1/18-19/14: SHABBAT YITRO and SIPI FALLS AT LAST!

1/18/14 SHABBAT YITRO

Last night, we noted the full moon peaking through broken clouds and Joanie predicted a cloudy day on the morrow. Sure enough, after a short bit of sunshine, the clouds moved in, a few drops of rain followed during the day, the sun broke through in the late afternoon, a beautiful red sunset followed, the clouds massed against the mountains to the east, and we were treated to a nice cool day. 

The parsha, Yitro, contains the Ten Commandments, so it's a significant event in the year. Rabbi Gershom's drash said that name was used by Christians and the accurate translation is the "Ten Words." He also spoke about the Torah not being a chronological history but rather a theological document. Reb Aryeh zt"l referred to it as our Jewish mythology, but without the negative concept that most people attach to it as a false belief. 

We both were given aliyahs, plus Harriet and Laura.  Joanie's was the portion of the 10 Words where everyone stood for the portion.  It was very powerful.  She stood for awhile and wound up present for the healing prayer, so jumped in to introduce El Na Refunala, the healing prayer we use at Pnai Or, the song for healing Miriam of ancient tradition when she was ill.  The rabbi loved it and would like to include it in services regularly.  We also received a blessing with the reading of the travelers prayer for a safe journey as we and the Kulanu folks all leave this week.

Laura sang a powerful song of her own repertoire, really strong words of tikkun olam, following Joanie's lead.  Didn't mention that the rabbi's teaching is always followed by discussion and questions, so both of us contributed to that.  It was the most powerful Shabbat immersion of our trip.

Dafna, the rabbi's eldest daughter, did another amazing job of leyning, but the rabbi himself read the Decalogue portion. Ken Kline, Harriet Bograd's husband, offered a powerful haftorah interpretation again. This week's was from Isaiah and included one of the parts that Christians use to document Jesus as the predicted Messiah: "a son will be born," in a mistaken translation. This was the point that Yehudah raised at the discussion and it sparked quite a bit of participation. 

Joanie did a Compassionate Listening Training with a mixed group of women, some of whom were in an earlier class. The Kulanu group was able to attend this time. She chose to do the more difficult lesson and met with mixed success, but the connections were all heart centered and so meaningful.  For the ending dances, kids showed up from all over and so we did several dances with great fervor.  The rabbi's  wife told Joanie that she, Joanie, cannot leave, that they have never had anyone visit like her, and she needed to stay.  Later, Tehilah said that her children reported what good friends we are to them and they like us.  Yehudah did some planning for the Kenya part of the trip ahead and did some more bird watching, identifying several more.  During the afternoon Israel told us all about corruption in Uganda, his experiences with people wanting bribes and how he dealt with the situation by collecting all the documentation and taking the lack of payment issue to a higher person.  He told us about all the things he did and learned when he was president of the Abayudaya Association.  He is such a hard worker and so smart.

Havdalah was short but meaningful and energized by the enthusiasm of several young children. Yehudah commented to Israel that he had never been immersed in a Jewish community for this long before and how deep the connections have been. We have been with the Abayudaya for 3 Shabbats and a holiday, Tu B'Shevat, plus the big Teen Weekend to honor Kulanu.

After Havdalah, prep started for tomorrow's women's gathering. A goat was killed and prepared in the back area plus a massive amount of matoke on the back porch by two women.  We are eating dinner at 9:45 pm. Yehudah went off to bed right away while I stayed up to midnight. We offered to make French toast out of the leftover challah and we are hoping to be off by 7 so I can get back in time to be with The Abayudaya Women's Association Meeting, where representatives from all groups will attend.

Yehudah went down to collect email and discovered that both Caleb and Pam were hoping to Skype right then and there. Unfortunately we had not eaten yet and didn't have time. We will try again tomorrow evening.

1/19/14: SIPI FALLS AT LAST!

We were awakened during the night with a short downpour. We wondered if it might affect our outing, but needn't have worried. The rain was very spotty and, at best, just settled the dust. The lack of a hard rain in the region was disappointing, as we passed some excellent viewpoints and the view was obscured by smoke and haze. 

We were up and cooking bright and early. The kids loved their first taste of French toast. A little raw sugar and spice on top was all we had and all that was needed. Of course, the extra crispy parts thanks to too much oil didn't hurt either. 

All four kids hopped in the back seat and we were off...sorta. Israel got a call on the way down to town requesting greens to be sent back so he stopped at the market to grab some. Then he had to find a moto driver he trusted. In the process he ran into someone who worked for him and they exchanged a receipt and funds. After a stop for gas, we really were on the road and it was just barely 8, pretty good for African time. 

Town Photo

Mbale Market

View from Car

View from Car 2

Joanie playing drums with kids 

The sun was out and we had about an hour's drive into the mountains. Mt. Elgon is a collapsed volcano with the biggest caldera in the world. For centuries, no one could definitively select the highest peak. The native people had picked one and named it after their deity, while naming the next highest after his wife. Well, with the most updated equipment, it was recently found to be the reverse. Too late to switch, oh well! As we drove, it appeared as a long ridge line with a few high points, but it's over 10,000 feet!

Lowest Waterfall seen from lodge lawn

We got to the lodge that has the best view of the lowest and tallest falls (100meters). Much had changed since Israel was last there. First of all, there was an admission charge of about $1, then there was the little matter of a per head count for the guide, Israel arguing the logic of the guide going just as far for 1 as for more, so he was beginning to negotiate and asked what did we want to pay.  The cost ended up at $24 for the 3 adults, no reduced rate for Ugandans, but no charge for the kids. This would get us up close to the other two falls. Hey, we'd seen the first one for cheap, why bother hiking to the bottom of it to look up! 

Our hiking group!

The hike was massively reduced by being able to drive within a 1-2 km. distance from each of them. We walked through cultivated fields to the upper falls, 85 meters high. Much of the land had an over story of banana trees with the smaller coffee bushes beneath. They were drying coffee where we parked and I was glad I had already gotten my batch of local green beans, at a cost of $6/kg., when I heard that one of our fellow travelers paid $25 for roasted beans. On the hike, we passed huge orchids of many different colors as well as familiar favorites: nasturtiums which we all tasted, African marigolds, and cosmos...oh yeah they all come from here.

Waterfall #2 in the distance

Yehudit wanted photo with this pig

Waterfall #2

Elisheva with plant

Waterfall #2 closer up

Waterfall #2 with flowers 

Joanie with orchids

Elisheva and Joanie with orchids 

Group Photo by Highest Waterfall

  On the way back, one of the two young men who had attached themselves to us found a chameleon and picked it up to show us. We had a great time holding it. As we neared the road the soft sell of trying to get money for books and pens heated up, but we had to disappoint them. So much need here! Between the wars, AIDS and overpopulation, there's an abundance of young people. Because of the corruption and the fact that the officials are lax in their generosity, there's lots of graduates and very few jobs. 

Chameleon 1

Chameleon 2

Chameleon 3

 

 

kids swimming in stream

 

The middle falls wasn't as high as the others, but there was a beautiful swirl of white water before,it plunged over the cliff. A cave was being dug to harvest a mineral to feed the cattle, but it was stopped as it was undermining the mountainside. Reb Shefa's chant "Ha Macom Hazeh" came back to Joanie and we quickly taught it to Israel and his daughters and sang it as a round while the water plunged in front of us. Took a video! The walk there through wild banana trees and ferns was lovely. 

Middle Falls

Middle Falls 2

Joanie and our guide by cave

  

Family Photo: Israel, Yashaal, Elishevah, Matan, Yehudit

Girls

The children all fell asleep on the way back, with Joanie in the back seat holding heads.

 

Back at Nabugoye Hill women representatives from all the Abayudaya communities were together for an all day meeting of the Abayudaya Women's Association.  Joanie changed clothing and ran down to the guesthouse lawn to share in the lunch of rice, goat and matoke.

She then attended part of the meeting - a discussion about marriage and the woman's role, varying from traditional opinions to those of women pursuing professional work, so a very wide range.

Then Laura and Harriet spoke, were given gifts and much positive regard. Laura spoke about how she had almost not made the trip because of the harsh anti-gay laws being passed in Uganda, and shared that she and her long time partner had finally married this past year in the U.S.  The women applauded her resoundingly.  She has done so much for this community and is very well regarded.

 

 

 

Harriet gave out Jewish calendars to each community and was gifted with a lovely purse.

 

 

 

 

 

Laura left, Harriet went to sit in the back to engage in the rest of the meeting. Then Joanie stepped up, introduced herself briefly and taught the song: "There's a river of birds in migration, a nation of women with wings!" with body motions of birds flying together.  The women stood up and sang with fervor.

They then settled into listening to several reports, on Purim, Yom Kippur, after completing the marriage discussion.

In the evening we successfully Skyped with Pam, Miko and Isaac with Yehudit, then Elisheva and another young girl for a good hour.  We also Skyped with Lorne Mallin about Afri-Pads.

Finally, we watched some TV, including a Holocaust movie.  All the adults went to sleep early, with Tehillah being the first, so I wound up being the final one with four children sleeping on the couch.  I just left them for a long while, until I woke the girls to get into their own beds, which was easy.

However, I didn't know what to do with Matan, as I didn't want to disturb his parents, whose room he sleeps in.  Unfortunately, he wound up rolling off the sofa onto the hard concrete floor and, of course, crying.  Momma came out and took him to bed.  The movie was the one where 600 people try to escape from a concentration camp, which I watched to the end, plus I was successful in figuring out how to move around photos in a group!