BCC’s new cd

One of the things I have missed most this year in Africa is singing with a choir. Around Pesach time, while brainstorming about different fundraising projects for the library, I thought about utilizing the voices and music at BCC. Morning glory at BCC is a truly remarkable experience. At 8:00 every morning, the staff pours [...]

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Geniza under a mango tree

G’niza Ceremony under a Mango Tree
On a beautiful Sunday morning on Nabugoye Hill, the Abayudaya buried many unusable books containing shemot, names of God. Part of my work of organizing the books in the synagogue over the past few months has been separating out these unusable books from the collection. I have found humashim, books [...]

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Pesach with Beta Israel

When we stepped off the plane in Gonder, Ethiopia, we didn’t know what to expect. Maital, Ronit (our close friend and Maital’s counselor on Nesiya), and I were supposed to meet Getenet, an Ethiopian Israeli who was helping the Gonder Jewish community with their Pesach seder. Ronit found a short, smiling man in the [...]

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a purim to remember

I was really excited to find out what Purim at the Abayudaya would be like. I had a feeling that such a fun and entertaining holiday would be a favorite among the Abyudaya and I was correct. At Hebrew/Judaica classes on the Sunday morning before Purim, [...]

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WWII reparations in Mbale

“Excuse me, are you Jews?” asked a very tall, middle aged, white woman with a thick German accent one afternoon as I was walking through town with Eric, another volunteer at the Abayudaya. “Yes,” we replied, unsure exactly why she was asking us such a blunt question. I imagined that, like many bazungu, whites, in [...]

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Working Hard on Nabugoye Hill

            The last month has been really busy. Mainly, I have been dividing my time between working at Nabugoye Hill with the Abayudaya and writing my Wexner Fellowship application. Completing the application was a pretty difficult process. Besides being at work all day, I had to find time when there was power and internet connection [...]

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24th Bathday

I have to admit, I am not the easiest person to surprise. I was born with the ability to sense when someone is hiding something from me, and I search for the truth until I find it. Maybe that’s why teaching middle school came naturally to me… So after surprising both Levert and Maital for [...]

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donations’ destination

One of the eye opening features of living in Uganda is seeing the unfortunate overflow of many donations. There is a large container at the Bushikori Christian Center that contains tons of donated books and other stuff for the community to benefit from. But so far, it seems as if the rats have benefited the [...]

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softball in uganda

I encountered a very bizarre site in town yesterday while walking near the market to buy food for Shabbat. A Ugandan, wearing tight blue sweatpants and a pink t-shirt with “Softball” on the front and “Jessica #21” on the back, was walking around very quickly and yelling loudly in Luganda. A rather large crowd was [...]

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a turkey metaphor

I sometimes feel like I’m living in a zoo. Last week, as I was praying in my room, I observed a feeding. The humungous male turkey (we know it’s male because it has a long, dangling nose), which is tied up to a tree next to our room, received his breakfast when Faz brought him [...]

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