Well, Zahava and I are off to Israel for two weeks for Pesach. We're leaving tomorrow night. And right in the nick of time- we were informed today that they are going to start staggering our electricity. So instead of losing electricity periodically, we'll be losing it regularly! They're starting tomorrow; we'll have no electricity from 6 AM to 6 PM. (They don't want take away our electricity at night, because people need their fans to sleep.) Which means that while we're packing all day, schvitzing, there will be no electricity. Duh. Also, there's currently no water. Another duh. Who would expect it?
Anyway, bye Ghana! We'll miss you!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Because People Keep Asking Me and Zahava Isn't Posting...
Zahava isn't sick anymore! (It's Rivky. Duh.) The heartburn is 100% gone, baruch Hashem.
Oh, and last week my wallet was stolen, and my camera was stolen. Two separate occasions. I discovered my camera missing early in the week, and then on Thursday, when I went to take my wallet out of my bag, I noticed that the pocket was open and wallet was gone. Well, stinks to be you, Ghanaian Thief, because you left my iPod, which would have sold for much more than my wallet. My wallet had no cash, only my license, American Express card (doesn't work in Ghana), MasterCard (doesn't work in Ghana), and...nothing else of value, really. My camera, however, it much more frustrating. I left it in America, my mom sent it to me, I had it for a couple of weeks, and then it was stolen. I'm pretty bummed about that.
Oh, and last week my wallet was stolen, and my camera was stolen. Two separate occasions. I discovered my camera missing early in the week, and then on Thursday, when I went to take my wallet out of my bag, I noticed that the pocket was open and wallet was gone. Well, stinks to be you, Ghanaian Thief, because you left my iPod, which would have sold for much more than my wallet. My wallet had no cash, only my license, American Express card (doesn't work in Ghana), MasterCard (doesn't work in Ghana), and...nothing else of value, really. My camera, however, it much more frustrating. I left it in America, my mom sent it to me, I had it for a couple of weeks, and then it was stolen. I'm pretty bummed about that.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Our first shabbos guests!
[Note: Okay, I know we still haven't posted about last shabbos, when we visited the Jewish community of Ghana in Sefwi Wiawso. But it's incredibly long- both the transportation and the actual shabbos experience, so I haven't gotten around to it yet. So I know it's out of order, but first, this shabbos:]
[Oh and it's Rivky!]
We went to the Jewish community in Sefwi Wiawso last shabbos, and we stayed with a really big family who had two extra bedrooms for us. They were so sweet and good to us, and we invited them to come to us for shabbos, not actually expecting it to happen. They took us up on it, which was awesome, and three of the children- Anthony (22 years old), Patrick (20 years old) and Sarah (17 years old) came for the weekend. This was HUGE for them. I think Patrick had been to Accra once before, but Anthony and Sarah had never been. Sarah had never even been to Kumasi, the closest "big" city to their village- three hours away. She had never spent a night away from her house before! Though she didn't say it, it was clear that being in Accra was a huge step for her, and for the rest of them.
For shabbos, we made a lot of food- on Friday night, we had stew, boiled plantains and salad and 3 challot, on Shabbos day, we had fish, yam balls and sauce, salad and 3 more challot, and then we also had a sizable seudat shlishit, including two sweet challahs, one with chocolate chips (fancy, I know).
It was just so interesting having them for shabbos. When we went to Sefwi Wiawso last weekend, sitting in shul and talking to them in the house, we were visitors in their world, and having them in our dorm with us, they got to experience a taste of what Orthodox American Jewry is like. We sang kabbalat shabbat and zmirot on shabbos. Patrick and Anthony sang along, and Sarah read along in the Artscroll English. During seudat shlishit, we all sang some of the songs they've been taught by American visitors through the years.
One thing that was really interesting- on Friday night, during dinner, a girl on our program came in and talked to us for a couple of minutes. She told Anthony, Patrick and Sarah that she was Jewish also. When she left, they asked us about her, and we explained that even though she identified as Jewish, she didn't feel compelled to have Shabbos dinner. They didn't understand how someone could be Jewish and not do shabbos. We tried to explain that in America, plenty of people identify as culturally religious, but not observant, but it was pretty alien to them.
On motzei shabbos, Cornelius and Richard (and Richard's cousin) picked us up and we all went to the beach. The beach is always cooler at night, but it was especially awesome because Anthony, Patrick and Sarah had never been to the beach before. They had never seen the ocean! At first, they were slightly nervous, but one by one, they all came with me and we put our feet in the water. I felt privileged to be there with them for something that I don't think any of them will ever forget. Sarah is really shy, and she has such a sweet smile. At one point, the wave came in a little high and our skirts got wet- she grinned and squealed, and it was really awesome.
Today was a chilled out day. Pretty much our entire dorm went out, but I spent the day at the apartment- took a long shower (we had running water, while Teaneck was out; a fitting way to end Adar, no?), read a lot. Hadn't been by myself in a while, it was nice.
Patrick definitely had the best English, and last night, he wrote us a really sweet note- for posterity, I want to write it over. He drew a picture of himself, Anthony and Sarah, and then he wrote:
"We really do not know how much to thank you all for hosting us all among you, and taking us, as your brothers and sister, that is really mice you have show to us that we are all one as a whole to be Jewish.
We are going back home to tell our community and parent about what you have done. May the Lord Almighty bless you all and grant you peace.
Ladies, do you know what we like most about your hostel? All your friends are friendly and share everything with us all. May God bless them too.
We are very sorry we have to leave on Sunday but we hope everything is well with you all.
We also thank Yamit mother for paying for our transportation. May God grant her long life and prosperity we are hoping to see her sometime.
We say that you all: meda wo fe; Todarabah.
May God send you back home safely and best in your exams when you come back to Ghana!!
We also enjoyed your food! You are all best in cooking and making sauce. We tell you all the food we eat is among the best food we have ever had. Bye to you all!"
HOW FREAKING CUTE IS HE???
It was just great because we were able to give back to them a little bit of what they gave to us. They told us that every couple of weeks, they host American Jews who are visiting for shabbos. But that means they are always hosting; they've never before been the guests, they've never seen how other people make shabbos. I think they had a good time. Hopefully they'll come again before we leave, but who knows. We'll definitely be in touch with them, though.
[Oh and it's Rivky!]
We went to the Jewish community in Sefwi Wiawso last shabbos, and we stayed with a really big family who had two extra bedrooms for us. They were so sweet and good to us, and we invited them to come to us for shabbos, not actually expecting it to happen. They took us up on it, which was awesome, and three of the children- Anthony (22 years old), Patrick (20 years old) and Sarah (17 years old) came for the weekend. This was HUGE for them. I think Patrick had been to Accra once before, but Anthony and Sarah had never been. Sarah had never even been to Kumasi, the closest "big" city to their village- three hours away. She had never spent a night away from her house before! Though she didn't say it, it was clear that being in Accra was a huge step for her, and for the rest of them.
For shabbos, we made a lot of food- on Friday night, we had stew, boiled plantains and salad and 3 challot, on Shabbos day, we had fish, yam balls and sauce, salad and 3 more challot, and then we also had a sizable seudat shlishit, including two sweet challahs, one with chocolate chips (fancy, I know).
It was just so interesting having them for shabbos. When we went to Sefwi Wiawso last weekend, sitting in shul and talking to them in the house, we were visitors in their world, and having them in our dorm with us, they got to experience a taste of what Orthodox American Jewry is like. We sang kabbalat shabbat and zmirot on shabbos. Patrick and Anthony sang along, and Sarah read along in the Artscroll English. During seudat shlishit, we all sang some of the songs they've been taught by American visitors through the years.
One thing that was really interesting- on Friday night, during dinner, a girl on our program came in and talked to us for a couple of minutes. She told Anthony, Patrick and Sarah that she was Jewish also. When she left, they asked us about her, and we explained that even though she identified as Jewish, she didn't feel compelled to have Shabbos dinner. They didn't understand how someone could be Jewish and not do shabbos. We tried to explain that in America, plenty of people identify as culturally religious, but not observant, but it was pretty alien to them.
On motzei shabbos, Cornelius and Richard (and Richard's cousin) picked us up and we all went to the beach. The beach is always cooler at night, but it was especially awesome because Anthony, Patrick and Sarah had never been to the beach before. They had never seen the ocean! At first, they were slightly nervous, but one by one, they all came with me and we put our feet in the water. I felt privileged to be there with them for something that I don't think any of them will ever forget. Sarah is really shy, and she has such a sweet smile. At one point, the wave came in a little high and our skirts got wet- she grinned and squealed, and it was really awesome.
Today was a chilled out day. Pretty much our entire dorm went out, but I spent the day at the apartment- took a long shower (we had running water, while Teaneck was out; a fitting way to end Adar, no?), read a lot. Hadn't been by myself in a while, it was nice.
Patrick definitely had the best English, and last night, he wrote us a really sweet note- for posterity, I want to write it over. He drew a picture of himself, Anthony and Sarah, and then he wrote:
"We really do not know how much to thank you all for hosting us all among you, and taking us, as your brothers and sister, that is really mice you have show to us that we are all one as a whole to be Jewish.
We are going back home to tell our community and parent about what you have done. May the Lord Almighty bless you all and grant you peace.
Ladies, do you know what we like most about your hostel? All your friends are friendly and share everything with us all. May God bless them too.
We are very sorry we have to leave on Sunday but we hope everything is well with you all.
We also thank Yamit mother for paying for our transportation. May God grant her long life and prosperity we are hoping to see her sometime.
We say that you all: meda wo fe; Todarabah.
May God send you back home safely and best in your exams when you come back to Ghana!!
We also enjoyed your food! You are all best in cooking and making sauce. We tell you all the food we eat is among the best food we have ever had. Bye to you all!"
HOW FREAKING CUTE IS HE???
It was just great because we were able to give back to them a little bit of what they gave to us. They told us that every couple of weeks, they host American Jews who are visiting for shabbos. But that means they are always hosting; they've never before been the guests, they've never seen how other people make shabbos. I think they had a good time. Hopefully they'll come again before we leave, but who knows. We'll definitely be in touch with them, though.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Water's Back!
Another quick note-
I still can't get over how quickly I've changed my perception of water. About 10 minutes ago, Courtney knocked on my door and screamed that we got water. I jumped up in quick succession: filled a bucket with water and soap and dumped in some dirty clothing, filled another bucket with clean water in case we run out again soon, finished doing the dishes, and purified some water for dinner tonight. Now I'm running into the shower. When I get out, I'll clean the clothes that are now soaking.
I still can't get over how quickly I've changed my perception of water. About 10 minutes ago, Courtney knocked on my door and screamed that we got water. I jumped up in quick succession: filled a bucket with water and soap and dumped in some dirty clothing, filled another bucket with clean water in case we run out again soon, finished doing the dishes, and purified some water for dinner tonight. Now I'm running into the shower. When I get out, I'll clean the clothes that are now soaking.
Purim in Ghana
Sorry I (Rivky) haven't been posting lately. The truth is that not much is going on recently, but Purim was this weekend, so I want to describe that a little bit. Because it was absolutely ridiculous. Nothing like any Purim I've ever experienced.
Ta'anit Esther was on Thursday, baruch Hashem I didn't have any classes. I spent the fast baking hamantaschen (1) with Rachel (2) and Brittany (3), two girls from my dorm (4). We had awesome fillings- fresh pineapple, fresh mango, chocolate and peanut butter mixture, stam peanut butter, and apricot jam. The hamantaschen looked and smelled amazing, and we made about 75. This was all in preparation for our Purim party Saturday night, because we knew we would have to spend Friday cooking for shabbos.
On Friday morning, Sarah, the religious girl from ISH (5) called, and she told me that a guy she knew had just gotten into Ghana from England, and he had an actual megillah with him for Saturday night! Amazing. He was planning on reading at 7:30, and our party was called for 9:30-10, so we figured we'd be fine. So right after shabbos, we grabbed a cab. I can't even describe where this place was. Apparently, it was an ex-KGB building turned into some sort of guest house? There were random Jewish things everywhere, like this big menorah and cut-outs on the wall of Chasidic men dancing. We had to get let in this gate with barbed wire on top by an intense, scary guard. Obviously, we were cracking up the whole time. Because come on! There were two cabs of students from the university and a bunch of secular Israeli men, and then this British guy who gave a short d'var Torah and explained the story of Purim, and then he read the megillah. (6)
Anyway, we ran back to campus after the megillah (7) and set up for our party. We got into costume- Zahava was a fairy, I was Harry Potter, and Yamit was...something. A jester? She wore a lot of pink and purple. The party was just ridiculous. A bunch of our Ghanaian friends came (8), Dela DJ'ed, and people had awesome costumes. At like 1 AM, when Yamit and I walked Daniel and his friend Maxwell downstairs to say bye, a guard came over to us yelling about parties and rules and whatnot. We didn't really know what he was talking about, but it was already 1 and we had to wake up early on Sunday morning for the seudah anyway, so I agreed to close the party. The guard followed us back to the room anyway, glaring, but whatevs, we shut down the party.
On Sunday morning, we woke up early to have our seudah. Zahava made pancakes and Yamit and I made matzah brie. Yes, weird seudah food, but whatevs. Jenny brought us mishloach manot, which was reallllly cute. We couldn't do a megillah reading with the British guy on Sunday, because Purim was also the day of the CIEE Olympics at Bojo Beach. So instead of doing it in person, I arranged with Rabbi Marwick that I would call him and we could put the Hopkins megillah reading on speaker. Zahava, Yamit and I found this bizarre ex-bar thing where we huddled underneath, so you couldn't hear the waves and the wind, and we waited two minutes to call Rabbi Marwick, but obviously, before we got to call, the fishermen came in pulling in their nets. We were dying of laughter- it was the most Ghana moment. We found a different spot, but Hopkins was running late, and before they read the megillah, the fishermen were done with their fishermen stuff and we went back to our awesome hut. Listening to the megillah there was an amazing experience. We were sitting under fifty feet from the Atlantic Ocean, in flipping West Africa, listening to a crystal-clear megillah reading in Baltimore. (9) So surreal, but so incredible.
Anyway, that was Purim. Nothing big has happened since then- we haven't had water since Thursday night. (Yes, it's Tuesday afternoon. Whatevs, Ghana. Whatevs.) Last night, Yamit and I showered in this guy Sidney's apartment. It was the best water pressure I've felt since being in Ghana. I'm attempting to make french toast for dinner soon, I'll let you know how it goes. (10)
(1) Wiki it. It's a traditional Purim dessert- a triangular cookie with a sweet filling.
(2) Rachel Sternberg. Jewishest name ever. Besides for Rivky Stern.
(3) Close enough. She has black curly hair and she's like, majoring in the Holocaust in college. Seriously.
(4) Did I mention that basically all my friends live in my building? It's really easier that way.
(5) International Students Hostel, the other dorm building for international students. It's a half hour walk, aka I've never been there. It's just so far!
(6) My favorite part was that he was reading it sfard, probably because the Israelis asked him to, but kept accidentally slipping back to the "suf."
(7) Figuratively.
(8) Even Daniel, from our political science class! Hi, Daniel!
(9) Shoutout to Ezra, Josh, Ben, and Rabbi Marwick for doing a great job with the megillah.
(10) I'll probably forget, how sad for you.
Ta'anit Esther was on Thursday, baruch Hashem I didn't have any classes. I spent the fast baking hamantaschen (1) with Rachel (2) and Brittany (3), two girls from my dorm (4). We had awesome fillings- fresh pineapple, fresh mango, chocolate and peanut butter mixture, stam peanut butter, and apricot jam. The hamantaschen looked and smelled amazing, and we made about 75. This was all in preparation for our Purim party Saturday night, because we knew we would have to spend Friday cooking for shabbos.
On Friday morning, Sarah, the religious girl from ISH (5) called, and she told me that a guy she knew had just gotten into Ghana from England, and he had an actual megillah with him for Saturday night! Amazing. He was planning on reading at 7:30, and our party was called for 9:30-10, so we figured we'd be fine. So right after shabbos, we grabbed a cab. I can't even describe where this place was. Apparently, it was an ex-KGB building turned into some sort of guest house? There were random Jewish things everywhere, like this big menorah and cut-outs on the wall of Chasidic men dancing. We had to get let in this gate with barbed wire on top by an intense, scary guard. Obviously, we were cracking up the whole time. Because come on! There were two cabs of students from the university and a bunch of secular Israeli men, and then this British guy who gave a short d'var Torah and explained the story of Purim, and then he read the megillah. (6)
Anyway, we ran back to campus after the megillah (7) and set up for our party. We got into costume- Zahava was a fairy, I was Harry Potter, and Yamit was...something. A jester? She wore a lot of pink and purple. The party was just ridiculous. A bunch of our Ghanaian friends came (8), Dela DJ'ed, and people had awesome costumes. At like 1 AM, when Yamit and I walked Daniel and his friend Maxwell downstairs to say bye, a guard came over to us yelling about parties and rules and whatnot. We didn't really know what he was talking about, but it was already 1 and we had to wake up early on Sunday morning for the seudah anyway, so I agreed to close the party. The guard followed us back to the room anyway, glaring, but whatevs, we shut down the party.
On Sunday morning, we woke up early to have our seudah. Zahava made pancakes and Yamit and I made matzah brie. Yes, weird seudah food, but whatevs. Jenny brought us mishloach manot, which was reallllly cute. We couldn't do a megillah reading with the British guy on Sunday, because Purim was also the day of the CIEE Olympics at Bojo Beach. So instead of doing it in person, I arranged with Rabbi Marwick that I would call him and we could put the Hopkins megillah reading on speaker. Zahava, Yamit and I found this bizarre ex-bar thing where we huddled underneath, so you couldn't hear the waves and the wind, and we waited two minutes to call Rabbi Marwick, but obviously, before we got to call, the fishermen came in pulling in their nets. We were dying of laughter- it was the most Ghana moment. We found a different spot, but Hopkins was running late, and before they read the megillah, the fishermen were done with their fishermen stuff and we went back to our awesome hut. Listening to the megillah there was an amazing experience. We were sitting under fifty feet from the Atlantic Ocean, in flipping West Africa, listening to a crystal-clear megillah reading in Baltimore. (9) So surreal, but so incredible.
Anyway, that was Purim. Nothing big has happened since then- we haven't had water since Thursday night. (Yes, it's Tuesday afternoon. Whatevs, Ghana. Whatevs.) Last night, Yamit and I showered in this guy Sidney's apartment. It was the best water pressure I've felt since being in Ghana. I'm attempting to make french toast for dinner soon, I'll let you know how it goes. (10)
(1) Wiki it. It's a traditional Purim dessert- a triangular cookie with a sweet filling.
(2) Rachel Sternberg. Jewishest name ever. Besides for Rivky Stern.
(3) Close enough. She has black curly hair and she's like, majoring in the Holocaust in college. Seriously.
(4) Did I mention that basically all my friends live in my building? It's really easier that way.
(5) International Students Hostel, the other dorm building for international students. It's a half hour walk, aka I've never been there. It's just so far!
(6) My favorite part was that he was reading it sfard, probably because the Israelis asked him to, but kept accidentally slipping back to the "suf."
(7) Figuratively.
(8) Even Daniel, from our political science class! Hi, Daniel!
(9) Shoutout to Ezra, Josh, Ben, and Rabbi Marwick for doing a great job with the megillah.
(10) I'll probably forget, how sad for you.
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