Over the past few weeks, I’ve returned to my classes and picked up with my gym schedule. I’ve been reading loads of books (including some of the classics: The Grapes of Wrath and A Little Princess and The Secret Garden to name a few). We had the JDC mission come through, and Sarah and I successfully entertained the 5-14 year olds after they performed Israeli and Bollywood dances for the 10 mission members.
Kids dancing for the mission
We printed out a picture of an outline of a tree and taught the kids how to make a collage of things relating to trees, using magazines, newspapers, crayons, and their imaginations. The activity went over well, and after the last children had been collected, the mission headed down to the Taj President hotel in Cuffe Parade. Along with several dozen of the youth, the mission, my bosses, Sarah, and I enjoyed a deluxe buffet dinner and some time to speak with one another. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Jane Weitzman (of the Stuart Weitzman shoe line), who is also on the board of the Jewish Book Council, and we spent over an hour discussing Jewish literature. It doesn’t get much better than that!
A week later, we had another important community event: a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Evelyn Peters Jewish Community Center, where I work. For this event, we had a traditional malida ceremony at the JCC. About 100 members of the community attended – mostly the over-30 crowd, though some youth were in attendance. We incorporated into this ceremony a brief program on Tu B’Shvat, the Jewish new year for trees, because the holiday took place the day after the malida. Sarah and I performed a skit for the community that went something like this:
Me, playing me: Wow, what a beautiful day. I think I will sit under this tree and read.
Sarah, playing a tree: Hello, come enjoy my shade and eat an apple.
Me: Thank you! It’s nice of you, and I am grateful, especially because today is a holiday for the trees, called Tu B’Shvat.
Sarah: Wow, really? What’s it celebrate?
Me: Actually, it’s sort of like a birthday for trees. We even have a party called a seder, where we eat new fruits and drink wine. We also plant trees.
Sarah: Neat. Enjoy the day!
Me: No, you enjoy YOUR day!
Needless to say, everyone laughed at our cheesy jokes, and the skit was a success.
After the skit, we held an agree-disagree survey, where we posed statements about Tu B’Shvat (i.e. I celebrate Tu B’Shvat every year) and about Jewish environmentalism (i.e. I believe that as Jews we have an obligation to make our earth a better place) to the community and had them discuss their opinions. Though some of the attendees were hesitant to participate, in the end, we had some lively debates and many people came up afterward to tell us that they enjoyed themselves.
The highlight of the program, though, happened midway through the discussions. We were talking about how the Tanach (Jewish Bible) sometimes gives contradictory examples of how to live; often, it states a law and then someone important contradicts that law and is still ok. For example, according to the Bible, Jews are not supposed to intermarry with non-Jews. Then, Moses (of 10 plagues and Mt. Sinai fame) marries Tzipporah, who is a Midianite woman, and therefore non-Jewish.
At this point in the posed example, one of the elderly men interrupted me to ask very loudly, “Speaking of which, are either of you [meaning me or Sarah] married?” The whole crowd twittered and giggled, and Sarah and I blushed wholly before steering the group back to the conversation about the Jewish responsibility to the environment. Phew.
In other news, my Tanakh class finished the Book of 1 Samuel, and we held a party last week, where we ate some sweets and played a full game of 1 Samuel Jewpardy. My favorite nerdy game show isn’t popular here, so it was quite the funny challenge to teach my students how the game works, and we were all slipping up and forgetting to give answers in a question format. This week, we’ll start in on the Book of 2 Samuel.
Meanwhile, Sarah’s first class of her new course starts tonight. She’ll be teaching about “Hot Topics,” controversial topics in Judaism and beyond. We’ll start tonight with evolution vs. creationism, and in future weeks she’ll cover birth control, euthanasia, and the death penalty, among other subjects.
Due to unexpected circumstances, our long-awaited madrich-training workshop (aka Jewish leadership program) for the youth has to be postponed. Two former JYP members who are married to one another just had a baby boy, and everyone will be going to the brit milah this Sunday. Mazal tov to the parents! But this also means that we have to reschedule our plans. It looks like we’re going to try for a one-day crash course for now, and then in May, once most of the youth have finished with their March-April exams, we can try to hold an overnight training workshop again. Flexibility is the name of the game – and it’s definitely still taking me some time to get used to the rules!
In our off time, Sarah and I have been catching up on favorite tv shows, heading to the gym, and enjoying some time with our friends.
Sarah and me on a typical tv night, with homemade guacamole!
We had a dinner out with a group of our girlfriends to celebrate a birthday, and we’ve been heading out on the town a couple of nights, meeting old friends and new expats.
Birthday dinner
I’ve even managed to start studying for the GREs on a more regular basis, and I’m happy to be able to say that seven years without studying math hasn’t been as detrimental to my abilities as I thought! It’s funny, though, to review calculating the shaded area and finding the value of x.
In other other news, my father arrives in India a week from tomorrow! I can barely hold the excitement in – but I’m also still waiting on our exact travel plans. We’re maintaining the same tentative schedule as before, going to Rajasthan for a few days and then Kerala for a few days, cramming it in and making the most of his stay. He’ll be here through Purim, and then my mom will be here from March 21-31. And then my best friend from college, Sarah Sher, will arrive to celebrate Passover with me.
So, my sister, the mission, and Tu B’Shvat have come and gone. Life in Bombay has returned to its routine, just in time for the end of “winter.” Soon, I imagine, the humidity will seep back into the air, and the nights will again be almost as hot as the days. By the time all of my visitors come through, it will be the end of April, the days will really heat up (I’m told), and we’ll be praying for rain as I begin to contemplate seriously my next steps.
For now, though, a light breeze is still blowing through the trees. Happy belated Tu B’Shvat to all!
1 Comment
March 15, 2009 at 9:51 pm
back at home, and starting to adhere to eastern daylight savings time sleep schedule, I cannot believe the anticipated trip is over. as always, i love to read your blog. remember to post, even if briefly, every once in while. i look forward to your read on our travels (and a few pics for all to see)!
love you (and miss you again already)