While many of our congregants stay comfortably in Croton, some of us are venturing out into the wider world.  This is the place to share your musings about your travels. Read on to hear from our far flung congregants -

Updated - August 11, 2009

Update - August 11, 2009  - The Rowlands are traveling in Paris this month courtesy of the Korda Family who is exchanging their home with us.  If you see a family with two very pretty French teenagers around town, be sure to say Hi!  On Saturday, we discovered a very interesting fact about Paris.  Some synagogues close in August.  We had originally planned to go to services at Adath Shalom which is the local Conservative/Masorti congregation.  When we got there, it was totally locked up.  So it was off to the Marais quarter where we did discover an old Othodox shul.  It was very old European orthodox.  They were very kind to us.  One of the women, Karen, told me a sad story about an incident during WWII when German solders came into the Shul and took out the torahs from the ark and laid them on the street and set fire to them. "But", as she said, "we're still here."

On Monday, we went to see the Museum of the French Resistance and Deportation.  The Deporation part is upstairs and occupies the whole hallway.  Many of the pictures are familar but some I had not seen before.  There was a striking picture of a 5 year old French girl, a beautiful little blonde, dressed in a concentration camp uniform, that was taken just after her camp was liberated.  She must have just been given the teddy bear she was holding because she is hanging onto it for dear life.  There was another shot of a returned prisoner, in camp uniform, in front of the Eiffel tower.  It was apparently some program put on by the French government for returned prisoners of war.  There were some amazing sketches that had been done by a French artist who was a prisoner at Bergen Belsen - really amazing detail, etc, - that had been hidden in a tree and retrieved after the liberation of the camp.  If you get a chance to go, it is very worthwhile and affecting.

Shalom,

Rose Rowland

Our first traveler with a story is Jesse Melman.  Those of you who have read the KVELLs know that Jesse is in Rwanda this summer.  Below is an excerpt from a letter to his family. Thanks to Amy Melman for sharing.

"After spending the past few days in Kigali, George (the other intern from Fordham) and I went to Nyanza where we will be working.
Rwanda is a very interesting place.  What people write about it seems to be true--the country's ambition to progress and move past the genocide really is astonishing.  From what I hear from those who have travelled elsewhere in Africa, the country is much more developed and orderly than anywhere else on the continent, though it is still definitely thrid world. There is a mix of dirt and paved streets, there really is not much to do in Kigali after nightfall (the streets empty, not due to fear but cause there really isn't much--apparently the city's first movie theater is opening this week).

Nyanza, what I have seen of it so far, is definitely a far cry from a happening place. The campus where the institute (Institute for Legal Practice and Development) is really nice--probably nicer than Fordham in some respects--and all the people I have met so far have been welcoming.  I had my first Rwandan meal so far (there are practicalyl no Rwandan restaurants in Kigali)--rice, peas, and plantains (I didn't eat the goat), and hot milk with a little tea in it. And some weird fruit for dessert (don't worry, it had a skin...I hope)."



From the dark continent,

Jesse