Packing

I cannot believe I’m leaving tonight.

This year has been such a whirlwind, and it comes to a close unbelievably soon. I know I’m not leaving it all behind – there’s no way I could leave and not take it with me (in clothes, especially!), but I know that I will be coming back, as soon as I can afford it. My words can’t capture how I’m feeling right now (as I’m pretty sure they couldn’t when I was readying myself to leave at this time one year ago), so instead, here’s what I’ve been up to:

After Kristin left at the end of June, my friend, and former JSC volunteer, Noah, came through Mumbai for a couple of days, which were also my last at the office.

Last Gan Katan class

I had a goodbye party with some friends, and then I went away for a couple of days to Lonavla, a hill station outside of the city.

Friends and food

Some of the girls

Now, I’m taking care of a bunch of logistics (mostly, getting the cat from India to the U.S.! What a pain! More on that soon…), and I’m trying to figure out how to stuff a year’s worth of things into two suitcases. I’ve done so successfully so far, but there are still a few more things left to squeeze in, and I’m pretty sure that my bags are going to be overweight. That and the cat are leaving me anxious about going to the airport, in addition, of course, to my worries and sadness about leaving India after such an important year.

Bo tried to help me pack

I need to stop now before I get ahead of myself and lose my words because my feelings are too much for language (if that makes sense)… I’ll try to update again before the flight, but otherwise, I’ll see you all in the U.S.

On Specs and Spectacles

The past week has been relatively uneventful. I’m trying as best as I can to take care of everything I need before I move from India back to the U.S., and I’m slowly but surely checking things off of my list.

My close friend Kristin Wall also came to visit me. She’s en route from her Teach for America job in St. Louis, Missouri to a one-month volunteer teaching assistant position Chang Rai, Thailand, and she stopped through Mumbai for a week with me!

We’ve mostly been eating, walking, shopping, coffee-ing, and talking, with a minimal amount of touring, but primarily because the rains finally started up this week! It was beastly hot, and now, though it’s still incredibly humid, the heat has broken somewhat, with the beginning of the monsoon. It’s messy and wet, but it’s a relief from the heat!

School children after the rain

Cow in a raincoat... only in India!

I went down to the Gateway of India for probably my last time, and I did some shopping along the Causeway, to find souveniers for family and friends.

Gateway, before the rains started

I also went to Crawford Market to order glasses (in India, “specs”), contact lenses, and sunglasses (in India, “glares”). For about the cost of a pair of glasses or a year’s worth of contact lenses in the U.S., I purchased two pairs of glasses (frames and lenses), a year’s worth of contact lenses, and a pair of sunglasses (non-prescription). Oh, and I had a free eye exam. It’s things like this that I will really miss when I come back to the U.S.!

New sunglasses!

I went to see the new X-Men this week, browsed at Phoenix Mills mall, and enjoyed many relaxing hours of coffee at Barista, Moshe’s, and the Bagel Shop.

Coffee!

It’s been a very nice week, especially being with a great friend who I really missed this year. Being with her, I also get to see India through a traveler’s eyes, and it reminds me of all of the fun things that I love doing here. I’m hit with a small dose of early nostalgia, and it’s very odd to think that I have just about a week and a half left here. I’m not sure what to do with my emotions.

I know it was a hard move, coming to India, and I know it will be just as much of a transition going back. As I was when I started, I’m both excited and nervous for whatever is next.

Two Weeks

My days in Mumbai are dwindling. Two weeks from today (at almost exactly this time), I will be landing at JFK. What a strange thought.

With my time here waning, and a college friend visiting, I’ve been doing a little last-minute touring. I revisited the Jehangir Art Gallery, the Gateway of India, and Colaba Causeway. I stopped into a favorite store for the last time, and I did my touristy street shopping (Bombay t-shirts? Check! Mehendi cones? Check! Indian jewelry? Check! Another pair of leather sandals? Check!).

I have two weeks left in India and 7 days left of work (until I’m unemployed! Yikes!). I’ve done so much, and yet, as I clean through my papers and finish my last projects, I realize that there’s so much left for me to do. As Rabbi Tarfon said, “the day is short and the task is great.” I see the true greatness of his wisdom when he added, “it is not your task to finish the work… but neither can you desist from it.” Rabbi Tarfon recognized that there are so many things that need our help, and I am proud to say that I didn’t avoid it just because the immensity of the work is beyond words. Then again, I’m glad it’s not my job to fix it all, either! It should be enough to say I’ve contributed, but I wish there were more I could have accomplished through this year.

On another note, take a couple minutes to read this article from my friend Melissa Weiss, who wrote for her college newspaper, The Diamondback. She beautifully states the feeling of moving to a new country (for her, South Korea), adapting, facing challenges, and thinking about moving on.

Nepal!

Wow. What a week away!

My vacation with Sarah to Nepal was exactly what I was hoping for. I needed a break from the usual hectic travel I’ve been doing around India, and I found it on this vacation.

We landed in Kathmandu around 1:45 p.m. on June 7.

Nepal!

We glided through a health check for swine flu (people in masks asking us if we’d been in infected countries in the past 10 days), bypassing a wall covered in names of plagued countries (basically, every country in the world was named on the wall). Then, we tried to figure out a way to get the Nepali rupees or American dollars we would need to pay for our 15-day tourist visa (about $25/person). The tourist visa counter wouldn’t accept Indian rupees, and the foreign exchange counter wouldn’t exchange Indian rupees… and there was no ATM to be found. In the end, I finally cashed in two ancient travelers’ checks (purchased when I moved to Thessaloniki, Greece for the summer after freshman year of college), for American dollars, and we made it through immigration, picked up our bags, and met Sarah’s friend Emilie.

Emilie and Sarah, reunited

Sunset over Kathmandu

Emilie is working for a few months for an Israeli NGO called Tevel B’Tzedek. She is based in a big house on the outskirts of Kathmandu, though other 20-somethings (majority Israeli, with a handful of Americans thrown in for good measure) work in the villages. After relaxing on our first afternoon/evening in Kathmandu, we spent the next morning at Emilie’s big project in Kathmandu, a day care center for 0-3 year olds, whose mothers are day laborers. Without this day care, the mothers would have to carry their children on their backs as they do backbreaking work, like brick-making and construction work.

Nepali children

Naptime

After we visited the day care and played with the kids for a while, we went out for Nepali chaat (street snacks) at a little hole-in-the-wall place in the day care neighborhood.

Chaat

It was pretty tasty, though I have to say that I’m ultimately a devotee of Mumbai chaat. Now and forever.

We headed down to the touristy area, Thamel, for some touring, shopping, and a fantastic pizza dinner. The streets are not nearly as congested as Mumbai, though the roads can be a lot worse in terms of potholes, narrow lanes, and garbage. Overall, Kathmandu feels like a very big village, complete with long power outages and limited access to phones and Internet. The air, though, felt a lot cleaner than Mumbai (even though it probably wasn’t!), and it was cooler. We didn’t need air conditioning at all through the week, and we didn’t even use a fan at night (…not that we had one…). It was a nice break from the balmy, clogged, toxic air of my home base this year.

Temple in Durbar Square

Street scene

Temple and prayer flags

In awe of the shopping opportunity...

The next day, we hiked up a lofty hill to go to Swayambunath Temple.

Quite the hike

Turning the prayer wheels

Buddies and Buddhas

We then went back to Thamel for an Israeli feast, at the popular Israeli backpacker hangout, OR2K.

Emilie and our falafel feast

On our third full day in Nepal, Sarah and I got on a 6 a.m. bus from Thamel out to an unknown destination in the hills and valleys of Nepal. After a four-hour bus ride, we finally arrived at The Last Resort, a hill station resort located across a long steel cable bridge, 160 meters above a rushing river.

Bridge I jumped from

A debriefing, and about two hours later, I found myself back on the bridge, roped into a harness, ready to hop off of the bridge for the canyon swing (the highest in the world!). I bunny-hopped off of the bridge and swung into the canyon, launched back and forth for about five minutes before I slowed enough to grasp a rope extended to me. I reeled myself in, climbed a steep ladder, and unhooked, began to ascend the hill I’d just jumped off of. The trek back up was steep and slippery, rocky and unsteady, and long – the return trek was almost scarier than stepping off of the bridge!

About half an hour later, I was back on the bridge and ready to jump off again! This time, I did what I never thought I’d be crazy enough to do: I stepped off of a bridge essentially attached by my ankles only to a rubber band (albeit a strong one!); I bungee-jumped. Here’s the view down 160 meters – the third-highest bungee in the world:

View down

I scootched forward on the platform, dragging the heavy bungee cord tethering my ankles together, and like a (very terrified) penguin, waddled along until my last step was into the air. I fell face first and plummeted with arms spread wide, screaming until there was no breath left. The bounce back up was intense, and as I sped toward the ground again, I jerked and spun, and with no way to stop the spinning, the ground spiraled beneath me as I hung from my ankles. Losing feeling in my face and hands, still suspended upside down, I prayed that my ankles would continue to hold up and that the cord wouldn’t let go. After a few minutes of turning red in the face, the bungee master slowly lowered me toward the ground as I reached out for a long bamboo stick reaching up into the air for me. About 10 feet from the ground, the Last Resort people flipped me onto a table and freed my (now bruised) ankles. Then there was just the hike back up the mountain and the suspended feeling of success…

Here’s the brief but entertaining video taken by Sarah as I leapt off the bridge the second time:

What a day. I’ve never felit so scared or victorious!

Victory!

The next few days were pretty mellow, following my leaps off of a bridge. We spent a lot of time shopping and eating, relaxing and reading, and we spent some time outside of Kathmandu, relaxing by (what in rainy season is) a river.

Rocks at the river

Nepali countryside

Kathmandu Valley

All in all, the week was relaxing and enjoyable, a chance to see a different country and take a break from India, and a wonderful time to meet new friends and spend time with Sarah before she left for Hungary for the international JDC camp in Szarvas. Returning from Nepal, Sarah and I took a couple of days to do some special things, including an all-you-can-eat lunch at a great sushi restaurant, a little shopping (what else?), and a manicure-pedicure treat. She left on Thursday night, and the apartment (and India) feels lonely without her. She returns from Hungary on July 12, just under a week after I leave India to return to the U.S.

By the way, my flight is confirmed, and I’ll be coming home on Air India flight 141 from Mumbai to JFK, on June 7, arriving in New York at 7 a.m. Just about two weeks from now…

Bizarre how the year is coming to a close… but more on that later.

For now, I’m going to make some dinner and enjoy a movie with my very close college friend Kristin (a Teach for America teacher based in St. Louis, Missouri), who is visiting en route to a month of teaching in Chang Rai, Thailand.

Me and Kristin at last year's Columbia University commencement

Hard to believe how quickly time/life flies by, hm?

Until next time…

Come and Gone

My second day camp has come and gone. This week was an incredibly busy one, what with 10 youth and 30 children in and out of the office every day.

Sunday was full of children for Gan Katan and youth for a leadership series session, led by a popular local lecturer. By the end of his program, the Szarvas youth were ready to finish their preparations for the week. By Sunday night at 7:30 p.m., I was finally able to head home, for an early wakeup the next day.

Day 1 of day camp focused on the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry, the Ashkenaz shtetl, and the differences between the Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews. The kids spent their morning rotating in stations between madrichim, playing games, having discussions, and doing art projects. That afternoon, we played the Game of Life, in which the teams, “families,” answered questions about what they learned in the mornings, to advance themselves around a life-sized game board. Correct answers allowed them to keep their spaces and to earn Life cards, which gave them more spaces, help on questions, or the ability to pass on a question. Wrong answers pushed the teams backward on the board.

Sarah and our Time Machine

Token madrichim photo

Making challah covers at the shtetl

Acting during the Game of Life

Day 2, while the kids were learning about the Inquisition and Expulsion, I was down at the FRRO, applying for my visa extension. I was able to make it back to the office for a couple of hours of the morning programs, but I had to return in the early afternoon to be granted my actual extension. The officer wouldn’t give me the full extension that I wanted (through August), but he gave me until the end of my contract with the JDC. So, I’ll be in India until July 7 or so, since my visa now expires on July 8. The extra two weeks were hardly what I wanted, but it’s better than nothing. I was really upset at first, but in the end, I will have to leave, whether in a couple of weeks (original expiration date), a month (current expiration date) or a month and a half (desired expiration date). Sooner or later, I’ll return to the U.S. and move on to the next stage of my life. I guess, now that the date is set (even though I’ve been wanting it to be settled for a while!), leaving feels real.

Anyway, having missed the second day of camp, I headed into the third day with excitement, particularly because I like the subject matter for the day. The kids were learning about the creation of Hasidic and Reform Judaism, pogroms, and immigration to America, and we had them watch “An American Tale” in the afternoon.

Day 4 was dedicated to Israel: Anti-Semitism and Zionism, the establishment of the state, and the wars. The kids had a lot of fun playing monkey-in-the-middle to learn about anti-Semitism and having a water balloon fight to simulate war strategy. In the afternoon, we watched “The Star-bellied Sneetches” and played Israeli team tag: each member of each team receives a ribbon, and the kids have to capture each others’ ribbons (but not those of their team members). The team with the most ribbons at the end of the game wins. The kids had a lot of fun, even though the play got pretty brutal at times! Apparently, there is a similar game in India, in which the players are supposed to jump on members of the other teams and drag them back to their safety zones. There was a lot of confusion when Sarah and I had to interrupt play to pull kids off of each other to tell them that that is not a part of our game!

The last day of day camp, we talked about the future of the Indian Jewish community. We reviewed our history, by watching a slideshow of the week, and we talked about how we need to learn our history so that we can prepare for the future. Then, each “family” made a time capsule of Jewish items they might need for the future. The kids were really creative, excited, and motivated, and the madrichim did an incredible job overseeing and working with the kids. When our programs were done, we finished with awards and ice cream treats before saying goodbye. Then, the madrichim, Sarah and I debriefed and rewarded ourselves with M&M cookies Sarah and I made the night before.

It was a very busy and tiring week, but it was much less chaotic than the last day camp. The days went by pretty smoothly, the madrichim were really on top of everything, and the kids were attentive and enthused (for the most part!). I am so proud of the work the youth put into this camp, and I am incredibly satisfied with the end product.

This week, we also celebrated Sarah’s 24th birthday! We went out for Thai food last weekend and shared a nice bottle of wine, and then on Tuesday, at the JCC, Sarah brought the staff ice cream, and the kids sang to her and wiped cake on her face; that night, a bunch of our friends came to our apartment with cake and snacks to hang out and celebrate. Sarah ate lots of cake, fed to her by friends, as per Indian custom, and she wiped lots of cake off her face, also per Indian custom.

Tomorrow, we leave for Nepal! We’ll be there for about a week, June 7-14, and when I return, I’ll have such a couple more weeks left before it will be time to come!

For now, I’ll have to sign off (my deep regrets for the lack of photos – the Internet has been uncooperative today!), but I’ll write when I return from my last vacation on this side of the world.

Until then…

A Study of Shavuot

Also, just in case any of you are interested in some of the Jewish learning/teaching I’ve been doing this year, here is a taste of it, in a piece I wrote for Kol India (our JCC community publication):

Giving and Receiving: The Time of Our Torah
By Ariel Schwartz, JSC Volunteer

Each year, with the end of Passover, we begin to count the Omer. We record the time between the festivals, marking each day with a blessing, as we track the passing of a season and the start of a new time of year. Like Sukkot and Passover, Shavuot – “the festival of weeks” – is a festival of agricultural origins. Since Shavuot commemorates the time of the harvest of the first fruits of the year, one of its names is Chag Ha-Bikkurim, the “festival of the first fruits.” Our counting the Omer checks off the days on the calendar, starting from when we plant our grains and ending when we can harvest them. As Leviticus 21:15-16 states: “You shall count for yourselves — from the day after the Shabbat, from the day when you bring the Omer of the waving — seven Shabbats, they shall be complete. Until the day after the seventh Shabbat, you shall count, fifty days…”

Though the Torah dictates that we should number the increasing weeks, counting up to seven Shabbatot, or fifty days, perhaps we should instead think of the passing days as a countdown, bringing us nearer and nearer to the anniversary of our receiving the Torah. Beyond its agricultural bases, Shavuot retains its renown for being the celebration of God’s gift of the Torah to the Jewish people. For commemorating this historical event, the festival is also called Chag Matan Torateinu, or “the festival of the giving of our Torah.”

The Omer in the historical context reminds us about the important religious connection between Passover and Shavuot. On Passover, we celebrate our physical release from bondage, but when we received the Torah on Shavuot, we were redeemed spiritually. God gave us the laws and precepts that govern our lives and give them meaning. With the exodus from Egypt, we solidified our unity as a people. With the gift of the Torah, we became bonded together as the chosen people, in our unique relationship with Hashem. It is for this reason that Shavuot is often celebrated as the marriage of the Jewish people with our God.

Every year on Shavuot, we stay up all night, reading and discussing the Torah. We mark the anniversary of our symbolic marriage with God, through the study of God’s text, and we use the night to connect with other members of our community even as we enhance our connection to God. We also eat a dairy meal at least once during Shavuot. The reasons for this custom vary from one community to the next. According to Talmud Bechorot 6b, we eat dairy to remember the time before we received the Torah, a time when we did not have the laws of kashrut, in which we did not eat meat at all, in order to avoid eating the forbidden. Another popular reason for eating dairy on Shavuot is derived from the quote from Song of Songs 4:11, which states, “Like honey and milk [the Torah] lies under your tongue.” Just as milk can wholly nourish the body physically, the Torah fully feeds our spiritual needs.

A final tradition on Shavuot requires us to read the Book of Ruth. This story tells of a Jewish woman, Naomi, whose husband and two sons die, leaving her alone in the world. However, her daughter-in-law Ruth elects to remain by her side, famously saying, “Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). With this decisive action, Ruth earns the title of the book, and she eventually becomes the great grandmother of King David.

From this excerpt, we can see the critical link between the Book of Ruth and Shavuot. Ruth chooses to stay with Naomi, following her path and adopting her God. Similarly, Shavuot is Chag Matan Torateinu, “the festival of the giving of our Torah,” and implicit in that name is that God chose to give us the Torah, at the time that we chose to receive it. We acted of our own free will to enter into our reciprocal relationship with God, by accepting God’s Torah. Moreover, because the festival is known as “the time of the giving of our Torah,” we note that God’s gift of the Torah at Mount Sinai was not a single, isolated event. Though God gave the Torah to us only once, the Jewish people have studied it constantly throughout time, and we study it consistently throughout our lives. Then, every year on Shavuot, we reenact our history, and we remind ourselves that the process of receiving the Torah happens every day, as we learn and live the text that connects us to God.

Happy Shavuot

Well, clearly I’m not quite celebrating Shavuot as they would at, say, Chabad, but I’m enjoying my free time in my own way: with (surprise surprise) a bagel and coffee at Bagel Shop! Hey, at least my bagel has cream cheese… and my coffee has a little milk. So I’m following the tradition of consuming dairy on Shavuot. And I might go make blintzes at a friend’s apartment tomorrow…

Life has a nice mellow feel to it today. It helps that I have just done whatever feels right today, which we all so rarely do. I slept in until about 11, relaxed in bed for a bit, went to the gym for a good 1.5 hours (complete with 15 minutes of running, which I’m trying to do a little more of…), showered, and came to Bagel Shop. What a beautiful way to spend a day.

I spent the past week readying myself (and the Szarvas youth) for next week’s day camp. I reviewed their peulot (plans for activities), made supply and task lists, and made lots of decorations, along with Sarah and Natasha.

Rooting through the costume box

I made sailor hats out of newspaper, so Sarah willingly tried one on...

So much preparation! I really hope that we get a good turn-out. Right now, we’re only scheduled to have about 25 kids at this camp, but I’m crossing my fingers that the numbers continue to grow. It’ll be more work for everyone involved, but so much energy and thought has already been put into this… I just want the maximum possible impact.

At any rate, it seems like we’re in a very good place for camp. I’m looking forward to seeing the kids experience Jewish history!

I’ve spent my evenings relaxing with good food and the past four seasons of How I Met Your Mother, as well as the second season of Veronica Mars. I sometimes take for granted the great food I have here – and how cheap it is! – but I realized I won’t have it anymore soon, so I’ve started taking some pictures, and I’ve also started enjoying the low, low cost. The meal pictured below, for example, only cost me and Sarah about 100 Rs., or $2, total. So I spent only $1 on dinner.

Indian food: cabbage chana dal, dalimbi usal, pea paneer, chappati, and onion bhaji

I finished reading T.C. Boyle’s “The Women,” and I’m starting in on Thomas Hardy’s “Far From the Madding Crowd,” though I don’t know if I’ll be able to stick with it. Since I finished the Boyle novel, I have been switching from book to book every day, not liking any of them. I tried “Three Cups of Tea,” “Son of the Circus” (John Irving), and “Made in America” (Bill Bryson), but none of them really struck me right now. Maybe it’s one of those not-in-the-mood-to-read phases, but I rarely have those, so maybe I just haven’t found the right book for my mood. I need a really great piece of fiction, with characters I can identify and empathize with. I’m trying the Hardy, but I’d really love another Boyle work or the new Philip Roth. I also have one more Erica Jong book saved up on my shelf, but I was planning to leave that for my flight home to the U.S., since I’ll need something addictive that I know I’ll love, for that long trip.

Enough about books. You’re probably all wondering how I can ramble on about books for a paragraph while I’m living abroad in India… And the reason is that, with the very hot, uncomfortable “summer” weather, that’s pretty much what there is to do.

This is one of the hard parts of living in India, I’ve found. People tend not to want to do things because the weather is so beastly most of the time. It takes lots of energy, and the conscious decision to deal with the heat and sweat and dirt, to get up and go anywhere. Often, I’ll chat online with friends who are a 15-20 minute cab ride from my apartment, or call friends who live 5-10 minutes’ walk from my apartment, and we’ll talk about how we should hang out, or go do something, but when it comes down to getting up and out, no one wants to. My friends are always saying, “You come over here!” To which Sarah and I reply, “No, you come over here!” You can see how this goes around in circles…

Another hard part of living in India is that, even if we decide to get up and do something, there are a limited number of things to do. There aren’t conventional parks in Mumbai, like there are in New York. There’s one bowling alley, a few malls, a bunch of places to go out for food or coffee or drinks. But as for activities? No public pools… Nowhere to rollerskate… Nowhere to bicycle (without fearing ending up in the emergency room, anyway)… No libraries to browse… You get the idea. And I’m sure you understand now why I spend a lot of time reading, watching tv, and hanging around Bagel Shop in my spare time.

Unfortunately, I still have no updates about the visa situation, but I did speak to the woman at the FRRO this week. I wanted to come in this week, so I wouldn’t have to miss a day of day camp next week, but she said it’s not possible to come in before the “15 days” before visa expiry (though I could come in even a day before the visa expires?? does this indicate that it’ll be no problem for me to get this extension??). So I’ll be going in this Tuesday, June 2 (otherwise known as the second day of day camp – and Sarah’s 24th birthday!). Hopefully, Sarah and I can celebrate her birthday, and my visa extension, that night!

It’s also been a strange week, in some ways, because I’ve been having to acknowledge the fact that this year is, amazingly enough, coming to an end already. Some of my Jewish Service Corps colleagues around the world have started to ready themselves to leave. One has already returned (though, due to the tenuous situation in her country of placement), another has a ticket home in hand, others are started to think about their final reports. Interviews for next year’s JSC volunteers are apparently underway.

I’ve known this would happen – obviously, it did last year, for me (since about this time last year, I had celebrated my college graduation and bid some of my family and friends adieu already). But, as Sarah and I talk about all the time, it’s pretty unbelievable that the time has come. We spent the first few months talking about how we never thought the year would end, how time felt like it was digging its heels in the dirt, how we had so much time left… And now, we’re on the brink of June, and the beginning of the end (but with that, of course, comes the beginning of the next beginning). Funny how the passing of time works, hm?

That’s all I have for now, folks, so tune back in next week for the latest adventures in the beginning of the end of my year in Bombay.

[Click here to see the kind of teaching I do, by reading an article I wrote about Shavuot for the Bene Israeli community publication.]

Saturdays and Bumdays

Another weekend, come and almost-gone. I’m amazed at how quickly they go, but I guess that tends to happen when I sleep and bum around for most of the days. Thursday night is my favorite; there’s that sense of having a whole two days off, to myself, for rest and read and veg. But then, suddenly, it’s noon on Saturday, and I realize I have less than 24 hours until I’m back at the office again. I am grateful, however, that I don’t work on the Indian 6-day work week. One day off is hardly a weekend…

This week was pretty typical: busy Sunday, lazy Monday, class Tuesday night, lazy Wednesday and Thursday. My Tanakh class is moving through the Book of 2 Samuel pretty quickly. I anticipate that before I leave, we’ll have started 1 Kings, which is exciting. Then again, I also still don’t know when departure will be… so I guess that’s an up-in-the-air statement.

Sarah and I stayed pretty low-key, caught up on some season finales of favorite shows, and even baked a loafcake (we couldn’t find a cupcake tin in Mumbai!).

TV, loafcake, frosting, and milk - a happy evening

Cat joined us, then fell asleep on Sarah's leg

The highlight of the week was Wednesday night dinner, in which Sarah and I, along with our friend Natasha, went to another mutual friend’s house. He lives in Thane and graciously picked us up from the JCC in his comfortable, air-conditioned car for the 45-minute drive (a bit more with traffic) to the Bombay suburb. He lives in a great neighborhood, in a nice house, with his parents, grandmother, and older sister. They’re incredibly well-traveled, highly educated, and beyond hospitable. We relaxed with snacks and cold drinks, while we chatted, ate a great dinner (a special family masala chicken for the meat-eaters, dal and aloo mutter – peas/potatoes – for me), and shared a very nice bottle of Chilean red wine. After dinner, we played a few rounds of Uno before surrendering to watching The Pursuit of Happyness. Conversations were great, we laughed a lot, and I think everyone enjoyed the evening to the fullest. It was so nice to feel included in a family atmosphere; it was one of the first times this year that I felt incorporated to this extent. I think part of it is that it just takes time to become a part of a larger community, and I’m so glad that the evening was as comfortable and pleasurable as it was, designating to me (and to Sarah, too) that, though we are not Bene Israeli by any means, we fit in, in some small way.

The upcoming week should pick up a little bit work-wise, with the preparations I’ll be doing for day camp (June 1-5). Hopefully I’ll be kept occupied and (moderately) entertained while I color and craft the decorations and materials we need for camp. The theme for this camp will be “The Jewish Time Machine.” Each day will be a different time period around the world:

• Day 1: Golden Age of Spanish Jewry and Everyday Ashkenaz
• Day 2: Inquisition/Expulsion/Starting anew
• Day 3: Years of Unrest (Pogroms, Hassidism/Reform Judaism, Immigration to America)
• Day 4: Israel (Anti-Semitism/Zionism, Establishment, Israeli wars)
• Day 5: Judaism tomorrow (we’re building time capsules!)

In the mornings, the kids will move an arrow to a place on a room-long timeline and a star on a world map, to figure out where in time/the world we are. Then, they will be divided by age, to go to stations on sub-topics under the day’s title, where the Szarvas youth will run programs they’ve planned over the past few weeks. After lunch, the kids will be divided into mishpachim, families, of mixed ages, in which they will compete in various activites (human-sized board games, hide-and-seek, sardines, etc.). They will also have the chance to earn points for their teams, by enacting good behavior, or to lose points, with bad behavior.

Overall, I think this camp will give the kids a great overview of Jewish history, and it’s going to elevate the Szarvas youth in their abilities as madrichim (Jewish leaders). I’m really excited for the camp, and I promise to post info and pictures through/after the camp.

In other news, I’ve booked my trip to Nepal, with Sarah, for the week after day camp.

Nepal, Himalayas, etc.

Most of you are probably jumping out of your pants with excitement about my trip, and I am, too, in some ways, but I should also explain that, at this point in the year, I’m less excited than I think I should be. I’m definitely more prepared for a week in Nepal now than I was eight or ten months ago, but I think I’m also fairly burned out. I’m not tired of living in India (at least, not all the time). But I do feel like I’ve traveled a lot, at least within India. And travel in India, and I would imagine, also in the rest of southeast Asia, is not your average leisure vacation – if you’re traveling like I do, anyway. I tend to stay in hotels that are really better termed “hostels,” where I check the bed mattress before paying for the room, to make sure there aren’t bedbugs, where I usually end up killing a few cockroaches during my stay, where I double-lock the doors at night and never carry valuables.

Now, I don’t mean to freak anyone out. I’ve found cockroaches in my New York apartments/dorms. I tend to double-lock doors in American hotels, too. And I should underline that cities tend to be dirty anywhere, and that I’m usually a cautious person, but it’s different on this side of the world. It’s different when people try to take advantage (of everything) purely because of where I’m from (America) and what I am (white and female). It’s also different when I don’t speak any semblance of the language, and when most people don’t speak much (any) English. It’s different when the power shuts off for most of the day, or when there’s no running water, just because. It’s different when I have to watch out for what I eat, check bottle seals on my purchased bottled water, and take care wherever I go. It’s different when I carry pepper spray at night because I’m not sure who I’ll run into and how they’ll treat me. [Parents: don't worry, please, any more than you already do, with me a 17-hour plane ride away. I take care of myself as best I can. This isn't to scare anyone - it's just to awaken you to the realities of budget travel in India.]

All things considered, I have a feeling that travel elsewhere in southeast Asia will be very similar to that in India. It’s not a breeze, all touring and relaxation. Travel plans change at the drop of a hat, bugs, heat, and rain complicate and frustrate life, and the trip can be fantastic or miserable, partially from luck and partially from attitude. [I'll take this opportunity to commend anyone who's traveled in India/southeast Asia on a budget, or at all, especially for more than a week. It's tough, and I think you're impressive for, most likely, maintaining a positive, energetic, and enthused attitude, and having a flexibility beyond compare.]

I think I’ve grown a little more flexible this year, more adaptable, more willing to accept ridiculous situations and more expectant of irritating, ennervating issues. But I’ve also learned to listen to myself in some ways; I acknowledge when I need a day at the Bagel Shop, for a bagel and an americano, a/c and wireless Internet. I know when I need a day in my bed, watching American tv and reading. I know when to exercise, what I want for a snack, when to stop eating, and how to destress myself. But I’m still trying to mediate my feelings about my limitations and my desires to avoid regret.

That’s where this trip comes in. I’m excited for the prospect of seeing another country and for breaking up routine, but I’m also not looking forward to being away from my bed and my cat, and all of my life in Bombay, especially with so little time left here. [Granted, I won't be going to Nepal, if it turns out that I have to leave India before June 17, because my visa expires then.] I’m not excited for the nitty gritty, disgusting, uncomfortable parts of travel here. I don’t know if I want to put myself through that, especially since I’ve already traveled a lot this year (Delhi, Agra, Rishikesh, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, all over Kerala, Shimla, Aurangabad, Nasik, Amritsar, and Israel twice). I originally wanted to travel even more around India (I’d still like to see Varanasi and the eastern coast of India someday, but I don’t think it’ll be this trip). I even thought I would take a few months after finishing this job to backpack around southeast Asia: Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal, Tibet, etc.

But now I’m sort of ready to come home, to apply for graduate school, to spend time with my family and friends, to pick back up with the trajectory of my life and to feel like I fit in again.

Obviously, I’ll miss some critical parts of this year, of life in India. And I don’t want to regret passing up travel opportunities. I just also don’t want to miss out on chances to enhance and fortify my personal relationships, my career, and myself.

I know there are no right and wrong decisions. There are just different choices.

There’s the chance that the Indian government will make my decision for me, by refusing to extend my visa. Then I’ll come home in just a few short weeks, sans Nepal or Thailand (which I haven’t booked yet, and won’t unless I get the extension – and even then, I have to do some thinking about it).

Or I could be the one to pick my path and forge my own way.

Two roads diverged in a wood - except real life has more than two roads...

A lot of the time this year, I’ve been frustrated by things being out of my hands, left up to someone else (or many someone elses). It’s made me question how much control we really have over our lives, if any. To some extent, I think we’re in fate’s grasp, but when we’re presented with an opportunity, a problem, or a fork in the road, we get to formulate our response. Maybe we don’t get to determine what happens in the beginning or the end, but we can make choices in the middle. We get to choose the route we take, how we take it, who we travel with, and the attitude we adopt as we continue on.

Bagels, Books, and Youth Camp

After another reasonably long wait, I finally have some good things to write about. So, I come to you from the Bagel Shop, in Pali Naka (which I can finally find without needing a compass, a map, a skilled rickshaw driver, and a trained hound). I’m happily munching on one of their not-quite-New York but overly sized bagels, spread with pesto and cream cheese and layered with lettuce, tomato, and mozzarella cheese. Not exactly what you imagined when thinking about India, hm? Me neither – but I’m certainly thankful for the brief fix of American food, a cold coffee, and wireless Internet!

Me enjoying my cold coffee at Bagel Shop

The past couple of weeks have been moderately busy and frought with some personal strife, primarily the continution of the visa struggle. I finally managed to coerce the Indian Consulate in NY into conversation with the FRRO in Mumbai, and the former sent the latter the requested letter of “no objection,” and I was granted my visa conversion, from an employment visa to a entry visa ‘X’ (normally reserved for the spouses of people working in India on employment visas – interesting, right?). Also, I discovered via the Indian immigration site that it is normally very difficult/impossible to transfer one visa to another, without leaving the country and just applying for a new one for re-entry. So, congrats to me for doing the near-impossible!

The office told me, though, that I can’t apply for a visa extension until 15 days prior to my visa’s expiry date. For me, this means I have to wait until the beginning of June to head back down to the FRRO to try my luck again. Story of life in India: sit tight, wait, and be prepared to wait some more. Wouldn’t you think I’d be used to life being out of my control at this point? That I might sit back and relax and surrender to the fact that things are just out of my hands? That I might go about my regular life, trying to enjoy everything as best as I can and not waste my time with worry?

Well, if you’re thinking that, I guess you don’t know me very well!

I am trying to adjust, though, and enjoy my time to the max. But there is a part of my mind that’s always musing over the problem and attempting to discern alternative routes to the desired end.

My work life has picked up a bit, mostly because we just finished youth camp, and now we’re working toward day camp. As previously mentioned, I’m mentoring/overseeing the peulot (activity) planning of the 7 youth who went to Szarvas, Hungary last July. We all worked really hard, and we put together an incredibly successful and enjoyable youth camp, which took place over April 30-May 3. Starting Thursday morning at 7 a.m., about 30 of us (25 or so youth, plus a few staff members) boarded a bus (sans a/c) to the Konkan coast, just outside of Mumbai, where the Jews supposedly first landed when they arrived in India a couple thousand years ago.

En route to seaside Alibaug, we stopped over at synagogues in Panvel, Pen, and Poynad. We learned a little about each site, and we had the opportunity to take pictures, make donations, and light candles, which, in India, go hand-in-hand with saying a prayer when visiting a synagogue. When we reached Alibaug, we checked into our hotel, and then we started our programming. Over the course of the weekend, the Szarvas youth, who were our madrichim (”counselors” or Jewish leaders), guided the rest of the youth in learning and thinking deeply about Bene Israeli traditions, making aliyah, anti-Semitism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and living as Jews in a non-Jewish world. The programming went very smoothly, and it was a special time for me, seeing the youth step up to their podiums, really taking the job seriously and confidently, and having an impact on their peers.

Youth enjoying the programming

More youth, more programming

Friday morning, we headed to Revdanda for another synagogue and to see one of the few oil-presses still in existence from when the Jews first came to India and employed themselves in the oil-pressing industry. David Waskar, the man who runs this oil press, is 78 years old, and the press used to operate with two bullocks; a few years back, the JDC funded  the installation of a mechanically operated press to modernize and assist his business.

Revdanda oil press: David Waskar is crouched on the floor; his wife sits next to the press

We also visited the Borle synagogue and the old Jewish cemetary near Navgaon.

Sarah and me at the Borle synagogue

Jerusalem Gate, entryway to the Navgaon cemetary

In the evenings, the youth participated in activities that Sarah and I had planned for them. Thursday night, they played a three-round dance/talent competition (somewhere between “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Britain’s Got Talent” – but JYP’s Got Dance Skills/Talent!). Sarah and I judged, along with our friend Eli, who had injured himself and wasn’t up to his usual dancing capabilities.

JYP's Got Talent judges

On Friday night, we played a boys vs. girls version of Family Feud, and on Saturday night, we had an Israeli disco, complete with Israeli folkdance and hip hop, Bollywood music, and even some popular American and British pop and rap tunes.

We celebrated a really nice, relaxing Shabbat together, carrying out some Shabbat-friendly programming, but mostly just enjoying each others’ company.

Room 203 dressed for Shabbat: Natasha, Meirah, Sarah, and me

Altogether, the camp went really well, both in terms of its success an informal Jewish education venture and as an opportunity to get to know the youth better.

About a week after our return from youth camp, we gathered at the JCC on a Sunday for Sarah’s and my session in the Leadership Series. Through May and June, the JCC holds Sunday Leadership Series sessions, in which we have members of the community speak on various topics, anything from “how to give a speech” to networking and career moves. Sarah and I chose to teach about creative programming, since that is our speciality – but we focused our class on goal-setting and planning, so that the topic could apply to informal Jewish education at the JCC… or to deciding on a career path, or putting together a paper for college or a project/presentation at work. We had about 20 youth show up for our 2-hour course, and while some of the material seemed a little rote for us, everyone appeared to be interested and engaged, and we got some great feedback afterward.

Then, a little later that evening, we had some guests from Young Judea come to visit the JCC at the end of their week-long trip to India. Young Judea is a pluralistic Jewish youth group based out of the United States, but they have a year course in Israel, and they take a few short trips to other countries during that year. About 50 Young Judea kids came to the JCC for some low-key programming, a meet-and-greet with some of the JYP youth, and dinner, before their flight back to Israel.

Dancing to Bollywood hits

Impromptu limbo

Almost a week later, the energy at the JCC is still pretty high. We’re at a good time in the year, when the children have off from school, and the college students are on their “summer” break from classes, awaiting exam results and the start of the next term. Pretty soon, the temperatures will rise again, and it will be time for day camp (our theme is “The Jewish Time Machine”!), and then… hopefully, a trip to Nepal! I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll be able to get my visa extended and then to go enjoy a little vacation in Nepal before coming back to finish my job with the JDC. If that goes as planned, I’ll be able to hang out in Bombay with another college friend, Kristin Wall (who’s currently working for Teach for America in St. Louis, Missouri), and then to visit her in Thailand in July, before coming home in early August. If not… I’ll be back in the U.S. in just a few weeks.

I’m not looking to rush anything along at this point. I know I gripe about India a lot, and there are certainly some parts to living and working here that are indescribably (at least, in a public forum… and without the use of several foul words) awful, irritating, and stress-inducing. I have some really terrible days, but I also have some fantastic ones. But ultimately, the experience has been a positive, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I have not once taken for granted. I’m not ready to end this sooner than I have to (despite what I might say in my worst moods on the worst days!).

Returning to Routine

After weeks  – well, really, months – of travel, I’m sitting still for a while.

I’ve pretty much been up and around since November, when Mumbai was attacked and Sarah and I were evacuated to Israel.

Falafel and shwarma - we tried to make the best of the evacuation...

In December, my sister Sydney visited, and we went to Delhi, Agra, and Rishikesh.

Sydney and me at the Taj Mahal

At the Gateway of India in Bombay

Whitewater rafting in Rishikesh with Sarah and her brother Daniel

In January, I left again for Israel, for my fellowship’s mid-year seminar.

At the Western Wall in Jerusalem

February brought my father to India for a trip to Rajasthan and Kerala.

On an elephant in Jaipur, up to the Amber Fort

Shopping for textiles in Jodhpur

Sitting in a tea plantation in Munnar

Standing by our houseboat in Kumarakom

And in March, my mother, her partner Rick, and I trekked to Shimla.

My mom and me in Shimla

Post-trek

I spent the first Passover seder with a random group of Jews and non-Jews, Americans, Canadians, Australians, and Indians, at my friend Jay Lurie’s house (you can read the article he wrote about it here).

A random crowd for Passover night #1

Then, I spent the second Passover seder in Pune for work.

My friends Doron and Tamar outside of one of the Pune synagogues

And then the month of April also took me, with my college friend Sarah Sher, to rural Maharashtra, to the Ajanta and Ellora caves and to the Sula winery in Nasik (did I mention we accidentally went on a dry day? oops!), as well as to Punjab, for three days in Amritsar.

Me at the Ajanta Caves

My friend Sarah at the Ellora Caves

At the Sula winery vineyards and factory

At the Golden Temple in Amritsar

And now, I’m back in Mumbai. I have to go out of town in a couple of weeks for a work function – a youth camp that will revolve around visits to the Konkan villages where the Jews first arrived when they shipwrecked in India – but otherwise, I’m settled for a bit. Hopefully, I’ll be able to resolve a couple of frustrating situations while I’m sitting tight in the Bombay heat.

For starters, I’m still trying to handle the visa situation. For those not already in the know about this particular problem, here are the basics: when I first applied for my visa, I was granted a one-year employment visa, despite my instance upon the fact that my job is a volunteer position. No problems really except that when I registered at the Foreign Regional Registration Office in Mumbai, back in February, I was told that in order to extend my visa (I’m currently supposed to leave the country in June), I needed to have it converted to a voluntary work visa. I called and e-mailed the Indian Consulate in NY and was told that they would sent a letter to the FRRO here. I received two e-mail confirmations. With no notification of the receipt of the letters, I headed down to the FRRO in person, with Solly Uncle in tow, not once, but twice, only to be told both times that they had no such letter. The Indian Consulate in NY won’t send me a copy of the letter for me to bring in to the FRRO myself. The FRRO can’t find the copies sent by the Indian Consulate in NY. I’m at an impasse. Thoughts? Suggestions?

So, I have no idea whether I’m supposed to be leaving India, and my job, in June or in August. That’s one thing.

Then, there’s the issue of getting my cat back to the U.S.

Picabo

I’ve looked up India’s animal export laws and America’s animal import laws, and now I just need to figure out which airline I’m flying home (and when I’m flying home!), so that I can tell them I’m bringing a cat in the cabin and ask them what I need to do… As far as I can tell right now, I need to make sure her health papers are updated, and I might possibly need to have her microchipped? I also have to see if her carrier will fit underneath a plane seat. More things to add to the ever-increasing to-do list.

Next year’s plans have yet to be determined. Mostly, I’ve been spending the past few weeks dwelling on how nervous I am to return (I think this is enhanced by the fact that I’m clueless and out of control, with regard to when I’m going home). I get a pit in the bottom of my stomach thinking about it. It’ll be fantastic to be back in my element, to fit in, to see my family and friends, to have life be easier, smoother, less impossible (less hot!). But it’ll also be a letdown. It’ll be exciting for the first week, maybe two, and then I’ll just blend in. I’ll be back, and it’ll be a relief, but it’ll also be… normal. There’s a part of me that is terrified of that point. I also know that it’ll be as big of a transition, if not more so, than when I first moved to India. There will be ups and downs, and I’m bound to change more, and I’m anxious for those things, too. Thoughts about what I should do once I return? Suggestions? Job offers?

Well, those are some time off, still. Maybe two months, maybe more. The FRRO will decide, and I’ll wait.

At work, the pace is picking up. We had a Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) commemoration last night at the JCC, and this coming Sunday, we’ll have a Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) celebration. Then, April 30-May 3, Sarah and I are off to the Konkan for youth camp. I’m still working with the Szarvas youth to nag them into finishing their programming for youth camp, and on top of that, we’re just beginning our preparations for the May 31-June 4 day camp. It’s really an interesting position to be a youth mentor, trying to coerce these kids into doing their work (work they committed to doing in order to attend the camp in Szarvas, Hungary last summer), knowing that I could get the work done in a shorter period of time, with much less pushing and frustration.

Sarah and I have picked up our old enjoyable habits, downloading beloved American TV shows from the Internet, going to the gym, etc. I just finished reading The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, and I’m nearing the end of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, by Suketu Mehta. My good friend Natasha is back from her six-month stint at a kibbutz in Israel, so that perks up my social life a little bit. All in all, things are going pretty nicely, but for the weather, which crawls up into the low 100’s every day, with humidity levels that make it feel much, much more brutal.

I hope you all are doing well, and I will do my very best to update a little more regularly! I also hope this post somewhat compensates for my irregular presence over the past few months. If you want to see more pictures, check out my Facebook pictures, which you should be able to view if you click here.