2 March 2009

We have been here a week now. By we, I mean an old friend of mine and a former member of WDS, Hila Bram. Only a week and the experiences have piled up one upon another with such rapidity I find it hard to know where to begin.

I don't know how often I will be able to write; people in Ethiopia do not have computers and so the internet cafes are full every day after work. moreover, they do not have broadband so it is very slow. It takes roughly 20 minutes to get to my email account. Then, there are the power cuts. The government found a good way to save money was to cut off the electricity every so often.

It works out at about 3 power cuts a week, but they are very random and they make composing anything lenghty a really hazardous operation.

We spent the first Shabbat in Addis Abbaba before taking the plane to Gondar on the Sunday morning. We were met at our hotel, by Getu, the head of the Jewish community in Gondar, who took us straightaway to a meeting with the teachers at the Synagogue. They told us, they would like us to teach the teachers six hours a day, starting tomorrow! Whoa! we cried - we haven't even unpacked. We persuaded them it would be better to spend the first day observing the teachers at work, and then start the teaching on the Tuesday.

The Jewish community in Gondar is sponsored entirely by NACOEJ the North American Coalition for Ethiopian Jewry (you can vist their web site by clicking here). They support the community numbering 8,700 having created the synagogue, employing hazzanut, to lead services three times daily, paying rent for the school building employing teh teachers and providng food for lunch for the 900 pupils in the school. NACOEJ also supports Ethiopian Jews once they arrive in Israel. It is a very small organisation, but it sems a very effective one.