Passover

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Happy Pesach and Happy Easter!

Well, I am proud to say that I made it to a Passover Seder in Africa! It was great...My principal even let me take the day off to go to Windhoek for it as long as I came back, and told her and all the other teachers about the seder tomorrow...

So the director of my program, Maggie, is Jewish and she's from Las Vegas. When I asked her what she was doing for Passover, she told me that she got invited to a seder by someone she didn't even know...so I asked her if I could come, and she said she would check. Turns out, it was this woman Lucy who is a Jewish Social Worker from New York, and her daughter is currently finishing her senior year at Swarthmore College 😊 So when Maggie asked Lucy if I could come as well, Lucy said she can't turn down another Jew who is in Africa 😉

So, we had a very diverse and interesting group...there was myself and my director, and another volunteer from the organization AJWS (one of the organizations that I tried to get into and was unsuccessful.) He is doing a project on using bicycles as ambulences for the northern towns in Namibia.

Then I was told that the "Nelson Mandela" of Namibia was there. His name is Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo. Apparently, he was also incarcerated at Robbins Island for 20 some years for fighting Apartheid and was destined to be the next President of Namibia...but something happened, that I am not sure about, and he wasn't able to. He married an American woman from Pittsburgh and their 13 year old twins were also there. Then there were 2 Namibian college students that Lucy and her husband were helping through the Catholic AIDS Service. There was also a German coulple, a Namibian couple and another Jewish American woman from California who is working at the University. We were quite an eclectic group...

Needless to say, it was very nice and we did a full seder...they even had matzoh from Johannesburg! They were telling me about the one Orthodox Synagogue in Windhoek that I think I will try to go to when the High Holidays come around...

So, we have off this Friday and Monday for the Easter break and I am going to go the south with one of my Namibian friend's for her brother's wedding. It's funny because anyone can basically go to wedding, you don't need to be invited. She was telling me that at her wedding, over five hundred people showed up. This wedding will be a traditional wedding so it should be very interesting...

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Photos

Passover Seder
Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo is the man all the way to the right.

Comments

[Stephanie]

Happy Pesach!
I am not suprised that you were able to find a passover seder in Africa. You are very resourceful!!! I hope you enjoyed it (sounds like you did). Have so much fun at the wedding... you better take pictures!! xoxoxo

[nikki Fink]

happy passover
keeping your faith... even in africa! haVE FUN! MISS YOU. XOXO

[Carolyn]

Hi Jessi!
Just wanted to say hi and to let you know that I am LOVING your blog entries. I am on spring break from law school and finally had time to read through all of your entries this week. What a different world! Keep up the amazing work! Miss you in San Diego!

[Judy Fern]

Seder in Africa??
OK, so you had an eclectic Seder. We had the same old, same old with fewer noisemakers than usual -- but I was there to keep the volume going. I had just gotten home from 2 weeks of nursing in Vietnam, so between your adventure and mine, there was a lot of third world chatter. Everyone is so proud of you, as am I. Your bod might not have been there, but your spirit -- and your sister -- was. Keep on keeping on. Love, Judy PS: I'm sure your Nelson Mandela didn't do stunts, so I'm going to paste a copy of my poem into another one of these, for your reading pleasure. It's just about me [yawn] but you have the right to have your eyes glaze over, too. L, J

[Lisa]

Wow!
Hi Jess! I was thinking about you this weekend as I was in Boston with my brother and his Delta Sig friends...memories:-) I just caught up on your last two entries and I am speechless! All I can say is that this experience is amazing, the world is amazing and most of all you are amazing!!! xoxo

[Brighid]

Wow you can add international sedar dinner attendent on your resume. Remember we went to one in Hong Kong too! I am always happy to read your blogs! Over here in PA I am on spring break right now, I 've been trying to train my new puppy, it's going to be a long process.

[arik]

amazing!
Thats great to hear that there were two seders in namibia, i was in Windhoek as well, and I made a seder by the shul. The first night we had 50 people, the second night about 15. I't would've been nice to meet you, and I happen to be from Palm Springs, not to far from you.