{"id":12352,"date":"2015-05-08T00:02:44","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T07:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=12352"},"modified":"2015-05-06T16:49:25","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T23:49:25","slug":"jewish-values-in-kenya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/05\/08\/jewish-values-in-kenya\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish values in Kenya"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hannah Fogel and Daniel Kroft. (photo by Rebeca Kuropatwa)<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Held earlier this year in March, Limmud Winnipeg featured a couple of young community members sharing their experiences of volunteering in Kenya. Their talk, Walking the Talk of Jewish Values in Kenya, reflected on how their Jewish upbringing was an essential ingredient in being able to give of themselves abroad.<\/p>\n

Presenters Hannah Fogel and Daniel Kroft graduated from the Gray Academy of Jewish Education in 2012 and traveled to Kenya for three weeks in June of that year instead of going on their class graduation trip. \u201cThis was kind of our alternative grad trip idea and everything worked out,\u201d Fogel said of her choice.<\/p>\n

Once in Kenya, the two learned there are many misconceptions when it comes to the day-to-day lives of Africans. \u201cThere\u2019s actually quite a big difference in levels of development in the country,\u201d said Fogel.<\/p>\n

Kroft reflected, \u201cWe spent one night in Nairobi and then we drove out to Mara, [which is] basically a game reserve, a rural area with villagers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fogel said they spent their nights in a military-style tent and their days helping build school classrooms and playing with local children \u2013 having a chance to learn a little bit about their lives, challenges, and experiencing the \u201ccontagious positive vibe they have … regardless of their difficult existence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing their personal living conditions, Fogel said, \u201cDue to the lack of running water, we had to use bucket showers that were filled by Kenyan staff that worked at our camp. One of them, his job was basically getting hot water. So, they\u2019d heat up this big tub of water over a fire and you\u2019d ask them to fill the bucket over your shower, two people per bucket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ever since the trip, Kroft said he has continued using the Kenyans\u2019 conservative showering strategy he learned there. \u201cThey recommended we take staggered showers \u2013 so to turn on the water, get wet, turn off the water, soap up, then turn it on again and try to use very little water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kroft said he learned that the local Maasai boys are sent off to become men \u2013 going on a quest and returning as warriors \u2013 at the age of 13. They spend time in the wilderness, doing strength training and learning how to use bows and arrows.<\/p>\n

While Kenya has begun offering free elementary school education for all, there are not enough teachers, schools or resources to go around. \u201cIn a lot of communities like this, the parents came together and built their own classrooms for the kids to go to,\u201d said Fogel. \u201cFinding teachers and resources was still a big problem. They have a limited number of pens and pencils in the room. Kids share one pencil between the three of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kroft was struck by the similarities between the mission statement philosophies at the Kenyan school and his home school, Gray Academy. \u201cYou have things like community, cultural values and leadership,\u201d he said. \u201cYou go halfway around the world and you have the same sort of values being promoted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Fogel and Kroft were happily surprised to be able to connect with the children so easily. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know very much Swahili or their tribal language, and they knew very little English,\u201d said Kroft. \u201cOur facilitator basically dropped us off and said, \u2018OK, go play!\u2019 It was actually surprisingly easy to find ways [to connect], through hand gestures, hand signals … lots of hugs, and they love soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were less light moments, as well. \u201cWe listened to a university professor speak who came to our camp to discuss hunger and starvation,\u201d said Fogel. \u201cAnd we learned some stats. More people have died from starvation in the past five years than all the battles, wars and murders in the entire world in the last 150 years. That\u2019s something we can\u2019t imagine in Canada. To think of that is a whole other level of poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeing how all people have similar struggles and needs particularly impacted Kroft. \u201cAgriculture, food security, health, clean water \u2013 these are all issues that aren\u2019t just isolated to Africa,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are things that are going on in Manitoba, in Canada, on some of the reserves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kroft and Fogel found that most Jewish values are values held by other religions and cultures throughout the world, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not that different after all,\u201d said Kroft. \u201cJewish values were definitely in the back of our minds going, just because it was the culmination of graduation from the academy \u2013 13 years surrounded by Judaism and Jewish values. It was something that we thought about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fogel added, \u201cAlso, we had no idea what to expect, but there were similarities. At the school, people we met had similar values, regardless of what they had or the communities they grew up in. It was also interesting learning about Maasai culture, a similar coming of age at 13 [in Judaism].\u201d<\/p>\n

Kroft interjected, \u201cActually, when they come back from their journey, the similarity of practice…. The men get circumcised at 13 and it\u2019s a sign of weakness to flinch during the process. So, it\u2019s a really big deal, a shame on the whole family [if they flinch].\u201d<\/p>\n

Kroft also felt that education plays a central role in the Maasai community, similar to what we see in the Jewish community. \u201cThey don\u2019t really have the means…. They are starting to get it now, but idealistically it\u2019s really important to them,\u201d he said \u201cFamily values, togetherness, respect are big things…. To be a teacher, which, again, is like Judaism. There are similarities and differences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning home, both youth described wanting to remain committed to social justice issues. Kroft said, \u201cI\u2019m chaperoning with a Washington trip this year. One thing, we did a session last week on food security and the lack of food at the concentration camps and things like that. And, in order to give the kids a sense of what that means, we had them tally up their daily intake of calories at the end of the day. We had a big list of foods and the amount of calories they\u2019d eaten that day \u2013 you\u2019d have 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 calories a day. Then, you\u2019d tell them how much they were given in concentration camps as a perspective thing. It was something I\u2019d personally seen in Africa, not to the same extent … that\u2019s something that comes to mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

An organization Fogel volunteers with in Winnipeg is Osu Children\u2019s Library Fund. \u201cIt was started by a woman in Winnipeg and she was living in Ghana for awhile with her family and realized the lack of educational books for the kids there,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, she started this fund, collecting books from relatives, and put together a library in an old corrugated metal box car. They\u2019ve built libraries in 10 different countries, mainly in Africa. So, I volunteered with her collecting books and going to her house and packaging them. She\u2019s into photography and has written some children\u2019s books with the pictures she\u2019s taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hannah Fogel and Daniel Kroft. (photo by Rebeca Kuropatwa) Held earlier this year in March, Limmud Winnipeg featured a couple of young community members sharing their experiences of volunteering in Kenya. Their talk, Walking the Talk of Jewish Values in Kenya, reflected on how their Jewish upbringing was an essential ingredient in being able to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3704,3706,3703,3705,278],"class_list":["post-12352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-daniel-kroft","tag-gray-academy","tag-hannah-fogel","tag-jewish-values","tag-limmud"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}