June 1, 11:41 pm-Kigali Rwanda, NGO House (as I am calling it)

What I have learned so far.

Kigali is a hot bed of NGO work. That means something to me. Not just that the need is so high for the work to be done, but there are those amongst us for whom the need is so high to DO the work. My thoughts drift to the necessary balance of life. We can not have elation without suffering, we can alleviate pain if there is none. There is an appropriateness for the world to be always askew. I do not know if we are working to set it right or working to stop it from going further askew or working simply because we love the work (some swirling intermix of all three and more, I suppose).

The problems here, like all places, are endless. But there is an energy and hopefulness here-the age of the workers-younger than me. The optimism in the country, very high...

I was talking with one of the NGO folks I am am staying with today. He was saying how the response to the Rwandan genocide is very different than to Holocaust. He felt that the Holocaust was a genocide hidden and kept to the inner lives of the survivors. And, once it was over, it was over, people left Germany and lives were rebuilt-slowly ever so slowly-but somewhere else. In Rwanda, people want to share the genocide so they feel that are not alone. They want to share their experiences with the rest of the world for themselves and for us. For Rwandans, they attend the same churches, live in the sane towns and have the same neighbors as before 1994. It is a different ballgame. 1994 also was not the first major genocide in the same way Holocaust was (or so it feels)

For most of us today, we remember it happening. When Jacquette comes to speak about her genocide experiences with high school kids, she is a beautiful, 25 year old woman. The kids see her as a peer of theirs and respond in kind. The struggle to stay in relationship with those who once hurt you is a;love and well here in Rwanda,

But so is so much more. New schools, orphanages, infastructure, community, language, education, arts...now with Paul Kagame in power there is an optimism and a slowly growing financial base to build hope upon.

New neighborhoods are being built, uprooting the old (and the people who live there) creating, instead of disparate houses scattered on the country-side, small communities like little villages. And those who are losing their homes seem to be getting new ones. I asked my NGO friend if this was going well because the potential for disaster and exploitation seems high. He said that there are values we have they they do not because relative to how it was, this is so much better. Freedom of speech? Feh, we have houses and roads and water...

That makes me nervous

Time will tell

This is it for the cogent thoughts for tonight...there may be more but it will have to happen tomorrow

The Dubai experience

June 1, 2009
Millenium Airport Hotel, Dubai
A recap of yesterday's adventures
Arriving in Dubai was not so different from any other international arrival. But then I got in to the airport and there were a few notable exceptions. First off, it is HUGE. I mean, it is the world's largest ariport, but seriusly, that thing is BIG. We arrived around 8:30 pm and it took a long time to get through customs. Not because of long lines, but just because it took so long to walk from point a to point b. when we first got off the plane, we had to cue up single file. This was confusing. No one seemed to know why. It was not passport control, customs, nothing. It turns out, we were being systematically profiled. We had to walk by a camera one at a time to have our faces scanned. Looking for the bad guys, I suppose.
Once through the screening, there were signs, bathrooms left (stand or sit options available, personal cleaning shower hoses in ever stall-like the ones next to the sink in the kitchen...), prayer rooms right. Just a different world. The customs officers wore white, Egyptian cotton robes, heads covered in a white cloth and a black cord. Suddenly, it occurred to me, I was not in Kansas anymore, so to speak. I felt a little uncomfortable about my knowledge of social norms and customs. I was worried my yoga pants and excessively friendly nature might get me in to trouble. I felt like I stood out here in a way I did not like.
I made it through no prob and found my way across the airport to the meeting point for the Emirate Hotel guests. I found a young woman sitting alone, about my age, and I introduced myself to Elsa. She too was traveling alone. We decided to hang out in Dubai. We both wanted to go, but both felt uncomfortable going it alone. It was perfect! We were staying in the Emirates building of the Millenium Hotel. Emirates has a whole building just for its travelers. Pretty cool. The complimentary night in the hotel (COMEPLIMENTARY NIGHT IN A HOTEL!) came complete with dinner, breakfast and snack. Nice rooms, too. Double occupancy rack rate of $250...nice. No clocks in the room, either. Brilliant!
So, Elsa and I grabbed dinner and then headed to town. One of the stewardesses on the flight recommended we hit “The Creek.” It's a big lagoon in the middle of Dubai. Lots of shops nearby and promenades to walk on. Hey, it was 9:30 and we're two students traveling in a foreign land!
We grabbed a cab-asking, how much will it be. The cabbie said $3.50 and put us in a car with a different driver. When we got to the Creek, the driver let us off on the 'creek-side” as he called it. The meter read 18. We thought we were getting screwed but didn't really argue. What was there to say? We hopped out and began walking. We were clearly on the wrong side of the creek. All the shops were across the way. It was 85 degrees, muggy and we walked. And walked. There were barges all over the water, all lit up and pretty. It was a gorgeous night. But we were not where we wanted to be. We devised a plan to get across. We found a ferry.
It was awesome. The best part of the night was the ferry ride across the creek. I bargained to price from 20 to 15. But the ferry guy looked confused when I handed him US money. He gave me change in the local currency. He handed me a five and when I gave him my US 20, he gave me another 10...and then it clicked. The prices we had been quoted were local, not dollars!! In the cab, the driver was not ripping us off, we ripped ourselves off!!!
We laughed. We walked around and just enjoyed seeing this part of Dubai. After a while, we headed home in a cab and paid with the right money this time.
It was a good evening. Not as rousing and thrilling and either Elsa and I would have liked, but we decided that we had done well for two women in a very foreign land with limited funds and no prior research on where we were!
Slept well-about 5 hours-got up this morning and then...off to the airport again. I am now sitting on the plane heading to Ethiopia. I wish I would be able to get off the plane there and go see Ethiopia. As a Jew, I feel profoundly connected to the locale. I want to see where the lost tribes may have been. I want to see where all the Ethiopians living in Israel were rescued from. I want to see the land of words like Falasha. These people are my people too and I want to touch their home.
But alas, not on this trip...

On My Way-the flight JFK to Dubai

I know I am embarking on a serious journey, but I would be lying if I told you I was not just full-on club-style dancing in the bathroom. Simply because a) I could and b) I feel like I have so wholy stpped outside of the bounds of what is expected that breakin' it down in the lav just did not seem that weird.
I am writing this from leg of flight from New York to Rwanda part 1 of 4. Yup, I am flying to Rwanda. Who does that? Well apparently approximately 300 people several times a day. Somehow, I got my 47 kg of luggage on the plane without being charged extra, met some very cool people in line for the flight, wrangled a free cart to use in the airport, paid some bills on line, made some calls and now I am sitting in a luxury liner airplane where everyone speaks Arabic, French, Afrikaans, and English-but with a sexy foreign accent. The dinner menu reads like something from the pages of Jean-Georges, (i.e. Lamb Tandoori Masala-tender lamb cooked in Tandoori spices and topped with a masala sauce, sevred with jeera rice and okra with tomato sauce-it just sounds so good!!) I got a bulk head seat and a window and there is a plug right here! Where am I? (Somewhere over some ocean right now, actually). Oh, and I know someone on the flight, Lani, from AJWS.
Craziness.
Before I get into all of this, I want to take a moment to just sing the praises of my wonderful friends and family especially in the last week. Man, I have been a mess trying to get it all done!! But somehow, with the help, love and support of many, it did. Special HUGE thank you to Tami who sat with me today saying, ok, how can I help you next. She even cleaned the cat puke out of my shoe when one of the cats over-indulged on Cat Chow and hair balls. Thanks Tam, I love you too.
So, here I am.
It has been a powerful week as I have left Brooklyn Heights Synagogue. I left feel lost a bit. Unimportant. And then, today, my last day, there were some big moments. I am too embarrassed to recap them here, but they spoke to my heart and set me on the right path for framing this trip. Their comments reminded me that I guess what I do matters and that is all I really want. I want to matter. I want my actions to make a positive impact on those around me, on the whole world even.
So I am off to try my hand at making a difference far far away from home. I am reminded of a personal prayer, a story of someone's journey shared with the whole congregation at the High Holy Days at some point during my adolescence. This story was given by a woman who traveled the world in search of something, her self perhaps. I do not remember the details, but the lesson was, she found that whatever she was looking for was not far off, out there, but was wherever she was. Whatever she sought was within her. And I wonder what I am looking for and what I might find.
I was talking with Joe today and he said, you know, you do not have to come back any different than you are. You can come back the exact same person you are right now. And on the one hand, that is a relief. But on the other hand...where is the fun in that? My goals, as I head off on this adventure is to breathe a lot. It is my job to slow down and take care of myself. I am striving to be brave when I speak with people and to remain open. I have to ask a lot of questions and sometimes, I will not like the answers I will hear. Sometimes the questions themselves will be uncomfortable. Sometimes, I will have to pester and harass a little bit. I need to stay brave enough and strong enough to bear the discomfort of all of that. (Made more difficult by the exhaustion I anticipate I will feel upon arrival-there is an eight hour time-difference, New York to Rwanda).
But truly, what I need to keep in mind is the words of Lt. JG Zachary Juniper who said to me this week, Rachael, no matter what you do will be right as long as it is in the service of God.
What does it mean? I do not always know. But I have a sense of it. Hate evil, love what is good...something like that. What does God want of me? If I can keep that question in mind, then the rest will follow.