Category: Uncategorized

b’h

***

On behalf of Café Avra, Happy 2011 to all.

I must apologize for the short  Café Avra break I have taken. I see my last post was quite a long time ago, on December 23^rd!

I have been lucky enough to have been traveling off and on the last 3 weeks, once to Philadelphia and twice to Washington DC, both for business and pleasure. Photo Journals on these journeys to come in a future post.

I also am starting to prepare for my Israel trip, in which I leave in less than a month. Time does fly I must say. I leave on  Feb 13th, preceding a short vacation with my family in which we leave on February 4^th.  So I really only have three more weeks left at home.

***

Today, and coincidentally on Martin Luther King Day, I want to share with you quite a new experience I have had over the last six weeks since I arrived back in New York. One that I did not need to travel barely beyond my backdoor.

You probably have seen that throughout my trip in Africa I began to help a few artists, non profits, and organizations build and manage their own website. I currently call this service “Café Avra Productions”.  My goal was to assist those who could never afford to have their own website, or even take a class to learn how to make one, with creating and managing their own blog/website to use for whatever purposes necessary.  To view a few from my Africa trip please see: https://cafeavra.org/cafe-avra-productions/

When I first arrived back to New York, I was speaking to a good friend and talented colleague of mine, John Moreno. Originally from Colombia, currently based in Queens, John, who amongst many endeavors, is the Founder and Executive Director of the Latino Youth for Higher Education Program which, through workshops, tutoring, mentorship programs (etc) helps to promote college awareness and success to minority students in New York, especially those of Latino origin and new to the United States.

Please do check their website : http://www.lyheprogram.org/

I was telling John how I started to teach blogs/websites in Kenya/Uganda and how amazing it is when I see my students begin to update their websites themselves, get really creative with the appearances, and really take initiative in the process. Also, it seemed that the experience of creating the website was almost therapeutic for the student, especially when working with refugees. Keep in mind though I was working on a one-on-one basis, not in a classroom setting.

He asked me if I was interested in possibly doing an after school program at one of the schools he provides services to, The Pan American High School in Elmhurst, Queens. The student population is Latino high school students who mostly arrived in the country within the last year and do have a problem getting accustomed to the US education system, the English Language, and can have trouble with their social skills. Most are from Colombia, Dominican Republic and Ecuador.

I thought it would be quite the challenge and almost an experiment;  first to actually teach a class in a High School which I have never done before. And also, just arriving backing from Kenya, to see the differences between working with Latino Youth from quite poor countries versus those in Africa. How similar would their engagement be in this technical, creative process?

I ended up doing 7 after school sessions and had about 15-20 students throughout the course. Some dropped out, or couldn’t make it to every class due to other commitments, loss of interest, or even part-time jobs.

***

I now invite you to meet some of my students

Despite the language barrier, and a few technical difficulties in the beginning, the class went quite well.

I taught my students how to create an appearance for the blog, how to upload photos and videos, create pages, and most importantly create your own style.

I was very very impressed with their computer skills and creativity. Obviously some of the students were a bit faster than others, but all had email addresses’ already, quickly understood the concepts of posting, creating pages, and uploading photographs. Compared to a few of my students in Africa, and maybe due to the time already spent in the United States, all my students I could consider tech-saavy.

Some of their English skills are a bit weak, so it was a challenge to write longer posts in English, but I am glad to have pushed them and I was impressed how quick they got the wordpress.com system in English.

Last Thursday (January  13th, 2011) was our last class and we had four students compete in a competition on who had the best website based on the following criteria:

Creativity

Enthusiasm

Effort

They were required to have a post on how their Christmas was this year, a page on their country, and a page titled “About Me”.

Additional posts and pages were encouraged!

b’h

First I want to wish all my Christian brothers and sisters Happy Christmas and truly enjoy this holiday in whichever way you find fulfilling!

As I began to write this post last Saturday evening,  but didn’t get to finish, I just got off the phone with my childhood best friend, Stacy Launer (now Stacy Klemas). She was out to dinner with her husband Scott, and told me she will call back me later, and I told her no problem I am at home and just wanted to let you know I just got off the phone with your mother in law (Robin Klemas) and we need to do lunch next week because she is off from work and I haven’t seen her. “Okay great, sounds good” Stacy says. I hung up the phone smiling.

I also just spent last  Shabbat with my grandparents. Which basically means Amy goes to buy a kosher chicken, noodle kugel, and babka(traditional Eastern European Jewish Cuisine) from Lakewood Shoprite and has my grandfather relive his childhood youth of saying Kiddush, while my  Grandmother (not kosher of course) gives me a hard time about all this ‘shabbat business’…”What are you holier than holy these days!? Then of course on Shabbat my brother calls from Seattle seeing what was cooking  (he must know what was for dinner). Then my mom calls 5 minutes later…what was cooking? Is Grandma being nice to Grandpa…?

What I am trying to say is that I wish we all had these family moments of joy, laughter, fighting, personality clashes and holidays together.

But the truth is too many of us all over the world might not have the opportunity to be with family members they love this holiday, due to many factors out of our control and for reasons I have shared with you through my blog posts this past year.

And this also goes for family members and close friends we all lost this year.

Although everyone tries to  be strong from the loss of close family and friends, or just being apart for the holidays, there is still something missing and its a hard few days to get through.

***

So, why I am thanking gd this holiday season?

After I got off this call with Stacy I realized what a blessing gd has given me at this moment to be with, and feel loved by, my close friends and family. And this is nothing I can, or should, take lightly.

I have shared many photos and stories of friends I met along the way in Kenya and Uganda. However, today I want to share with you my family and a few very close friends who are also my family.

I  also want to quickly mention that I say holiday season through a Jewish Lens.

Although Hanukkah has passed, and I do not technically religiously celebrate Christmas, my birthday falls this time of year.

This year happens to be quite interesting as my birthday is on the 30^th of December and my Jewish Birthday this year, the 24^th of Tevet,  falls on December 31^st so I have the pleasure of a two-day birthday!

Jewish Birthday? Let me explain briefly…

First, the Jewish Calendar  is actually based on the lunar months (with different names then our modern calendar), so you might notice that our holidays fluctuate each year (and as do birthdays).

But why is it significant?

Judaism happens to approache time like a spiral or circle..not in a straight line.

Annually, on the anniversary of any momentous event, we have the ability to tap into the same spiritual energy that originally caused that event (hence the concept of Jewish holidays). taken from chabad.org

So each year on our  Jewish birthdays, we have the ability to tap into that special energy, and it is especially interesting to see what events in history happened on that specific day in the Jewish Calendar, or if very righteous people might have been born, or died, on that day-your birthday.  If you are interested and open, you can find some very deep connections here.

I urge all my Jewish Friends to sign on Chabad.org below to find out your Jewish Birthday.

http://www.chabad.org/calendar/birthday_cdo/aid/6228/jewish/When.htm

And hey, who ever complained of two birthdays?

***

My Family

***

Happy Holidays and Shabbat Shalom to all.

Through the difficult times,  we all have blessing and miracles occuring simultaneously and we should always be grateful for them.

With love,

Amy

b’h

The Magadi Trio ft. The Hoyos

First I want to wish a Happy Monday to all and wishes for a good week:)

To my friends in Kenya…please enjoy the sun for me. Last Friday here in New York it was -2 degrees. It is like walking into a big freezer!

So what is this video? The Magadi Trio ft. The Hoyos?

Reflections (Part 2) of my Kenyan journey is more a question for you, my reader.

Now you might have read my post back in October, “The Road Less Traveled” (https://cafeavra.org/2010/10/04/the-road-less-traveled/) in which I had the pleasure of a few off the beaten path adventures thanks to some lovely travel companions of mine.

You might have read how I visited the Masai, a Nilotic ethnic group  of semi-nomadic  people (currently around 900,000) located in Kenya and northern Tanzania.

The Masai’s entire way of life revolves around their herds of cattle.

Maasai mythology is that god gave them all the cattle on earth and stealing cattle from other tribes is just taking back what is theirs.

Both the Tanzania and Kenyan government have tried to separate the Maasai from their old customs to no effect.

After all, what harm is there taking back something that was theirs in the first place? 🙂

Please enjoy a song from our talented Masai friends on their still practiced tradition of “Stealing Cows”.

We even tallied their amounts. Patrick on the right stole 5, Joseph in the middle stole 12, and Maripay on the left stole 20!

Ah and let us not forget. Who is “The Hoyos” do you ask?

A mysterious Spaniard/guitar player who seems to also have indigenous talents. “The Hoyos” stumbled across these talented Masai a few years back when once driving on a road, past the famous Ngong Hills, to no-where. I think since I left Kenya he has actually brought these Masai to a recording studio for some fusion with blues music so we will have to stay tuned to hear these tracks!

So what is my question for you? Something I am pondering myself…

What genre would you classify “Stealing Cows” on i-tunes!?

Be creative here please…

Hope to hear your comments 🙂

~amy

b’h

World Aids Day, December 1^st 2010

LIGHT for RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK, New York

World Aids Day 2010 theme:  “Universal Access and Human Rights”

*Speakers included  Kenneth Cole, Liza Minnelli, Tyson Beckford, Stockard Channing, Carson Kressely (of the U.S. TV Program “Queer Eye”), Joseph Deiss (Current President of the of the UN General Assembly), and Christine Quinn (New York City Council Speaker).

Attendees included advocates, students, the LGBTI community, press, (& Café Avra).

***

Before we get to more celebrity photos, and Tyson Beckford (in person he will hurt your eyes), I have a few things I want to share about World Aids Day 2010.

Every December 1^st I always try to attend a vigil for World Aids Day and as someone who supports and tries to advocate for various human rights issues, this is the first year I can say that World Aids Day meant more than just showing support and compassion.

Bear with me here, as my story backs into this past Sunday evening.

First, on late night BBC news, I saw that the city of Delhi had its first Gay Pride Parade in history. Only in July last year did their High Court overturn a penal code that criminalized homosexuality. Exciting and hopeful news as you will see below.

On Sunday Nov 28th, Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga called for the arrest of all gay and lesbian people in Kenya.

Now on Café Avra I haven’t truly shared this information, but over the last six months I spent in Nairobi, I got quite close to the LGBTI community. Most of my good, Kenyan (and Ugandan) friends in Nairobi were Lesbians, Bisexuals, Gay Men and Transgenders.

Why is this important? This is not a community of openly LGBTI individuals, but of unbelievably passionate, intelligent advocates and young leaders and who live in a variety of fear each day, whether of losing their job if their boss finds out their sexuality, being threatened by their families, getting arrested, and in many instances threat of rape and death.

In Kenya it is common that straight  men try will try to rape lesbian or bisexual women to ‘fix them’. (Yes, it happened to my close friend.)  In Uganda, in which I also met LGBTI individuals, I have heard of family members trying to kill their sons/daughters because of their shame to the family. (Yes, also happened to a friend.)

Many of them are members of a variety of advocacy organizations under GALCK, the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya.

I also just found out when reading about Mr. Odinga’s remarks that for the first time since 2006, GALCK was not invited by the National Aids Control Council to their  World Aids Day 2010. David Kuria, Head of GALCK, ” This is particularly ironical because this year’s theme “Access and Human Rights” resonated so uniquely with the plight of our community.”

I will be sharing some audio footage on Café Avra in the upcoming weeks, as I want you to hear some of their stories.

As we know the LGBTI global community is one of the worst hit of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and tragically continues to have some of the highest rates of infection.

So what about this community in Kenya and Uganda who are infected with HIV? I hear that in Uganda a gay individual with HIV is called a”double closeted” individual. Can you begin to imagine the fear a LGBTI and HIV infected individual must be living with in Uganda each day?

Again, the theme for World Aids Day 2010 is “Universal Access and Human Rights”.

For me, this World Aids Day 2010 is not only about remembering and honoring the lives of those who passed, but also accepting all communities and all people, ALL THE TIME. Whether they are straight (most infected straight people in Africa actually get the disease from their spouse), Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex or none of the above!

We should deny no one respect, no matter what a person wants to classify themself as.

Let’s not wait another year , until December 1st, 2011 when  we reiterate this discussion.

Let’s start yesterday on consciously accepting every individual on his or her merits and deeds and not on their sexuality.

And for those of us who preach this acceptance and compassion, let’s actually practice what we preach.

***

LIGHT for RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

December 1, 2010.

WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK, NEW YORK CITY

“Light for Rights was inspired by Night without Light, a project organized by Visual AIDS in the early 1990s in which the skylines of New York and San Francisco were darkened, as a symbolic reflection for the lives lost due to HIV.

This year, over 100 cities around the world dimmed the lights on public landmarks to remember the devastating affect AIDS has had, and to turn the lights back on to illuminate the fundamental human rights shared by all but often denied people living with HIV.”

Please enjoy the photos below and some insight into what each speaker had to say.

Kenneth Cole: How can you not love Kenneth Cole? This was the first time I saw him in person and he looks like a really nice, humble, and honest man.  He led this event and you can see his true compassion on human rights issues. I hope to meet him properly one day.

Liza Minnelli: Looking good my friend! Wow, she is enchanting in person. She spoke about the need to reduce rates of infection and  her experience on how three decades ago HIV was a new and unheard of disease and some of her friends started to find out they had been infected.

Tyson Beckford: Even Carson Kressley said “Thank Gd for Tyson Beckford”. He is so beautiful in person that I will let him pass for his very short and scripted speech:)

Joseph Deiss, Speaker of the UN General Assembly, actually stressed the importance of respecting the LGBTI community in the “Universal Access” of HIV prevention and distribution of antiretroviral drugs. Thank you Jack. Please give Raila a call next time you are at the Nairobi HQ.

Christine Quinn, New York City Council Speaker, mentioned HIV is the 3^rd largest killer in New York. Did you know that?

***

b’h

As I write this post from my favorite coffee shop in the East Village, New York,  I am thinking about how it is always the case that  a 6-month journey anywhere outside your home can feel like some type of dream:)

Before I start to post more  locally throughout my next 8 weeks in New York (before I leave for Israel on February 13th, (b’h), I must share with you all some photos and profiles of just a few of the wonderful souls I met on my journey throughout Kenya/Uganda over the last 6 months that I didn’t get a chance to share with you while in Kenya.

I write Reflections (Part 1) as I feel that this post will definitely have follow up as I go through all my photos and videos.

My body might be here in the East Village and slowly but surely resurfacing, but my head and heart is still with these lovely smiles below:)

***

First, I never got to share that I ran the Nairobi Half Marathon on Oct 31st with a good friend, Steve Olet, who I already miss! Steve was a co-worker of mine at HIAS, who taught me what it really means to be a strong person and persevere through each challenge life brings. I enjoyed the short training we did for the marathon together, and the other times we had to talk.

Keisha Adams, another co-worker of mine, walked the 10K and I  must give her credit as she just recovered from surgery on her foot. Keisha ran the Sexual and Gender based persecution program at HIAS (Kenya) and is a Women to Watch:) She continues to impress me with her passion for helping others, her knowledge of refugee and sexual/gender based violence issues, her unbelievable training abilities on these sensitive issues, and just because she is a tough chic:) Keisha, aka the office hero.

Will miss you both.

***

As you know from previous posts, Daniel was one of my best friends in Kenya and an extremely talented singer and performer.

What  a star! I look forward to hearing his new song, ‘In Africa’, which should be finished in the next few weeks… Here we are posing @ HIAS a few weeks ago.

***

Sara is one of the most beautiful,  hardworking, warm souls I have ever met. Sara worked in the house where I lived for two months, so we became very close. More important than the delicious food she made, she was a true friend and always there for me. She takes everyday in a positive way, laughs and smiles, and keeps a youthful energy. I know we will be friends for a long time.

Sara has two lovely children that I had the pleasure of meeting during my last week in Kenya in her village, Wangige. Meet Patience and Dennis below.  And of course she made me delicious food when I came to visit her:)

Sara, thanks for everything.

***

Louisa, Helen, and Fareed were also my co-workers at HIAS, but they were more like my family in Kenya. Words can not explain my love for them, their spouses, and children. As much as day to day life can get boring and frustrating, just being together with these three brings joy and laughter. Thank you all so much for giving me strength and joy each day.

***

As Helen would say to me all the time, and I want to say back to everyone, thank you for your love.

Keep posted for part two!

Greetings all:) Sorry again for not posting in quite sometime.

It is my last week here in Kenya and I am getting quite emotional saying goodbye (temporarily of course!) to all the inspiring people I have met over the last six months.

As a follow-up to a recent post I wrote back in August on the empowerment of Kenyan women during the campaign for the new Constitution (https://cafeavra.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/warembo-ni-yes/), I want to share some photographs from two special events that I was lucky enough to be a part of two weeks ago.

Since the Yes vote for the new constitution on August 4th 2010, Kenyan women are feeling ready to tackle the new landscape ahead of them and some organizations have arranged Forums and Celebrations to make sure the momentum continues.

Both in Nairobi, The National Women’s Forum was held on 28^th October 2010 at Ufungamano House and the Human Rights Festival was held on the 29^th October 2010 at the Kenyatta International Conference Center.

In total both events had over 1000 women attend from all over Kenya.

These events were held by the Nairobi-based Young Women’s Leadership Institute (http://www.ywli.org/) .

YWLI is a feminist organization that nurtures the leadership of young women and opens space for their engagement in policy processes. YWLI was ” founded to create space for young women to express their views and visions on the women’s rights agenda”.

***

 



And last but not least, Cafe Avra’s intern Faustina and my good friends, musicians Dan Dyson and Que were there!

Looking good my friends:) I will miss you.

***

Hi my name is Faustina Ning’a. I am 22 years old.

I am an Intern at Café Avra Productions. (Yeah I work for Amy!)

Both of my parents are Mozambican, but I was born and lived all my life in Kenya.

My parents came to Kenya as refugees in 1975 while fleeing the Civil War in Mozambique.

I’m currently a fourth year student at Daystar University studying Public Relations and Marketing.

Fortunately, I am almost through with my studies and waiting to graduate next year in June 2011.

Daystar is a Christian University here in Kenya that believes in upholding and impacting Christian values to students. For example, I’m currently taking a course called RET 321 (Christian and African traditional religion). This course focuses on comparing the African society and its practices to Christian Theology.

So far I am working on a group project that deals with understanding polygamy and its comparisons (or contrasts) to the teachings in the Bible.

I found out that polygamy in Kenya, or probably the whole of Africa, is not rare like in the western world.

Here almost 35% of married men are polygamous and proud.

Some practice it because it is in their culture, others out of pride, and others simply because they can afford keeping many wives.

Just recently, stories of single Kenyan women going to a Nigerian priest visiting Nairobi hit the headlines. They were on a mission to ask God to give them spouses.

And then, almost a week later, more stories hit the headlines that one of the well-known polygamous men in Kenya, Akuku Danger (story featured below) has just passed on leaving behind almost 300 children fatherless and 100 women widowed!

When Amy asked me what young Kenyans think about polygamy at this moment in time, most have no problem with what polygamy meant  in the past, as most  of us have polygamous relatives. And, looking at polygamy from a religious perspective, father Abraham  had Sarah and Hagar, Solomon was the King of polygamy and many others in the bible had followed suit.

However, when speaking about my personal life, and most of my classmates at Daystar University, none of them intend to be in a polygamous relationship.

***

Below I thought I would share an interesting story of a man called Akuku Danger, who recently passed on. He almost beat out King Solomon at a polygamous race!

This is one story that many will live to tell.

The Mighty King Solomon was just about to be out-done by Kenya’s Akuku Danger

Akuku Danger was on a mission to have more; to use his charms to attract the beautiful Jaluo ladies..that was the first statement I heard about this man…

Asentus Ogwella Akuku or Akuku Danger is a man that has beat the African record  and was just about to hit the mark of King Solomon.. If not for his untimely death on Sunday (October 3, 2010). He died at 92.

His peers named him ‘Danger’ because of his magic with women and love for polygamy. Having many wives begun as a joke to him. By the time he was 22, Akuku was already a polygamist with 5 wives.

At 35, he married his 45th wife!

Arguably one of Kenya’s best known polygamists, Akuku is said to have married 130 times, divorced more than 80 of his wives and sired more than 200 children.

So large is Akuku’s family that when his wives and children would finally be asked to stand up during his burial, more than half of the mourners would probably rise on their feet.

Those who knew him agree that if ever there would be an award for a successful polygamist, he would get the gold; right after King Solomon had received his award…

The grand master of polygamy married his first wife in 1939 and his last in 1997 when he was 79.

Akuku’s family now includes more than 200 grand children that live in Kanyamwa and Aora Chuodho areas in Ndhiwa district and Karungu in the neighbouring Nyatike district. (Northwest of Nairobi)

His sons and grand children are well-educated and work in the civil service and the private sector.

Akuku was later quoted as saying: “I lived a lavish lifestyle. I was always ready to spend money on women.”

He said that to keep a woman one had to respond to her immediate needs.

He also got rid of the stubborn wives; “I divorce women who misbehave,” he once said.

Just wondering why I came late; I would have been the 131^st wife! 🙂

***

(Faustina will be interning with Café Avra Productions until mid-November and will continue to update us with her stories!)

b’h

Hello friends:) To my Jewish brothers and sisters, I hope you had a lovely and inspiring holiday season:)

Again I am sorry I have not posted in quite sometime. From the three-day Jewish holidays all month, and finally getting a chance to travel around Kenya to more remote areas, I haven’t been much online.

That being said, today I want to share a small photo gallery of my recent travels which includes spending time with the Masai in Magade, living in a remote Luo village without electricity or running water while celebrating Simcah Torah, and traveling to and through Kisumu (passing by Lake Victoria) to get to Kampala.

Enjoy!

Lake Magade

Lake Magade is in Masai Territory near the Tanzanian Border.  To those who never heard of them, the Masai are a Nilotic ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania. I spent a couple of days hanging around with some Masai that my friend already knew, who happen to be great acoustic musicians! Below they are performing one of their songs about stealing cows (an old tradition). I took video footage, as their style is hard to explain, so keep checking back to Café Avra for the music video. I named them the Magade Trio…(they guy on the far left is not a part of the band)

Where we stayed…deserted except for flamingos and hot springs.

Ondati. Luo Village Life.

The Luo’s are the third biggest tribe in Kenya, and is actually the tribe that Obama is from so they absolutely love him. This was my first time staying in a Kenyan village without electricity and running water while trying to celebrate Simcah Torah with my friend Jamie. We had a lovely host family take care of us, and it took a few days for me to get used to not being able to basically do everything I usually do….ie chose what I want to eat because it is available, or have a running water tap to wash my hands, or remembering there is no sink in the kitchen to put my dishes, etc.

We had Kenyan Sugar Cane Liquor for Kiddush (Oops! Sorry but Kosher Wine in Africa is hard to come by)…but we did have Matzah for Hamotzi, thanks to the two Chabad Rabbis who came to visit Nairobi for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. (Thanks Chanania and Zev!)

After finally explaining what this strange substance was that Jamie and I kept blessing, we gave the leftover  Matzah to Dan and Leonard below, who are eldest sons of the family we stayed with. They happen, quite fortuitously, to be Seventh-day Adventists (to those who don’t know they are a Christian denomination who observe Saturday as their Sabbath) so they were very excited to see what real Matzah looks like as they do a small Passover observance each year!  It was a pleasure to all share the same Sabbath day.

I also have to give Dan (right) a shout out below for being an amazing Kenyan cook.

Sugar Cane. Love that stuff:) It seems the kids do too…:)

Jamie, my travel companion who brought me to the village, laughs with the father of the house, Joshua. We were having a small disco post-Shabbat with my MacBookPro. Joshua was confused what it was:)

Bus Ride from Awendo to Kisumu

Awendo is the closest town to Ondati village, which took one hour by motorbike to get to.(Was a very fun ride and I unfortunately don’t have photos…)

From there we hopped on a bus 3-hours up to Kisumu.

Some of my new friends below…

Kisumu (Lake Victoria)

We reached Kisumu and decided to hang around the lake towards sunset, which was quite beautiful.

I envisioned the picture below to be the real marketing campaign for Kenya! The vehicle below, for those who have never been to East Africa, are called Matatus. They are basically vans, with about 12 packed in seats, and are the major mode of transportation used. They are intimidating at first as the drivers are crazy, usually music is blasting, and if you are lucky you get your change back if you give more than the fare is. Nevertheless, you learn to love them. One must come to East Africa to experience these ‘party buses’. Especially this nice and clean one coming out of Lake Victoria…

Okay, a scenic shot just for fun…

Kisumu Railroad

And last but not least, I was able to catch this shot right as the sun went down and I saw the train coming through. Looks more like a shot from the Wild West USA, right? These trains pretty much run like the ones from the movies…take it from experience as my one-way journey last month from Nairobi to Mombasa took about 30 hours instead of the intended 12.

-The End-

Welcome To Watamu Beach, Kenya.

I recently visited the coast of Kenya, and through the advice of my travel companion, we migrated off the usual route of staying in Mombasa and ended up in Watamu, a coastal town about one hour north, on the way to Malindi.

I heard about the Italian influence in Malindi through a friend at work, though I didn’t realize the overflow into neighboring towns.

They say that if you are a first time visitor to Malindi, you would be forgiven for thinking you are in some part of Italy!

Reading up, it was the late 1980s when the Italians discovered Malindi, as the Germans were leaving the area, and became the dominant foreign influence.

So I arrived to the beach on my first day in Watamu and was bombarded by local Kenyans kindly, yet intrudingly shouting, “Ciao Bella” and many other phrases in Italian I did not understand! Italian signs are everywhere, for massages, gelato, and pizza.

And kid you not, the locals speak fluent Italian!

It really was unbelievable and for a second it just didn’t seem right. Like when I hear my Western friends in Kenya speaking Swahili, it also for a second is a bit strange sounding…but hey I am all for cultural boundaries being crossed:)

So although my first trip to the Indian Ocean was quite beautiful in the sense that the sand was pure white (the whitest I have ever seen actually), the water warm enough that I could swim freely, and the atmosphere quite relaxing after not leaving Nairobi for quite sometime, the funniest part of this adventure was observing the interactions between the local Kenyans speaking Italian, and the straight off the boat Italian tourists just eating it all up!

Hope you enjoy this cultural, or lack of cultural journey:)

Ciao!

b’h

Please enjoy the mini-documentary above about the dreams and struggles of a Jewish youth group in Uganda, the Abayudaya Youth Association.

Jewish? Uganda?

Abayudaya?

Who are they?

The Abayudaya are a Ugandan community who began practicing Judaism in 1919.  They are not genetically or historically ethnic Jews but are a devout community keeping Kashrut and fully observing Shabbat.

The story begins with a British colonial agent, Semei Kakungulu, who started to keep and practice the Jewish Shabbat and shortly later had roughly 3,000 followers.

Today the Abayudaya have roughly 1,250 followers and are only recognized by members of the Reform and Conservative movements.

When the HIAS Board of Directors were here in East Africa on their mission to Kenya and Uganda last month, we were all blessed to spend a Shabbat with this community.

I will leave it up to you to read the various articles written on this community, mainly on the website of Kulanu (a non-profit organization which supports isolated and emerging Jewish communities around the world. www.kulanu.org ).

What I want to highlight today is not whether this community is truly Jewish, or what they eat on Shabbat, how they dress, conduct services, or whether they speak Hebrew.

The most impressive part of my weekend with the Abayudaya was meeting the members of the Abayudaya Youth Association.

When we were on a light walking tour of the community on Shabbat day, I started to speak with Kirya Israel, who was the same age as me, 26.  He was telling me about his studies in economics, a bit about the diverse visitors they get each Shabbat, and then he pulled out his business card.

Wow, okay, thanks Kirya! I don’t even have a business card!

Abayudaya Youth Association.  Motto: Struggle Continues.

I thought , okay, this makes sense. There are always Jewish Youth groups in all communities. But for some reason I was still taken aback. Perhaps it was because most of the emphasis that I have heard on this community seems to be on the irony that an African community keeps a higher level of Shabbat then most of the visitors! Or that they really can’t be Jewish!

I never heard about a Jewish Youth group in Uganda that organizes classes, football matches, services, social events, etc throughout the year. They even partner with USY in the states!

I was so impressed by their high level of enthusiasm for keeping their youth engaged in all types of activities, wanting to learn more modern conversational Hebrew and, the most beautiful, was their genuine dream to visit Israel, the Promised Land as they told me.

You will see in the video that the Chairman of the organization, Kalema Joseph, really wants to visit the Western Wall! He told me he continues to look at photos on the web, but it is not enough! He wants to see the physical wall.

He also told me that Birthright Israel often sends visitors to the community for Shabbat, but they haven’t yet taken them on a trip. They say they are trying, but there are so many strings attached. He stresses the Abayudaya are different than the Ethiopians that their goal is not to stay in Israel but to visit and come back.

On a surface level, it seems their genuine want to visit the ‘promised land’ should be sufficient enough to warrant one trip of 20-30 youth, right?

How many Jewish young adults in the U.S. do we need to convince over and over just to try Birthright! I know I have convinced quite a few. And we all know Birthright isn’t so strict; for example you can be a ‘quarter’ Jewish and attend a trip.

I have not done the necessary research yet to see why Birthright has not gone forward with a trip for this community. I hope to hear comments if anyone has further information!

Nevertheless, I thought it would be quite dynamic to see for yourselves who the Abayudaya Youth are and the future leaders of this unique community.

On behalf of the AYA, they would love to hear from you and hope you can visit them soon enough!

Please contact them directly at:

Chairman, Kalema Joseph:  kalemayosef@gmail.com

Minister of Ethics & Gender, Kirya Israel: kiryaisrael@gmail.com

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Shabbat Shalom to all! And a spiritual month of Elul! The king is in the field.