Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

As I write this, Fay and I are just getting back to the States after spending two weeks in Uganda. Our trip was arranged through the organization Global Villages Connect, a group that supports the Abayudaya, the People of Judah — a group of Ugandan Jewish communities that has been around for over a century. These communities (14 total, of which we visited with five) are, by and large, extremely poor, remote, rural subsistence communities.

I will have more to say in future blogs (when I am not so jet-lagged and am more coherent).  Suffice it to say, for now, that while this trip was planned long ago, this trip came at a really good time for me. I, like many, am struggling with and fearful of the present and future direction of our country. I needed to break away from my addiction to the news — journalism that has not lived up to the moment in our history — to catch my breath and decide how to engage in the work needed to improve lives in this world, and not be paralyzed by living in fear of the future.

This trip, though, went beyond just getting a break and being far away, both figuratively and literally, from the news bubble/echo chamber. The Abayudaya, and really every Ugandan we met, put things in perspective for me. The Abayudaya met us with an enormous generosity of spirit, despite the enormous struggles they face — serious food shortages, living without electricity or plumbing (often it is the children of these families who travel as much as two-plus miles to get water for their families from the community water well), and not affording the costs involved in sending kids to school. These are all things we take for granted.

We were treated to an exuberant welcome with African drumming and dance, along with warm hugs. They insisted upon treating us like special guests, sitting us down for our lunch meal and honoring the seven us from Global Villages Connect with words of warmth and praise. Certainly one lesson I carry back with me from Uganda and the Abayudaya is their perseverance to better their lives under the enormous odds against them, living with far greater dangers than whatever we now face.