Monday, December 29, 2008

Day tour to Sipi Falls

At this point in our trip, we are all exhausted, over carbed and under nourished. We decided to take an easier day and arranged with Isaac for a visit to Sipi Falls, a set of three cascading waterfalls, about an hour's drive from Mbale. At 9 am, we headed out with Isaac, our driver and our new friend, Rabbi Darren for our tiyul. We bought water for the trip and soap for the clinic then headed out to the falls. We saw a view of the falls and took the least strenuous hike. With six kids, we decided to take a short hike and enjoyed a few minutes at the base of the falls to cool off.
We headed for a quick lunch. When we arrived, we asked for the menu and were told we could have, you guessed it, potatoes, rice, and vegetables. We ordered our food at 12:30 and the servers told us it would be ready within 45 minutes. Very fast in African time. An Israeli at the next table let us know in Hebrew that it would be three hours. At 3:30 pm, our food came out. That's Africa time.
As we waited and waited, we took quick walks to see the view of the falls, to see wome wild monkeys playing in the trees. to play games of hide and seek on the grounds and to discuss with one another how on earth it takes three hours to prepare rice and potatoes.
We did a little craft shopping in Mbale but rejected the tourist prices and came back to the hotel for a quiet afternoon and evening and to catch up on our blog. Tomorrow, a tour of all 6 Abayudaya synagogues and afternoon meeting with Rabbi Gershom, the pick up of our kippot and our farewell to Nabugoye.

Sunday in Nabugoye..Three Weddings and a Festival

Yes, it could be something out of a movie. The community was celebrating three Jewish weddings and the annual Music and Dance festival, all in one day and all in front of the very guest house where we were staying in. Could our timing be any better? At services yesterday, Gershom made a very stern announcement that the weddings needed to begin promptly at 9 am, in order to have time for the over 300 guests to eat lunch and prepare for the music festival. Gershom was there at 9 am, ready to begin. Guests slowly trickled in, dressed in their finest clothes, mingling about. But alas, no brides nor grooms in sight. 9:30 am..still no brides. 10 am. No brides. 10:30 no brides but lots of hot guests beginning to move chairs about in the synagogue. I helped set them up and the musicians also arrived with their equipment. Rabbi Gershom took advantage of the moment to offer all of the guests a drash on a Jewish wedding. Then we waited some more. Then Gershom gave another drash. Then they played music and people got up to dance, in the aisles and in their seats. The meal preparations were taking place outside..and people were decorating Gershom's car for the brides and the grooms, who were shuttled from their villages to Nabugoye. By noon, the first bride and groom had arrived. The family danced the bride in with loud la la la screaming. The first groom was the religious leader from one of the villages. The sanctuary was packed and after the first wedding concluded, we moved the other two weddings to the newly tented area in front of the guest house (where the music festival was to already have begun). All of the guests stood up, picked up their chairs and made a mass exodus down the hillside, past the wedding feast preparations, to the tented area. The second weddings' bride was Gershom's younger sister and Rabbi Ephraim, from a neighboring village, He was carried in on a large fully upholstered lounge chair, down the hillside and through crowds of screaming friends and family members. Marci thought there were about 300 Abayudaya there. Marc estimated 500. The US National Park service would have said 4000. The third wedding finished around 1:30 pm and the hundreds of guests enjoyed a wedding feast, which included chicken and turkey, slaughtered by Rabbi Gershom to make it kosher, and prepared in front of our very eyes every time we walked back and forth to the synagogue. They also had potatoes and rice.
Within minutes,lunch ended and the music festival began. Song and dance troupes, including children of all ages, from each of the Abayudaya villages, performed for screaming fans. Lots of African rhythm and pelvic thrusting. Those women can move! At the end, it turned into an Abayudaya African outdoor disco, and a few North Americans, decided to join in the fun and we did capture Marci, Marc, Rebecca, Shayna and all of the Weiss' dancing the African night away along with scores of Abayudaya children, dancing in front of each of us and imitating our every move. Video is available but this one might cost you.
I have to stop typing for a moment to see the group of African drummers and dancers who just happened by. You don't want to know but we've seen several of these already and know that they are celebrating a male circumcision. (And not at 8 days!)
With the African sunset, we lit the last night of Hanukah candles in the synagogue, sang Hanukah songs and played dreidel. We gathered our suitcases together and loaded the taxi van for our late return to the Mbale Resort Hotel.
PS We also met Jason, a junior at Brandeis University, Marci's alma mater, who is interning in a clinic near Mbale. He has incredible stories of his experiences and welcomes you to read his blog at jasoninuganda.blogspot.com

Shabbat in Nabugoye

On Friday morning, we departed from the Mbale Resort Hotel to move into the Nabugoye Vilage guest house for the weekend. We would become immersed very quickly in the village life, preparing for the Shabbat meal, participating in services, playing with the kids and enjoying a warm welcome by the community. The guest house is a palace compared to the homes of the Abuyadaya. It is beautifully constructed, with about a dozen dorm style rooms, a kitchen, and a common dining room and the office of Isaac, the hotel manager and our tour guide for the week. His office also serves as the Abuyadaya gift shop. The guest house welcomes visitors from North America and Israel and we enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with about a dozen other visitors. They have a guest book with names that read from across the globe. It is its own center for Jewish life and was constructed by B'chol Lashon, which Rebecca will be supporting for her Bat Mitzvah project.
It is a rare moment in the life of a synagogue when it receives a new Torah. We are fortunate that Rabbi Darren from Phoenix carried with him a Torah for the Abuyadaya community. Rabbi Gershom invited us to a 10 am Hachnasat Torah (welcoming of the new Torah) in the Nabugoye synagogue. We all know Jewish time. You may know that Africa time is twice as slow as Jewish time and in Nabugoye, we experiences Jewish Africa time. When we finally started, Rabbi Darren led the davening (praying). Then Rabbi Gershom asked part of the congregation to go to the nearby Yeshiva (school) building, get the new Torah that was being housed there, and begin a processional to its new home in the synagogue. The rest of the congregation took the other four Torahs from the ark and we danced with the Torahs outside until we met the group with the new Torah. Outside, under a huppah, we sang and danced with the Torahs. The music was classic Abuyadaya melodies, which are rhythmic, soulful, spiritual and uplifting and we can't wait to play it for you when we return home. We danced all of the Torahs back to the synagogue and read a few verses from the new scroll. All of the Torahs were placed back in the ark together. It was a very moving ceremony and we have it all on video. Just ask!
We moved into our rooms in the guest house. Our family had the room with a bunk bed and queen bed and shared bathrooms. Of course, there are mosquito nets on all of the beds. It brought us back to our college days..almost! Some of the other guests we met were Linda and Sarah, a mother and daughter who had just come from working in an orphanage in Kampala for the week for Sarah's Bat Mitzvah project. They were visiting for Shabbat from New York City and Sarah, Rebecca and EJ hung out for much of the weekend, playing with the children of the village (Christian, Muslim and Jewish.) In this community, all of the children play together and especially loved playing with their new friends. The kids would wait as we left for an outing and clap when we returned. They often chased after the van, waving, laughing, smiling and calling for their friends by name. We also met Dr. Liz from Chicago, who is here as a volunteer for three weeks in the Abayudaya medical clinic. She is friends with Natan Fenner and when we introduced ourselves, she said you're from San Rafael, aren't you? Small world. Holly arrived from Fort Bragg. She works for the coffee coop, Thanksgiving Peace, which sells free trade Ugandan coffee, harvested by Jewish, Christian and Muslim farmers working together. The coffee business was started by JJ, who is Rabbi Gershom's older brother and one of the featured singers in the Abayudaya music group. We met three Israelis, who set up tents in front of the guest house, but ate all meals with us. There was a group from Chicago, who came on a Kulanu trip and also ate some meals with us at the guest house.
For lunch, we had our choice, rice or potatoes or rice and potatoes or potatoes and rice. For dinner, we had our choice of rice or potatoes. We also had vegetables. We passed on the occasional fish head, though Shayna was appropriately grossed out. We broke out our fifty pounds of Trader Joe's snacks and traded peanut butter for skin ointment for Shayna. Thank you Dr. Liz.
We helped prepare for Shabbat by peeling kilos upon kilos of potatoes in the area behind Rabbi Gershom's house. It was all of the women hard at work. They are the pillars of this village, doing all of the manual labor from carrying water and wood to cooking and cleaning and taking care of their many children. We took a quick drive to another Abayudaya village (there are 6 villages: Nabugoye is the main village where we stayed.) We toured the synagogue and then heard that Ezekiel, the oldest Abayudaya, was sitting outside. At age 96, he remembers the king, who created the Abayudaya in 1919. We all had our picture taken with him. Across the road, we visited the coffee coop, where we smelled vanilla and coffee beans and learned about their business. We are the newest fans of this coffee, which is marketed in California and across the US and we'll look forward to serving you a cup
when you are next in our home.
Back to the guest house for Shabbat clean up and prep (just like camp..Ruben, you'd LOVE it here! Vivien, not so much!) We lit Hanukah candles and Shabbat candles before starting services with the community, where men and women sit across the aisle from each other though women lead services and read from the Torah. We returned to the guest house for dinner....I had rice and potatoes. So did Rebeca, so did Shayna. Marc ate his Trader Joes nuts.
We were looking forward to Shabbat morning services because Rebecca and EJ would be reading Torah. Since they had no Cohen, they asked Marci, a Levite, to give the first aliyah, which happened to be the aliyah for Rebecca. Marci and Rebecca got to stand together while Rebecca chanted from Miketz. We thank Zvi for tutoring Rebecca and teaching her the trope. Since she has not yet received her Bat Mitzvah talit, she wore Marc's as she read Torah. Marc and Zvi were also honored with aliyot. Gershom showed Rebecca great honor when he told the entire community about her Bat Mitzvah (he even remembered the date) and the project she selected for the Abayudaya community to help build the new medical clinic.
We spent a relaxing afternoon. The girls played with their new friends. Marci chatted with people. Marc slept for four hours. Shabbat shalom!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Shabbat

we just returned from shabbat in the village. we'll post pages and pages about our experience in the days to come but for now, we witnessed 3 weddings, the arrival of a new torah, an annual song and dance festival, and rebecca reading torah. tomorrow, we off on a hike to some waterfalls; then on tuesday to travel to 5 other abayudaya villages, and then off to nairobi on wednesday. check the blog tomorrow night, after we've all had a chance to sleep and will have lots of time to give details on what was one of the most memorable shabbats ever.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Our visit to the Abuyadaya Village

Wow! Today will go down as a day we will always remember. After a delicious breakfast at the hotel, Isaac and our driver picked us up to take us to the village, 20 minutes away. We first had to stop for gas in the town of Mbale but it was four stations before we could actually find one that had gas. The town was bustling and looked like business as usual, despite being Christmas day. We made our way up the hill, on a dusty dirt road, passing by many people walking. We arrived at the village and were greeted so warmly by Rabbi Gershom and his family. A reporter from Kampala was already there interviewing him and spent the day with us. He'll have a Sunday feature on Ugandans who don't celebrate Christmas and we were all interviewed and photographed for the story. It will be on the internet and we will send you the link as soon as it runs. Outside the van, Rabbi Gershom intruduced us to his family and children from the village. Rebecca met her pen pal, Daphne, who is Rabbi Gershom's daughter and only one week younger than Rebecca. We all gathered in Gershom's living room, to present the many Hanukah gifts we brought for the community. We especially wanted to thank the Brandeis first and third graders for donating school supplies and games. They were so appreciative and excited with all of their new things. We unloaded two suitcases full of goods, including Jewish books and 7 bottles of kosher wine. The adults stayed in to talk to Gershom and Rabbi Darren from Phoenix who was also visiting. Meanwhile all of the children, about 30 of them, went outside to play games. Rebecca and EJ organized a massive game of tag and spent a good two hours, lifting and swinging the little ones around. Kids are graet because they become instant friends. Back in the living room, the adults turned to CNN to see if Gershom's interview from earlier that week would be televised. It wasn't so we all took a walk to visit the guest house, passing by chickens (that the children named), goats and cows. The guest house is beautiful, just one year old. We'll be moving there for Shabbat. We pulled out many snacks that we had brought with us and 20 minutes later, Tzipora, Gershom's wife, arrived with a delicous lunch she had perpared for all of us: rice with peanut sauce, avocado and sweet fresh pineapple. After lunch, we took a walk to the palace of the king, the one who converted to Judaism back in 1919 by circumcising himself and his sons, after reading the new testament and deciding to follow it. The palace is not in use now and is in disrepair but the view from that spot was breathtaking. The community hopes to develop it someday. We visited the gravesite of the king and wanted to say kaddish, but were one short of a minyan (they count women in a minyan here in Uganda.). Isaac was there to meet us with the van and drive us back to the village, where we went shopping in the guest house gift shop and found some fun souvenirs to bring home. Gershom was excited that we now had a minyan and asked if we would join him for outdoor mincha and Hanukah candlelighting and then maariv, right after. We prayed while village Christians celebrated Christmas and the muslims were calling themselves to prayer. To hear it all at the same moment was inspiring. Marc called Rabbi Lezak from the village so he could hear the candlelighting. (Sorry for waking you up!) We all sang Hanukah songs together and then headed back to Mbale, where Rebecca fell asleep before her face hit the pillow. The Weiss family and I had a dinner picnic with our trader Joe supplies, being observed by the many children who had come to the hotel for their annual Christmas party. When I offered them biscotti, I was swarmed, while the Weiss' laughed. It was more than we ever could have imagined in a single day and we appreciate the chance to be able to share it with you. It will help us capture the moment and we look forward to telling you all about it when we return. Off to the village for Shabbat.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Our arrival in Africa

Wow!!! This is an incredible place and we feel so lucky to be here. The flight to Entebbe was great. We slept and watched movies and arrived feeling rested. We were greeted at the airport by our dear friends the Weiss', our guide Isaac, wearing a beautiful Abuyadaya kippah and our driver. We managed to fit all of our suitcases, plus the ten of us, and our three personal guides, in the van. To say that our trip to Mbale was an adventure does not even begin to describe it. After Zvi and Marc loaded up with Ugandan shillings, we began the journey. Our first destination was to see where the Israeli raid occurred back in 1976. It's amazing to see the actual spot where it happened and to be back here under such a different circumstance. Kampala was our next stop, for a "quick bite" before heading to our destination of Mbale. En route to Kampala, we were surrounded by noise, cars, activity, people on bikes, people on motorcycles, people running in front of cars, people strolling in front of the cars. It was a scene. One was a little too close and they hit the front of our van. We pulled over and after a quick negotiation and exchange of cash, we were on our way. Traffic was at a standstill and as we made our way through the center of Kampala's main market, it was part Disneyland, part an old movie, but all reality. We bounced around, playing cat and mouse with pedestrians for several hours. We hit several holes in the road, one that knocked off our spare tire. We finally arrived at an outdoor restaurant to grab some food. Nearly two hours later, and only after Isaac pushed, we were able to get the check and continue our journey. It was slow going out of Kampala and only slightly less slow going the rest of the way, still dodging people and animals. We saw goats, cows, chickens, roosters, some dead, some alive and one was thrown into the van as a gift from our driver's mother. Despite, the conditions just described and lots of bouncing around, some of us managed to sleep for part of the journey. We arrived in Mbale, a bustling village and regional center of East Uganda, 10 hours after we landed at Entebbe. It took us longer to get from Entebbe to Mbale than London to Uganda. We arrived at our "five star" Mbale Resort Hotel and define five star as flush toilets, hot water and internet access. (The rooms are small but comfortable, complete with sleeping mosquito nets. The surroundings are lush and green. The contrast between what we saw driving in and what we have at our hotel reminds us of how fortunate we are. When we're tired and grumpy we may be complaining but this morning, we are very appreciative and thankful.

Our day in London

We had an awesome ten hours in London with the Guthart family. We all managed to stay awake for those ten hours, despite our lack of sleep on our flight from DC. We took the Heathrow Express to Central London, with just our carry on backpacks, having checked our luggage all the way through to Entebbe. We met the Gutharts at a Winter Faire in Hyde Park, complete with rides, food and an ice skating rink. Rebecca had a great time on all of the fast rides with Graham and Jackson while Shayna and Gracie took it a a little slower. After the fair, we went to see the play of the Sound of Music, which was very fun. Marc can no longer say he has never seen the show. After the show, we had a delicious tea (my favorite meal!) at the Mandarin Oriental. London looked so beautiful all lit up. We caught a cab back to the station for our Heahtrow Express back to the airport. Thanks, Gutharts, for arranging such a magical day in one of our favorite cities.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Last one from the States - Off to Africa


Bags are packed, we are ready!!! Off to Africa!!!

Just waiting for the Obama's to arrive


Taken by a Secret Service Intelligence Officer

Last day in DC

We had a fun final day on US territory. The girls went for a swim, in a very warm indoor pool. We took a brisk and cold walk over to the white house. We can't wait for the obamas to move in! We saw the stands being constructed for inauguration day. Too bad we were just a month early! We walked along the mall to the bureau of engraving and printing to see how money is made. We were looking for some free samples. After all, they make 700 million bills a day. It was a very interesting tour. The girls spent the afternoon shopping while marc had a meeting. We came away with a couple of new purchases, which we managed to squeeze into our overloaded suitcases. We enjoyed a final farewell meal at legal seafood before heading to Dulles for our overnight flight to London. Hope to blog from abroad. Wishing you all a happy, healthy and adventurous 2009!
Love, from the Africa bound Dollingers

Sunday, December 21, 2008

At the Hall of Archives

Dollingers in DC

We arrived in DC friday night, after an easy flight. Love that direct tv! Took an expensive cab ride to our hotel. The six heavy bags pushed us over but we'll be depositing most of it in Uganda! We should be much lighter traveling through africa, shopping excluded! We checked in and ate across the street at The Capitol brewery. Saturday we spent on the hop on hop off tour bus but it was pretty much a hop on for us. Too cold to hop off. We had a great brunch at the old ebbitt grill, a DC landmark, around the corner from the white house. No sign of Bush but we did run into many obamas during our stay. We found an awesome meditteranean restaurant for dinner and then on shayna's request, saw the tale of despereaux. Don't bother if you liked the book! Today we spent much of the day in the spy museum...Very fun. We got a panoramic view of the city from atop of the old post office. We spent our evening in Georgetown, shopping and dining. We had a great Italian meal at paolo's. Wishing you all a happy first night of hanukah. We'll try to post one more time before we leave for London tomorrow night.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

The night before the big trip

December 18, 2008 10 pm (PST)
We are so excited.  Tomorrow we leave bright and early for our big adventure.  We have a 9 am flight to DC from Oakland on Jet Blue so we need to leave our house about 6:15.  We're all packed and ready...6 suitcases with at least 2 of them full of supplies, books, food and games to bring to the people of Africa.  (OK, the food is really for us!  Lots of healthy snacks in case the African diet does not work out so well.)  We will try and update the blog as often as we can but we have heard that internet connection is not so easy to come by.  We wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season, full of great adventures.  
Marci, Marc, Rebecca and Shayna