What a busy week! And next week will be much more so… In anticipation of that, I give you a post with some details, pictures, and videos, and a warning that I may or may not post next week.
This week is Diwali, a Hindu festival that celebrates the return of Lord Rama to his home. It’s celebrated with days off, lots of strings of Diwali lights, lantern after lantern, tealight candles, and noisy, explosive fireworks and firecrackers. Everywhere.
Diwali decor
Because it’s Diwali, the JCC is extra-busy this week. The kids have off of school, so they came into the office on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week for dance camp, one of the individual projects run by one of the Szarvas kids. Each day, they learned two different kinds of dance: Indian folk dance, Latin dance, Bollywood dance, Israeli dance, etc., and they spent today preparing their best dances for Khai Fest, a dance, music, and talent festival that will be on December 23 (almost next month! when did that happen?). The kids are supercute, and they looked like they were having a lot of fun, but the office was also crazy with activity, between the little kids, their teachers (members of JYP), Szarvas kids getting ready for day camp, and the regular office staff.
Here are a couple of videos of the kids doing their thing… The first is of the 11-14 year olds doing the dance to “Hafinali” by the Israeli hip-hop group Subliminal. The second is of the 8-10 year olds dancing to the ever-popular Bar Mitzvah classic “Zodiac.”
Additionally, we are gearing up for next week’s day camp, which will run this Sunday (Nov. 2) through Thursday. Just as a reminder, the JYP who attended camp at Szarvas (an international Jewish camp run by the JDC in Hungary each summer) are responsible for putting together two day camps for the little kids, two youth camps for their peers, and one individual project each for their peers. This first day camp is next week, and its theme is the Ten Commandments. Before Natasha left for her kibbutz in Israel, she was overseeing the group, since she also went to Szarvas this year, but now I am in charge, and so I’ve been busy ordering supplies, reeling the kids into the office to put materials together for their peulot (Hebrew for “activities,” specifically activities that involve informal Jewish education), finding temporary replacements for Szarvas kids who can’t come in this morning or that afternoon, and solving every other problem under the hot, glaring Bombay sun.
Next week is sure to be a doozy, what with day camp during the day, and teaching night classes to adults. Days will start before 10 a.m. and surely end after 8 p.m. Sarah and I will need a nice glass of wine at the end of it.
Other news:
- We have a small invasion of bugs in the flat… first, little grey flying bugs, and tonight, tiny little ants in the kitchen. Sarah and I are disgusted, but we also mutually and emphatically agreed that it is time to find a maid who will clean the icky parts of the apartment (the bathrooms, drains, and kitchen) that I won’t go near.
- I’ve almostalmost stepped on two dead rats in the road in the span of two days. The first time, I shrieked and got the chills and ran around freaked out for a while. The second time, I nudged Sarah and said, “Dead rat,” and we kept right on walking. Ah India.
- We went downtown to Marine Drive for fireworks last night and then out for paneer rolls. It was pretty fantastic. Definitely makes up for the dead rats.
- The whole family is finally settling into establishing plans to come to India! My dad’s coming early December, Syd is coming at the end of December/beginning of January, and my mom is thinking about February. Exciting! Everyone else – make your plans! Come visit! I promise to help you avoid the rats and bugs, as best as I can, anyway.
I’ll leave you now with a couple of pictures of my Gan Katan and Sarah’s JYP Juniors kids. Enjoy the cuteness!
Classtime
Gan Katan and JYP Juniors
Also, if you want more pictures… check out my Facebook photos!
3 Comments
October 30, 2008 at 12:55 am
i love it when you post! you look so beautiful and happy and skinny and gorgeous and stylish in that last picture… i am so happy for you!
what an experience to be in bombay during diwali–must say i am jealous! let’s please catch up soon
November 7, 2008 at 2:31 am
ew! dead rats! at least when they’re in the subway, there’s some sort of altitude between you and them. good luck with all of your unwanted visitors.
May 15, 2009 at 9:00 am
[...] 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, [...]