D, I won’t) And although I have had to let it go that I really never will be confused for a Ugandan, slowly yet surely, I am feeling more at home here in Kamapala. Although, by the time I do, I will probably have to go home!

Next time more about work, I swear!

Miss you all,

Shira ZK

Asanti Sana Squash Banana

That means ‘thank you’ in Kiswahili… well, not the squash banana part. We heard the phrase so many times in Nairobi, that when I finally heard the squash banana part from a women in the market, I got so excited to figure out what Rafiki was saying all that time. Hakuna Matata is used quite a lot as well, and somehow I don’t think it’s because Lion King just came out again and is doing freakishly well…

                So now that we are fully caught up on the journey to and from Nairobi, it’s time to hear about just what the heck I did in my 72 hour stay! We got in just in time for services, and if you are someone who goes on time to services, well, then we got there pretty late for services. By the time we got to our host Carol’s lovely apartment, we had around 7 minutes to change, brush our teeth, and be out to the door. They almost didn’t let us in since we were so late, but our names were on a list and we still got to hear a good chunk of the service, including the shofar blast. The synagogue is located right cross the street from Nairobi University, and is beautiful with lush garden surrounding it and a lovely temple with stained glass windows. The service was led by what I assume to be 2 chabad rabbis sent from Australia and Brooklyn and led a fast paced service that I could barely keep up with. I definitely knew when we were at the shofar service and Oseh Shalom, but besides that, I spying on other people’s siddurs to try to keep up. In fact, if there hadn’t been a break in the middle for some challah and apples and honey, we probably would have missed the entire service!  The demographic was almost all white people with around 5 Africans in attendance. It certainly was no Beth-El Sudbury, but we were very happy to at least hear the shofar.

                After the service we found two nice Jewish boys who were in Nairobi for the next year studying this and that and didn’t have a place for some lunch so came back to Carol’s with us. We hung out, made some Guacamole (!!!!!!) with tortilla chips (!!!!!!!!) and pretzels (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), took a swim, ate some pasta, watched Kevin Kline in his seminal role in In and Out and called it a night. Both Erin and I were very sleepy, even thought we had had a good 15 hour trip to rest. A delightful Rosh Hashana if I do say so myself.

                On Friday, we started off our day at a Masaii Market where the hounding to “visit my shop, sister” was worse than the shuk in the Old City of Jerusalem. It did not help that we were clearly white people and got there around 10AM and were pretty much the first customers of the day. We started to browse around a small hall outside before we realized that the huge warehouse in front of us was filled with the rest of the market! My haggling skills got better as I went along- my dad would’ve been proud. They do expect you to bargain so it is not too big of a feat, but apparently my intense expressions came in handy as the other two girls I was with said that I just made a really pained expression when they said their price and then went WAY lower. The best deal we got was on a pair of coral earrings I decided I wanted and couldn’t figure out if they were the best price or not. Erin and I began to speak in Hebrew so they wouldn’t know that I really wanted them and jack up the prices.  It freaked them out! They asked what language it was and if it was a type of American slang? When we kept speaking it, they man said fine! And gave it to me for the price I asked. One point for Hebrew! Since I got so into the haggling, I got way too much jewelry. So, if you thought “there is no way Shira is bringing me something back from Africa”… if a pair of already worn earrings fits your fancy- I got just the thing for you!

                We then went to visit Carol, another AJWS volunteer at her placement in the Kibira slum of Nairobi. It quite large slum reaching over a a square mile and had the highest concentration of HIV/AIDS cases in all of Kenya. Within that mile, it is divided up into 11 different tribes all living almost directly on top of each other. Carol’s NGO works right in the center of the slum and has different programs and facilities for the people of Kibira. We went on a tour of some of their facilities and programs, but not before we put on some heavy duty boots to deal with the mud and “flying toilets” we would encounter along the way. (as there is no running water in the slums, residents use newspaper or plastic bags to go to the bathroom and then throw them out the window- thus flying toilets.) Although we had to concentrate on where we were walking to ensure no one slipped and fell, we got to visit the clinic and a factory, a part of their “trash is cash” program. (first of all, awesome name!) In one center they take cow bones and shave them and wax them to make ornaments and jewelry. ( I know, I know… more jewelry. But this time, there was NO way I could bargain… so I TRIED to get less. Note the operative word- tried!) It was actually really amazing to see, not the best smells coming from that factory, but great to watch! It was also really fun to the children running after us or towards us yelling “how are you? How are you?” When we would answer “good, how are you?” the response we got was always “how are you? How are you?” Ok, so didn’t get past the question part of the English lesson, but still so nice that they cared to ask.

                Friday night marks my two weeks straight of dancing with different people on Friday night. Unfortunately since tonight is Yom Kippur, I think my streak is over. Another volunteer from AJWS in Nairobi works with a gay and lesbian advocacy organization and they were having a fund raising dance on the parking lot roof of a mall in Nairobi- so, where else would we go? It was a blast and we were not the only white or straight people there. We danced up a storm and they played a good deal of American music including, obviously, Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”… and we were NOT the only ones screaming along!

                Saturday was what I think will be my only semi-safari day in Africa. We got a driver for the whole day (aren’t we spiffy) to take us to all the same sights that everyone goes to in Nairobi National Park. It was nice to be pretty touristy for the day.  We first went to go see the elephant and rhino orphanage where they take in baby elephants and rhinos that are found without their parents. They feed them from bottles and we watch them play around and you can pet them and yes, they are absolutely adorable. Next we went to the giraffe sanctuary where you get some pellets to feed to the giraffes. Giraffes are definitely cute, and an interesting animal to watch, but my word, are their tongues gross!. They have washing station but after a few times feeding , it just didn’t feel like enough. They were delightful to pet though and really fun just to watch walk around! Also, at the giraffe place, I got a discount for going in with my “student” ID: my Wash U ID from 8 years ago, so I clearly loved that place! Lastly, we went on a safari walk which was half zoo, half awesome. At first we saw a monkey in cage and were less than impressed but then somehow got a tour guide to walk around with us and get all the animals to come to us. We pretty much got to be real close to the “big 5.” These, I believe, are all the main animals of Eastern Africa: Lion, Tiger, Buffalo, Elephant, and Rhino ….(I think those are right) We also got some great shots of hyenas, cheetah, and some baboon tush.

                We ate dinner at an interesting place. It was outside, practically in the park so many baboons came over to say hello. Unfortunately the food selection was not the greatest. The menu looked finger lickin’ good, but also was completely a lie. Almost nothing on the menu was actually in stock, and what was in stock was slightly different than advertised. I ordered a lovely veggie sandwich with eggplant, zucchini, mozzarella and black olive butter on wheat bread. I got a grilled cheese with cucumber on white break. Hey, I’m not complaining- I will never complain about a grilled cheese and fries, it was just a little surprise. We had an early bus the next morning so we went back and watched some of the DVD’s Carol brought from home which included many episodes of the first season of Glee, so I was a happy camper, as I’m sure you can all guess!

                That was a great deal about Nairobi and I  was only there for three days! I want to write more about this week so stayed tune for more. Still to come: failing miserably at trivia night, failing not as miserably at my first  African dance class, and a Uganda vs. Kenya soccer game to qualify for the Africa cup!

Love to all and Gmar Chatima Tovah (transliterations are hard!)

Shira ZK

The Curious Incident of the Bus in the Nightime

So, I admit it- I took a night bus to Nairobi. Yes, I had heard it might be a little dangerous. Yes, I heard that you should never let your stuff out of your sight and we were going to be on a bus for 12.5 hours. Yes, Nairobi is sometimes nicknamed Nai-robbery… BUT I didn’t want to miss another day of work and I wanted to get there in time for services, so the night bus it was. And if I had known what I know now, I would have gone BOTH ways on the night bus! So there! This is not to say that there weren’t some interesting adventures- but that’s the whole fun of the 15 HOURS-right? (15 hours?? You say… just you wait)

Shockingly enough, we left pretty close to on time- Africa time was running pretty close to actual time. Not shockingly enough, the traffic getting out of Kampala was a mess! Around 11pm Erin and I are starting to drift off to sleep, (there was not many people on the bus so we each got our own two seats to stretch out in) and the bus stops. Now the bus had made some stops before to let people off, but this time we were in the middle of a road just stopped. It turns out a truck had toppled over in the middle of the road ahead of us taking over the entire road and leaving us stranded. The driver took the people on the side of the road’s advice and ventured our huge bus into what can only be described as a woodland village. It was pitch black and we were bouncing around woods and small huts for a few minutes before we stopped in front of two small columns where I was sure we were stuck. There is no way the bus can fit through there, I thought and said out loud to Erin, hoping the bus driver would hear me and turn around. Weirdly enough, he ignored my comment and proceeded to push through the gate slowly while Erin and I held hands and sucked in our breath hoping it would make the bus a little skinnier. After three seconds we heard a huge bang, but the bus kept on trucking and we all made it out ok.

It wasn’t until we got to the next town when we realized that the bang had been a huge dent made in the bus by our excursion, which made it impossible to close the door the whole way. At around 2:00 in the morning in Kisumu, Kenya, our bus driver and co-bus driver spent an hour and a half hammering the bus on the inside and out trying to get the dent to go away so they could close the door. This did not work so they tied the door shut with a rope and continue on the journey. Although I am in pants and a long sleeve shirt- it is freezing and I spent the next 8 hours cuddled up with my bag and eventually just put a t shirt over my head so my nose wouldn’t fall off!

The border was pretty easy. We were clearly the only Muzungos for miles around so we took the longest getting through. The border patrol men were delighted with us, and kept asking us questions about what we do in America and what we are doing in Uganda. Meanwhile, we were getting pretty nervous since the bus drives through the gate without you and we had to walk through by ourselves at 12:30am through what, in my mind, must be a swamp (but I have no idea since it was pitch black out) only to have to pee in a pit latrine (a small hole in the ground) for 10 cents. While I was yelling at Erin that I couldn’t do this and she was saying encouraging words through the wall, we realized the walls were paper thin when we could hear the other outside laughing at my discomfort! Nairobi had a ton of traffic as well and we ended up getting into town around 10:30 when we thought we would get in at 7. What a delightful 15 hours of my life that I am so glad I get to share with all of you!

The bus ride back was meant to leave Nairobi at 7am so we got there around 6:10 to buy tickets. The ticket counter didn’t open for a while and then we found out there was technical difficulties with the bus. Due to my awesome roommates complaining, we got upgraded to the royal bus instead of the executive which we paid for. (I know, that works in Kenya too, who knew?) The difference in price was not much but apparently there was more room on the bus and they served breakfast. Unfortunately, since we did not actually sign up for the bus, we did not get the breakfast, but we had delightful snacks of popcorn, peanuts, and pretzels… One of the best finds in Nairobi was that they had pretzels! Sure, they were spelled brezels and had a slightly funky aftertaste, but gosh, how I missed them! Somehow, without the traffic leaving Nairobi, or a car dent, or traffic in Kampala, we still managed to have a 15 hour trip back to Kampala complete with three pit latrine stops (I got better at it, I know you were all worried) and some fries in a bag. (a little bit of salt, a little bit of unidentified “sauce” it was delish!) We didn’t sleep as much as during the night which made the trip feel even longer than the 15 hours it took us.

We did pretty fine on the beginning of the trek. We slept, we chatted, we had a Glee music listening session… (ok, that last part is a little embarrassing, but if you had 15! Hours, you might do that too) but as night began to fall, we started getting REALLY antsy! Even though it was night time, the bus was stifling and the girl behind me kept closing the window every time I tried to open it- RUDE! They then started to blast Rush Hour with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker on a screen and when that was down a weird Nigerian movie where a little boy pretends to get run over by a motorcycle because his father wont teach him how to ride a bike AND when THAT was over, some African stand- up comedy which I apparently was of the only people on the bus to not get the humor!

The border was a delight this time since we knew what to expect and the men at the border even remembered us! “Shira, you have come back” (ok, I know this sounds like they would say that to anyone, but I swear, they were waiting for Erin and I) Kampala traffic was pretty easy but by the time we got back home around 11:30pm (almost an 18 hour day) I have never been so happy about my cold shower and mosquito net before!

Since that was so much just about the journey, I think I’ll give you and my fingers a little break. I’m just getting started and haven’t even gotten to Nairobi yet and the adventures there- so stay tuned… I wish I could give you a little preview, but I don’t know how to upload pictures yet, so you’ll just have to take my word for it!

 Don’t worry, I didn’t tell my parents it was a night bus until I got there, so hopefully no one was freaking out all night.